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  1. - Top - End - #121
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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Quis Ostendet Ipsum Ostendens?

    Arkhos could quite easily have spanned the leagues between the red coast he had come to and any other location on the First World in very little time, but he chose not to. Instead, he flew unseen, to marvel at things, and to enjoy the unique experience of seeing something deeply familiar for the first time. The First World was scarred and wild, but it was beautiful and vibrant as well. So many things, that could now choose their stories for themselves, whether or not they knew of it.

    Briefly, he passed beneath the waves, as the course of his journey took him toward the approaching edge of night. Even here, out in the vast waters, there were many living things, from the tiny to the enormous. The wyrm's soul buoyed with joy, and on that buoyancy he flew up through the waters to the surface. There, he looked, and saw the moon, that had been--that still was--Wan'Shi. Somewhere in the recesses of his divine being, he sensed the presence that lingered there on its surface, watching as they always had. Lor, whose blade of light brought the Serpent low. One of Arkhos' many parents.

    It would be a fitting place to begin meeting them, the shivered husk of their opponent. That tale was ended; the victors wrote it, and the vanquished became its villain. Arkhos' mind filled with quiet, melancholy thoughts, as he swam through the Deep between the First World and Wan'Shi-that-Was. He owed his existence to Wan'Shi's death; had it not died, all that he was, all that he could ever have been, would have been consumed as surely as all Wan'Shi's previous victims. Yet there was a sadness, in knowing that now something no one had understood, would never be. There would be no one to remember Wan'Shi's part of the story. He began to consider how this might be addressed, but left those thoughts for another time, as he landed for the first time on the moon's surface.

    Like the First World, it was full of life, but of a different nature. The silvery grass was beautiful, in its own way, and made of the whole place like a more diffuse mirror. An appropriate result, given Lor's nature. Arkhos went unseen among those who had been called here to act as guardians. He did not wish to disturb their work with his presence, simply wishing to visit Lor. Of course, with the sight of a deity, he doubted it would be surprised by his approach; to conceal oneself from mortal eyes was a far easier task than to conceal from another god, and Arkhos did not even try.

    As he drew near the mirror's near-perfect reflection, he saw himself entire for the first time, and he saw another thing as well. The near-perfect reflection. A small, black spot, all the more noticeable for being the only blemish, could be seen on Lor's surface. This, too, he would remember: that sometimes, in defense of another, it may be necessary to kill...but killing of any kind leaves a scar. The sword is always a mobius, cutting victim and victor both. Sometimes, there might be, or become, no other choice.

    A wordless lesson, a gift, and he had only just arrived! "I greet thee, Lor. Well I know how thy gaze looks through the length and breadth of the world, for though thou knowest me not, thou hast known those who became me. I owe my birth to thee, and thy allies, for had you not slain Wan'Shi, those whose memories I carry would be naught but ash upon the wind. I come here because..." He paused a moment, not entirely sure the right reason. "Because I wish to know thee, and share. Already hast thou given me wisdom; I shall in like kind give to thee."

    He searched his length, taking advantage of Lor's reflection of himself, until he found just the right one. A scale of perfect, silvered-mirror sheen. He plucked it from his skin, and dabbed the blood that followed its departure. "The lesson graven upon thee, I would not remove, even were it in my power. But thy beauty need not be dimmed by the weight of wisdom; pray accept this, my gift to thee, in thanks for thy sacrifice and thy teaching." The scale, charged with divine power, became something more than just a plucked chunk of god-hide. A tiny shield, polished to a mirror shine. It would not be able to remove the burned spot, but it could serve two purposes: it could be worn there, a badge of honor rather than a mark of shame. Or, it could be looked upon, for it was also a mirror, and Lor could see itself directly, albeit in miniature. Arkhos hoped it would meet Lor's approval, being as it was the second work of his (divine) life. Its outer surface, like a mirror, but showing what others see, not what the mirror sees--left and right in their proper places. The inner surface, that is where the magic truly lay, for when concentrated upon, it could show past knowledge, or at least past memory.

    Spoiler: AP Actions
    Show
    Bless (1 AP): The Scale of Sight. [Domain: Good (Self-Sacrifice), 1/10]
    Its outer (convex) surface shows things as they truly are, as others see them, so that Lor may see what others see when they look upon it. Its inner (concave) surface, when concentrated upon, shows what others have seen in the past. It cannot uncover truths that have been completely forgotten or never observed in the first place, but if they are kept in memory or known in record, the scale can show them.

    Remaining AP: 10/16

    In-progress domains:
    Liberation (Aspiration) 5/10
    Good (Self-Sacrifice) 1/10
    Last edited by ezekielraiden; 2021-05-26 at 03:11 AM.

  2. - Top - End - #122
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Kerima - Preparation

    The corpse of the turtle god stored safely in a divine box intended to simply extract the health and will of any who approached she was confident that no none deity would be able to even interact with it, let alone open it - it would be suitable until she got a more suitable location constructed - and that was part of her next plans.

    Gathering up the essence of various divine beings she began to filter them and extract the remnants she could to act as a baseline for her own plane - from the fire that burned her revenants she could determine heat, from the fists that had destroyed others she could claim conflict - useful if her plane was to grow and thrive rather then stagnate, from the revenants themselves she would introduce the entropy of the serpent to be used mostly to ward off such in her plane but also to act as a potenital punishment or reward and she also extracted knowledge potential of the deity that had first caused their creation, she took one of the gargoyles who her dwarven populace had noted and found that they were tainted with another entities power a creature of peaceful rest - she was puzzled somewhat by that given the creatures but ignored it, her plane was something of a reward for her people so peace would be useful at times. Her own power would be used for life and order - her mortal followers could live forever in her service in her new realm after their death on this one, the river archon Xill had impressed her by bringing the shelled to her attention so she finally examined them more carefully and noted the touch of some deity of water superficially but where 'water' might be better viewed as the ocean of reality and the mind which she hoped to use to help stablise her plane, the turtle god was effectively without power through whatever means it had died had left it empty - but the shelled had there own magic which rang out with its former power, and via that protection and home the gods purpose could likely still be met even if she had no knowledge if it would approve or not.

    In truth she had little from more then what the various power felt like - but that would be enough for her to have act as a template for her own realm, and she began to construct a tiny microcosm of this in one of the rooms in a temple she enjoyed - no longer would she sit in the pit now she would enjoy the view from the top.

    Corrla and Abu Dhahab
    Had the deity arrived earlier he might have been met with more concern but with the arrival of the shelled previously he was an oddity but providing he followed the laws and didn't cause a problem most were willing to have him stay with guarded suspecion, a number of items might however stand out to him, the People of Kerima counted six groups amoungst them, the humans and elves were plentiful and much like what he was familiar with from those who journeyed across the sea - and occassional goblins were around though most of them on the surface were in the blight lands having fled the below, the odd loyal goblin on the surface was a curious creature more likely to engage with him then others but with little in appreciation of personal property other then what the goblin considered its own - if challenged the goblin would point out that the laws of Kerima did not prevent theft specifically and while most local priests did they often issued orders such as 'you cannot steal from the faithful of Kerima' and the merchant claimed to have his own faith - so loophole and as the goblin was faithful the lizardman could not steal items back frequently ending with a statement of 'so there', if Abu Dhahab approached the local priest the priest might trade intervention if they felt like it but remind the lizardman that if he merely embraced faith he would be fine.
    The Dwarves were seen mostly in larger settlement and often had there own areas finely constructed - and always a local dwarven priest with them, mostly they seemed to act as supervisors on human towns to get them into better shape as something of a pilgrimage to assist people but with a fairly clear understanding that they wanted to get back home to 'proper civilisation' shortly, they had little interest in the lizardman at all - but fairly polite when spoken too.

    The other two races might be those that surprised the deity the most firstly the Shelled existed in only the northern reaches of the continent and were clearly not native and didn't have the ingrained generational worship of Kerima in their culture, they would initially be very curious about the lizardman, someone who looked more like them ... but as it became clear he was not created by their progenitor the interest faded, when questioned they would explain what they knew about the orcs and how they had suffered horrors when they first landed but that through the intervention of the goddess their unknown crime was forgiven ... although many had left anyway and many who stayed were traumatized, the people of Corrla had made them welcome and provided for them in some initial hard times, the personal intervention of the goddess granted them a lot of social benefits ... even ignoring that she had restored them from the horrors they had become.

    Lastly River Archons - some of the minor divinities had taken to active worship of the greater divinity, they offered their waters to the communities they served and were treated with respect in return - priests helped cleanse them of corruption around the blight areas and in some cases priests had redirected entire rivers to avoid those areas, the archons were much less faithful on average them other creatures having a greater understanding of reality made it difficult to truely worship - but still many achieved it well, the great underground rver of Xill apparently even had the favour of the goddess herself after some involvement with the shelled when they first arrived.

  3. - Top - End - #123
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Neela was amazed at the perfection of her harpy friend's writing. She listened carefully to all that was said, responding in Kobold words and flute-speech, each as easy and natural as the other. They were both, she now knew without needing to know, one and the same, at a fundamental level. Of course, she still fretted about the black scratch on her friend, but she had bee assured that it was alright, that it had been a metting with her own goddess. Brietta, one so different from Lor, their own silent guardian on the moon. Soon, of course, she would need to go and spread this new knowledge. Kobolds, who were already familiar with so many languages, their libraries and post network spreading into all teritories, would see all differences in languages melt before them. Something joyful indeed. And so, with this small gesture, and thanks to deepening friendship with the Harpies, the Kobolds began to see the deity, Brietta, too as one of interest.


    Meanwhile, back on the moon, Lor was looking upon the creation of the Orcs with disquiet. It knew that they were loyal to the great serpent it had helped to vanquish. It was true that in most mortal affairs, it remained neutral, the destruction of the serpent having left no taste in it for more of the same, but the revival of Wan'Shi, that had to be avoided at all costs. It was why it had begun to gather its guardians, those that looked in awe at Arkhos as he came to join Lor for a meeting of gods. Not as much awe as, perhaps, he deserved, given the peculiar experiences of all who lived there, but awe regardless.

    Save for the one spot, Arkhos's reflection was not merely perfect, it was more than perfect, reflecting him as he most wished himself to be. But other than the reflection itself, there was no movement in the great mirror and no response, not until he was fully done speaking. Only then did the reflection move, but not as Arkhos moved. And it was with Arkhos's words that he was welcomed to the Serpent Moon, of which Lor had appointed himself guardian. He saw himself speak to one of Lor's attendants, two of the archons who had taken him to his place, each covered in shining, reflective silver. On Lor's instructions, given through the reflection, the archon took the scale and... where he placed the scale didn't seem to be anywhere close to where Lor's surface was. And yet, when he let go, there it was, exactly where the hole has been, showing a smaller, different reflection that spoke in unison with the first to thank Arkhos for his gift and to tell him of what was on Lor's mind. The appearance of the orcs and their hopes of reviving the beast upon who's head they stood. In exchange for agreement to answer any questions the new god had, Lor asked him about his own intentions. Would he assist in foiling this new threat? Remain neutral? Or show himself an enemy? The questions asked, the reflections ceased to move and speak of their own accord and become reflections once more. Both different, neither true.

  4. - Top - End - #124
    Ogre in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    The Suzerain - Corrla
    Abu Dhabab's journey would not go unnoticed. While the great lizard's divinity was masked, the trade and tales would be hardly be hidden, especially in the Blight Lands where such commerce was practically unheard of. The Suzerain would find signs of that mercantile passage when he returned from his work in Nocturne, and it would make him curious. Having looked down upon the First World from the border of Eternal Night's realm, he would of course have seen the new island chains connecting the major continents. However, he hadn't expected the lizards to chase profits this quickly... and especially not among the poorest peoples in any land.

    The fact that it was just a single merchant, and that the merchant seemed to be keen about spreading stories of the Circle Continent, would only pique the archon's interest even more. And so the Suzerain followed in the footsteps of this lizard, intent on figuring out just what kind of being he was dealing with here. A master of Ki might be able to move as freely as this apparently agnostic lizard was able through the lands of Kerima, with confidence that no Revenant would overcome them, but the lizard also seemed to be a pacifist, or at least gentle in intention. Not violent enough to dissuade a revenant's attentions. How very peculiar.

    Throughout the blightlands, the Suzerain would approach his faithful and tell them, "When this merchant returns, find me within Nocturne and let me know." Let's see just what this merchant actually was. Yes?

    Renarr - Some dumb birds
    The Dawnstar would react to the birth of the Mockingbirds quickly, and she would do so pointedly. Catching one of the sentient puddles of ash in her hand, the goddess walks with that babbling thing out of Solace's domain... and then she goes to the source of every damned bird in this world.

    Holding the Mockingbird in one hand, the small creature still unleashing one long, unending death scream that so perfectly echoed the dying cries of many hundreds of godlings as they were burned away by Solace's light, Renarr extends her arm to Brietta, tilts her head to the side, and then demands, "Explain this, if you could. Please. They are... rather horrible."

  5. - Top - End - #125
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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Abu Dhahab on Corla

    The Great lizard found the differences between the races on Corla interesting. That such a variety of peoples were all the creation of one deity was admirable.

    A goblin had tried to run off with a handful of his wares, and when confronted began nervously, yet self righteously, spouting off arguments for why what they had done was totally acceptable, even throwing out Kerima’s name and her rules to back up his claims.

    Abu Dhahab found the whole interaction amusing, and let the goblin go, though not without a warning. Picking up a rock the size of the goblin’s head, he crushed into powder before sprinkling it on the ground. Seeing the goblin gulp and take a few steps back, Abu Dhahab advised them to be careful about who they steal from in the future, as not all foreigners who would be coming here were as forgiving.

    Seeing the familiar river archons, Abu Dhahab was surprised when many of them turned out to be loyal followers and worshippers of Kerima. It was strange to him, these beings could almost be considered deities themselves if not for the unfortunate events that lead to them becoming archons. Why a weaker sibling should worship a more powerful one was beyond him, but seeing the archon priests things made a little more sense.

    It was a transaction, a trade, worship in exchange for a portion of Kerima’s power. Abu Dhahab understood that. The river archons in the deserts of Wadi Alsahali didn’t worship him, but they did respect his will to benefit and protect his people, and therefore worked towards that same goal in exchange for being allowed to make the place their home too.

    Talking to one of the river archon priests, he mentioned his desire to speak with Kerima, and heard from them that he could find her in one of her temples.

    Walking over to the temple where he sensed a strong divine presence, Abu Dhahab hid himself from mortal eyes. He did not know how they would respond to seeing another deity visit their god, and had no desire to cause trouble.

    Abu Dhahab meets Kerima

    Unsure of where exactly was most fitting to meet, Abu Dhahab entered the temple and walked around until he finally saw her. Offering a polite nod, he brought both his hands together in front of him. One hand a fist, the other a palm, a salute that had gained widespread use amongst martial artists.

    Greetings, Kerima, ruler of Corma. I come in peace, to seek answers to some questions I have. You have established a thriving society, in particular for those who adhere to the rules. Perhaps your answers may be of help to my thinking.

    Sitting down cross legged on the ground, Abu Dhahab took out a couple cups of carved stone, a pouch of fresh green leaves, and a stone hand mill.

    Your reputation amongst many of the mortals on other continents is unfortunately rather poor. Observing your domain, however, I was glad to perceive a more balanced truth.

    Taking a handful of the leaves, he held them and sucked the moisture out of them with a hot desert wind. Within the palm of his hand, the shriveled leaves were dark and fragrant. Placing the leaves in his mill, he began to slowly and methodically grind them into fine powder. He continued to talk as he worked.

    What confuses me about your society is the insistence that mortals worship you, and if not, then at least they must worship some other being like us.

    While I can clearly see how you have worked for their benefit by providing fertile lands and various knowledge and skills, why do you demand what would likely have developed naturally? Those who worship me, do so without me requiring it, merely knowing of what I have done for them or witnessing my power is enough to inspire that reverence.

    Your mandate has undoubtedly resulted in a larger percentage of worshippers, but is there some tangible benefit in that to you, or myself, as the recipient? Or is the recognition and flattery of those less than us something that should be seen as important?


    Pausing silently for a moment, to ponder the questions he raised, Abu Dhahab poured the powdered leaves into the two cups and put away the mill. Drawing water out of the air he quickly heated it to the right temperature with his Ki before pouring that too into the cups. Looking up at Kerima again, he asked the question that he has been considering for a long time.

    Why should a mortal worship beings like ourselves. We are in no ways perfect and infallible. Was not the Serpent one of us as well? Our knowledge and power is limited, and like mortals we too are prone to make mistakes. Ours just have the potential for far reaching consequences.

    Reaching into another pouch, he pulled out a finely crafted whisk that had been made from the cylindrical plant that Kobolds used to write on. Stirring the powdered leaf and water together gently he continued.

    I’m not saying that worship is wrong or inherently harmful, in fact I believe through reverence of higher beings, a mortal might gain the motivation to better themselves and their society by following our example and teachings.

    However, if mortals choose their own path, why should we use our divine might to punish them? It seems... petty.


    Taking in a whiff of the fine tea he had just made, Abu Dhahab smiled with satisfaction.

    This cup is for you by the way, should you want to try. It’s made using leaves from a new plant I created while making the islands that lead me here. It will likely become widespread in consumption once merchants get a hold of it.

  6. - Top - End - #126
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Silph and the River
    Finally, the Solar would look at Dia's mortal guise and look her over for a bit. "And as for you... do you know how hard you are to find? Renarr finally opens up a portal and sends me every which way to meet up with you again, and where are you? Sitting outside the Suzerain's realm. Fishing."
    "I mean. I didn't know you were looking for -"
    "I'll have you know that in my search, I was beset upon by no fewer than two phoenix and one of those mini serpents that thought it could burrow into Solace. All because you couldn't just fish in a lake like a normal person.
    Dia's face went red, and she hid her snout in her hands. "Really making me feel as young as I appear..."
    Oh well, you aren't the most unstable being I kno- Oh. Speak of the snake and he shall appear." The solar looked down towards the First World as he said that, and a new pair of figures rose up to pass them.
    Dia peeked between her fingers and watched the archons converse, curious about what the Suzerain was up to but too flustered to engage, though her rivers did part for him as he left.
    Silph looked back at Herend, who shook his head and shrugged to signal it wasn't their problem, and then the solar looked at the back of the Lord of Night. "Well. Alright then. I'm sure he knows what he's doing. So Dia... caught anything good yet?"
    "I mean. Sorta. Alcyone here is the one fishing, though."

    Dia gestured at the golem reorganizing a nebula into the shape of a fish. "I just made him the rod. He got his name from falling into my waters and taking in some of the memories I brought with me from Circle Continent (which is apparently a thing I can do, by the way). It's why he looks like him, and I look like me.

    "As for fishing up these - what would you call them - Nightstars? Maybe just Stars? At first it was just to check how durable they were, what with the whole prophecy about them falling from the sky - but these things have enough fuel in them to last eons. So we started playing around with them, and what do you know, sticking a memory in one makes the memory last just as long. So, figured I'd turn the Snake into storage. Have something good come from all this. Think Magrius would agree."

    Dia looked back out at the now finished constellation. "I hope these stars last. And don't drop into the ocean. Honestly, I think I'm just trying to distract myself from what that Serpent said - or, defy it? I don't know if it's all these thoughts and memories flowing through me, some grander purpose given to me by the Creator, or I'm just really, really petty."

