You wake up. Its complete darkness. If it wasn't for your godly abilities you probably couldn't see anything. Only gods exist now, but the world is yours to create.
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You wake up. Its complete darkness. If it wasn't for your godly abilities you probably couldn't see anything. Only gods exist now, but the world is yours to create.
A dry voice coalesces from a thousand endless whispers. "It begins." A formless hand reaches out through the darkness and a tiny spark appears, and is extinguished in the blink of an eye, giving no light to anything beyond it's limited range. "So short." The voice emanates from the darkness. "Who will be the first?"
Pravus awakened.
She blinked a looked around "My...so this is the beginning?"
She stands and looks down, seeing she stands on nothingness "This will not do" she shakes her head and moves her hand. Land sprung up beneath her. It was flat, and grey.
She frowned, knowing that creation was not her forte...instinctually. With a wave of her hand, a large couch (similar to the Roman coach) of black iron and dark green satin.
She reclined on the couch and waited for someone to create and expand on the land beneath her.
Average Joe
Joe opened his eyes.
There was no lightning.
No explosions.
No bright light.
Not even cheap special effects.
Just an average Joe becoming self-aware.
He blended perfectly in the background.
Good Ol' Joe looked around. He stared at the other gods. How bizarre! He then looked down - does up and down even make sense in the Void? Anyway, he gazed upon the plain, lifeless land. Was there more to it than what he was seeing?
"All this is so absurd", he said.
Pravus glances upwards, a smirk playing about her lips "Absurd? My dear God, this is glorious. No restrictions at all"
Another entity appeared. It felt around itself, thinking. It felt strange, to exist, to think. He- for he had felt more kinship to being a male -quickly crafted a form around himself to reflect that which was in his mind. A beautiful human, clad in armor, a shining blade at his side. He looked around. Other entities were coming into existence around him, but it was dark. The entity needed a to name itself. Arturus. Yes. That would work. Arturus looked around him. It was dark. This wouldn't do. He focused into himself, and from his being brought forth a source, a mighty sphere of flame and light to illuminate the world. But it was not just light. It was harsh, casting back shadows and nearly blinding those that looked at it. It was a sharp light. A Light altogether to powerful. But Arturus basked in it, for he felt affinity to Light and didn't notice the pain it caused some of the other beings. Perhaps another would give it more aspects.
((Just a note, no one other than Armin should make any changes to the sun))
Average Joe
Joe was blinded by the light and turned away.
"Hey, watch where you are aiming that thing."
Joe conjured a large straw hat on his head.
"I just hope people can live on this grey land someday."
Yet. The ancient voice of Thalyl reached out from unbirthed eons, and the shadows around the new-formed land. The elderly man coalesced out of the shadows, spark still floating in the aged hand.
We need dreamers, eternity will be so boring without them. Umbra said as she waved her hand and gave the land color, greens and blues mostly, but occasion flares of other color could be seen scattered across the landscape.
A speck, the tiniest of living things, formed from the nothingness awoke in the shadow, torn from the shadows by the light. And it knew nothing but hate and disgust, for it saw its fellows and knew in an instant they had awaken it. They had ruined its perfect darkness. And it would make them pay. But for now, the small speck fell to rest on the world and waited. It needed a host to have life of any respectable sort, to make itself known. And to wait was its speciality. To plot and plan, to make in shadows the doom of the world, that was the speck's destiny. And thus was born The Hidden One, The Father of Sickness, The Destroyer.
Even as the green spread, Thelyl stood and it turned brown and became as dust in the air and the seas. Eternity? What do you know of eternity? the Dealer of Souls asked. He turned his gaze upon the sun. The spark grew into a facsimile, a copy, smaller, and less bright. it began to grow, turn red and then, exploded in a ball of incandescent fire. Know that nothing is beyond my grasp. The spark returned. Who will be the first?
Ah, but do I not know of eternity? You may cause all things to decay my lord of rot, but without new growth, new thought, new creation you would be powerless, and I know the hopes, fears and dreams of the future, you will have an interesting existence rot lord, as will the rest of us.
The Dealer of Souls exchanged the spark from hand to hand like a ball, spinning it maniacally through the air. Come then, who will be the first? Little can be done without the least. The spark of life looped and glittered like a tiny gem. It spun through the air around Thelyl and finally came to rest. Choose. The infinite whispers of the voice of the god of death boomed.
