Lords of Creation III

[Shmee]

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The story is moved from the old site where this LoC was held to these forums.

The Grind

The Grind did what he did, and there was a world. Looking to the world The Grind nodded. "It needs more." The Grind reached into himself, and laid his power unto the World. Half-Earth, and Half-Water would make the surface of the world, each empowered by the other.

The Grind nodded; Earth and Water, Brother and Sister. How grand the world would be. The Grind touched the world again, this time granting it the power of winds, the winds making Water ice over, earth more power. The world was a ball of ice for a time. The Grind did not like this. In fact, The Grind did not like this at all. Tossing his power around, the Grind threw fire into the world, melting the ice, before the Ice could totally melt, the wind blew to create more ice. And the cycle began under a night sky.

Equal parts water and earth, then too much air, then too much fire. Again, and again, and again. Nothing would have upset this cycle; however, The Grind had given all things in the World his Divine Spark. So our chronicle of the world begins.....

[Shmee]

Ran Kang

Ran Kang burst into life, nude and hungry, his eyes gazing through the world at large. And from his birth, the first land mass was formed, and on it grew towering trees that stretched into the sky.

And Ran Kang then danced in the Void, and sang and called out into it, his form clothed suddenly by its expansive darkness.


(2 DP-Shape Land, Create Animal(Trees): 3-2=0 DP)

[Shmee]

Urus

The Grind did what he did, or perhaps it merely dreamed that it was so, and Urus came into being. There was no burst of his into life he merely... was. When reality occurred, Urus was there, sleeping beneath it all, dreaming his dreams. But with the birth of Ran Kang his dreams were more troubled than before, in the peaceful lull. Now his dreams were filled with towering green things.

They were... odd, and Urus dreamed that they were odder still. Where before knotholes and branches merely gave them the semblance of a humanoid face, faces Urus had never seen, now knotholes blinked, leaves formed a strange hair. Branches and roots groaned as the trees uprooted themselves tall and thick as their inanimate kin. They were not all as humanoids, they varied in odd ways, some had four legs, some had two, some merely had masses of roots which swept them across the ground, their thick branches were arms, and some had but one arm, some had more than three. Some that branched off low had two heads. All in all no two were alike, they grew as trees grew and were as varied as the trees themselves.

2DP=3DP-1DP Create Ents (or Treants, or Treefolk, or whatever you want to call talking trees) (I hope this is fits my domain alright)

[Shmee]

The Grind

The Grind looked at the world, green things? The green things have their own divine spark. The Grind reached into the world, and looked into the minds of the sleeping sparked creatures, seeing the dreamer.

The Grind saw the exploding creature, nodding this was the balancing creature. The Grind created a single place, an astral nexus a place of power. A gathering place.


(This will not cost the Grind anything, he just created the Astral Plane, and the World below it. So, yeah, it's a massive undertaking and needed.)

[Shmee]

Ran Kang

Ran felt the shift and sudden burst of power in the place he dwelt, taking upon the rhythem and timing and fading into the astral nexus. And he stood and looked around, and saw it to be empty.

"How can this be!"

He asked, his form suddenly smoking, cloaking his form from the eyes of those that might look.

"A place that is yet not a place, but still is by its merit of existance. What a strange home this is. So empty it thinks itself free. So cold and it thinks itself warm. So beautiful in its splendor but does it think it is ugly?"

Ran slowly begun to spin in place. He wanted company. He lusted for it. He desired it more then anything, and in an instant the smoke that was his form to all eyes burst forth, his body becoming a beacon of flaming might to drown out the ambient light of the nexus.

"Look upon yourself now Space that isn't Space. Are you ugly? Are you cold? Are you empty? Now with the true light of the gods can you see yourself and answer what it is you think you are? I stand wanting to know what it is you are! I wish to love you! I wish to shred your form into a million ribbons and drab you around me for all to envy!"