    "... Mmm. I really rambled on there. Um. Hmmmm. How you been doin?" Dia gave the pair of archons a weak smile. "Don't think I've met you before - Herend, right? Another one of Renarr's?"
    Spoiler: AP Actions
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    Life (Celestial)
    Domain, Portfolio
    Dia's actions have landed her as a guardian of celestial life. While she isn't well known among most mortals, she is revered among river and wave archons alike, as well as certain golems, and she's even earned some respect from the Solar Court.

    Spoiler: Divine Growth Tracker
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    ★ Mind (Forgotten Memories)

    ★ Night (Stars)

    ★ Life (Celestial)
    ➤ 5 AP - Archons
    ➤ 3 AP - River Archons
    ➤ 2 AP - The Ring of Gods
    10/10 AP

    ❖ Life (Protection)
    ➤ 1 AP - Sunspots
    ➤ 1 AP - Stygian Guardian Glacier
    ➤ 3 AP - Wave Archons
    ➤ 1 AP - Sprites
    ➤ 1 AP - Divine Thoughts
    7/10 AP

    ❖ Thought (Preservation)
    ➤ 1 AP - Stars
    ➤ 5 AP - Starfisher Rod
    ➤ 1 AP - Stargazing
    ➤ 0 AP - Alcyone Salmon Constellation
    7/10 AP

    Rollover: +4 AP
    Remaining AP: 4/16
    Last edited by SpeedWitch; 2021-05-27 at 08:50 AM.

  7. - Top - End - #127
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Kerima - Deity Discussion

    She got word through prayer of a stranger, and from there it was not difficult to puzzle out that it was another deity - as they approached she put away the box containing Sen and the initial planer work in a tiny temporary pocket plane she created.

    Getting a feel for them she noted that they were the one who had destroyed the revenants in the southern lands but that they had been more restrained on hers ... it was enough to allow a conversation.

    She noted the sign of respect and inclined her head slightly to acknowledge it and listened as the they spoke - noting that they did not offer their own name while they did use hers, an oversight or delibrate she didn't really know, perhaps cultural or bound to their sense of self perhaps - or merely nervous at interacting with a being of equivalent power.

    "The people of the south commited deicide - the revenants were a just response. For the rebels who journeyed across the sea for freedom I do maintain an awareness of them - it seems that many of their descendants have cast that freedom aside and submitted to a different power one who keeps them in second class status where their siblings here can attain any position within society be right of merit rather then blood - it is rare but occassionally some turn back to me in prayer I suspect that if those who traveled across the ocean knew what their descentants would do they would have never left. Regardless I have little interest in the other continents".

    She paused to consider her response to the question of worship "much of my actions are deliberate though I don't hold myself to that if I feel like acting in haste - worship is a valuable tool for society through the deep connection to a deity a mortal can replicate some abilities that they consider to be miracles, and can do so without corrupting themselves on the essence of the serpent or considerations of personal power. Such a tool allows for the structure of society to develop in a broadly peaceful and ordered way - at least in its early days, without a binding element the goblins would have tried to overwhelm the dwarves through sheer numbers when space became an issue, the elves and humans would have fought for dominance of the surface - the chaos would have been annoying. Vastly different lifespans lead to different cultures need a method of control that all respect, worship is instilled in my people from the time they developed language - and it has worked well".

    "Attempting to deny them the chance to worship you would likely eventually lead to my people and yours to go to war - which one of us would take offence to and the other would respond, such a conflict could devastate the planet and distract me from more important work so yes I do not solely demand personal worship, though the laws of my societies do place me at the forefront".

    "At a higher level if you are seeking some gain that I have over you in terms of power from that - that I could siphon the energy and slay you? No, that is not a thing that mortal worship allows - given the deity in the south and the one who created the shelled I am starting to believe that deities can only truely die when they will it or more accurately lose the will to continue - even the serpent dismembered as it is maintains more vitality in its guts then I would have expected, I supect it merely sleeps - though as you say I could be wrong."

    "The recognition is however important for mortals - they do better when they believe that there is someone out there who will punish them for overstepping or reward them for faithful service, this applies to more them merely ourselves if a mortal believes that punishment is possible from powerful unknown entities then they would feel it is certainly possible from people closer to home. But I won't lie I do like feeling connected to my people and know that they feel connected to me - many prayers I hear are meaningless but some I act on and some are simply entertaining".

    She witnessed the Ki being used "you are co-opting the serpent's energy" again it was merely a fact rather then a condemnation.

    "Your simpliest question is why should a mortal worship us, and the answer is because we demand it - or in this specific situation I demand it, the fact that there are practical benefits and certain consequences is reason enough for them to do so. If the some being infinitely more powerful then us capable of unleashing blessings and curses beyond our understanding - and they issue a command to revere them the only reason that we could refuse is if they allowed refusal, but it would likely not be sensible to do so. My people are literate and driven and some of them do stray from the path that society lays out for them - they are free to do this because I allow it, but if one chooses a life of hardship then one cannot be surprised when one finds a life of hardship".

    She examined the tea and took it apart conceptually and reassembled it as it was but with all traces of mana removed before sipping it "it will likely do well for you - but I would leave the serpent out of the ingredients, at some point in the future I intend to remove the mana that infuses my land".

    "I assume I have answered your questions?" she wasn't sure why they wanted to know, but she wasn't sure that she cared why they wanted to know either.
    Last edited by dancrilis; 2021-05-27 at 05:28 PM.

  8. - Top - End - #128
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    "Explain this, if you could. Please. They are... rather horrible."[/QUOTE]

    Renarr had accosted Briettia beside her most powerful possession, the Egg of Flocks, on top of the Spine Aerie. This was the second divinity that had visited her, and this visit seemed to be less... tactful than the previous one. Briettia reached out with one of her wings, just far enough that the tip fo the feathers were touching Renarr's hand and offering refuge to the Mockingbird. As the little thing hobbled onto Briettia it's cries changed from the anguished death of Archons to the screams of Hallowcallers getting captured mixed with eggshells cracking and crying children.

    "Horrible?" she asked once the Mockingbird had nestled on her shoulder. "You find my daughters horrible?" The mockbird sputtered and turned into ash just as it reached Briettia's neck. "They speak our failures, and we should learn from those. Learn to prevent them."

    Briettia folded her wing back into place and turned to stare at the Egg of Flocks. "The mockingbirds are my divinity and Rong Tou's vision. A gift of trust, to show me that she understood." Briettia knelt down and brushed her fingertips over the Artifact. "I offer you the same gift of Vision, Sister, show me what Solace's dreamer shapes. We know what I did with Solace itself."

    Spoiler: AP ACTION - Create Monster
    Show


    Briettia is offering Renarr to shape the coming creature from the Egg of Flocks.

    Limitations: The Creature Must Be Avian, The Creature May Not Be Predatory to Mocking Birds.



    The Beast Cagers

    Briettia saw the action of the tamers and heard the propositions of the more militant among them. She had hoped her actions would have made them understand that the Monsters of her flock were not to be tamed and treated as beasts of burden. She had given them a warning and they had still defied the will of the Wilds, in fact, they had doubled down on trapping her Daughters.

    This would not stand.

    Briettia fashioned one of the carving sticks the Kobolds loved and poured her will into it. Words burned into the surface of the wood, an ancient language of understanding instead of words. Anyone, anything who read her plea would understand the natural order Briettia demanded for her children. They would understand her call and their blood would summon something new into the world.

    The Wild Manifesto had been written.

    Spoiler: AP ACTION - Create Minor Artifact
    Show


    Briettia is creating The Wild Manifesto, a piece of writing that inspires the reader and grants the use of powerful blood magic. The one-time birthing of a new species into the world.

    Minor Artifact > Discounted Action is Create Monsterous Race



    The Wilds Awaken


    Within the Spine Aerie, literacy was still intermittent. Most reading was done by the Harpies of The Great Marshes. It was one of those Harpies, Lythilia who found the Wild Manifesto beside her nest on a morning with a blood sunrise.

    Lythilia picked up the writing stick, the black ashen writing of Briettia burned words contrasted with her snow-white wing feathers. Lythilia was a new member of the messengers, and still struggled with reading sometimes, but this morning the words flowed so easily that she even spoke the first several.

    "Daughter, I'm Sorry."

    By the time Lythilia understood what she needed to do she was resolved enough to do it. Lythilia knelt over The Wild Manifesto, and took out a small knife, crafted by one of her razor talons that had fallen off months ago, and paid the blood price.

    The Wild Manifesto sat in a clutch of 4 eggs once Lythilia's body burned away, but something much worse had already been birthed that day. Blood had wrapped into pale meat and sinew, a night hunter bent on revenge.

    Spoiler: Create Monster - Blind Spectres
    Show





    Blind Spectres are large pterosaurs, ghost-white with eyes that match the appearance of many blind species. Despite their massive size, they are able to glide through the air noiselessly, often appearing as silhouettes or apparitions against the sky on cloudy nights.

    Blind Spectres are ambush predators, swooping in suddenly and stealing away a single creature, typically swallowing it whole. That said, once one has found food, others are attracted to the pheromones, meaning that it quickly becomes a deluge of Blind Spectres circling around a single source of prey. If at any point they outnumber the prey, they will land to strike out at them.

    Despite being unwieldy on land, size comes with strength and Blind Spectres are capable of breaking down walls of all but the strongest built wood dwellings or secured stone with a swipe from their wings. Additionally, they are incredibly difficult to kill with most traditional weapons as they are protected by thick skin, and their primary method of attack, their wings, has over triple the range of a held sword or spear.

    Blind Spectres notably don't eat children.

    Their favourite food above all others are Goblinoid races, and they can track the cries of panicked monsters from dozens of miles away.



  9. - Top - End - #129
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    Kobold

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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Deity Discussion

    I see, so the Ghuls had such a history. It must have happened near the beginning, while the deity was still young. Perhaps it was weakened due to the Devourer’s attacks, many of us perished during that time. For their death to anger you so, did you know them?

    The Ghuls seem to know better than to harm another deity now. I encountered one when I was there whom they seem to view highly.

    I hope you were not too offended by my heavy handed response to the revenants I encountered. I was not aware at that time of any reason a deity would wish to cause such suffering. While they could supposedly find peace by infecting more of their own, such a peace would be but a mockery as they must face the responsibility of harming their own loved ones. So I fulfilled their wish, and stopped them.

    As for the so called rebels, my understanding was that they lived as outcasts, rejected for their desire to be free in thought, action, and in what or who they place their reverence. I’d be if surprised any who left would be inclined to pray to the deity of a society that hurt them, especially after generations of being brought up with exaggerated descriptions of your tyranny, so forgive me if I don’t take your word for it.

    I must admit I’m not very familiar with that society that lives under the rule of another deity apart from what the merchants of my people hear through their trade, but I believe that was just a small portion. As for their ancestors of regretting, I guess we should disagree again and move on. If their life was anything nearly as hard as the lives of those living in the blighted zones of today, I’m sure they would still go, in fact expect some of those living in those zones today will leave now that the journey is less perilous. At least they would have land they can use for agriculture, no fear or revenants or corruption.


    Returning to the topic of worship, the thing he found most interesting on Corla, Abu Dhahab continued.

    I have seen the benefit of mortals acting as a conduit for your power to bring healing. I can understand the appeal, and it does give you some measure of constant control. Being your power that they wield, it is yours to take away should they displease you.

    My talks with the priests led me to the conclusion that your system of worship is really two things entwined. You can correct me if you feel this is not the case, but I believe I am close to the truth.

    Firstly, worship, or reverence, which I’ve seen can come in various forms and be directed at anything despite what your priests may argue. Secondly, bestowal or approval. Bestowal is really the point of interest here, and what seems to be the key factor for the division of faithless and faithful in your society, as well as what revenants seen to be using to judge if a person’s worship is valid.

    This is also where worship of a powerful being differs from worshiping something without power. When mortals worship you or another deity, should that deity accept it, they seem to receive a noticeable aura or connection to that entity. This is little more than declaring that the mortal belongs to that entity or has their approval. Why your revenants targeted the shelled, for example, would seem to align with my theory. Their object of worship was unfortunately incapable of bestowal.


    Noticing Kerima’s action of reassembling the tea, he continued.

    I see you too are wary of the ever present energy in the air. Though no longer a body that devours the world, the serpent’s essence has saturated this world. In a way you could say that it lives on, or at least it’s power does.

    Your hope to eventually rid your lands of mana is understandable, but I feel it might be difficult to ever remove the snake’s essence completely from this world. To achieve that goal it may require a separate space entirely.

    Some of my people had been exposed to too much of this mana, so I created a way for them to avoid corruption.


    Calling up a wisp of Ki, Abu Dhahab swirled it in his palm.

    This is Ki, it is what is left when you strip away all impurities contained in mana and mix in your own aura. While it may have come from the snake, before that it belonged to the entities like ourselves. If you look closely you’ll find that this energy is now completely mine, the refining has returned it to what it was before the snake devoured it.

    You could compare it to what you just did with the tea I made, separating out that which you do not want.

    Through hard work, my people can purify the mana in their bodies and cultivate their own Ki. The process is slow and requires patience, diligence and discipline. You could say those are the qualities I have selected as determining a worthy recipient of the ability, instead of being based on worship.


    Taking out a pouch of Holy Sand, he passed it to Kerima.

    This too is something I’ve created to suppress the corruption of the snake. I was interested to find that it also suppressed other supernatural things such as your revenants and some of the other diseases going around. Keep it, as a gift or as an exchange for the answers you’ve given me.

    My earlier question regarding the benefit of worship was not out of the fear that you might overpower me, I hope you understand. I can clearly sense that we are of similar strength, and it seems you too are approaching ascension. I think as just curious to why you would emphasize worship so much In your society, I thought there might be something special about it apart from being just something you wanted.

    Your responses has helped me arrive at what I wished to know, the answer was prayer. Direct communication between mortals and deities, that is what I think is most interesting about what you have established.

    I personally prefer in-person interaction, but the time to depart is fast approaching, so I will need to come up with an alternative. Our talk has given me some ideas, so thank you.

    I will be on my way, but if you ever have questions of your own, or wish to make an exchange of sorts, come find me or pass along a message through your priests.


    Finishing his tea, Abu Dhahab stood up prepared to leave.

    Oh, right. I’m Abu Dhahab by the way. Talking to the people here it seemed someone has spread some interesting stories about me, so I though you might recognize or know who I am, and somehow forgot to mention it earlier.

  10. - Top - End - #130
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Writtensanity's Avatar

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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    The Harpies of the Great Marshes

    There was a sense of disquiet among the Harpies of the great mashes as the Kobolds started to consider Briettia as part of their occasional prayers and offerings to the moon. The largest source of the unrest wasn't that they were jealous of others worshipping Briettia or offering her reverence, it was more that the Hapries had never considered that the Kobolds form of worship was...applicable to Briettia.

    When it came to telling stories, it also didn't help that the harpies were a younger race than the Kobolds. They had arrived after the battle with Wan'Shi that the Kobolds would tell grand stories of. Their only connection to that were the tales of the Fang Phoenixes, but none of them came to the Marshes and the Fang Phoenixes weren't talkative at the calmest of times.

    For the first time, some of them joined the Kobolds in worship and gave equal rites to Briettia and Lor.




    The Plains and Hunts

    Hennata was a hunter from the Great Marshes, her sister in work was a huntress from the Aerie, Gialia.

    Hennata had been waiting for hours for Gialia to join her for her hunt, but instead, she'd been catching nothing on the edge of the Mashes. It was late in the day when she spotted another Harpy from the Aerie up high, circling and looking for a sign of a sister. She waved the messenger down.

    Gialia had gotten her talons stuck in a horse she was taking down. Crushed under it.

    Later, deep in the Great Marshes, Hennata was on a mission. She spent days when she was done hunting trying to make something that could outdo her talons, let her stay further back so that this wouldn't happen again, but everything was too clumsy, everything was heavy or inaccurate or- Just less perfect than the mother had made them.

    Finally, at the edge of her sanity when it came to trying, she was approached by one of her nest sisters, Neela, the carrier of Briettia's Talon. Hennata's mission hadn't been joy-filled like Neela's was, and she gladly snatched a possible ending away from her sister and splattered her blood on the ground.

    Half a week later, the deeper in the plains than was safe before if the Centaurs finally saw Harpies aside from small flashes in Kobold villages, they would be wielding perfect and honed javelins. They dropped them from a hundred feet on stationary prey, and anything they needed to chase couldn't outrun the flying harpies harrowing it with multiple spears.

    No more harpies would die when talons were caught in their prey.

    Spoiler: AP ACTION - Create Mundane Concept.
    Show


    Creating Javelins as a mundane concept using Briettia's Talon for Harpies to use during flight and as dropping weapons.

    By proximity, the Kobolds can know of Javelins immediately.

    Action Discounted by Artifact: No domain progress.


  11. - Top - End - #131
    Ogre in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Just outside Nocturne
    Spoiler: Nerds in Space
    Show
    Quote Originally Posted by Angsty Anubite View Post
    Silph and the River

    "I mean. I didn't know you were looking for -" Dia's face went red, and she hid her snout in her hands. "Really making me feel as young as I appear..."

    Dia peeked between her fingers and watched the archons converse, curious about what the Suzerain was up to but too flustered to engage, though her rivers did part for him as he left.

    "I mean. Sorta. Alcyone here is the one fishing, though."

    Dia gestured at the golem reorganizing a nebula into the shape of a fish. "I just made him the rod. He got his name from falling into my waters and taking in some of the memories I brought with me from Circle Continent (which is apparently a thing I can do, by the way). It's why he looks like him, and I look like me.

    "As for fishing up these - what would you call them - Nightstars? Maybe just Stars? At first it was just to check how durable they were, what with the whole prophecy about them falling from the sky - but these things have enough fuel in them to last eons. So we started playing around with them, and what do you know, sticking a memory in one makes the memory last just as long. So, figured I'd turn the Snake into storage. Have something good come from all this. Think Magrius would agree."

    Dia looked back out at the now finished constellation. "I hope these stars last. And don't drop into the ocean. Honestly, I think I'm just trying to distract myself from what that Serpent said - or, defy it? I don't know if it's all these thoughts and memories flowing through me, some grander purpose given to me by the Creator, or I'm just really, really petty."

    "... Mmm. I really rambled on there. Um. Hmmmm. How you been doin?" Dia gave the pair of archons a weak smile. "Don't think I've met you before - Herend, right? Another one of Renarr's?"


    "Well, we most certainly met before! I'm just not as memorable as ol' one-arm here." Herend would tell the river goddess before Silph had the chance to speak up. "You met all of us Solars, in fact, since all of us are from that original group that hid in the Suzerain's bubble! Also, we're all the same age. Or close enough to it for that not to matter in the eyes of the creator. So if you feel childish, just remember... you're probably never growing out of it. Now, more importantly..." Floating on over to the fishing golem, chisel and stone tablet in hand, the scribe would look at that rod and ask his fellow archon, "A fishing rod that fishes up stars from the insides of snakes, you say? How... very, very interesting."

    Letting the other solar ask Alcyone all manner of questions about how the rod had come to be and how it worked (which likely included a request to demonstrate it for him once or twice,) Silph shakes his head and mutters, "We're lucky. If he could have thought of a snake pun, he would have absolutely said it without any remorse."

    "Now come on golem, don't make me fish up this information! You can't keep stringing me along without giving me a bite to work with here! I'll worm a response out of you yet, eventually you'll fall for my bait!"