Arturus notices that the sun he created has been destroyed. His awareness expands, and he understands who did it. He snarls at Thelyl. Stretching out a hand, he pulls the fragments of the sun back together, reversing it and finally remaking it, harsher and stronger than ever. Arturus mentally strengthens it, protecting it from such artificial destruction in the future. He turns to Thelyl. "You are not beyond my reach. Do not do that again."
((Sorry))
((I didn't destroy your sun. I destroyed a copy. A facsimile.))
Lukahn noticed that his brother Arturus had begun the Great Work already. Lukahn began pouring his divine essence into the sun for a powerful source of unique magic the mortals could tap into one day. He poured his energy into the sun until he became tired. Then, he merely sung chants to himself.... Wondering what he would do next.
Arturus sees that the sharp light of his sun had been dulled by Lukhan's tinkering, but when he looked around he saw the other gods, happier with the softer light. He shrugs to himself, and lets himself drift.
Thelyl looks at the sun, now infused with magic. He looks at the ground around his feet and gathers the dust. One must choose. What will be the first?The Dealer of Souls holds out the single spark of life. The compact must be fulfilled.
Quit prattling on, a voice says snidely, plucking the spark of life from Thelyl's finger. I know the deal. We all know the deal. But look around you - this isn't finished yet. Nowhere near.
The voice comes from a female figure in plate armor, leaning on a halberd and playing the spark of life between her fingers.
We have land, flat and bleak - boring, in other words, but a nice effort.
The woman speaks in a rapid-fire tongue, strange and alien to the gods - and to her as well, except when she had need of it to strike the Deal. Soon, the land shudders and ripples before forcing itself into a curve and filling with stone and molten blood. Cracks the size of continents form in the crust, begging to be filled.
So pacted, she notes idly. I'll be keeping this, Thelyl, until I'm right well ready to use it.
I assume you mean the first life? Let it be humans, their dreams could shape a universe even without us.
((The land isn't flat and gray anymore, I gave it color already))
I already volunteered, Dreamer. I'll get to make what I choose. You can do it next if you want, but you know the Deal - nothing new until the First are settled in. Now, quite a few of us have already taken up the mantle of Death. Who will take responsibility for the shades?
That you do lady guardian, I was making a suggestion, nothing more. And which shades do you mean? There are many different shades for each light.
The woman rolls her eyes.
You can call me Ami, Dreamer. We'll all need names some time. And when I say shades, I mean souls, specters, the remnants of lives once lived - dead life, in other words. We're great at the making part, but utter annihilation? Even the Rotted One would have some issues with that. We can't just leave them laying about, getting in the way and pestering us - we have to do something with them.
Why not let the mortals choose where their souls go, we each will have a realm in due time, let each mortal soul choose for themselves where to go.
That's irritating and annoying. How would we know who they choose? And how will they get to where they're going without a guide? We can't all be sheperding mortals around constantly. We'd need someone to do it for us, which means one of us must do it.
Ami pauses thoughtfully.
Unless our first children are essentially immortal. We could make them do it.
Bah! Make them do it? No, I think not. They should have no fewer opportunities than the mortals we will make afterward, if we make something solely to shuttle souls back and forth then it should be an automaton, not a thinking being, where is the hope in having a single task for all eternity?
Ami smiles, and her fire-opal eyes flash.
So we cut them a deal. Responsibility in exchange for power. Limitation in exchange for freedom. They take care of a few things for us, and in exchange they get a certain - authority, let's call it. As our first children, they will be very close to us already - why not let them have a taste of power in exchange for making our lives easier? The pact is fair.
Only so long as there will be no repercussions for refusal, they will still be able to live their lives out as mortals if they decline.
Define 'mortal', Ami retorts mischeviously. Don't fret, Dreamer. I would never make a Deal that couldn't be changed.
Mortal as in whatever they would have been created as had you not thought of this deal. Fret? There's no fretting my lady guardian, just covering my bases.
Average Joe
Joe scratched his head. He didn't understand any of the other other gods. What was that all about? Eternity, contract, shades...such strange words. Joe shrugged and descended on the new planet. He took some stone and fashioned a mould in the shape of a humanoid. Humanoid refered to any creature with at least two arms, two legs a torso and a head that walked upright.
"There. Can you all work with that?"
Morphos
Morphos felt himself, and decided to give himself form. So he did. He changed between four, and liked them all, but his favourite, at least for the time being, was that of amorphous blob. He looked upon the ground, and saw it already had some shape and colour. Then he looked into the sky, and saw the Sun. The sun was fine, but Morphos felt that shadows would be easier for espionage to occur, so he crafted the Moon. It was yellow on one side, where it bordered the Sun, but it was actually white, spherical and had a hole right the way through it. He liked it, but not the colour. So he changed it, so the moon was blue, as he prefered that colour. Greetings, I am...Morphos, yes, that is a nice name. Does everybody like my Moon?