[Shmee]

The Grind

The Grind showed himself before Ran Kang a starry sky, a bell of a voice. "Did you? Are you? Can you?" The form's voice spoke, the starry sky flickering in with the words. "I did. I am. I can." the form spoke again. "Who are you? I am mother, I am father. I am the sky, I am the ground." The Grind spoke in riddles, but answered them...cryptically. "My realm, your realm, our realm. Do not go to the source of spark." The Grind reached out with a newly created arm and snapped the cord between the realm known as the World, and the Astral realm. "No Gods will walk there." The arm vanished, as a pattern on the starry sky then nothing..

(New Rule: No walking the World, only Avatars and Priests can do so.)

The Grind looked at the world, and summoned unto the leafy world protectors, creators, stewards. Those who would make sure there would always be more 'Trees' to fill the world. Someday they would be called Dryads, today they were called "Children." and walking from the great first trees are nothing less then the first humanoids, who know no death, they are ageless and immortal.

( 1 Spawn Magical Beasts(Dryads) - 3 DP = 2DP )

[Shmee]

Urus

As Urus dreamed fondly of his walk-trees in all their myriad oddities, he rumbled in contentment and the earth seemed to rumble a sigh in response. But then, there was more. It shocked his mind, as it was, and as the Sea Above the Sky churned into existence, Urus felt something that lit his dreamscape like a great fire in a darkened cave. He reached out his mind, subtly and with the ethereal edge of a mind in deep dream, toward Ran Kang.

"Who is this that dances through the Sea Above the Sky, that troubles my silken dreams of the odd green-heads of the World?"

Urus reached similarly toward The Grind "What are you, who is The Sea above the Sky, but is separate from it? Are you of my dream, or an invader of my dreamscape?"

----

Meanwhile, the Ents, in all their delicious uniqueness, saw these Dryads, and moved to them. Being trees that walked and talked, these new tree-born creatures intrigued them. They did not know how to speak, but sang the song of the forest, and transcribed to words, their song echoed roughly as this: "What new beings are you, that are born from our Still Brothers and Sisters?"

[Shmee]

The Grind

The Grind answered the question posed by Urus with a very simple word "Spark" and all the knowledge of what had transpired came to Urus, how the world was The Grind's creation, and even Urus, and his dream creatures were The Grind's creation, after all it allowed the world, and it's core to have the power of Divinity.

All this knowledge was granted Urus, then taken back, left Urus with a sort of dream knowledge of the universe. The Grind would have smiled, if it had a face to do so with.

-------

The Dryad sung out in happy tunes, each echoing each other, allowing their quicker, marry song to echo throughout the almost endless forests. "We are the creatures, We are the Children, We are the alliance for you all." The Dryads giggled in song, singing again and again. Tending all the Ents, Trees, and the land itself. They would give it all wonderful flow. No ill would befall this land, if only Dryads could use the spark of the divine…

[Shmee]

Ran Kang

Ran railed against that which held him away from the world. He snarled and kicked at that which kept him at bay. His voice howled through the nexus, hot and filled with fury.

"How can I dance on the ground when this is in my way? Where else shall I dance? This land is empty and that below is free!"

[Shmee]

Urus

Urus rejected the knowledge as false. "All things are my dream. Perhaps this is the way of the world as it is dreamed, but I am the Dreamer, and all things are my Dreamscape."

To Ran Kang his mind still lingered. "Why do you ignore me Dancer? What is it that so troubles you, that you avoid the voice of Dreams?"
----

The Treants were confused, and they sang their confusion in communion. "This answers no questions but raises more. We are creatures as well, of a sort that is both different and the same. If you are Children who is your Creator? What alliance do you speak?"

[Shmee]

Ran Kang

"This land is seperate! It can not embrace itself in love and joy! How can two be so seperate! Do they not cherish the feeling of togather!"

Ran Kang continued to rail against the bond placed before him.

"I do not sleep! I am the ever present! The ever waking! How can one enjoy oneself when they stand still and do nothing! I want to taste it all! I want to feel it all! I want to touch it all! This void is empty. Are you Empty too?!"

[Shmee]

The Grind

The Grind answers the claim of Empty, "Child, beware. Empty, full, all things are power."