    "..." Looking directly at Dia's new small lizard avatar, and only her avatar, Silph tells her, "Well I have a migraine, but other than that? Doing fine. Renarr made a new portal into the world, so I'm finally able to walk around on and experience this planet. And it's beautiful! I've almost been eaten no fewer than five thousand three hundred sixty times, but still, I'll trade sitting around swapping stories of what might have been with the other Solar in Solace." He's probably exaggerating. He's only been in the world for the better part of a year at this point, give him a few centuries and his estimate on near-gastric experiences will be more accurate.

    Tapping his chin with his "river" arm, Silph would add, "Though I suppose I should ask since I was sent... Renarr wanted to know if there was anything she could do for you? She remembers the lesson you taught her about life, and she has seen how you protected the world from the wake of destruction that Wan'shi attempted to unleash. She also views you as a friend, and would invite you into a formal alliance just in case the need to work together comes up again in the future. She wants you to know that you aren't alone in your petty defiance of the snake's prophesy of DOOM." There. That should about cover what he was actually sent here to do.

    Within the Spine
    Spoiler: Bird is the Word
    Show
    Quote Originally Posted by Writtensanity View Post
    Renarr had accosted Briettia beside her most powerful possession, the Egg of Flocks, on top of the Spine Aerie. This was the second divinity that had visited her, and this visit seemed to be less... tactful than the previous one. Briettia reached out with one of her wings, just far enough that the tip fo the feathers were touching Renarr's hand and offering refuge to the Mockingbird. As the little thing hobbled onto Briettia it's cries changed from the anguished death of Archons to the screams of Hallowcallers getting captured mixed with eggshells cracking and crying children.

    "Horrible?" she asked once the Mockingbird had nestled on her shoulder. "You find my daughters horrible?" The mockbird sputtered and turned into ash just as it reached Briettia's neck. "They speak our failures, and we should learn from those. Learn to prevent them."

    Briettia folded her wing back into place and turned to stare at the Egg of Flocks. "The mockingbirds are my divinity and Rong Tou's vision. A gift of trust, to show me that she understood." Briettia knelt down and brushed her fingertips over the Artifact. "I offer you the same gift of Vision, Sister, show me what Solace's dreamer shapes. We know what I did with Solace itself."

    Spoiler: AP ACTION - Create Monster
    Show


    Briettia is offering Renarr to shape the coming creature from the Egg of Flocks.

    Limitations: The Creature Must Be Avian, The Creature May Not Be Predatory to Mocking Birds.


    Renarr blinks when Brietta talks about regrets, and she watches the little bird crumble to ash and wither away, the albino goddess thinking for a moment about how to phrase what she wanted to say before speaking in a small voice hardly befitting one of the primary guardians of reality that had killed Wan'shi. "Remind us of our failures? Nest mother... I can't escape my remainders."

    "Look up. The corpses of gods that I killed in a moment's negligence hover in the night sky, orbiting the planet. They are petrified, charred and then they were frozen by the Serpent's curse that cut this world and its mortals off from the heavens. A curse that the serpent made using a realm I created. When I look up, I do not see the sun, the stars, or the things in the sky, I see the blood on my hands that I still cannot..."
    Looking down at her hands, at the veins blackened by the strike she'd unleashed into Lor's surface, the goddess shakes her head and then gestures all around them.

    "Then, feel the air around us. All this mana, this digested divine essence... feel its abundance. It's because I failed to make Solace safe, a sanctuary from Wan'shi's predations. None of the gods could hide in it. It's because I failed to strike at the serpent when it was still young, when we were... almost equal. Before it had grown fat off the flesh of the divine. I failed to stop Wan'shi, and I inhale that failure with every breath, I feel it press against me in the breeze, I carry it as a burden to protect my faithful from the influence of Mana that would slowly drive them insane. I carry its weight.

    "Recently, I tried to do something nice for my Solars. They were... unique. And that uniqueness meant that they could not procreate like mortals, or even other archons. Because of the blessing I gave to them cannot be divided, only consolidated, they cannot have children with one another. I... saw that a group of elves had moved to the portal to Solace, elves who worshiped me and who accepted me as their goddess. Who saw my Solars as heralds. And I thought... well... I may not be able to make more Solar, but I could still allow them to have children with these mortals, couldn't I?"

    Though out this ramble Renarr's voice had remained even and cool, almost detached from what she had been saying, but now lines of glittering starlight slid down her cheeks. Voice unchanged, the Eternal Night aspect said, "The solari are few, but already they are being heralded as superior to their elven kin. Not because I commanded it, nor even because of some inherent magical trait that sets them above the rest. It's because my mortal followers believe the Solar to be my voice, my will in the world, so the children of my heralds must be blessed, mustn't they? I did not design the Solari with greater knowledge, they just live so long that they can master more skills and they naturally end up with more merit, moving them to higher positions within my society. I didn't want them to out-live their competition, I just wanted to give my Solar more time with their children before they had to say goodbye.

    "I did not want to be a tyrant. They have made me their empress."
    Closing her eyes and clenching her hands into fists, Renarr makes a Wish. "I do not need reminders of my failures. I need a reminder that I will not always fail. That I can still have hope, and that someday, I will be able to make things better." And as she wished, it became an idea within the egg, an idea that would soon hatch into something... truly beautiful.

    Spoiler: Birds of Paradise
    Show
    So I'll be taking Brietta up on that free Monstrous Life offer, and I'm making Birds of Paradise. So. Here's the writeup:

    Monstrous Life; Birds of Paradise: G, Creature - Bird, 0/2, Flying, Tap: Add 1 mana of any color Birds of Paradise are ethereal beings that only rarely take corporeal form in the First World. Also called Nest or Cradle Wardens and Dream Guardians, these birds are beacons of positive emotions. Their songs are said to ward away nightmares, and can calm or mute violent emotions. These birds tend to flock around beings who have multiple sprites that are formed from dark and repressed memories, suggesting that they are able to see sprites to a degree.

    When fully ethereal, these birds are little more than a prismatic pattern that hovers in the sky, much smaller than their actual form (about swan sized.) On the first world, it is impossible for them to transition beyond this ethereal form outside of being bound by powerful mana rituals. While ethereal their positive emotion abilities are vastly muted, but they cannot be killed via mundane means. They can be driven away by powerful enough scenes of violence, or by being attacked by a creature they are trying to comfort, however.

    Upon any other plain, Birds of Paradise are always physically manifested. About the size of a bull elephant in this form, these birds glow like a living aurora, and their abilities are far more potent. (To put it in terms of D&D 5e, they go from DC 12 to DC 18... or in 3.PF, they go from DC 13 to DC 24, because that's how scaling works in that system. :P) When physically manifest these birds can actually be killed by people with swords... as long as those people are warded against mental manipulation.

    A feather from a Bird of Paradise that is given from the bird freely is said to carry luck in it, and these feathers are highly sought after for that reason. Throughout the Shaline empire and their direct trade partners, it is explicitly known that feathers taken from a Bird of Paradise by force are worthless, and if one kills a bird for their feathers, it brings ruin instead of luck. This may not be true, but it is what Renarr told her people, and hunting these birds within Solace and Nocturne is seen as deeply heretical and Not Cooltm

  12. - Top - End - #132
    Titan in the Playground
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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    The Steady March to the Shared Continent

    It had not taken the Orcs long to discover that their new home, shared by the Weshesh, was mobile. Slow through coercion and threat as it moved at the whim of someone whose Goddess no longer drew breath, but mobile all the same. In its slow travels, the Orcs and Shelled had built upon the face of the islands, a central city looking around the mountain on Sentar and up towards its peak as smaller towns and foundries began to take shape.

    The orcs had come to enjoy the taste of the large turtles native to the lands and to use the thick and sturdy shells that were left over. Armor and plating for defensive structures that ringed the shores of their mobile home were a common Orcish element of the Turtle Island tribes. The Xen quickly settled the sprawling ring city as its directors, aiding in the slow spread of towns out from its center to fill the wilderness.

    Tundra Orcs

    From the deserts they rose, the single city the Lizarfolk had found occupied by the Xen acting as a slow funneling entry point to the Circle Continent. But the Orcs were not merely content to hold this small city, wishing for fertile ground to feed their quickly growing people. So it was that there in the presence of the ice sheet the Orcs made final camp. The lands were cold, something they were not accustomed to, but the ever adapting Orcs would overcome it. Here, many Tribes would say, was their central lands for at the foot of the ice shelf they saw opportunity and in the taiga and swamps and low wet lands, the Orcs found something they had no elsewhere. A land that suited them perfectly. The hot arid lands, the rocky volcanos and even the pleasent Turtle Islands were not their ideal home. Adapted to, yes. Thriving in, only through the good graces of the Xen and the Shelled. While those other races might hold power in the extremes of what one might call the Weshesh Diaspora, it was here where the battle with Wan'shi had truly taken place they felt most at ease.

    Orcish Envoy to the Aire

    With whispers from the Idol Gods, the Orcs sent more tendrils of their influence across the Circle Continent. From the blasted deserts the Orcish Party crawled. High into the peaks, treasures from the depths glinting in large hands. Their leader, Broken Tusk and Red Meat was central, her fangs chipped and broken from fierce battles with five mates that displeased her. Back home in the great Xen city she had left five children, each stronger than the last. She hoped to return.

    Corrla Orcs

    It was only a matter of time that the Orcs would rise from the tunnels of Corrla and take foot upon the lands under the cursed Sun. They, unlike the Xen who were more than happy to trade and share ideas with the many people of the continent, stuck to the shores. There they dug canals and trenches, vast places where shallow waters allowed for fishing. As if conducted by some unseen design. They built only small huts along the shores, some brave enough to swim to the many islands they could see from their vantage to do the same.

    The Weshesh: Culture and the Rise of the Orc

    With the Orcs birth, a vast shakeup trembled across Weshesh society. No longer was it a matter of the Xen and their silent empire in the tunnels. The Underdark was quickly becoming a vast network for the many Orcish tribes to coordinate and travel. While the castes of the Weshesh had remained, builder and mage and leader, the Orcish tribalism had shaped the Weshesh in ways profound. Each tribe was made up of many castes, some specialized to the regions they dwelt within. The Xen remained as advisors but each tribe within the culture began to hold bloodlines in esteem. Strong orcs, of strong blood, climbed to positions of power, advised by Xen caretakers and ruling over the Shelled and any other peoples that would join their cause. Only Orcs, at least for the moment, could become Chiefs of their Tribes, and only Tribes could lobby for powers where they were in conflict with junior races.

  13. - Top - End - #133
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Kerima - Deity Discussion

    "No I did not know them" she said when Abu Dhahab assumed such "but their influnce is widely felt, they were the one who created composite souls and who deemed that every sentient being would have a unique name tied to its very nature - but yes the people of the south have now gained a new patron and I do not intend interference".

    "Your actions were more a concern due to timing - shortly after the serpents curse both you and another deity took time to engage in similiar conflicts, I had concerns as to if those who had entered that battle had been driven mad - but that does not seem to be the case".

    "As for those who pray - many mortals rebel against their parents, and being told that your people escaped tyranny on the quest for freedom does not sit well with being a second or third class individual for some, but I would not consider them truely faithful more scattered prayers on occassion - perhaps I will answer at some point. As for those who left initially - they didn't leave to secure a better life they left because another of our kind instilled in them a call from freedom and provided an agent to spread that message - in truth I have not noted their works in some time" she may have to investigate such she decided.

    On the topic of worship "you have seemed to have made a mistake - it is not my power that they wield, the worship allows the mortal to forge a connection to me - or I suppose you or any other - and if that connection is strong enough it allows them to replicate the barest shadows of our power but it isn't a drain on us, the power is their own generated from their own worship of us but yes we could sever the connection if we felt like it. Other then that you have the gist of it".

    She took the bag of sand "this may be of use - I am working towards a seperate plane of existance and this may be more useful then the remnants you left of the revenents".

    Nodding at the other deity as they moved to depart "yes word of your continent has reached my lands - an entity ties to one the deity that the elves who left fell under spreads his stories of such," a map of Corrla appeared in the air at her will, "there is the most sizable amount of their dealings as I understand" she gestured to one of the largest blight areas "should you wish to discuss what they are saying about you".


    The Blind Spectres and The Feasts
    The emergence of a new predator for the elves was not met with horror or revulsion - the first few attacks did kill a number including some settlements wiped out except for the children, and that was a tragedy which would stay in song and story for generations, but ultimately the elves had brought both normal creatures and creatures of legend under control, they were prepared to do it again - theirs was not merely a job or a calling it was a divine mission to master life and they would do it.

    Goblins treated life as cheaper then elves and the new predators seemed as partial to the flesh of the goblins as they were to the elves so goblins were hired as bait for the creatures to lure them out, other animals were tamed to be on the lookout for the giant birds and then when they tried to swoop down and attack they would find priests would masked their smell and sound using invisible wards to distrupt flight, as the giant birds fell to the ground there would find tar being thrown at them and and lit on fire to burn them alive.

    Great feasts were held in celebration - entire goblin and elf tribes would feast on even a single bird but they learned quickly that the cries of one would attract more, who could be taken down in turn with successful planning, relations between goblin and elf improved a lot based on these joint cultural activities.

    Of course some beastmasters were more interested in taming the birds them in simply mastering them, and so nests were found where and looted after the parents were dead to see if they could be made more useful and indeed the cries of the birds and the and there ability to note pheromones was indeed useful, unruly ones could be eaten and more docial ones could even be used for long distance travel by dangling a ball of sweat infront of them - although this had many dangers for any riders, particularly when the animals wild blood won out on occassion.


    The Arrival of the Orcs
    Where the Xen had arrived as a curiousity the Orcs following the warnings of the Shelled met a much more dubious introduction, priests monitored them carefully, sprites were captured via wards and examined for traces of dubious intent - the race was not driven from the shores immediately as calmer heads felt that they would be given a chance and the Laws of Kerima protected them from attack without a priests blessing but the laws also gave the orcs no means of retailation should the priests decide to take action - particularly the first law was monitored in all dealings with the new comers.

  14. - Top - End - #134
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    ezekielraiden's Avatar

    Join Date
    Jul 2018

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Quote Originally Posted by Kinro View Post
    Save for the one spot, Arkhos's reflection was not merely perfect, it was more than perfect, reflecting him as he most wished himself to be. But other than the reflection itself, there was no movement in the great mirror and no response, not until he was fully done speaking. Only then did the reflection move, but not as Arkhos moved. And it was with Arkhos's words that he was welcomed to the Serpent Moon, of which Lor had appointed himself guardian. He saw himself speak to one of Lor's attendants, two of the archons who had taken him to his place, each covered in shining, reflective silver. On Lor's instructions, given through the reflection, the archon took the scale and... where he placed the scale didn't seem to be anywhere close to where Lor's surface was. And yet, when he let go, there it was, exactly where the hole has been, showing a smaller, different reflection that spoke in unison with the first to thank Arkhos for his gift and to tell him of what was on Lor's mind. The appearance of the orcs and their hopes of reviving the beast upon who's head they stood. In exchange for agreement to answer any questions the new god had, Lor asked him about his own intentions. Would he assist in foiling this new threat? Remain neutral? Or show himself an enemy? The questions asked, the reflections ceased to move and speak of their own accord and become reflections once more. Both different, neither true.
    Arkhos marvelled, though not to the point of impoliteness, at Lor's visage. Only a few of his memories were of Lor, and of course none of them were from his current perspective. There was a kinship between them, seeing what things could be in what things were. That simply cemented Arkhos' commitment to meeting the gods that had given him life and finding common ground with them...though he knew that both the challenge of doing so and Wan'Shi's great Curse would not be easily overcome.

    "I stand with thee and thine, Lor. This is my Home. Those whose memories I protect fought and died on the thin hope of saving it for others. I should need to become other than what I am, to abandon its defense now. Indeed...let us add unto it our first work of substance." Arkhos looked with godly sight down on the world below, and remembered. One of the gods had created....eating-beings, albeit few in number. As he surveyed, he found that they had been expanded upon, changed; where before they were of clay, now they were of earth general, in ochre and amber clad. Yet unlike himself, and indeed unlike Wan'Shi, they still walked upon the ground. They could yet become more than they were, they could rise higher and see farther.

    Arkhos pulled upon the metaphysical threads of the Tangible Wish. To make, to refine, to build up: that was how he would call out to these mortals. But to refine, one needs must have the tools. From the possibilities, he fashioned something divine. An artifact of making, but not for making tools. No, this was an artifact for reshaping the delicate threads of life, upon which the soul could be shaped. That delicate nature wove into the artifact, something that could be as fragile as breath and as sturdy as the mountain. The Glass Anvil, upon which one might find self-improvement; indeed, on which the Self might be Improved.

    He spoke to some few of these earth-dragons, a distant voice, but clear like the bell that rings out in the night. "If thou wouldst be more than thou art, if thou wouldst seek beyond the confines of the earth, heed my call, and thou shalt come to me." Some came. Far, far from all. But enough. A seed, a beginning. They looked at Arkhos in confusion and interest and wonder, and likewise at Lor, whose mirrored surface they no doubt had never seen before. Among the silvered grasses of the moon that slept, these few earth-dragons were forged in soulfire and quenched in reflection. Some, their red-brown hides darkened even as it gained luster. Others retained the fire of the forge in their gleaming scales. In color, five: gold, silver, copper, iron, and cobalt. Not truly made of metal, no more than Arkhos himself was, but shining like it, the outward reflection of their purification. Sharper, more focused than their earth-dragon brethren, and given the gift of wings like their adoptive father.

    "Come, my children. These tasks I give you: protect your home, and those who live within it. This moon, and the First World below. You shall ride the winds, powerful, blessed, wise. Use not your gifts in vain. Be strong, ever ready to assist those who would forestall the waking of the Serpent that sleeps within this moon. Fall neither into the temptation of control, nor that of idleness. Be vigilant, and most of all vigilant on yourselves. My blessing is upon you."

    The irony, of course, was not lost on Arkhos. That his first creations should be made so close, in both distance and form, to the very thing he opposed even before his birth. Yet it was as it needed to be. Here, they could learn, in safety and quiet, before returning to the world below. Empowered and enlightened, given a safe creche to raise their young, a safe eyrie to return to when hurt, they could be guardians wise without needing to take and rule and control.

    He returned his attention to Lor. "I thank thee for thy welcome and thy wisdom both, Lor. I pray these children be welcome among yours, and learn from thee, for thou hast seen more than I of the Serpent and its ways. They shall be powerful guardians, shouldst thou need to call upon their strength." Looking back at the First World, he added, "There remain other meetings I must make. There are many whose labor gave birth to me. Until we meet again, friend."

    Spoiler: AP Actions
    Show
    Create Artifact: The Glass Anvil, (Utility Artifact for Create Legends). 4 AP (reduced from 5 by the Tangible Wish). Domain: Liberation (Aspiration) 9/10
    Create Legendary Life, subspecies of Earth Dragons: Metallic Dragons. 2 AP (reduced from 3 by the Glass Anvil). Domain: Nobility (Leadership) 2/10

    In-progress domains:
    Liberation (Aspiration) 9/10
    Nobility (Leadership) 2/10
    Good (Self-Sacrifice) 1/10

    Total AP remaining: 4
    Last edited by ezekielraiden; 2021-05-29 at 10:14 AM.