Ami laughs quickly at the "man" made by Joe.
You're something, Mediocrity, you're really something. Why don't you just hang back until we've made life, aye?
When Morphos makes the Moon, Ami smiles and begins speaking in that strange language again. This negotiation takes far longer, but when she is done, the goddess smiles.
I like it very much - it has an excellent sense of humor. It'll be doing me a favor later, if you don't mind. It - Ami stops and tilts her head, Sorry, she doesn't want to act without your permission.
With a gesture the Dealer of Souls drew up a single roll of some shimmering parchment. Words appeared on the paper written by an unseen hand. The hand puncuates the bottom of the document with a line of shimmering ink.
The souls...are mine. Thelyl pencuated the sentence by allowing the open page to roll up in his aged, wrinkled hands.
Thelyl looked at the Spark, and then at the mold made by "Joe". It is an adequate making. At the mention of immortals Thelyl draws himself up, his cloak shimmering behind him. No. All things will die, at their appointed time. There will be none free from my grasp. Balance must be maintained. His elderly rasping whispers manage a decent level of indignation and rage. His eyes flash with anger as he spins the dust between his hands into a quill. He looks towards the moon. The quill is returned to the dust from whence it came, which swirls back into a small facimile of the moon, spinning about the green and blue world, and about the sun. It is a fair making. Would you perhaps lend me that hollow in the middle? I would make use of it.
Thelyl's clothing morphed as he turned his back to the Lady Guardian, forming a second face and a pair of hands. As the first placed the scroll in his sleave, the second removed it from his own sleeve and created a quill. How now Guardian. Will you give me custody of the dead? The Contract is written, the deal is fair. I will herd the dead, they will resume life, each in turn. Souls will remain consistent in number.
From a passing lump of sace dust a being began t form soldifying the dust into a adamantine hard compound that would allow the new being's essence to be held safely within the new shell. The new being was tall, and armoured in a grey metal was many intericate designs speaking of a complexity beyond anything yet witnessed. The something strange happened. The being inisde the armor spoke, but that isn't what was odd until now no one had even noticed that this had been anymore than the passing fancy of a existing god, yet even now they couldn't detect the essence of the being inside the shell.
"Greetings. I'am Bran Grangir. A pleasure to meet you all."
Arturus looks at the mannequin created by Joe. "An interesting beginning." He pokes around it a bit, and slaps Joe on the back. "Yes, this is a perfect start. I shall make my own contribution, however." He closes his eyes, and a light shines forth from his hand. He places it over the chest of the outline. "There. I have given them their Light, their sense of honor, and justice, and good. It may be balanced by the others, but it shall always be with them."
The speck, which was resting presently on the shoe of the huamnoid, scoffed at the idea of a god talking about endings and beginnings and death. A whisper pierced through that god's mind, "Even you? When shall you die? May I destroy you? I would dearly love to. When is the end of you?"
Pravus sits in a comfortable silence while the other gods debate and work. The sun and the colors are welcome. She smiles as the mannequin and the moon. She keeps her silence, absorbing all until the the Dealer of Souls speaks. That makes her frown.
"If you will permit me, I too hold sway over the souls of the dead, and the living. If you permit" her face becomes deferential "I shall judge the souls, and the ones that I have touched, have changed...will be mine"
She moves next to Arturus "Here, let me" her necklace glows, and the red leaves and enters the bodies chest, where the heart would be "Let mortals always have morality, and emotions" she looks solemnly at Arturus "Blind Justice may not be the only way.
As the gods watch dark green tendrils leave her hands and infuse the body, wrapping around the heart and light "but before they can find their true potential for good or justice, they must be able to prove it by defeating apathy, conformity, and jealousy. This gives them the power of free will, let them find their own fate"
I lay no claim to souls, but the subconscious, that is mine the Dreamer says as she leans down to the mannequin and put something in its head. Now he will have dreams, have hope and fear and strive to be something other than just life.
(heh Mind, body, soul, and heart)
Morphos
No, I don't mind. said Morphos, looking at Ami. Morphos then looked at the ground. He likes clay, its shape can be changed easily. He didn't have anything to give to the man, not yet anyway. He then turned to Thelyl, and said I believe that you will have to ask whomever it is that she pointing at Ami ((He wasn't around when Ami named herself)) created. He then turned to Bran Grangir. Hello. My name is Morphos, how do you do, Bran Grangir?Then, he turned to the rest of the gods, and said Does anybody else want another moon, or is it just me?