---------------

In the Forests, the Dryad worked, toiled, and created planting more and more. Their song changed, "We are the children of The Grind, we are the daughters of the Wood. Name the Alliance, Forest! Forest!" The Dryads sung and worked, together pruning the trees.

[Shmee]

Urus

Urus whispered to The Grind "They have power perhaps, this is a claim I do not deny. However, I am The Dreamer, and I can shape this world as well as any Dreamer their Dreamscape. If others within my Dream have power to shape it too, then that is merely Dreams way."

To Ran Kang Urus whispered. "I am not Empty. I am Dreamer. All is my Dream, even you Dancer. Tell me Dancer, why do you feel so much?"

----

The Ents considered this. "We are born of Dreams. We ARE The Forest. We are the forest made animate by the Will of Dreams."

[Shmee]

Ran Kang

"I am the second to feel! I am the second to know the pleasure of touch and sound! How can one not desire it when they know it? How can one forsake it when it thrusts itself upon you! How can you turn away a lover who keeps you warm, and gives you the pleasure you wish?"

Ran continued to twist and turn into the nexus, screaming and grabbing for all he could find. And his hands came upon strands of his own flame, and he pulled, and found the feeling was new. And he continued to pull and scratch at himself in his fury, his blood splattering through the nexus until all around him was dyed in the colors of his divine essence, and he screamed as he felt the pain, laughing as the wounds stung, and he took his blood and smeared it upon the barrier that kept him from his love, and it burned like his anger. And in the world, the weave began to pull, and even those creatures with essence felt the draw of this powerful force. Runes and symbols appeared to run around him, feeding on those smaller, rutting with those of the same size, and warring with those larger then themselves. And they formed a language primeval. The Language of Power

“See my mark! The Words of Love I have for that which you keep me from! There is no power now in the absence of these words! Nothing is still nothing with these words! But Nothing that embraces them are powerful because they can make Something! But…but…I need more! More to know my love and tell it to the world!”

And Ran Kang wept bitterly as he felt for the first time the cold loneliness of the nexus, now that his hate and rage was abated. And as he had before he raised land from the waters a distance away from the now forested land he had made before (Shape Land 1). He then breathed upon it, his tears forming rivers and lakes (Shape Land 2: River and lakes). And he beat upon his chest to try to concol himself, but no solace would come and he wept harder, seeds blown across the ocean suddenly exploding into lush vegetation( shape land 3).

“But it is not enough!”

Ran continued to lament

“I seek company, to hear the words of those that love me! To hear them hate me! To copulate with when I am bored of this nexus!”

And from the clay of the river banks he began to shape two forms, one male and one female, and he shaped them with two legs, and four arms. And he took the vines and bark and made clothing for them, and took his cinder’s and made hair for them, and painted them with the colors of the nexus. And with his love and flame he baked them, and soon they opened their eyes and began to wail at the heat.And he sat them upon the nexus for their first moments, and pointed to the words that still yet surrounded him.

“This is the Language of the World. You will speak it before time. You will speak it as you cries of wanton passion. You will know them better then you know yourselves."

And he then set them into the land he had made for them, apart from the other gods creations, for he wished to love them alone for the time he could, for he was a greedy and jealous creature. He then took the stone and clay of the earth, and made a crude shelter for his creatures. And he then turned and pointed

“Here is nothing and everything! What power does nothing have now! As long as memory remains in their place there will be something!”


Create Concept: Arcane Magic 4 AP
Beget Race: The Amata 3 DP
Shape Land: 3 DP
Teach Populous 1 DP (How to use the magic)
Create Concept (Shelter): 4 AP
Create Magical Monster: Fire Elemental’s: 3 AP

19-18= 1 DP

[Shmee]

Ahkmotept

From the spittle of some god's sneeze came a flash of light. Out of the flash came a cackle, like nails scratching a chalkboard, with whales singing while inhaling helium, and the Finnish boy's tabernacle choir doing their best to butcher Don't Stop Believing in the background. Out of the mists he came, wrapped in linen and with the head of a jackal-crocodile-thing. He snickered and spoke for the first time, in a whiny, high-pitched voice that would arouse even the most peaceful Buddhist to kill.