  15. - Top - End - #135
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Sep 2014
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    Glitter Demiplane

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Silph and the River
    "You met all of us Solars, in fact, since all of us are from that original group that hid in the Suzerain's bubble! Also, we're all the same age. Or close enough to it for that not to matter in the eyes of the creator. So if you feel childish, just remember... you're probably never growing out of it.
    "I - I'm not - that's not what I meant at all!" Dia pouts, but Herrend has already moved onto the golem. "Bullying me like I'm a hatchling..." She does her best to ignore the following bombardment of puns.
    "Well I have a migraine, but other than that? Doing fine. Renarr made a new portal into the world, so I'm finally able to walk around on and experience this planet. And it's beautiful! I've almost been eaten no fewer than five thousand three hundred sixty times, but still, I'll trade sitting around swapping stories of what might have been with the other Solar in Solace."
    The kobold laughs. "Good. That means I'll get to see more of you - I've been in the void for too long. I need to get back down to the First World and check on everyone down there. I haven't talked to any of the other river archons since I took Abu to fight the Serpent, and I think there might be a new batch of them I need to thank for helping me scoop everyone up during the storm."
    Tapping his chin with his "river" arm, Silph would add,"Though I suppose I should ask since I was sent... Renarr wanted to know if there was anything she could do for you? She remembers the lesson you taught her about life, and she has seen how you protected the world from the wake of destruction that Wan'shi attempted to unleash. She also views you as a friend, and would invite you into a formal alliance just in case the need to work together comes up again in the future. She wants you to know that you aren't alone in your petty defiance of the snake's prophesy of DOOM."
    Dia considers this, closing her eyes and mimicking Silph's action with her own arm - an arm that begins to transform into that familiar clear starlit water. It spreads across her whole body, the image of the kobold girl falling into the waters, until Silph finds himself facing the jet stream he first saw in Solace. To be honest. I knew life was fragile. But at first. I think. I only cared for my own divine blood... I could not entirely grasp. Why my kin risked themselves to save others.

    The face of the kobold flashed across Dia's waters. I needed to see them. To feel them. But even the knowledge I have now. Is not enough. I have much more to learn.

    I want to connect the disparate courts. The Rivers. The Solars. The Waves. The Golems. And any more that may be out there. We will be a beacon of hope for the world. United in its protection. Guides to mortals. Champions of peace.

    Or something like that. A sprite glints beneath her form. These mortals have wonderful ideals. I mean to see them fulfilled.

    Without warning, the jet stream shoots off across the surface Nocturne, and the rest of the river begins to follow, destination: The portal to the First World.

    Meanwhile, unlike Silph or Dia, Alkyone looks directly at Herend, waiting until he's all out of puns, at witch point he pops out a few sprites from his own head, and begins putting them into new stars. Whether out of spite or genuine appreciation for his comedy routine, Herend's Grin makes its way permanently into the night sky.
    Of Saints and Archons
    As the world finally settled in the wake of Wan'shi's destruction, mortals found themselves drawing closer to divinity, wielding powers that were once thought to only be achievable by gods. Two major factors in this, discovered by many cultures around the same time as each other, were the Godborn and the concept of Veneration.

    Godborn were children of archons and mortal races. These children would often grow to live incredibly long lives, display mystical powers similar to that of their parent archon (especially those of the elemental variety) and, allegedly, be capable of becoming new archons themselves. The stories of how a godborn may ascend vary between courts. For example, on the Circle, the child of a river archon is said to be able to fully cast their mortal yolk off by swimming up and down the length of an archonless river nonstop, until their sweat and oils have become a permanent part of the river.

    Veneration was something similar, but distinct from Worship, both in the mystical and spiritual sense. Those who venerate particularly important religious figures in their own faith, whether alive or dead, often find the powers they gain from Worship to manifest in different ways than expected. Saints of war or conflict, for example, might lead to more volatile expressions of power, while saints of knowledge or secrets inspire worshipers to use their deity's aura to further science or develop powerful sealing magics. Furthermore, whether due to having a clear role model to base oneself off of or simply because of the nature of Veneration itself, Venerating saints have made powers from Worship more accessible to both mortals and archons - the barrier for fanaticism has been substantially lowered.

    Many young godborn - especially of the river variety - now walk the Circle, telling tales while dazzling their audience with floating water, baring ice weapons against gnoll bandits, experimenting with elemental abilities alongside ki, and desperately selling pet crabs that won't stop manifesting around them. The Sisterhood begins to see faint glimmers of power among their ranks the more they champion and share tales of the strongest and most virtuous sisters. The orcs and the shelled begin to have chance encounters with the wave archons that roam the oceans, whose tales and flirtations leads to their own experiences with Veneration and godborn. And in the most blighted area of Corrola, a human boy no older than 8 stares down a pack of revanents, each desperately fighting against their own boiling skin to reach him and the dozen or so faithless behind him, and each falling apart inches from his feet.
    Spoiler: AP Actions
    Show
    Herend's Grin
    Alter Land (0 AP)
    A constellation resembling a rather smug solar. Those who gaze up at this constellation at night are filled with the urge to recite terrible puns. (Alkyone switches out the stars of this constellation sometimes so that new jokes regularly find their way into it.)

    Godborn
    Bless (1 AP)
    The children of archons and mortal races, possessing remarkable constitution, magical abilities, and the potential to ascend and become a new archon.
    ((Players can decide how godborn descendants from their court are able to become archons, or if their court can even have godborn at all.))

    Veneration
    Mythic Subconcept (2 AP)
    Those who model themselves after notable religious figures of their own faith or pay reverence to these individuals may find the divine powers they gain from Worship altered to match the ideals these figures strive for. These figures are commonly known as "Saints". Veneration still requires Worship of an actual deity to function.
    Spoiler: Example of how Veneration can manifest
    Show
    Worship: Dia
    Venerate: Saint Ghubab, Seeker of Lost Things
    Powers: Commonly find lost objects under starlight, whether belonging to themselves or others. The especially faithful can find lost treasures hundreds or even thousands of years old.


    Life (Protection)
    Domain (Portfolio)
    Dia has dedicated herself to the protection of all life.

    Spoiler: Divine Growth Tracker
    Show
    ★ Mind (Forgotten Memories)

    ★ Night (Stars)

    ★ Life (Celestial)

    ★ Life (Protection)
    ➤ 1 AP - Sunspots
    ➤ 1 AP - Stygian Guardian Glacier
    ➤ 3 AP - Wave Archons
    ➤ 1 AP - Sprites
    ➤ 1 AP - Divine Thoughts
    ➤ 1 AP - Godborn
    ➤ 2 AP - Veneration
    10/10 AP

    ❖ Thought (Preservation)
    ➤ 5 AP - Starfisher Rod
    ➤ 1 AP - Stargazing
    ➤ 0 AP - Alcyone Salmon Constellation
    6/10 AP


    Remaining AP: 1/16
    Last edited by SpeedWitch; 2021-05-29 at 10:04 PM.

  16. - Top - End - #136
    Orc in the Playground
     
    PirateGirl

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    Jan 2019
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    Male2Female

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    --

    Kura took one last, lingering look at the familiar village of Icewatch, illuminated by the pink rays of the rising sun. Taking in the details she knew she would not likely see again.

    It was for the best, the gnoll elders had concluded. They were people of the sands - to the sands they would return. They had begun to settle here, it was true; Kura had never known anything but the grasses and tundras of the Everrun. They had learned to hunt the great grazing beasts of the plains, had begun to trade medicines and goods with the Centaur villages, had given some of their warriors to be trained under the Feet of Clay. They had hoped, perhaps, to build something new here. But in the end, it was not to be; this land was not theirs; this had been but another stop on the endless journey of the Ufrot-Assag. The newcomers had made that very clear.

    Kura was not certain what to make of these new people, these..."Orcs", of the Weshesh who had come to claim this land, of the words they brought that had so tempted her elder brother and her cousins. She had overheard the elders and storytellers speaking of it, arguing and whispering well into the night and casting nervous glances to each other in the day. But she was merely an apprentice bone-carver; it was not her place to worry overmuch of such things. Their ways and their stories certainly seemed...strange. Not at all like the stories she had heard as a child. But then again, the elder storyteller had once told her, the ways of the Centaurs had once seemed strange as well. Even after the Slaying of the First Direwolf, their relationship had been marred by fear, suspicion, unfamiliarity - yet now, Kura could not concieve of life without them. The thudding of hooves that greeted them at every village. The delicious bread traded for medicines and grassweavings. The games and songs they shared, the evenings in the summer months spent chasing Etha Greenhoof and her little sisters through the golden fields of grain, pretending to be Feet of Clay chasing Clay Dragons, spinning in circles until they collapsed under the night sky and stared at the stars together and got Etha's long auburn hair tangled with hers when they turned and-

    Kura stopped. Breathed in. Breathed out. Kept walking. It didn't matter anymore, anyway. They were people of the sands. To the sands they would return. In the end this had been nothing but another stop after all. The ones who had gone with the Weshesh had made their choice, and the rest...well, there was no reason to stay. To fight this new and aggressive people for lands that were not theirs to fight for. Things would not always be this way, she knew, no matter what some said. Just as it had been with their people and the centaurs: old tensions would eventually die, understanding would come, stories and ways would be shared. And there would be peace.

    ...and yet.

    Kura knew it was foolish. Superstitious. Nothing but old suspicion, fear of the new raising its hideous head to whisper worthless nothings. But she could not shake the moment from her mind. The moment she had looked into the eyes of one of the orcs, who had spoken so passionately of liberation and power and the people that would shake the gates of heaven - and seen something ugly there. Something dark. Something colder than the bitterest tundra wind. Something that did not promise peace.

    So Kura looked back once more, to the place beyond the horizon, where her brother and cousins even now labored to bring into being the glorious promise of the Weshesh, and wondered.

    --

    Xadi Ishala scraped distractedly at the point of her clay-tipped spear. She was supposed to be watching the central bazaar for thieves and pickpockets. But for some reason she couldn't take her eyes off the new recruit posted across the massive, bustling plaza. Idij Wadalan, recently finished with training, a fellow crocodilian with a small set of horns indicative of a prior Underbeer problem. He was one of the most recent wave of Feet of Clay inducted to help deal with the growing needs of the city of Wahat Aralha.

    The Feet of Clay had traditionally been simple keepers of peace. Protectors of the weak, assurances that violence would not threaten the lives of the peaceful. Old grudges and outside power meant nothing in the oasis; all were welcome to drink their fill and go in peace. But then the villages grew, and the villages became towns and the towns attracted the great bazaars and marketplaces and now it was much more...complex. And the role of the Feet of Clay had become larger and more complex with it, especially in the wake of the departure of the guardian golems.

    Gone were the days Xadi's grandfather had spoken of, when the Feet of Clay were more-or-less roaming hunters of beasts and monsters. Now, more and more, she and her brethren were called upon to find and pass judgement upon thieves and pickpockets, to enforce the Oasis Taboo against those who had broken and cheated the bazaar's laws of trade, to act as mediators to settle disputes of property and ownership between the squabbling market vendors. And their demands only ever grew.

    Xadi picked at the tip of the spear again. Its presence here in this place was...honestly almost ornamental. Because the cloak of a common thief was not where the power in Wahat Aralha lay. It was in the disputes of trade and property, the judgements of many dozens of gold ingots, the enforcement of the principles that governed trade in all Wadi-Alsahali. The judgements that she and her compatriots made, and that would be followed, lest the offender face the Oasis Taboo. That was power. Power reveals, her father was fond of saying. What would it reveal about Idij Wadalan? Or herself, for that matter?

    She didn't know. Xadi was quickly realizing that she did not know that about any of them. And she did not know how to feel about that. She tried to shake such thoughts from her head. Trust was the foundation of the Feet of Clay. She had to trust them to strive to uphold the ideals they had all sworn to. If you could not trust your compatriots entirely and fully on the battlefield, you were dead.

    But they were not on a battlefield. Not anymore. So Xadi stared into the impassive face of Idij Wadalan, and wondered.

    --

    It was fine. Taken in moderation, it was perfectly fine. Gahren Ufragahl peered through the flap of his tent at the three youths seated around the dying embers of the fire, laughing merrilly and passing around a skin of the dark, foamy liquid.

    The beverage, this "Underbeer", was a curiosity that a few had somehow acquired through the lizardfolk merchants, and had quickly grown in popularity among the pack-tribes. For most, it merely induced a pleasant sort of feeling, and a desire for more. For some, it led to changes of eye color, and manifestation of odd abilities. Gahren had heard rumors of a few who had studied the fighting techniques of the lizardkin, and were able to harness greater power still. But for some, those who over-indulged, it led to...changes. Alterations in the color of one's fur. Increases in size. Changes to the fangs and claws in particular were not uncommon; some seemed to acquire a venomous bite, or hardened claws that shone like bronze. Most worryingly, though, over-indulging seemed to amplify the effects of their ancestral curse, increasing their sensitivity to the bright metal of the lizardkin; or, sometimes, making them sensitive to all metal.

    It was this last that had most worried many elders, leading many pack-tribes to expel those who had begun to show serious mutation; the risk that this strange drink could somehow trigger the Direwolf's Curse was too great. But their tribe had decided against such extremes. Even those who had mutated were welcome to stay, and even continue to drink; so long as it was kept in moderation. Gahren had not been one of the votes in favor of this arrangement. But it was the will of the pack, and so he followed. As they were in many things, the others were probably right; he was an aging gnoll, stubborn in many ways. He knew he was too slow to trust, too slow to accept the new.

    Still.

    Gahren looked upon the gleaming teeth and claws of one of the laughing youths, so like the ones that had torn apart his mother and father long ago, and wondered.

    --

    Regna Ufalga tossed the fruit in her hand. Bright crimson. Plump. Skin smooth and shiny. She almost felt compelled to eat it, though the Elder Apothecary had warned her in no uncertain terms what would happen to her mouth and throat if she did. A blessing, it was being called.

    It certainly didn't look that way at first; when her pack first found the strange, spiny plants bursting from the ground on the sites where the metal of slain Direwolves had been buried, bearing cursed needles of the same metal the beast had borne, many said it was an ill omen; perhaps the Shaper enacting punishment on those who had buried part of their kill rather than use it, or the Traitor exacting revenge on the slayers of her beasts. But then the bright red fruits had begun to grow.

    The pack-tribes themselves could not harvest them, of course, but cooperation of the lizardkin was secured, and what the master apothecaries discovered in its flesh was nothing less than miraculous. A reagent of incredible power; a liquid that, if properly treated, led to mixtures unimaginable, poisons and tonics of bizarre and incredible effect. The possibilities were numerous, and still being discovered. The curse had been conquered, the elders declared, and from its fruit the Ufrot-Assag would feast heartily.

    So Regna had not spoken up about what she had seen, the night before that first miraculous plant had appeared less than a stone's-throw from their camp. She had been tired, and it had been dark, and it could have merely been a mirage, or a dream, or her own mind playing tricks with the shadow of a wandering desert hare. She was likely wrong. She was wrong about most things, as her sisters delighted in reminding her. But try as she might, she could not stop herself from replaying that same all-too-real scene, over and over: an old crone, crouched upon the earth on hands and knees, right on top of the spot where the direwolf's cursed metal was buried. Digging.

    So Regna tossed that same too-red, too-shiny, too-tantalizing fruit in her hand again, and wondered.

    --

    Korugen Ufgrunag had never liked children. Loud. Obnoxious. Questioning. Disobedient. Getting into things that were not theirs. Getting into places they had no business being.

    Looking in exactly the wrong direction at exactly the wrong time as he slipped some well-deserved poison into the cup of that underswill-drinking brat.

    "How ironic," the old gnoll muttered bitterly, "that my life now depends on one."

    The former master apothecary wiped his brow yet again, struggling to keep up with the dust-caked geckokin child clambering nimbly over the rocks ahead of him. Korugen winced as his leg flared painfully; he bent down and readjusted his makeshift bandage again. The bleeding had stopped; but of course, it wasn't the bleeding one had to worry about with a bone-scorpion sting. He could already feel the numbness beginning to spread. Of course, of course he had to run into the one venom he had no prepared curative for. On his first day of exile, no less.

    "Hurry, Elder!" the girl shouted down to him, having noticed his pause. "It's right up here, let me show you!"

    Hrmph. Leading him to a cookpot, "right up here", buried in a pile of rocks, in the side of a canyon, in the middle of the desert. Thrice-damned idiot child was leading him to a nice empty hole to curl up and die in, most likely. Still, he sighed to himself, it was this, or certain death. Exile knew no exception, and the small oasis-village receding behind him and their horse-worshipping "protectors" would surely have learned of his sentence from the tribe by now. If nothing else, he supposed dying in a hole sounded better than being picked apart by vultures. With one last heave, Korugen clambered up into the shady little cave the child had scampered into, and was greeted by the sight of her beaming proudly next to...huh. She hadn't been sun-addled after all, it seemed. There it was: a cookpot. Old and crude, the rim cracked with age, but usable enough. A bit large for his purposes, but usable. Perhaps I can water down the remainder, he thought idly as he shuffled past the girl and took a seat on the rough floor, and just trade it to the lizards. It's not as though they'll be able to tell the difference. And it was the perfect size for what he had in mind after that.

    "Ishra and I found it when we were playing yesterday! Is it good enough to make your medicine with, Elder?"
    the lizard child burbled.

    "Medicine, yes. Now go fetch some firewood like a good girl," Korugen grumbled distractedly, waving a claw in the direction of the cave's exit. Sure. Medicine, and then enough poison to foul that whole damned oasis. Thirty turns of good, faithful work he had given to that pack-tribe - three apprentices trained, countless of their ungrateful flea-eaten hides healed and stitched up. But try to get rid of one impertinent swill-guzzler - the same one getting all his little friends hooked on that foreign lizard garbage too, by the way, spreading the contamination - for the good of the pack, and that was it. Well, frankly, any pack-tribe willing to make a decision that foolish was doomed to death anyway; he was merely going to hasten the process. And if a few of the lizards and horse-worshippers got sent along as well? The old gnoll grinned. Well, that was just a nice little bonus. The lizards had probably traded them the stuff anyway; every one of those underswill-drinkers and their peddlers should go choke on their own guts and die, as far as he was concerned. But first, he had to live.

    Thoughts set, the elder apothecary set about his work. Fire was built, oasis-water drawn and brought to simmer, ingredients brought by the lizard-child carefully measured and prepared. He had no idea why this mud-caked urchin had cleaved to him so, but far as children went, the girl was remarkably tolerable. No noise, no aggravating questions, just dutiful fulfillment of his orders, and the occasional bit of effusive praise. Fairly knowledgeable of plants too, it seemed. Any one of his old assistants would have messed up at least one of his requests. Korugen would have taken her as his own apprentice if the idea of raising a child did not turn his stomach. She did seem to have an irritating habit of messing around the edge of the pot when his back was turned, chewing on some snack she'd picked up. He had to shoo her off several times. Didn't need whatever that red fruit was getting in the pot.

    By the time the sun had begun to set, it became clear something was wrong. Korugen sniffed at the murky brew, going over the steps he'd taken again and again, becoming increasingly worried as the potion neared what was supposed to be completion. This...was not medicine. He had no idea at all what this was. The color was wrong. The consistency off. A stench he did not recognize wafted across his sensitive nostrils. A growl, half frustration, half panic, rose in his throat. How could this have happened?

    "Is it finished, Elder?" the lizard girl intoned sweetly. Korugen rounded on her, snarling.

    "You! You must have done this, foolish child! You brought me the wrong ingredients!"