The god in a shell walked up to the clay being, and tapped ito nce on its brow, and withthis he bestowed upon them logic, and reasoning. "with these gifts come the sprak of knowldge, and from knwoldge comes understanding. Let it be your guiding light in your darkest hour."
Then turning to the man that spoke to him he said.
"I'am fine although it is a bit drall for me right now. A pleasure to meet you.... Mr.?
Thelyl shrugs. Blending back into himself, he shapes a single mote of blue light, and toys with it a moment, changing it's shape and colour. I give you, mortality and laws. Make you the best of it. Thelyl looks at the first life. It seems... unfinished. Thelyl quickly shimmers seeming to be in two places at once. I think the moon will not have any problems with her new... tenants.. To Pravus the Dealer of Souls speaks next. You will try.
Once there was nothing. Then there was the beat, and the beat was his heart, and the beat was his power. He sat back and watched as his... siblings? created the sun and moon and gave glorious color to the world below them.
And then the boring one did them all a favor by creating something to bless. His siblings gave it virtue, which pleased him. They gave it emotions, which pleased him even more. They gave it dreams, knowledge and... laws? No, this wasn't right!
"What do you think you're doing, giving him stuff like 'laws?'" He sighed. "No, he doesn't need restrictions holding him back, he needs freedom - he needs what I can give."
He pulled out several bottles, mixing them carefully in a glass. "Now the base is gonna be pleasure and joy, but I need a lot of luck - this vintage, I think - and let's add true friendship and garnish it with trickery and illusion. There, that should do it!" He grinned as he poured the cocktail all over the humanoid's head, letting it seep into the very core of the humanoid.
"See? That's the kinda stuff you bless a creature with. I'm Ryuii Rvia Sylcor, by and by, but you can call me Ryuii Rvia. Nice to meet y'all. I guess you're my siblings?"
An orb slowly formed from the void, smooth, featureless and perfect. It spoke with a voice undefinable, changing from moment to moment. Sometimes harsh, sometimes soft.
It said, Balance. There must be Balance in all things, and all things in Balance. The land is dry, the light is harsh. This must be changed.
As it spoke, water ran into the world, filling the low places, running from the high. It formed seas, dividing the world into dry and wet. And the colour drank up the water and grew more vibrant.
The sphere moved to the sun, and looked at it. It said, Too much light is not good. The radiance must be tempered by darkness. Similarly, darkness by itself leads to injury. Equal amounts of each.
It pushed the sun, and the sun moved. Slowly at first, it set off on its great journey around the new world, the light moving with it, shadows fleeing before it and chasing after it.
The sphere changed, growing arms and legs similar to Joe's creation. It said, As for this creature, I grant it choice. Some will be good, some will be evil, but in the end it matters not. Each shall be free to walk the path it desires, and over the whole the actions shall conserve the Balance.
SpoilerFor future reference, I'm only mildly irritated; Ami did volunteer to make the first life, and quite frankly, it's not going to be humans.
ENOUGH!
The Lady Guardian's shout - the first display of divine wrath - echoes across the void, and she snatches back the spark.
I volunteered - this is mine to do. Learn patience, you petty little simpletons!
The goddess kneels down with the spark and blows it into the ground. It sinks into the dirt and pulses gently for a moment or two before a single stem grows, ending in a bud.
Don't you dare touch her. She's still growing.
Arturus turns to Ami and spreads his hands. "There is no need for your ire, my lady. The first is yours, that was the agreement. The shell we work on shall be the one that all of us have investment in. We will wait to give it life. After all" He smiles slightly. "We have all the time in the world."
Ryuii Rvia shrugged. "Hey sis, loosen up. You want to make the first living thing? That's fine by me, but don't deny the rest of your sibs the chance to make something of their own. And I don't want something nasty and joyless being the first creation on this planet, so why don't you show me what you're making and let me help out?"
Average Joe
Joe watched the other gods bicker, as usual. He bit into an apple. Oh did I forgot to say he created the first apple? Well, there you have it. He spoke with his mouth full, to the assembled gods and the Lady Guardian in particular.
Heh. You have a big ego. I already feel pity for the creatures who will live on this land. You should be glad that some Normality will exist... Just imagine a world with nothing but extremes.
Ami blows a strand of her hair out of her eyes and whispers to the tiny flower bud. There is a small glow of light within it for a moment, and it then dims.