"This world seems ripe for annoyance, but perhaps I'll start by giving a nice hunky dory hello to my pop, hehehaha."

He pops in front of Grind, and sticks his hand out.

"Hello daddy warbucks! How's everything going with you! I'm doing just fine daddy, so can I has an allowance?!? HEEHAAW! That's so stupid its funny! HAAHEE!"

[Shmee]

The Grind

The Grind looked at it's son in a frenzy of using his divine spark. The Grind looked unto the world, and nodded.

The Grind reached out, and choose a select few of the Dryad, they would not be made to work, they would do as they pleased. This freedom came with a price, they would not live forever. The Grind thought to himself, a name. These Dryad needed names, "Elves." The Grind groaned down upon the World.

(Beget Race Elves: 3 DP)

The Grind then whispered secrete knowledge into the Elves minds, allowing them to grow and expand their influence in such a way that would not upset the great wood. Perhaps in time, they would use the other secretes of the world. Perhaps in time they would not. The Dryad would guide the Elven in their ways.

(Guide Populace: Raise +1 Tier 2 DP)

The Grind then turned to Ran "Passion drives, wisdom delivers." The Grind blessed the elven race with his power, they had great peace with the Dryad.

(Bless Elven Pop.: 1 DP)

------------

The Dryads sang, and worked. Suddenly one Dryad stopped working, stopped singing. "The Grind has allowed me my own mind..." The Dryad shook her head, and then she spit a seed into the ground, another Dryad grew, this dryad seemed to be exactly like the one before her. She too had the free will. The first spoke to the Ents "Hello, you asked question the dryad won't answer, but I understand..greater things. The Dryads think of themselves as part of the forest. I understand, Dryads and Trees are allies the Dryad help keep your roots from rotting, and you protect the dryads from the cold times. I am an Elf, I want to help you great elder tree. I am not dryad, but can we be friends?" The Dryad bowed before one of the animated trees.

(20 - 6 = 14 DP)

The Grind would smile, if it had a face, again. "Chaos, change, is good." The Grind reached down at the world, "Source of the Spark, power." The Grind said nothing more. A gleaming set of stars etched on his face.

[Shmee]

Urus

Urus looked over the world, and his dreams turned to turmoil. "You Flood my Dreamscape with your change and your passion and your fire! But it is my Dream, and so I too shall shape it!"

Urus reached up with his mind, and he saw that the world was so... limited. "Let me show you my passion, for mine is the passion of Dreams"
And so there sprang into being a great forest of mushrooms, the ents born there were Mushrooms as well, and any Dryads born to this odd forest were... different, as well. The Mushrooms were of a great many kinds, some glowed, some were poison, some shed great clouds of dust that made all who dwelled within sleep, all shed clouds of spores. In the center of this mushroom forest was a great lake of a deep purple color. What seemed like odd fish dwelled in it's depths.

"Where you bear beings of passions of flesh and feelings of blood, I shall create beings whose passion is ethereal and whose feelings are of the mind. And they shall be the first to shape the world as though in waking-dream."

As some of the four-armed creatures began to explore this strange new land, they were drawn to the lake. As they drew close, the odd fish crawled from the murk of the water, and quickly slid onto the four-armed creatures, eating their minds and changing their bodies. The four creatures changed into odd creatures whose skin ranged from dark gray, to dark blue, to purple, with a large bald head and four tentacles where the mouth once was but they retained their four arms. These creatures dwelled in the strange forest, and shaped it with their minds. They took the knowledge of those who entered their realm, and made more of their kind.

"These are my new Dreamers. They speak in the language of Dreams, where the truth is always there if you can find it, and all can understand the others Dreamscape. They will live in this home, in harmony with the creatures that are born from this place of Dreams. Perhaps in time this gift will spread to some other creatures, but all of these kind can use this gift of Waking Dreams."