    "But Elder," the girl replied, innocent tone entirely unshaken, "I gave you the ingredients you wanted. You said so yourself. Isn't this what you wanted, Elder? It'd be such a waste to get rid of it."

    Slightly confused by her phrasing (and a little unnerved at her lack of fear at his outburst), the old gnoll just turned to put out the fire, waving a claw at the cave entrance. "Then you...I don't know, you must have contaminated them somehow. Just go home, little brat, you've bothered me enough today."

    "Oh no, it's fine, Elder, I can stay. I want to help! I want to help you get what you wanted," the girl beamed.

    Too tired to argue, Korugen finished putting out the fire and curled up to sleep. His strength for the day was sapped; he would dump and clean the pot tomorrow, and start again, paying a bit more attention to those herbs. He had time; the bone-scorpion's venom was deadly, but slow. He surely had at least another full day before his condition became truly serious. At least, he was fairly sure he did. He was having trouble remembering for some reason; his head was swimming, thoughts becoming foggy. He suddenly felt quite aware of how numb his leg was. He just needed rest, that was all. A nice, long rest. The last thing the elder saw as his eyelids closed was the smiling geckokin girl, the moonlight giving the right side of her face an almost skull-like cast.

    The next morning, the pot and its contents were missing. Korugen Ufgrunag never awoke to notice.

    Spoiler: AP Actions
    Show

    Rollover(s): 1+4+4=9/16 AP

    Wolfsbane (Bless?) [1AP]:
    Wherever cursed metal taken from a direwolf is buried, a strange, yucca-like plant with needlelike leaves will begin to grow. The needles are made of the same type of metal that was buried, and are afflicted with the Direwolf's Curse; however, it also bears a bright red, palm-sized fruit that is a very powerful reagent, useful in making or strengthening a wide variety of medicines, poisons and other brews. It is an especially potent ingredient in the art of Synthesis.
    Craft (Apothecary) 8/10

    The Traitor's Cookpot (Create Minor Artifact [Curse]) [3AP]: An old and crude earthen cookpot, often said to be one of the original pots used to brew the potion with which Kassa the Traitor cursed the first gnolls; it is rumored that the old clay is still stained with its poison, spoiling and warping anything that is brewed in it.
    Though its legends seem to follow the lizardfolk, the cookpot never stays in one place for long; something about it seems to inspire covetous bloodshed and mysterious loss. The artifact has been lost, found, bought, sold, stolen, killed for and lost again more times than can be counted; but wherever it re-emerges, death and pandemonium are said to follow.
    Death(Plague) 7/10

    Tainted Underbeer (Curse)[Created through Artifact: 1 0AP]: A mass poisoning/plague affecting numerous seemingly-random batches of Underbeer across the Red Coast and Wadi Alsahali. Numerous cities, villages, and pack-tribes were affected; dense cities (with the notable exception of the city of Wahat Aralha) and areas with heavy underbeer usage were the most heavily impacted.
    The plague consists of two parts: primary and secondary infection. The primary infection affects all who directly drank of the poisoned underbeer, with the exception of a few incredibly powerful masters of Ki: within a few hours of drinking it, the affected individual, overloaded with mana and cursed magic, will quite violently explode, dispersing a miasma of toxin over a wide area. The secondary infection affects those who breathe in this miasma, (again with the exception of masters of ki, or those with access to mana-dampening power). Those with exceptionally high mana reserves will also explode, creating a gruesome chain reaction. Others, however, are instead severely mutated, the magic of Abu Dhahab's blessing interacting with the remnants of Kassa's curse to create incredibly severe and dangerous mutations to try and contain the magic. These mutations vary from individual to individual, but most are quite extreme.
    For lizardfolk, these mutations often come in the form of multiple extra limbs, eyes, mouths or wings, increases in size, as well as development of powerful, often totally uncontrollable breath weapons. For gnolls, these changes often come in the form of multiple limbs, eyes, and mouths, increases in size, lengthening of fangs and claws, and, for a few, transformation into Direwolves. Regardless of species, many also developed powerful and difficult to control wild magic, and sudden changes in behavior: becoming much more aggressive or frightened, and a few completely losing all sense, rampaging like maddened animals. Though the poisoning itself was an isolated incident, affecting only a few specific batches of underbeer, the effects on individuals are seemingly permanent.

    0AP spent; no domain progress

    9-1-3 = 5/16 AP remaining
    Last edited by zzzzzzzz414; 2021-05-29 at 04:35 PM.

  17. - Top - End - #137
    Barbarian in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jun 2018

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    The children of Arkhos would be received well amongst the Moon Guardians, as were all who would guard against Wan'Shi's dark devices, and Lor told Arkhos as much, before biding him farewell. He turned, then, his attention towards the First World below once more. The threat of the Orcs was spreading, but as ever, as it had been with Wan'Shi himself, Lor was doubtful. How should it act? Should it act at all? It didn't know. It was only a mirror, only able to reflect what was or what might, not what should be. It needed someone else, someone who could walk the world as it had never had, who could learn and think, advise and act. And it knew just who it should be, for it had seen the one who had been, in her humble way, at the center of much of the most important events of Kobold culture, carrier of the carved word, friend to the centaurs and first friend of the harpies, name-sister to one, who had been chosen by another god in turn.

    There was no vision that appeared to Neela that day. No apparition, no great words for her to hear. She simply knew. Knew she had been chosen. Knew she had a choice to make. There was no question of worthiness either, for the divine essence of Lor was already in her, filling her to bursting, allowing her to know all that she needed to about the path she was being offered. But her simple mortal vessel was not one that could hold the essence for long. And thus, her choice, to let it go and remain the humble kobold that she was, or to accept it fully within herself and become more than she was. She begged for time to make a decision, but knew already she couldn't have any. She begged, then, to be allowed to do one last thing. Her choice had been made, she would become Lor's chosen, but while she was still herself, she wished to carve one last stick.

    This much was granted and, as Neela's body prepared itself to accept the power already within it, she took a carving stick and carved, in the beautiful, dense kobold script, a letter to the name-sister she had grown so close to, telling her of what was happening to her, the joy and honour of being chosen, the regret that she was no longer going to be as she had once been, the fear that they might be forced to grow apart and the hope that they wouldn't. And so much more, her feelings pouring into the stick just as the divinity was pouring into her. Her work was finished when the stick was full. She left it where it would be found and brought to the harpy and she strode away into the silvery light of Lor.

    It was there, under the direct gaze of Lor, and with her final task done, that Neela was able to embrace her change. She became a perfection of koboldhood, as if she had become, in form, what she would have seen in Lor's surface, covered in scales of silver and gold. She bore her flute still, symbol of friendship with other races, and the carving scroll, but also, she carried a javelin, of the sort that harpies had brought to them. Often used as a spear, it had proven effective against the scourge of the stirges. She could not merely be the peaceful Neela now. She must also be a defender where needed. A sigh of relief left her as the energies that had been warring inside of her settled into this form, suited for them, but the relief didn't last long. She knew much of what Lor knew and, so, she knew of the orcs and the threat they posed.

    Neela could run fast now, faster than a centaur even. And she was no longer bound to the cycles of night and day as she once had been. Her aim was the plains, to which the orcs were the closest, and the libraries there. By now, they dotted the plains here and there, centers of culture and cooperation of the races. But they needed to be more. As they protected the precious carving sticks within, so they must protect the people. Neela would teach them, knowledge from lands far away and knowledge new. How to build stronger, and stronger still. To craft armour like the orcs', for defenders and buildings also.

    Spoiler: AP
    Show

    Rollover
    4 + 4 = 8

    Raise Hero(Neela)
    Exalt Hero(Neela)
    8 - 5 = 3
    (Protection(Guardianship) 3 + 5 = 8)

    Teach Mundane Concept(Masonry)
    0 (Using Jewel)

    Teach Mundane concept(Basic Metalworking)
    3 - 1 = 2
    (Protection(Guardianship) 8 + 1 = 9)

    Create Advanced concept(Armorsmithing)
    2 - 1 = 1
    (Protection(Guardianship) 9 + 1 = 10)

    Claiming (Protection(Guardianship)

    Ascension

  18. - Top - End - #138
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Writtensanity's Avatar

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    Apr 2014

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    The Wild Daughters

    It started with 4. Four eggs surrounding the Wild Manifesto. Four harpy chicks, black as night and hatched with a driven purpose. The oldest was Lythilia, taking her mother's name, and they were raised under the kind wings of a small Harpy family that found them as fledglings on the rocks. The clutch that took them in was a medium flock of sisters, twenty-two Harpies from three generations.

    Within months of taking in the fledglings, there were twenty-six harpies of many colours and united with a driven purpose. The news of four Goddess-touched harpies spread quickly through the Aerie, and the girls grew at a shocking rate, and Lythilia took up her mantle as the first elder of her makeshift clan barely a year after her birth.

    Harpies from all around abandoned their original clutches to join the growing collective, eventually returning with a new message and purpose. Their sisters didn't need to join them in their quest, but it was suddenly difficult to find a harpy clutch within the Spine Aerie that didn't have at least one connection to the new order.

    The Wild Daughters had risen, and they were here to break chains.

    Spoiler: Create Organization: The Wild Daughters
    Show




    The Wild Daughters are an organization devoted to the growing Wild side of Briettia. Though they will not turn away other races, the beginning of the organization is entirely Harpies from the Spine Aerie and the occasional devotee from the Great Marshes.

    Typically members of the Wild Daughters are marked by the black dyed clothing that many of them wear in preparation for 'the great battles to come'. Most also have bird-styled masks carved from light avian bone, but they don't wear those outside of rituals or later combat.

    The Wild Daughters have access to wild blood magic from the Wild Manifesto. Unlike other Harpies, they spend their time dedicated to improving in combat, gaining everything else they need from trading hunted food.

    Unlike most Harpies in the modern-day, Wild Daughters refuse to use tools like spears to take down their prey, though they masters of using them in forms that will keep up with, or hunt, sapient races.

    --

    (Rollover AP+4)
    AP COST 1
    AP ALLOCATION: Society (Wilds) - Now 8/10
    AP REMAINING: 3




    The Wild Daugthers brought something else with their blood magic, a pure gift from Briettia that would let them thrive without needing to offer direct worship to the Goddess herself. She didn't need to be venerated, they just needed to follow their purpose.

    Spoiler: Create Mythical Concept - Druidic Worship
    Show


    Subconcept of Worship

    Druidic Worship is the veneration of the wilds, sometimes in the form of groves, animal companions or simply living in harmony with the wilds. Druidic Worship is a naturalist form of magic, and includes some of the more primal aspects other forms of worship don't, like blood magic.

    Those devoted to the wild can perform some similar miracles to those following traditional worship but is mainly manifests in more nature-based ways. An example is that a creature that is healed through Druidic Worship would still scar, as the healing is accelerated as opposed to taken care of by the divine.

    Perhaps the signature thing that separates Druidic magic from other forms of Worship is that it can easily be channelled into bonds with animals and monsters in a strong empathetic link. It isn't uncommon to see members of the Wild Daughters hunting alongside Hallowcallers using this technique.

    Druidic magic is also useful for breaking 'man-made' objects and enchantments.

    Finally, Druidic Worship is primarily practiced by the Wild Daughters, who will gladly spread it to any they run into, as the Worship aspect of the magic prevents it from being used against their goals.


    --

    AP COST 2
    AP ALLOCATION: Society (Wilds) - Now 10/10
    AP REMAINING: 1

    Briettia is now a Goddess of the Wilds.


    Renarr and Briettia in the Spine Aerie


    Briettia let Renarr talk, after all Briettia had traditionally been a goddess of few words, and now wasn't the time to interrupt. Renarr said her prayer, something strange for a Goddess, and the first Bird of Paradise erupted from the Egg of Flocks, brilliant and iridescent, holding its extraplanar form from proximity to the twin Goddesses.

    "She's beautiful," Briettia said, letting the bird peck at her wings before moving on to inspect the sun Goddess. "Clearly a child touched by the light."

    After letting the bird inspect Renarr, Briettia waved her hand toward the Egg of Flocks and gave her blessing. Suddenly, Solace was filled with Birds of Paradise, like they had always been there, such was the power of the Egg of Flocks.

    "I do not accuse you of being a Tyrant sister," Briettia clarified as the bird flew away, "I believe we may have started this song on the wrong note, considering your... interesting opinion of some of my other daughters." Briettia took a deep breath, "But I must level a warning. The Elves, the Solari brides, they have stepped too far into the realm of freedom and are crushing the natural order of my children. Damnation comes for them if they continue to try to tame the wilds. You must teach them to exist around the wonders of our world before the wonders crush them."

    "I offer this warning as a gift, a gift of time and compassion."

    After her warning, Briettia takes a step forward and offers to wrap her wings around the Goddess in an embrace. "We don't need to have never failed Renarr, but we do need to be better."


    The Wild Daughters meet the Elves

    The Harpies had stayed away from the portal to Solace for a long time. The meeting with the Kobolds had been a happy accident but it was difficult to convince a single clutch that they should risk they necks speaking to a new species. In the end, it wasn't a single clutch that met the Elves outside of Solace, it was the Wild Daughters, over a hundred of them.

    Heralded by a cry from nowhere the daughters dropped from the clouded sky like sudden spears, surrounding most entrances to the small city that had build up. They threw writing sticks at the feet of the nearest elves, but, despite being armed, made no obvious moves to attack. This was a warning more than a meeting, but it wasn't war. They were delivering a message, a demand for the elves to release the wild salves they'd taken or risk the further wrath of nature.

    Depending on the reaction from the Elves, or the eventual process or translation, it might be.

  19. - Top - End - #139
    Orc in the Playground
     
    PirateGirl

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    Jan 2019
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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    The Wind of Athnuachan did not have a "mind", per se. It had once been part of a mind, one might say; it was a wish, a desire, wrapped in the spirit of the winds and fueled by the infinite flame of divinity. But it had no wills or wants any more than gravity did; it was merely the living expression of another's. It did not merely want to spread life; spreading life was its essence, its being. It did not think, or consider, or care; it simply was, and did.

    So it did not think, or consider, or care, when it happened to blow over a land of blackened ash and dead wood one morning. It merely saw life; isolated, dying, choked on ash and surrounded by death. And so it did what it was wont to do, and picked it up; it carried the helpless spores across swampland, across desert, across plains and vast ocean.

    And when the spores finally settled, in an unassuming, lushly forested northeast corner of another continent, it did not think. Or consider. Or care.

    --

    Silya Kjelldottyr tilted her head quizzically, squinting as she tried to confirm what she was seeing.

    Huh, the young elf thought, examining the unusual red growth on the sickly-looking tree before her, I don't think I've seen that type of fungus before.
    Last edited by zzzzzzzz414; 2021-05-29 at 09:44 PM.

  20. - Top - End - #140
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Sep 2014
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    Glitter Demiplane

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    River Travel
    As Dia and her archon company shot across Nocturne, she began to undergo yet another transformation, her form shrinking and with it the Night Sky all across her body, stars clustering and becoming brighter and brighter. Peering over the side of the boat, the river had transformed into a single wave of water rushing across the frozen plane.
    Not Gone, Nor Forgotten
    Sprites are often made from misplaced thoughts or memories, but these are not the only ways they can manifest. A more powerful variation of sprites can come about when an individual experiences a powerful emotion, leading to some of the excess of that emotion coming off as hundreds of sprites that replicate a memory or memories associated with that emotion. These clusters of sprites, known as specters tend to linger around certain places - or in rare cases, around the person who made them - and occasionally fill living creatures that pass through them with visions of the memories they contain. While these visions may sometimes appear to interact with those capable of seeing them, this is merely the specter trying to return to what it believes to be its original mind. This connection is easily lost, or even incapable of being formed, depending on the thoughts of the affected individual - one walking through a specter's domain is more likely to encounter it if they're experiencing or feeling similar emotions or sensations that match-up with the memory itself.

    Many specters of the negative variety lie around the northern side of Circle Continent where Wan'shi unleashed its wrath (except around the area of Guardian Glacier), and the burned swamps and woods where the Crimson Blight originated are absolutely littered with them.

    In Corrla, there are untold numbers of specters created from those who succumb to revenant corruption, the majority of these spectres hanging around revenants like a miasma. These are rarely noticed by revenant tamers however, that honor being reserved for the quarry of revenants, who are much more likely to experience the required emotions to witness them.

    And all along the Ring of Gods, those archons who were strong enough to resist the powers of Renarr and Wan'shi were able to unleash enormous specters in their pain before perishing.
    Spoiler: AP Actions
    Show
    Rollover: +4 AP

    Mouth of the River Dia
    Create Avatar (3AP)
    A vessel for Dia to use for interacting with the First World, able to shift and change between individuals from Sprites Dia has collected. More info to be added later.

    Specters
    Create Monstrous Sublife (1 AP)
    Large groups of Sprites that are essentially excess copies of memories and emotions created from a living creature. The majority of these are created from powerful negative emotions, especially around the time of death. These specters can interact with other living creatures and instill psychic visions in them, usually requiring the creature in question to be feeling similar emotions or sensations to the memories the specter contains. Sometimes a creature inside a specter might get to thinking they're able to talk and interact with the specter itself, but this is just the specter trying to build a bridge to their thoughts; specters can appear sapient, but do not retain new information if the affected creature leaves the area.

    Spoiler: Divine Growth Tracker
    Show
    ★ Mind (Forgotten Memories)

    ★ Night (Stars)

    ★ Life (Celestial)

    ★ Life (Protection)

    ★ Thought (Preservation)
    ➤ 5 AP - Starfisher Rod
    ➤ 1 AP - Stargazing
    ➤ 0 AP - Alcyone Salmon Constellation
    ➤ 0 AP - Herrend's Grin
    ➤ 3 AP - Mouth of the River Dia
    ➤ 1 AP - Specters
    10/10 AP

    Lesser Deity
    Rank up! :D


    Remaining AP: 1/16
    Last edited by SpeedWitch; 2021-05-29 at 11:25 PM.

  21. - Top - End - #141
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    Kobold

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    Nov 2019
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    Home, Social Distancing
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    Male

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    The Ascetics of Zahd

    Reports of growing unrest on the continent reached the continent ears of the upper echelon of Jabal Alsalaam.

    A new people that had risen up amongst the silent Xen staking claim to the northern lands causing Gnoll tribes to push into the desert. Larger populations growing around the scattered oases had put a strain on the law enforcement and administration, and banditry was seeing another surge in popularity.

    Mutations were already happening before, but something changed recently resulting in a more widespread corruption, multiple deaths, uncontrollable and extreme mutation, and the destruction of property.

    The number of petitioners coming to ask the order for help, and the number of those seeking out the order to find a safe refuge had burdened the mountaintop organization and distracted the newest recruits. It was time they stepped up, or rather, stepped down, and took things into their own hands.

    The order had grown a lot since it’s early days. The whole plateau at the top of Jabal Alsalaam was now in use. Dorms, dining halls, meeting halls, courtyards, sparring rings, a library tower, cultivation and meditation caves carved into the rock, herb gardens, orchards, and a few plots of land for growing grains. There were even several smaller pagodas, gates, and places to rest along the long stairway leading up.

    Members of the order had grown to include all three races of the Lizardfolk, Kobolds, gnolls, shelled, and a few individuals from other races. There was even an earth dragon who had carved out a dwelling place near the stairs and acted as a guard.

