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Quote Originally Posted by Meeky View Post
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Well. They were talking more about the craftsmanship of the spear than about anything metaphysical.

"Architecture. Yes, favor the hexagon in ours. It bestows improved use of space, when properly applied."

"That is not what I spoke of. I saw lines and markings in arrangement, over many surfaces, on the facades of buildings. Are these, the writing you spoke of? We have nothing named such."

Never saw a need to.

"As for the peoples of this world, I can speak of them. That I can."

"Humans such as yourselves range far and wide. Yours is the fourth major settlement of your kind I discover, each with their own Divine, none with the Divine who created you, from what we gathered."

"In the valley of Aodamo are the oldest of human settlements. Villages led by local elders, raising crops with the aid of the divine Api'Niyap. Goddess of fertility and fire, who presides over agricultural endeavours. Peaceful folk with a great many traditions and rituals. The Aktai'Parapon favours them."

"Second oldest from our records are the assembled nations of Gilead under direct rule of manifold Fortunis. Divine of chance and of ambition. Within their lands is one of our colonies, who trade with them for knowledge and craft."

"Third oldest and second youngest is the city of Lampide under the rule of the Divine Onore. Goddess of Light, goddess of Law. The Aktai'Parapon greatly admires her social craft, her people are regimented and focused in a fashion we did not think likely of humankind."

"You are fourth and youngest of human nations."

"Demonkind in all of their forms live in a blasted land distant from here. The demons of Kalamar are unreliable, distasteful, voracious, vicious, foul-mouthed and unhygienic. Their societies are barbaric assemblages held together by little more than the might of their leaders, and even their reproductive processes are invariably violent. They are distasteful to the Aktai'Parapon, but useful in the proper dosage, for the proper purpose. Many of them are iron kind as well. Thus we can find common ground, despite mismatched aesthetics. Kalamar is divine of chaos and destruction, a force of change, we believe that conflict between him and Onore is inevitable."

"Deer and Dinosaur are the last races of note. Forged into sapience by the divines Hask, Alue and Sin. Art, dream and desire, chiefly. Their society was in flux when we last saw them. But heading towards peace and prosperity, following brutal conflict. Our earliest observations of them yielded negative views. Self-destructive, unsustainable, we shall not lie, we tried to use Demonkind as a chisel to excise them. But they came around, and Kalamar befriended one of the goddesses on the way."

... Well, isn't that something.

Do you require specific knowledge on any?"



"That is writing, yes," Qalai said as the two of them stopped in the middle of a street, just before the marketplace.
"Each of the stalls here, every one of them, has some writing," he continues, waving his arm out demonstratively.
"From a distance, you can see what they are selling by looking at the scrolls along their stalls: Dye, wool, papyrus, knives, jewelry, fish... Before you even reach their wares, you know what is being sold. And there, you see?" The king gestured to a sign placed on the wall of a building, boldly decorated and covered with large, garish letters. "This gives details on a parade being held tomorrow celebrating the coming harvest. It tells the reader where to go, when to be there, and how long it will last.

"In short," Qalai finished, stepping away from the scroll and down toward the river and the palace, "writing is a means of passing on words without being there to tell them. It is a way of recording a detail - history, art, or simply a name - so that all will see and remember it. In a way, it is immortality." Finally, he stopped before the palace, the mighty, magnificent island bastion in the center of the river rising, a pearly and golden teardrop rising out from the water. "It is a way to tell the world who we are, and later, who we were... Just as this palace, this city, these works of architecture we have accomplished in so short a time will remind the world eons from now that the strength and perseverance of man can rival the power of the gods."

The stone bridge leading to the palace was long; the walk across it was undoubtedly similar. King Qalai did not hasten, though. He started upon it slowly, his hands folded behind his back, and spoke at length with his metallic companion. There was no rush, at least not for him. He wanted to be sure the Voice could understand.

"I once told a friend that I know nothing," he continued, resting one hand on the bridge's edge. "For all the years I traveled, I never met these other human groups you mentioned, nor did I see these demons. It's strange that now that I am no longer searching for these things, knowledge of them comes to me." Those words hung for a moment, leaving a brief silence. "But I speak aimlessly. Tell me more about these other humans, especially those that follow these goddesses of fertility, fire and light. Your people find them agreeable? They would be open to the trade of goods and ideas? They would be loyal allies?" Matters of the state were ever on Qalai's mind, as was... well...

"And then there are these 'demons.' You describe these demons in a... volatile manner, like untamed fire, hungry and violent. Tell me, if there was ever a war against them, how would one wage it? Can it be won by men, if they ever were to march on this desert?"

There was one more thing on Qalai's mind. It took him a moment to voice it. "These divines... Kalamar, Onore, Api-Niyap, Fortunis -- will they try to take what I and my people have fought to make our own away from us? Do you think, one day, they will try to make us their servants? And if they do, if they muster up their powers, what things will they be capable of doing to the people of Qalistan?"


"With our minds united in the hive, such is an idea that would certainly not have occurred to us. Writing. But we can already imagine ways it would be useful. If possible, we will most certainly wish to leave a small swarm within your lands. Perhaps build a hive somewhere in the area."

Then the subject changes.

"The humans of Aodamo are peaceful, friendly, helpful. They would certainly wish to trade. But we doubt they would be interested in military allegiances. We do not know if they have any form of standing army or militia, in fact."

"As for Demonkind. They are fickle and passionate. A demon horde is no army and no legion, merely an assembly of warriors moving in the same direction and fighting whatever they find for no better reason than to fight. If you can offer then treasure and battle, they will turn to where you point them."

"Fighting them, however, is not advised, not within or near your holds. Demons reproduce after death. Where they die, they form pools, and these pools spawn new demons, fully formed adults. Their pools are difficult to properly eliminate, as well."

"Kalamar is unlikely to ever attempt to overtake you. He is no divine of rulership, his interests are battle, vagrancy and lechery, on a grand scale, he is harmless."

The replicant mind's idea of a grand scale is as alien to human thought as the small scale is.

"Onore poses greater risk of your worry. She is a divine of law. But she poses no more threat than the Aktai'Parapon. Who is a divine of community. As far as our considerations have established. Ultimately, we do not know what she will attempt. It is not our place, and the Aktai'Parapon has not met with her to properly define."

"But your weapon makes you divine. As Ecitoni'Metz promised, the craftsmanship that went into your spear draws forth as much power from the shard of the Titan Mortan as possible, with it in hands, you can stand before the gods as an equal, of that we can be sure. And none have greater lore on the titans as we do."