She's going to be a surprise, Ami says gently. Don't fret overmuch, though - you'll all have your chance to talk to her, and her children. She just needs some time.
The Hidden One moved slowly up the body and implanted it with the seeds of his gift, sickness, disease, the doom of all souls.
All of time, and the time after. Thelyl scoops a handful of dust from the air. I will take my leave then, I imagine I won't be needed for some time, and I might feel inclined to... meddle. Thelyl blows the dust towards the plant, letting it hang there, shimmering, before sinking back towards the ground. Do not forget, brother, that freedom is nothing without Laws to temper it. The Dealer of Souls shimmers and begins to become dust on the wind, floating off towards the moon.
((Thelyl didn't actually do anything to the plant, just to avoid unfortunate misunderstandings. It was all smoke and lights really. Trickery is so amusing. He could though, assuming no one minds.))
Arturus moves away from the group of fledgling dieties. "If you all will excuse me, I must attend to something. I shall return soon enough." Arturus compresses, eventually becoming a single point of light, a tiny speck. It sits there, pulsing softly.
When a goddess of guardians bends her attention to something, she sees - and thus she sees the Hidden One at work, and smiles. Gently, she lifts her foot and presses it to the ground, hard enough to leave a footprint. There is a rippling shudder in the earth, and trees and shrubs and plants of all kinds radiate out from that one, central point, forming a thick forest around her flower. The bud continues to grow, and Ami bends at her knees, resting on her heels over it and leaning on her halberd.
SpoilerYes, I promise this will be done soon. And yes, Justice, the Hidden One did something :p Ami's clever, though - just keep that one in mind
Ryuii Rvia grins. "Nice, sis. But as most things, it could use a bit of improvement. Don't mind if I do.
Let's see, grapes would be nice. Yeah, grapes. And let's make some barley here - you wouldn't believe what you can make with that stuff. Poppies - don't ask. Honey and berries and all things delicious and appetizing. Let's add some color and taste to all this."
And Ryuii Rvia raises his hand and the beat moves through the plants, and grapes grow, as do wheat and barley, and poppies and berries and all kinds of edible plants.
"How's that, sis?"
Ami smiles at the other god, "Nice enough, I suppose. It's nice when you don't have to do everything yourself."
Flashes of incandescent light begin to emerge from the hole in the moon. Bright bursts of flame and similar things begin to fly out of the hollow. After a moment, it stops, and a pale glow begins to fill the hollow. With a rushing wind and a scattering of dust, the Dealer of Souls reappears. In his hands is a box, of clear crystal, a cluster of lights appears in it, like hundreds upon hundreds of tiny suns, each containing still smaller suns, and so on, onwards until they become too small to see. The box has no perceivable hinge or opening, and is completely transparent crystal, though it looks brittle is apparently unbreakable, and impenetrable.
Brogurlax
In the gathering of the gods, something new gathers: a foul stench. An aroma like that of soggy swamplands and a bloated corpse, builds from the faint smell of a rotten egg, to the overpowering, vomit-inducing stench of whole worlds decaying. A form appears, like a maggot born of putrid flesh, into the other gods presence. It dwarfed them mightily, it was huge and corrupt. It's massive skull-like head, two huge curving horns practically curling backward for their age, size, and length, easily the size of any one of the group, lowered itself into their midst. It's rattling breath was like a putrid wind, as it took massive shuddering breaths into it's corpulent but emaciated form. Parasites, beetles, glowing, maggots and others besides, each easily the size of dogs and cats, clung to his form and writhed through his flesh, occasionally falling off of his corpse-like form. Acid dripped constantly from his mouth, bright and green, and lines of glowing acid trickled from seams in his black, scaled hide like cracks of magma in rock. It opened it's mouth, and a voice like the buzzing of a thousand flies, like those that circled the monstrosity, each the size of a cat, but watery like it was spoken from underneath tepid waters, and deep and rumbling as if the crashing of tsunami waves. Well... what ish thish gathering then, that they would not invite ME, Brogurlax, Mashter of decay...
Morphos
My name is Morphos. I like shapes, especially changing them, I also like secrets, espionage and I created the Moon, and I think I would like to create another, if nobody minds. Morphos looked around, and saw all the plants and greenness. He also understood the desire to create the life, but he'll leave off for a while until he has seen how it is done. He does, however, know how to make moons, and quite enjoys it, and the sky is quite empty at the moment, with only the Sun and a Moon up there.
So far as I know none of us were invited Brogurlax, it isn't our fault that you showed up to the party late.