    The council of elders, as the first initiated and some of the most respected of the next generations had begun to be called, gathered to discuss their role on the continent and in the world. The conclusion was that all initiates would be required to do periods of service from time to time where they would respond to the requests for help and news of places that needed their aid.

    To the oasis below and the other oases in the wadis, groups of ascetics would now be found. Agents of peace, charity, and healing. They would protect the weak from exploitation, treat various illnesses, and their martial prowess made them effective deterrents to crime, once a few uninformed thieves were beaten and force to work cleaning the streets under the watchful eyes of the simply garbed ascetics.

    The presence of these disciplined and selfless individuals lessened some of the burden that had been tying down the feet of clay, and while both groups had their own ideals, there was generally mutual respect between them.

    In places where tainted underbeer had resulted in chaos, the presence of the ascetics helped many more survive. Those suffering from uncontrollable mutations were either pacified and treated, or forced to move away from populated areas to avoid causing more harm, depending on the severity of the affliction and the capabilities of the ascetics involved.

    Unfortunately, news of another outbreak of mutations usually arrived at headquarters after most of the damage had been done. Those who grew new body parts could never I grow them, and amputation was only worth doing if the growth threatened the afflicted’s life. In the rare chance circumstances where the outbreak happened close to a group of ascetics, the monks could use holy sand and their Ki to suppress the mutations and drive out the excess energy.

    When mutation had been isolated incidents that happened to those who drank too much underbeer, few cared or pitied them. They brought it upon themselves with their lack of discipline. Now that those who drank it sometimes exploded and caused those around to mutate, underbeer became illegal to consume, possess, or sell.

    the rise of the Veiled Shadow

    The number of mutants Lizardfolk grew dramatically. It no longer was strange to see crocodilians with long horns, or Geckokin with extra arms, or Lizardfolk performers spitting flames or acid. There was still a stigma attached however, and finding employment was often a challenge. This lead to some mutants taking on riskier jobs for black market customers.

    As the shady dealings of black markets increased in scale and its veiled merchants gained wealth, gangs started forming around individuals of power and influence. In fighting and the threat of getting caught and punished by either the incorruptible ascetics as well as the occasional raids conducted by the feet of clay forced the independent gangs and black market controllers to gather their forces under a single banner. The Veiled Shadow.

    Identities would be secret, as every member was required to wear veils and other clothes to mask their appearance. Members could be from any race and all walks of life, and as long as a customer had enough wealth to pay, no task was off limits. Theft, arson, vandalism, blackmailing, espionage, smuggling, murder, personal entertainment, bodyguard services, exploration, networking, any service could be purchased for the right price.

    Members will sometimes infiltrate the Mutajahil’s caravans to acquire insider knowledge, hide from law enforcement, and make use of their established connections and reputation to accomplish their assignments and make extra profit.

    Spoiler: ap actions
    Show

    AP: 0+4 (rollover)

    create organization (the Veiled Shadow) -1 AP

    An underground criminal organization that runs the black markets, and offers any illegal service and product one could desire, for a price of course. The leadership all keep their identities secret and wear veils and other disguises at secret meetups. Members can move up in rank through financial donation and completion of assignments. In public, though some may recognize each other, acknowledging another member is grounds for punishment. Most merchant caravans will have at least one member of the organization, as information gathering is key, these can offer a selection of restricted goods and services to buyers who know the secret code words if the circumstances allow for it.

    Travel (Caravans) 9/10

    4 -1 = 3AP


  22. - Top - End - #142
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2014

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Rong Tou: The Void

    Going God to God had been...mostly inefficient. There were many others but to collect each in its own time would leave the plans of her brethren wanting. So the Fiend slipped back into the Void and with mana and guile she peeled back layers as the heart at the center of the moon throbbed and beat like thunder. There, behind The Void had been a space. Elsewhere. It was there she took the spark of mana and let it grow, a vast ring of land spreading out in all directions and at its center loomed cathedrals and castles and many places the Gods might make their home. For in this act, she sang and her voice was as pure and clear and clean as it ever was as a Solar. It rang out in The Void where only the Gods could find its entrance, and there in the great city she found a home. Quaint and small, a church and small hamlet where she would make her place known. Then she waited.


    The Turtle Islands and the Sahaugin

    It had taken time, time enough to build, time enough to explore, but it came to pass that the Turtle Islands moved at the direction of the Orcs and their co-opted home. Sentar came to claim the oceans between Corrla and the Circle Continent and there its mana leeched into the waters. Orcs twisted and grew in those ocean currents and all about the Jisr Archepilago talk of fishmen were common. Speaking Orcish they called themselves Sahaugin and with purposeful will they began to build docks and mooring. For why, was soon enough as floating islands spread about the four part land masses. The frozen North, the shores of Corrla and the Circle Continent were graced by these now floating fortress islands, seeming to pop up at random, far faster than currents would dictate. There, on these lands, were Orc and Shelled alike to trade.

    Spoiler: AP Actions
    Show


    Create Plane (The Plane whose names are many) - 1AP: The plane, whose names are many, is a sprawling affair though not limitless in the same way Garganta or the Sun might be nor is it visible from The First World. It is a perfectly circular space filled with mountains, rivers, lakes, forests and a high vaulted sky with a vast empty city at its center. When buildings and space fill up, another ring of the plane will appear, twice the size of the original. [The Planes (Portals) 1/10]

    Alter Land (The Pathways of the Orcish Isles) -1AP:
    The former Turtle Islands have now split apart. One of the six making its way along inside of the Jisr Archepeligo while another the outside. The central island has been placed between the two continents as a waystation, its volcano acting as a natural source of mana and a permanent connection point to underwater pathways to the Underdark. The three remaining islands make a transit along the entire continental mass of the three lands, stopping at various volcanic islands for trade. The heart of the Weshesh settled, the home of demons claimed. Other ships may make use of these faster paths but they must know and be friends with the Orcs for now. [Life (Demons) 9/10]

    Create Sub-Race (Sahaugin) -1AP: From the vents in the oceans leading to the Underdark, orcs have long adapted to breath without lungs. These creatures, Sahaugin, are broad, squat monsters mostly mouth and claws. They are more cunning than their orcish cousins but not nearly as smart or as good with mana. Brutish, hungry, strong and capable of building beneath the waves, the Sahaugin are a vital part of the Weshesh. [Life [Demons) 10/10]

    Bless (The Passage of the Orcish Islands) -1AP: The islands of the Orcish Islands tap into potent mana streams, traveling not only through the various islands of the Jisr even at the most narrow connection as if teleporting, but also through the Underdark through natural portals. [The Planes (Portals) 2/10]

    I ascend.

  23. - Top - End - #143
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Gnomes2169's Avatar

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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Silph, Dia and Herend, on a boat
    Spoiler: Nerds on a boat
    Show
    Quote Originally Posted by Angsty Anubite View Post
    Silph and the River
    "I - I'm not - that's not what I meant at all!" Dia pouts, but Herrend has already moved onto the golem. "Bullying me like I'm a hatchling..." She does her best to ignore the following bombardment of puns. The kobold laughs. "Good. That means I'll get to see more of you - I've been in the void for too long. I need to get back down to the First World and check on everyone down there. I haven't talked to any of the other river archons since I took Abu to fight the Serpent, and I think there might be a new batch of them I need to thank for helping me scoop everyone up during the storm."Dia considers this, closing her eyes and mimicking Silph's action with her own arm - an arm that begins to transform into that familiar clear starlit water. It spreads across her whole body, the image of the kobold girl falling into the waters, until Silph finds himself facing the jet stream he first saw in Solace. To be honest. I knew life was fragile. But at first. I think. I only cared for my own divine blood... I could not entirely grasp. Why my kin risked themselves to save others.

    The face of the kobold flashed across Dia's waters. I needed to see them. To feel them. But even the knowledge I have now. Is not enough. I have much more to learn.

    I want to connect the disparate courts. The Rivers. The Solars. The Waves. The Golems. And any more that may be out there. We will be a beacon of hope for the world. United in its protection. Guides to mortals. Champions of peace.

    Or something like that. A sprite glints beneath her form. These mortals have wonderful ideals. I mean to see them fulfilled.

    Without warning, the jet stream shoots off across the surface Nocturne, and the rest of the river begins to follow, destination: The portal to the First World.

    Meanwhile, unlike Silph or Dia, Alkyone looks directly at Herend, waiting until he's all out of puns, at witch point he pops out a few sprites from his own head, and begins putting them into new stars. Whether out of spite or genuine appreciation for his comedy routine, Herend's Grin makes its way permanently into the night sky.


    Letting Dia talk, Silph considers her plans and desires and he rubs at his chin, considering just what could be done to act on them. How could his goddess help her enact those plans? Most of it seemed like a personal quest or the actions of a full coalition of gods acting in tandem... but then it hit him. "Dia. To make good on your plans, you would need a true neutral ground. A place where mortals of all stripes could come and coexist, without any kind of interference or national pride to get in the w-" But before he could truly propose anything, Dia began to zip around at the speed of space, and the twice-blessed archon, not expecting the sudden shift, pitches forward and slams face-first into the bottom of her boat. Thus, the Emissary of the Solars completely missed the first manifestation of the river god's avatar, and when he sat back up he wouldn't notice the difference between Dia prime and Dia small.

    Herend, meanwhile, had felt the first shifting of the great astral river, and, the moment it began to move the boat, he just... hopped out. After all, someone needed to keep Alkyone company, and he needed to write down that his face was the second constellation born in the sky. For the glory of Renarr, of course. Of course. Of course.

    The Suzerain's Veneration
    Spoiler: And some people took advantage...
    Show
    Quote Originally Posted by Angsty Anubite View Post
    Of Saints and Archons[/B]
    As the world finally settled in the wake of Wan'shi's destruction, mortals found themselves drawing closer to divinity, wielding powers that were once thought to only be achievable by gods. Two major factors in this, discovered by many cultures around the same time as each other, were the Godborn and the concept of Veneration.

    Godborn were children of archons and mortal races. These children would often grow to live incredibly long lives, display mystical powers similar to that of their parent archon (especially those of the elemental variety) and, allegedly, be capable of becoming new archons themselves. The stories of how a godborn may ascend vary between courts. For example, on the Circle, the child of a river archon is said to be able to fully cast their mortal yolk off by swimming up and down the length of an archonless river nonstop, until their sweat and oils have become a permanent part of the river.

    Veneration was something similar, but distinct from Worship, both in the mystical and spiritual sense. Those who venerate particularly important religious figures in their own faith, whether alive or dead, often find the powers they gain from Worship to manifest in different ways than expected. Saints of war or conflict, for example, might lead to more volatile expressions of power, while saints of knowledge or secrets inspire worshipers to use their deity's aura to further science or develop powerful sealing magics. Furthermore, whether due to having a clear role model to base oneself off of or simply because of the nature of Veneration itself, Venerating saints have made powers from Worship more accessible to both mortals and archons - the barrier for fanaticism has been substantially lowered.

    Many young godborn - especially of the river variety - now walk the Circle, telling tales while dazzling their audience with floating water, baring ice weapons against gnoll bandits, experimenting with elemental abilities alongside ki, and desperately selling pet crabs that won't stop manifesting around them. The Sisterhood begins to see faint glimmers of power among their ranks the more they champion and share tales of the strongest and most virtuous sisters. The orcs and the shelled begin to have chance encounters with the wave archons that roam the oceans, whose tales and flirtations leads to their own experiences with Veneration and godborn. And in the most blighted area of Corrola, a human boy no older than 8 stares down a pack of revanents, each desperately fighting against their own boiling skin to reach him and the dozen or so faithless behind him, and each falling apart inches from his feet.


    There are people who will jump upon any path to power. The Suzerain and his faithful would not be counted among those power-mad fools, if only because it would disrupt his plans and the reputation he wished to make of Renarr's church within Kerima's lands. However, when Veneration began to spread through the world in its ripples and waves, this archon's followers would be some of the first and the most potent of its practitioners. Before the advent of this magic they had, after all, been faithful despite there being no divine power or protections being granted to them.

    That faith now served them well. Where before the Suzerain's chosen had to flee to Nocturne to escape the Revenants and those of Kerima's flock who persecuted them when they left the Blight Lands, now these Acolytes could fight back, to a limited degree. Magic that manifested as strands of living night to bind and freeze revenant flesh was the most common, as all knew that the Suzerain was a being of elemental night itself, but he was more than that to them. The fledgling churches to the other gods that existed within the Blight Lands also viewed him as a herald of the gods of the Circle Continent, and, wrongly in some cases, they saw him as an embodiment of the ideals that he claimed each church championed. A saint of the coalition, as it were.

    So it came to be that faith in the Suzerain, at least in the blight lands, was also a path to accessing magic that echoed the divinity of true gods, at least to those who held another faith.

    For Renarr's faithful, small displays of light and heat could be manifest in addition to more potent night weaving, but these worshipers could also create barriers of force as he had always cast her as a protector.

    For Abu Dhahab, a form of proto-ki began to be developed, the quests for physical perfection leading to an echo of true spiritual enlightenment that the lizard preached, but since the Suzerain had cast him as a shrewd merchant, there were also displays of magic that could only be described as fast talking. The merchants among them always got the best deals, and it was because of their glib tongues.

    Hetta's shaper cult would develop the ability to shape the ground under their feet, allowing them to craft their world as much as they could, given what the Blight Lands gave them to work with. They could also craft artificial life from the salt and dirt of their lands to a limited degree, though these constructs never lasted long and served more as assistants than they did beings of labor or protection.

    Those who saw him as a saint of Dia received control over the manifestation and purification of water, and when working with members of Hetta's church they were able to make actual, stable farms within fertile soil, even if the crops were ultimately more withered and rotted faster than in less inhospitable climates. And since the Suzerain had called her a healer and guardian, these priests would manifest the more typical divine miracles as well, if far more limited than the ones Kerima's devoted possessed.

    Magrius' faithful would slowly wither and disappear as their god's influence in the world waned, but some small amount of them remained as a memory. Able to animate the corpses of the dead and put them to use, this sect of the Suzerain's cult became known as death-sculptors, and slowly faded to the shadows of the blight lands to bide their time.

    Finally, Lor's students would gain the ability to tap into knowledge that others possessed without having to learn the skills themselves, though actual mastery would not come as readily, and that knowledge would soon fade if their source left them. They could also identify the traits of objects they encountered in the world, be they mundane or magical, though it often took them intense study to truly tease out an object's secrets.

    With the sudden surge in power of these devotions, the Blight Lands began to change. Where before there was nothing but scattered outcasts struggling against monsters, with only the Suzerain's intervention and luck to pray for some relief, now the exiles of Corrla had teeth with which to fight back against their fate. And, scattered though they were, that was all that these desperate peoples needed to begin forming communities of their own. It wasn't a proper society yet... but they weren't completely powerless anymore either.

    Renarr and Brietta - The Spine Aerie
    Spoiler: Yet more birds
    Show
    Quote Originally Posted by Writtensanity View Post
    Renarr and Briettia in the Spine Aerie

    Briettia let Renarr talk, after all Briettia had traditionally been a goddess of few words, and now wasn't the time to interrupt. Renarr said her prayer, something strange for a Goddess, and the first Bird of Paradise erupted from the Egg of Flocks, brilliant and iridescent, holding its extraplanar form from proximity to the twin Goddesses.

    "She's beautiful," Briettia said, letting the bird peck at her wings before moving on to inspect the sun Goddess. "Clearly a child touched by the light."

    After letting the bird inspect Renarr, Briettia waved her hand toward the Egg of Flocks and gave her blessing. Suddenly, Solace was filled with Birds of Paradise, like they had always been there, such was the power of the Egg of Flocks.

    "I do not accuse you of being a Tyrant sister," Briettia clarified as the bird flew away, "I believe we may have started this song on the wrong note, considering your... interesting opinion of some of my other daughters." Briettia took a deep breath, "But I must level a warning. The Elves, the Solari brides, they have stepped too far into the realm of freedom and are crushing the natural order of my children. Damnation comes for them if they continue to try to tame the wilds. You must teach them to exist around the wonders of our world before the wonders crush them."

    "I offer this warning as a gift, a gift of time and compassion."

    After her warning, Briettia takes a step forward and offers to wrap her wings around the Goddess in an embrace. "We don't need to have never failed Renarr, but we do need to be better."


    The goddess would look at the child born of her desire, and for a moment the beauty of the creature would bring clarity to her. Setting a hand on the first Bird of Paradise's beak, the human-sized goddess almost dwarfed by the massive bird, she whispers, "This will be the second time working with another goddess brings about something better than what I could have made alone..." Tears fading, the goddess lets the newborn bird go where it will, and then closes her eyes as she feels a new population of the iridescent avians come to life within her realm. "Thank you, Brietta, for the opportunity."

    As she gets pulled into the other goddess' embrace, however, Renarr is stiff, awkward even, and it's not just because of her Eternal Night aspect's shy nature. Struggling to maintain eye contact with the bird god, Renarr tells her, "Wait... they're doing what to your children? None of my people have even met your harpies, and the most they do to the birds that come out of the seas is drive them away. We hardly hunt them or enslave anything beyond the goats and oxen that serve as livestock. I... I think you may have mistaken something here. I did not create the elves, I just took in refugees from another continent."

    The Shaline Empire and Wild Daughters - a Misunderstanding
    Spoiler: Oh bother...
    Show
    Quote Originally Posted by Writtensanity View Post
    The Wild Daughters meet the Elves

    The Harpies had stayed away from the portal to Solace for a long time. The meeting with the Kobolds had been a happy accident but it was difficult to convince a single clutch that they should risk they necks speaking to a new species. In the end, it wasn't a single clutch that met the Elves outside of Solace, it was the Wild Daughters, over a hundred of them.

    Heralded by a cry from nowhere the daughters dropped from the clouded sky like sudden spears, surrounding most entrances to the small city that had build up. They threw writing sticks at the feet of the nearest elves, but, despite being armed, made no obvious moves to attack. This was a warning more than a meeting, but it wasn't war. They were delivering a message, a demand for the elves to release the wild salves they'd taken or risk the further wrath of nature.

    Depending on the reaction from the Elves, or the eventual process or translation, it might be.


    The city would react to the sudden appearance and assault with more than a bit of terror. Calls went out to draw back from the outskirts and to stay inside of shelters, while the few magi on that side of Solace's portal were scrambled to create barriers and blunt the assault of these harpies. The flying creatures were a problem for this fledgling society, who lacked the archery of the more inland civilizations, and their magic was not as developed as they might have needed to actually attack the flying and harrying force that the Wild Daughters represented.

    Fortunately, not all of the defenses of this place were as landlocked as the elves and Solari that populated it. Less than thirty minutes from when the commotion started, a messenger managed to reach the portal to Solace and the Archons that waited just on the other side. A couple minutes of deliberation after that, with the scouts and Solar noting that no one seemed to have been hurt thus far, a group would be sent out. At their head flew Amerith, who announced her presence with a flash of light so intense that it blacked out the light of Solace for a moment as the Strands of Night reacted to it and attempted to mute her unveiled power, and in her shadow came a group of first-born solari and elves who formed the most experienced mages of the nation that could be scrambled together at such short notice.

    Once she had the harpies' attention, Amerith floated down to the portal of Solace and then sat, seemingly bored since she'd been told that combat should not be anticipated, and a new trio of solar flew from Solace's gate as well. Cassius, who'd decided to come as a representative of Renarr since she wasn't present, Ennis, who was chosen because he might be able to unravel the emotions of these harpies and bring about a more peaceful solution to this whole mess, and Varral, who instantly went for one of the sticks so he could decipher the language written on them and hopefully figure out how to actually talk to the bird-people. These three and the mage council would make their way to the outskirts of the city in order to meet with the harpies on more neutral ground.

    Spoiler: AP actions
    Show
    Starting AP: 0

    Rollover: +4

    -1 AP; Create Organization - The Blight Land Chapters: While technically a part of Corrla's society for the moment, this "organization" is actually a loosely associated collection of towns and villages that are connected through their shared exile in Corrla's blight lands and their association with/ veneration of the Suzerain. These chapters work to make their homes better for the people that live within them, and have actually demonstrated that they have enough power to accomplish this goal. The chapters of this "organization" will naturally attract other people within the Blight Lands, since they offer the best protection and the best chance of survival in these wasted places, and they turn away no one but murderers and those who would bring war to their lands.

    -1 AP; Create Organization - The Council of Radiants: The Radiant Council of Shaline are mana practitioners of some skill. While it is called a council, and its most senior (as in oldest or most influential, not necessarily its most powerful) members actually have a vote in how the organization is run and exert incredible influence over their society, it's really a school for mages within the Shaline Empire. As such, most mages within the society are able to draw a direct connection to this organization, and can draw upon their resources and a network of scholarly allies should the need arise.

    Being a full graduate of the Council is enough by itself to raise an individual to the third tier of Shaline society. Thus, graduate mages tend to be involved in local politics, acting as provincial governors or their advisors, or they move to Solace to continue their studies within the presence of their goddess and without the need to truly rest. There is no racial or societal requirement to join the Council, but those with at least a little bit of money to pay for their initial education are able to be accepted and graduate at a higher rate than those without.

    The highest members of the Council maintain a chamber 100 meters from Renarr's throne, where they converse, study magic and the various works of the gods, and try to interpret the Daystar's will. While other members of the government look upon these stuffed up mages as self-important, sometimes senile, fools, this chamber is still one of the most important places within the Empire's heart.

    In these early days, the Council serves as the police force and elite of Shaline's army. While they prefer not to rely on brute force and bloodshed to accomplish their goals, they are also not opposed to using it if the need should present itself.

    Total AP expended: -2

    AP remaining: 2

    Domain progression:
    Realms (the Heavens): 10/10 (Create plane: Solace, portal to Solace (in void), create plane: Nocturne) (I'm ascending this week, so CLAIMED)
    Order (Retribution): 8 (Create hero: Suzerain of Night, the Stars in the Sky, the Serpent Moon, Craft Society: Shaline, Create Organization: Blight Land Chapters, Create Organization: The Council of Radiants)
    Life (Twilight): 2 (Sub-race: Solari, Blessing: Suzerain's chosen)

  24. - Top - End - #144
    Orc in the Playground
     
    PirateGirl

    Join Date
    Jan 2019
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    Male2Female

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    The effects of the tainted underbeer plague were utterly devastating. Many of the major cities along the Red Coast were nearly destroyed, suddenly overwhelmed as friends and neighbors suddenly transformed into what could only be called monsters, dealing massive amounts of death and destruction. And its effect on the Ufrot-Assag was, if anything, even worse. The plague apparently had the ability to transform gnolls into Direwolves; and the nature of the Direwolf's curse meant that where there was one direwolf, there would soon be more. Entire pack-tribes were destroyed overnight, and in their place, a scourge a Direwolves none had seen since the first Curse itself was unleashed. Even with the assistance of the Ascetics of Zahd and their curse-neutralizing blessed sand, and the Sandsong acting as a network of news and information, the Feet of Clay were utterly overwhelmed in the early days of the plague, forced to focus their limited manpower on aiding the largest cities and containing the ever-growing hordes of Direwolves.

    So, there was nobody to respond when they came.

    Like jackals pouncing upon a wounded animal, the most powerful of the bandit tribes - pushed to the edges of the continent, forced to bide their time and conserve their strength - took their opportunity to strike, organizing as they never had before. The smaller outlying villages and oases were hopelessly ill-prepared to resist, fleets of sand-sailers manned with archers completely overwhelming the paltry local guards before any could stop them. Their roving fleets soon became a well-recognized terror of the southern Wadi-Alsahali; and as their power and spread grew, so did their need for recruits.

    Whispers of this newly organized bandit clan - of their need for powerful warriors,and their willingness to pay good gold for them - began to spread among the growing camps of refugees, and exiled mutants banished to the fringes of civilization.
    "They have taken everything from you," the calls seemed to come - yet from who, nobody could really say. "Why should you sit in the wilds and starve for something that was not even your fault? Why should you not use these abilities you have been given, and take what should be yours?"

    Few could argue with it; many of the pack-tribes and cities had been merciless, exiling all who showed even a hint of mutation. And the plague had left many with grotesque, but incredibly physically powerful physiques, as well as incredible natural weapons and strange magical abilities. Many accepted the offer of the Makhalib Maksur, as the bandits had begun calling themselves; and the Makhalib Maksur soon discovered that one well-trained mutant warrior was worth three mundane ones.

    By the time the Feet of Clay and the Ascetics of Zahd had secured the effects of the plague long enough to turn their eyes to the south, the bandit clans, empowered by waves of new, powerful sorcerers and mutants, had already broken off significant portions of the southwestern coast, even managing to capture the key port city of Il-Dahara. And as the leaders of the Makhalib Maksur coordinated and consolidated their power, beginning to construct ships and build new bases on the nearby islands of the Jisr Archipelago, they realized they had begun to build something much more than a mere bandit clan. Something powerful enough to raise a new banner over the Circle Continent.

    Spoiler: AP Actions
    Show

    5/16 AP Remaining

    Create Organization: The Makhalib Maksur [1AP]

    The Makhalib Maksur are an organized clan of pirates, bandits and mercenaries. Though their main centers of power are in the western-most islands of the Jisr Archipelago, they operate clans and fleets in almost every part of it, as well as up and down the Red Coast and in parts of the southern Wadi Alsahali. The organization is technically a coalition of various bandit clans and fleets, so their organization varies; some are strict ranked hierarchies, while others are more egalitarian.

    They are especially well-known for their high membership of mutants and sorcerers created by the tainted underbeer plague, or by underbeer in general. Almost all fleets have some percentage of mutants or mana-users, and often at least one so-called "Chosen of Kassa" (one of the tainted underbeer mutants) in a high position. This makes them quite difficult to fight, as their enemies can never be sure what kinds of abilities they may be up against.

    The Makhalib Maksur's main role is as the enforcers, protectors and main source of income and plunder for the Kalarian League; however, they are technically independent, and often hire themselves out as mercenaries and privateers for any willing to pay; so long as it does not interfere with the interests of the League. They work closely with the Veiled Shadow; the shady merchant organization often fences their spoils and brokers their services. However, very few Makhalib Maksur are direct members of any significant status.

    Trickery(Thieves) 4/10

    Form Racial Society: The Kalarian League [2AP]
    The Kalarian League is a confederation of islands, villages and bandit clans, led by loose councils of merchants and pirate lords. They control a significant chunk of the southern Red Coast, as well as large portions of the western Jisr Archipelago, and the surrounding volcanic islands. Though they are supported by a certain amount of fishing, they primarily support themselves through piracy, smuggling, and raids; preying on the rich and growing trade of the Jisr Archipelago trade routes, profiting off the sale of underbeer and other contraband goods, and plundering many coastal villages of the Lizardkin and Kobolds. Their settlements and fleets are mixtures of Gnoll and Lizardfolk (especially Geckokin); almost all bandit and pirate fleets contain at least a few lizardfolk members, as gnolls cannot directly handle the hauls of gold or silver. Though the Makhalib Maksur and Veiled Shadow are technically separate organizations from the League, they are very deeply intertwined, and share much of their leadership; the councils and various village leaders/island chiefs are almost entirely composed of Makhalib Maksur captains and Veiled Shadow representatives (though not necessarily their actual members, whose identities must remain hidden).

    The Kalarians broadly take a very different view of Kassa than the Ufrat-Assag tribes many of them came from. She is still viewed as a dangerous and conniving trickster, but also respected and revered to a greater degree, held as the creator of the curse-plague that gave many of their mutant brethren their abilities and allowed the creation of the League, smiling upon their clans and their fleets. Kassa and Abu-Dhahab are often honored and worshipped together as the two faces of Underbeer's power. The latter as its blessings and abilities, as well as the grand profit to be made in its trade, and the many great things that can be built upon it; the former as its curse, as the destruction and death of the great plague, but also the incredible and unpredictable power that warps bodies, grants magic and shatters societies. A small but growing fringe, inspired by the words of the Weshesh, also honors the Great Serpent as the ultimate provider of Mana; however, the stories of the Serpent War are still too ingrained and retold for them to gain much traction yet. Underbeer, and those empowered and mutated by it, are obviously held in special regard; those mutated by the Tainted Underbeer, in particular, are often known as the "Chosen of Kassa", respected yet feared, blessed yet cursed. The League are thus enthusiastic clients of the Weshesh, buying Underbeer in great quantities from their traveling trade island both for personal use and for smuggling to the mainland through the Veiled Shadow.

    Worship of Idix is also unusually common, influenced by their connection to the sea and the connections to the ways of Magirus that many still follow (though his name and his connection to those teachings has greatly faded over the generations). Though Idix's teachings are incompatible with a life of piracy, joining the Sisterhood is usually considered a respected alternative to joining a Makhalib Maksur fleet.

    Trickery(Thieves) 6/10

    5-2-1 = 2/16 AP remaining
    Last edited by zzzzzzzz414; 2021-05-30 at 03:04 AM.

  25. - Top - End - #145
    Ettin in the Playground
    Join Date
    May 2009

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Kerima - Planer Crafting

    Her pieces put together and the other deity gone she restarted her work, taking her miniplane she cut it off from known reality and stood in non-existent space away from the first world and away from the other planes, and she expanded her realms infinitely - but one could fit an infinate number of infinities into a single infinity and that was her next move, space in this place would fold around itself to allow for a truely unlimited population without end, reviewing the work of the dead god of the south this place would ensure that when the Khet of her followers passed on any plane they would end up here in total with all aspects of themselves intact and healthy, she then mimiced aspects of the mind manifestation of the dead god Sen to ensure that when the they arrived they could manifest around them what they expected for there afterlife. This way her people would be able to serve her for eternity in a paradise of there own making, unless of course she found them unworthy.

    The Elven Forests and the Crimson Blight
    Initially the elves suffered horribly due to the blight, entire crops and villages were blighted made worse when the infection got unto birds and began to spread quickly via the air in truth the crimson blight might have decimated the continent - but the people who lived on Corrla had developed miracles at the same time they developed language and they were highly proficent with such, some areas cursed entire areas to sap all health from the blight and kill it without harming the host, other areas merely sent the fungus into a 'sleep' state where it could be awakened should it be needed.

    The River Archons protected settlements from the spread of the fungus via water - often drowned animals or people infected with it providing that the river archon themselves either counted as a priest or had the permission from a priest to kill, the bodies dispatched for burning.

    The ones who might have sufferered worse from the infection due to there lack of experience with the powers of worship would be the Shelled but some experienced priests had joined them to guide them into society and so they were protected - how the Orcs, Xen or those in the blight lands reacted to the disease the people of Kerima largely didn't care about.

    Spoiler: AP
    Show

    Current 8.

    Weave Plane: An infinite amount of planes contained in one, there planes are empty for now but will populate once Kerima implements a method of moving her faithful to this as place as an afterlife (or more accurately a second life).
    Magic (Divine) 7/10

    I will spent the rest of the points over the week, if anybody wants to notice and interfere feel free.

    Current AP 7.
    Last edited by dancrilis; 2021-05-30 at 08:53 AM.

  26. - Top - End - #146
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    Kobold

    Join Date
    Nov 2019
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    Home, Social Distancing
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    Male

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Merchants of Circle Continent struggling

    Where once trade caravans had peacefully made their way across well known desert paths, dangerous criminals had set up ambush points. The seas were no longer as welcoming to the Mutajahil, as fleets of pirates would plunder and hijack their ships. Though some bandits and pirates would let their prey leave alive, there were also many who perished.

    Combined with the recent destruction and chaos caused by tainted underbeer, the bazaars and markets were noticeably less lively and celebratory. It was a low point for merchants and the Market Republics across the Red Coast and Wadi Alsahali.

    Caravans became rare sightings and merchants turned to other sources of income. Crafting saw a rise in popularity as trade became too dangerous. This resulted in many cities losing access to resources they had grown used to having. Trade with other societies was also reduced, though the possibility of trade with Orcs and Sahuagin started being explored in the northern regions.

    The new colony on the Jisr Archipelago was hit hard by the rise in piracy, effectively being cut off from their home continent. Merchants there took their newly discovered tea leaves, dates, and other goods westward to Corla, as the newly formed pirate society had not stretched their fleets thin enough to reach that far yet.

    It was during this time that a few of the older merchants put forth the suggestion to seek aid from the deity who had started their merchant traditions. The followers of Abu Dhahab amongst the Mutajahil and the Market leadership flipped their coins, counted their number beads, and mumbled their requests and hopes for protection. Some where skeptical, but tales had spread of priests and those who had gained power through reverence, so they tried nonetheless.


    Abu Dhahab hears a prayer

    Abu Dhahab hadn’t really paid much attention to those who claimed to be his devotees before, he had occasionally encountered some while disguised as a merchant and found it all amusing. It was not until his talk to Kerima that he started seeing the value of having them. Rather than the worship and praise, which Abu Dhahab didn’t really care for, it was the potential for communication that appealed to him.

    He could feel that as his power grew, an unseen force in the world was rejecting him, and if not for suppressing his power he would have had to leave already. From his meditation in a cave on Corla whispers soon reached his ears. Faint at first, but as he focused in on them they became clearer. His eyes closed, he soon pictured numerous scenes of nervous and desperate Mutajahil. Things seemed to have shifted over on center continent, something that hindered the healthy development of commerce and trade that had been the core of Lizardfolk civilization.

    With a sigh, Abu Dhahab stopped suppressing his power. With but a thought, he sent a response to the minds of those who prayed.

    I have heard your cry for help, and will give you my blessing. Trade, communication, and the interaction and relations that arise from that are things I see as important so this time I will intervene on your behalf. But know this, it is not my desire to see you depend on higher powers such as myself to solve your problems.

    I have given you much that could be used to solve things on your own, and in you is the potential for self improvement. Make use of your connections, your strong bodies, the knowledge gained through interaction with other, your familiarity with the routes you travel to overcome the odds against you. Know that few other people have received as many blessings as yourselves.

    I can no longer be amongst you all and enjoy your bazaars in person, as this world can’t contain someone of my power. I will however, listen should you speak my name, or watch when you complete a deal in my name.


    The Mutajahil and other merchants who had been desperate before, were filled with hope. It was true, the Lord of the Desert and Father of Gold was still with them. They felt a strange connection to the world around them, weak alone, but stronger as more of them gathered together. Through this connection caravans of the Mutajahil, and other followers of Abu Dhahab could make use of mirages to hide their presence from those who would harm them. Enemies who entered the area affected by the mirage might hallucinate or be trapped in illusions until the caravan had passed.

    As a form of thanks, the Mutajahil would each offer a gold coin or other token of wealth to the desert after a successful journey. The coins would be buried within the sands, and even greedy individuals who witnessed the ritual were unable to dig them up, for they now belonged to the Lord of the Desert, and without his permission, none could find or receive his wealth.

    Ascension

    As his blessing took effect, Abu Dhahab knew his time to leave had come. The world had noticed him again, and was rejecting his power. Sighing, he let go of his control, and allowed his experiences, emotions and enlightenment to fill him until they arrived at a new sense of peace. His Ki flowed through his body strengthening it further and expelling the last bit of impurities that had accumulated by being in a world saturated with mana.

    Taking a step out of the cave, he rose into the sky. As he departed, all martial artists who had achieved some measure of success in Ki refinement felt their Ki tremble in excitement and broke through to the next level. Gold coins everywhere jingled as they resonated with the ascension, and strange images formed in the desert, mirages that showed scenes of the beginning of the Lizardfolk and their eventual growth. Then with a sudden silence, it was over.

    Abu Dhahab looks for new opportunities

    Back in the void where he fought the snake, Abu Dhahab felt a little sadness. Things were different now, he was different. Could things have ended in another way if he had his current capabilities back then? If the snake could be reasoned with or restrained until it gained enough intelligence or awareness to understand the harm it was causing? Maybe, but he knew it was meaningless to dwell on what could have been.

    As he moved through the void, he felt something he hadn’t noticed before. Something fresh and new, full of potential. It was a nostalgic feeling, like when he first descended to Circle Continent, it had been so flat, so simple, undeveloped, and full of potential.

    Intrigued he used his heightened ability to find the source of what he sensed. A clear and melodious song reached his ears. The familiar feeling of mana. A place behind the void. A small city, yet to be inhabited, a land, yet to be fully shaped. Abu Dhahab was immediately interested. Moving towards the only other presence he could feel, he soon arrived at a small hamlet, outside the small church building, someone was there waiting.

    Approaching calmly, Abu Dhahab gave his usual greeting and looked around.

    Greetings, I do not believe we have met before, I am known as Abu Dhahab. Tell me, what is this place? It feels young and full of potential, yet still lacking in substance or energy to sustain it. I assume you were involved in its initial creation. I am interested in this place and willing to provide of my strength as an investment to further establish it, but what would I get in exchange? As a deity of commerce and wealth I prefer transactions rather than gifts.

    Spoiler: AP actions
    Show

    AP: 3

    Bless (Caravan Mirages) -1 AP

    Caravans that have at least 1 Mutajahil or other follower of Abu Dhahab can hide their presence with a powerful illusion. Those who are not included in the illusion’s protection and enter its area of effect, suffer from hallucinations and may be trapped in illusions until they accidentally leave or the caravan moves on.
    Travel (Caravans) 10/10 Acquired

    Total domain (portfolios): 5

    1)Wealth (Gold)
    2)Earth (Deserts)
    3)Society (Commerce)
    4)Combat (Unarmed)
    5)Travel (Caravans)

    Ascension to Lesser Deity

    3 -1 = 2 AP remaining

    Last edited by KragBrightscale; 2021-05-30 at 01:33 PM.

  27. - Top - End - #147
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Writtensanity's Avatar

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    Apr 2014

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    A Misunderstanding

    Lythilia, the jet black harpy at the head of the Wild Daugthers that had arrived at Solace was two things; confused and pissed.

    Even before the Solar had arrived she'd been annoyed. These were ELVES, she'd heard about them and she knew that these were the slavers that she was supposed to be hunting, but there was nothing here, just panic and some goats.

    It hadn't taken long for some of the scouts, some bonded with Blind Spectes reported that their companions didn't smell any panicked monsters. The settlement might as well have been empty as far as the Wild Daughters were concerned. Lythilia sent some of her companions off to the surrounding mountains to ensure that the Elves weren't hiding anything, but they returned empty-handed too.

    Lythilia's confusion was at it's height when the world had strobed for a moment, blinding light searing out of the plane of Solace. Resplendent Solars erupted from the mouth in the mountain, followed by the dimmed Solari. Originally, Wild Daughters scattered into the air, taking off in any which direction, but a few stalwart ones, and most importantly Lythilia stayed in line. As the Solar sat down, a safe distance away from her, most of the Wild Daughters fell back into line behind their 'leader' though they didn't know if they were spectating or about to be a brutal experiment in a Solar's power.

    Before almost any progress could be made in communications between Birdsong and the many different languages the Solars tried, a second sun appeared in the sky for a moment, before it crashed down to Earth on a peak barely high enough to protect the assembled harpies from its heat. The Fang Phoenix that arrived spread its firey wings, all 300 feet of them, to cover the sky and snatch the attention of the Daughters, and likely everything else for miles.

    The Fang Phoenix didn't have a mouth to open, instead, it turned its head to Lythilia and birdsong rang through the heads of all the villagers and all of the daughters. Once Lythilia responded, the creature turned to the Solars.

    "They are confused by this Village. They know the Elves are slavers of the mother, but this village does not have slaves. "

    Lythilia cried up to the phoenix.

    "They want to know who you are if you are not the Elvish chainmasters."


    A Friend Moving On

    It was a wonderful idea to have Kobold Neela awake during the days. It was less wonderful to have her suddenly be so needed for anything and everything. Of course, Harpy Neela had things she needed to be doing as well. She was technically the eldest hatchling of the Harpies that called the village their nest and that came with responsibility, but it wasn't anything near the new duties of Kobold Neela. She was a Goddess' messenger.

    Maybe Neela had briefly been a messenger for Briettia until she gave away the talon, but she certainly wasn't anything like that now. As far as she could tell Briettia didn't talk at all, let alone need a messenger.

    Of course, Lor was a mirror according to the Kobolds, so Gods just seemed funny that way. Come to think of it, Fang Phoenixes could talk too, and they didn't have mouths.

    Harpy Neela stopped trying to read the message that her friend had left her, she was never able to get more than halfway through. Maybe it was because it was literally written by a divine hand, but the emotions were overwhelming before she got to the end.

    She'd also refused to let anyone else read it. It had been addressed to her, and it felt weird to have anyone else see it all before she could.

    Kobold Neela had gone to the plains, and despite being born in the Marshes, Neela was certain that she was going to follow so Kobold Neela could read her the rest of the message.

    ---

    The rest of the Harpies were less receptive to Harpy Neela's suggestion of heading out into the plains. They'd been among the Kobolds for a while, and they knew there were other races out there, but they'd stayed away for a simple reason...

    The Everrunn plains were no place for creatures that relied on height and slept in high perches or clifftops. A Harpy exhausted from a day of flight could typically hide from any predators, but in the plains they would be on the ground, sitting ducks. Not to mention tales of centaurs speed meant that the harpies wouldn't be able to outrun them for long if things went sour.

    "Mom didn't meet the Kobolds and run away," Neela pointed out, "Our clutch- We come from the first explorers. We should continue that legacy. We're not going to stay in the Great Marshes and Spine Aerie forever. There is so much more out there."

    The Harpies weren't convinced.

    "Are you telling me Kobolds can make it out there, but we can't?"

    There was a murmur to that.

    One of Neela's younger sisters, from Annathenia's clutch, dropped down from the branch she'd been watching from. She was a Wild Daughter, one of the scarce few in the Great Marshes. She wordlessly pulled out Briettia's talon and Neela's eyes widened as her sister plunged the Talon deep into her wrist.

    ""Blood magic of the wilds sister," the Wild Daughter said as her essence dripped to the floor, ""The blood of the chosen will solve our problems."

    The Wild Daughter's eyes filled with an inky black. ""And the power of the Wilds will be our solution."

    ---
    Predator and Not Prey: Meeting the Centaurs

    Getting this far out into the plains hadn't been easy. Even with the magic of devoted Wild Daughters, it had been weeks of labour to make travel safe.

    Floria was a forward scout, a hunter and protector of the Wild Daughters that were growing the nearest outpost. It was the second job that had her over a hundred feet in the air, scanning the horizon for prey. Honestly, the horizon line was the best thing about the Everrun plains. There was nowhere to rest but hunting here was so much easier than in the marshes, and way less likely to be interrupted by something bigger than in Aerie.

    Not that Fang Phoenixes didn't exist out here, Floria reminded herself.

    Success! Floria spotted shapes on the Horizon, four legs, likely horses. Easy and plentiful prey. Floria considered going back to fetch her sisters to help her carry, but decided that making sure she caught the prey first was more critical.

    The Harpy glided through the clouds above the creatures and got into position to dive down on them. They were grazing, distracted and dead soon enough. Just as Floria started her dive the creatures spooked and took off. The Harpy swore and changed her flight path but the dive was already ruined, she was going to have to straighten out and give chase. That was a lot more effort but it would be fine. She picked a spear out from her small collection and moved to swoop horizontal to the ground, just at the right angle to assassinate one of the-

    Once she was close enough to pick up the problem with these creatures she was going to fast to make a safe landing. She saw the upper torso of the creatures, difficult to see from the top. These were the people she'd been told about, Centaurs. She was hunting people.

    Floria folded her wings to ruin the dive and through off her course and then shot them back to try and slow, but it was too late, too sudden and wind just didn't work that way. Breaking the dive threw the Harpy off-balance and as she finally caught up with the, likely very surprised, centaurs, she touched the ground and a dive turned into a crash landing.

    Wing bones snapped as Floria kicked up dust and tumbled on the ground. She couldn't catch her breath to scream by the time she stopped. There was nothing but pain in her ruined wings and probably more broken.

    Floria saw the Centaurs coming toward her and her last thoughts before passing out from the pain were of the writing stick on her side alongside the spears. She was supposed to give it to the first centaurs they say.

    Spoiler: AP Actions: Briettia's Talon
    Show


    Using Briettia's Talon to make mundane concept: Waypoints.

    Simple abandoned posts for travel along long journeys, waypoints help make things safer from natural predators without needing to commit to making a full village at every several days travel needed. For Harpies, who need safe perches, these are especially important.

    Typically, Harpy-built wayponts have large trees as centres, in places like the Everrun Plains where these are scarce, the trees are grown using Natural Worship from the Wild Daughters.

    Free Action from Briettia's Talon.

  28. - Top - End - #148
    Titan in the Playground
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    Sep 2014

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Rong Tou: The Plane with Many Names

    The first true divine feet upon this new expanse alerted Rong Tou immediately and with a simple jump they were present. With a bow, Rong Tau swept a hand over the vast city that surrounded them. "Illustrious one whose touch graces the sand, I am Rong Tou. Would that I have met you sooner, as I would all my kin, but the Void Serpent had chased me here to this empty and unfinished place and I scarce could leave it out of fear. Your presence...has the snake been vanquished at last?"

    With another small hop, Rong Tou was gone, then again appearing perched on the roof of the simple church. "This is my home but it is no place for a least Divinity such as myself. I made it in hopes to bring the bright shining stars to meet but none came. The place lingers on the edge, I fear I will go with it should it return to the Void. To invest is to use, there is nothing else to offer here. Though should there be? A meeting place where none may harm you, a realm to trade without fear of war, is a far greater resource than anything I could provide. A home, safe from the Serpent, a home safe from other Gods who might do war upon you. So long as the mighty city of Heping stands no God may cause grievous wounds to another. The laws of the city are as absolute as I can make them with my limited power. To cause harm on another God, no matter how minorly divine they may be, is to incur the wrath of Rong Tou and to be cast once more out into the cold Void."

  29. - Top - End - #149
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    Kobold

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    Nov 2019
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    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Abu Dhahab, the plane of many names

    The celestial serpent devoured many, there is no shame in having hidden and sought refuge, I myself hid at first too. Vanquished? I do not truly know. It was defeated long ago and its body separated, yet traces of its aura can be still be felt even here, and it’s essence has saturated the first world.

    Though I participated in the battle to put a stop to its rampage, my role was insignificant, and had it not been for the threat to the people I created and creation itself, I would have preferred to let it be. Unfortunately, the snake did not show any ability to communicate and seemed to be driven mad by its intense hunger, else persuasion might have been used instead of violence.


    Looking around at the city, Abu Dhahab step up on top of a steeple for a better view. The desert tribes had built a few cities near the coast, but few places in the Wadi could support a city as big as this, and none were as orderly in layout. If what Rong Tou said about the future of this place was true, it would definitely be a lucrative market for him to deal with.

    To invest is to use? Makes sense. This place is still undeveloped without much that could offered except the promise of future prospects. If this truly becomes a safe place where deities meet, a place of trade and prosperity, it will be a place I want to be.

    With a step forward Abu Dhahab appeared in front of Rong Tou again. Holding out a scaled hand he gathers his divine power.

    I am willing to invest, and willing to agree to a non-aggression pact for this place. I have yet to see direct confrontation and combat between deities on the first world, but the snake left a prophecy before its defeat of wars between the divine, so I am also willing to assist in enforcing a law that protects the peace. Let us make this a formal agreement, for I am one who keeps his words.

    I, Abu Dhahab, agree to contribute to the formation and stabilization of this plane and to invest towards its future development, I agree to uphold its law of non-violence and to help enforce it should that be necessary. This I agree to in exchange for part ownership and the right to live here and conduct business here, and the promise of non-violence towards myself.

    Shake my hand if you find my terms acceptable, I don’t think I am asking for too much, as this is what you offered. Consider it but a formality, as I have yet to develop a method to keep other deities from breaking their oaths, but with this I will at least know if and when they do.

    I was inspired by your laws that apply to deities, so this is my first time trying it out, perhaps such an agreement could be used to help enforce those laws.


    Abu Dhahab starts releasing some divine energy into the space around him, immediately the plane gains some more stability, and the effect starts spreading slowly throughout the city. Golden sand swirls over some strategic locations and a few buildings get worn down and replaced with large courtyards and open squares for future market places. One of the many churches also gets eroded by the sand and out of the swirling stardust, tall narrow towers emerge, connected by numerous small bridges and wrapped in stairways. At the base of the towers, walled courtyards and a gathering hall also forms.

    Surrounding the city with the exception of its official gates, a powerful mirage appears, giving the illusion that the city stretches on infinitely. Should anyone attempt to walk through it from inside the city they will find themselves appearing at the direct opposite side of the city. This also protects the city from intrusion, as those attempting to enter from places other than the gate will find themselves turned around and moving away from the city without them realizing. The affected area is not fixed, and allows for expansion. As long as construction outside of the current city limits is approved by the authorities, the mirage will shift to include it.

    Although not visible on the surface, valuable resources such as ores, rock salt, and other mineral deposits grow underground, ready for anyone who digs deep enough to discover.

    This is still but a mirage, but with a though it will be reality. Take my hand, and I will be onboard.

    Spoiler: AP actions
    Show


    As soon as Rong Tou accepts:

    Split AP action: Weave Plane (name TBD I think) -1 AP (2/4 AP provided for the action so far, still need Hetta and Renarr to contribute)
    Abu Dhahab adds stability, spaces for markets, his own home, mirage around the city, and abundant natural resources underground.
    Compulsion (Contracts) 1/10

    2 -1 = 1 AP remaining



    Spoiler: OOC
    Show

    The mirage boundary functions in a way like folded space, so you could potentially walk forever in one direction and keep looping through the city.
    Last edited by KragBrightscale; 2021-05-31 at 09:31 AM.

  30. - Top - End - #150
    Troll in the Playground
     
    Griffon

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    Mar 2012

    Default Re: Lords of Creation: The World Madly Spins (IC Thread)

    Strangers on Ancestral Land

    Knowledge of golemcrafting spread steadily through centaur society. With the assistance of untiring automatons of clay and rock, which could be formed into small, nimble shapes to complement the size and strength of the average centaur, the plains people were able to work towards bigger and more complicated inventions. Soon enough, beginning in the windier reaches of the north and east and traveling slowly downwards, the centaurs constructed massive buildings of rock and wood, hollow tubes filled with machinery and surmounted by enormous flat sails that spun in the winds of the plains. These machines were used mostly to crush grain into powder, though at least one enterprising clan managed to set up a series of smaller machines that wove wool into plain, rough blankets. Nearly every town in the Everrun Plains eventually had one of these enormous machines at its outskirts, and while some complained of the noise, the benefits far outweighed their dislike.

    Another invention--much smaller and simpler, but no less useful--made its way into centaur society at this time. Inspired by their creator-goddess' Pit of Making and the stories of her first teaching baking to the centaurs, a priest of the fledgling and often-confused church to Hetta tried to put a clay bowl into a baking oven to see what would happen. (He may have been one of the only centaurs to try underbeer, though that fact is unproven.) The result, by luck of chance, was a much harder, more durable clay bowl. A bit more time and experimentation created new vessels glazed with a shiny polish and given many different designs and colors, opening up another bit of merchandise to trade with the Lizardfolk and beautifying centaur society.

    These three aspects of technology--golems, pottery, and windmills--became hallmarks of centaur society upon the plains for one main reason: the rise of the orcs. Rude, brash interlopers, who appeared far too suddenly upon the tundra and the ice of the north, drove out many of the gnolls that the centaurs had allowed to settle and turned others towards their odd cause, and then dared to settle upon the ancestral lands of the centaurs as though it were their own. The centaurs had never in their history gone to war against a sentient race--they battled with the Clay Dragons, and with the direwolves from the west, and with the various birdlike monsters that seemed to swarm up from the south in periodic waves, not with people who could think and reason. And so, they did not immediately push out these invaders in their lands. But they were cold to these new people. Orcs never found companionship or welcome within centaur lands; few spoke to them, and fewer were willing to sell to them. The Feet of Clay watched them closely so long as they remained in the ancestral homes, and their bows were always strung. Any who proclaimed allegiance to the new "Weshesh" were treated with similar hostility and suspicion. No centaur joined the weshesh; whether it was that simply no centaurs wished to join such a society, or that any who did were never allowed to reach orcish lands, was never known.

    Another unfortunate side effect of the orcs' arrival was that the centaurs' opinion toward other races began to cool as well. Golemcrafting was kept a closely-guarded secret, usually known only to the chief of the local centaur tribe and the one he chose to succeed him. Pottery was similarly hidden, though all who knew how it worked knew that any society that knew baking would soon pick up the knack. No non-centaur was ever shown the inside of a windmill.

    Predator and Not-Prey, Part 2: Not the Wild

    Quli was waiting with a freshly-baked loaf of bread when the harpy awoke from her painful unconsciousness. Ritha, one of the very few gnoll herbalists who had been convinced to stay by the people of the village and the distance from the interloper orcs, had already been and gone several times, assuring Quli's parents that the harpy would awaken and would be hungry when she did so. He had said little about her wings, but life from death is always a fair deal, isn't it?

    The young centaur had a feeling that this meeting should have been momentous, the first harpy seen on centaur lands, the first one to meet with the tribes of the Everrun on their own territory, but she was too busy to concern herself overmuch with that. The centaurs, as they realized that their opinion of outsiders was beginning to cool, had looked to their creator-goddess to see what they should do next. Hetta was notoriously silent on almost all matters; the devout said that it was her actions that spoke for her, and from that came the idea of balance. The orcs had no place to stay in centaur lands; no food was given to them, and no house would open its doors for them. And so, the centaurs created houses for outsiders which they did wish to see, and prepared food for them and rest for their journeys. Since most of the visitors to centaur lands were lizardfolk, and since those people seemed utterly confused by the concept of "gifts", these new places of rest began to charge for their services, and so inns were born. These large, single-story houses were often placed in the center of centaur towns or nearby, an boasted several places to sleep where other races could be comfortable, dedicated cooks, and (whenever possible) a gnoll or gnoll-trained herbalist to help with the aches and pains of the road.

    Of course, Quli didn't know or care about the history behind inns, either, or at least she didn't care that much. Since her father had decided that someone needed to be in the room with the harpy at all times just in case she woke up, Quli had been working double shifts so that her parents could stand and watch a bird-person sleep. She finally asked to take a shift herself just so that she didn't have to run around serving food and cleaning rooms for a little bit longer. It would be just her fortune that the harpy would wake up right when she was there; at least she had remembered to grab the bread.

    Quli stepped carefully over to the door and pulled it open, sticking her head out. "DAD! THE HARPY'S AWAKE!" she roared down the hallway of the inn, then closed the door quickly. Making her way to the harpy's bead, which had been built more for a Lizardfolk than a creature of her size and shape, Quli bent forward at the waist, slipping one arm behind the harpy's head to prop it up while she brought the bread to it's mouth with the other. "It's good bread, and Ritha said you'd be hungry," she began, then thought for a moment. "Wait, Dad said that stick said you couldn't speak our language, but that can't be right. Everyone who can speak can speak this language, right?" she laughed to herself, still holding out the bread.

    Inside the Pit of Making, for the last time

    Hetta watches the other gods begin to ascend, leaving the First World entirely and either making or inhabiting new planes of existence. She glances at the pit that had been her home for centuries, realizing that it has served its purpose and she has no further use for it herself. She looks at the Lump and nods, once. The Lump, the only golem without orders, looks at his mistress, his bare impression of a face clouding in an almost alien emotion to him--confusion. "Why--" he begins to ask, but Hetta steps aside and is gone, never to return to the First World again. The Lump looks around the Pit of Making, watching the golem archons continue to sculpt and sort. The various statues and gargoyles fed by Hettta's power slowly begin shifting out of the Pit, looking for more food now that the godly presence that sustained them has left. In the center of the Pit, the Lump does nothing... yet.

    At the Center of an Untended City

    Hetta feels a sense of... something, something like nostalgia, as she steps through the worlds and into the new ring-like plane. Once again, she looks around a circular plain, unsure of what to do next. Once again, she finds herself at a loss, certain that something important is... missing, here. Draconic claws flat against the cobblestones of the road, Hetta folds her humanoid arms, looking around and... waiting to see what comes next.

    Behind Hetta, unseen and unknown by the goddess, her shadow twitches and boils, fragments snapping off to scatter throughout the world, each piece containing a tiny shard of power to become more than the average shadow is.

    Spoiler: AP Actions
    Show
    0 AP + 4 AP - 4 AP

    Create Mundane Concept (Windmills) -1 AP: Using Golems, the centaurs have made windmills to help with large-scale grain production and harvesting. (Domain progression: Cooking (Baking) 8/10)

    Create Mundane Concept (Pottery) -1 AP: By modifying bakery ovens, centaurs have managed to perfect a system of firing clay to produce durable, beautiful, toughened pottery vessels. Pottery is the primary art form of centaur society at the moment. (Domain progression: Cooking (Baking) 9/10)

    SIDE NOTE: These two concepts, and the Mythic Concept of Golemcrafting, are not being taught by the centaurs to any other race at the moment.

    Create Mundane Concept (Inns) -1 AP: In order to drive home the difference between the outsiders that centaurs like and the ones they don't like, centaur society has created innkeeping specifically to cater to non-centaurs who aren't orcs or members of the Weshesh. (Domain progression: Cooking (Baking) 10/10)

    Weave Plane (I think we're going with the Concourse) -1 AP: Hetta's contribution: Shadow golems. these tiny, extremely strong constructs repair any damage done to the city in the center of the plane, and can possibly be a part of the consequences of anyone who does violence upon the plane. Shadows on this plane are noticeably deeper and sharper than shadows on the First World. (Domain progression: Magic (Golems) 10/10)

    Ascension Get!

    0 AP Remaining
    Last edited by Zelphas; 2021-05-31 at 05:39 PM.
    Originally Posted by Xefas:
    "I need the Goblins in phalanx arrangement. Sky Blotters in the back! Swissles? Assume the Swizzle Stick Formation! We're going in!"
    What Pokemon am I?
    Spoiler
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