----

The Great Ent stooped to the little creature. "You are born of Forest, and so with the Forest you may stay, naturally. Tell me Nature Child, what Dream grants you such wisdom and freedom?"

(10DP=
20DP
-3DP (Create two Mushroom Forests, Create Purple Lake)
-3DP (Beget Race: Illithid)
-4DP (Create Concept, Psionics (Waking Dream)

[Shmee]

The Elves

The elven creature smiled at the Ent

"We are the first race to be given the spark, I do not understand what the spark is, but I see it in everything."
The elven creature looked at the great forest.

"Would your kind object to us creating a great city here? A city is a place to gather, a place we can be safe, in case something..dangerous was to show up. I do not wish to build anything without your permission, you are kings in this world. We wish only to be at peace, eternal."

The Elven creature smiled at the Ent.

[Shmee]

The Ents

The Ent nodded slowly. "You are gifted with an inkling of The Dream. It is a shame the Dryads, who are like us in the joys of the Forest, cannot know the Dream as we do. A place to gather then? It would be as a forest, a forest of Forest Children. We shall bless this endeavor, as a forest of your kind within this one would be a blessing to us."

[Shmee]

The Elves

The elf creature called it's fellow creatures, each of them looking for bits of deadwood left by the dryads who prune back poorly planned branches. The elven began to tie the deadwood together with bits of fallen leaf, creating grooves in the living wood of the trees, these grooves allowed for ramparts to be built. Every bit did not harm the trees, but in fact enhanced or manipulated the growth of the tree without harm.

Each Elven family build their own tree-home, till there was twelve even homes, each representing an twelve family.

"Eldern"
"Ermark"
"Marko"
"Winsoon"
"Life-Bloom"
"Dark-Bloom"
"Oona"
"Drow"
"Larithian"
"Moonglow"
"Starlight"
"Carriage"

Each house would be in charge of a different part of Elven life. Each in love with the natural world. Each worshiping the great Grind.

(Population Action: Build City, Bless 11 times, allowing for faster building 14 DP - 11 = 3)

[Shmee]

Ahkmotept

Ahkmotept decided that his faceless dad wasn't worth messing with, so he heard his words and went down to the world.

"Mymymymymymymymymyyyyyy, this place needs some sprucing up, too much blue and green, too many hippies...I'VE GOT IT! HOOHAA!"

He goes across the world and lays down his cackling laughter across a bit of the world, and it spreads a desert, quite an annoyance if you happen to have to cross it.

(11=18-7 terraform some ocean into desert)

"Nownownow lets get some beasties down there! AHAHAHO!"

He creates a small creature, it looks like an anorexic baboon wrapped in linen with tiny wings sprouting. Then he changes their body so that after six moons they would change on the seventh. After that, the bigger beast, which looked like a buff mandrill in, guess what?, linen!, would change after thirty moons. It would be like a hulking gorilla in linen as well. At first, the little shrimps would be just an annoyance, something that's a pest. But left alone, it'll become a clear and present danger.

(4=11-7 Beget Race: Ahklings, Beget subraces: Brukahn and Knaarl)

Not only did he spread them across the desert, he put a few in the forests as well. They bred like rabbits with cyalis, and could grow existential if they weren't wiped out. But back to the desert. He uses his last bit of juice to pepper the desert with camels, cacti, serpents, and the first dragons: Brown Dragons

(Spawn animal/plant: Camels, Serpents, Cacti; Spawn Monster: Brown Dragons).

With his work done, he rose to where the gods were begetted themselves and pulled out a harmonica and blew on it like a third-grader with a lisp. The sound was horrible, to say the least.

[Shmee]

The Grind

The Grind looked at the world, the great expanses of desert and the small forest. The oceans, and the icy wastes. The Grind decided to look upon the world, and bless it with his power. Allow the others to take credit for his actions, the dreamer will think what he wants. Ran, the son who granted them the words of creation. This would be allowed.

Divine power was not to be squandered, however the forest needed more. So, it would be.

The Grind did what he did, and there was more forest.

( 3 DP for Greater Shape land, raising up more ocean to expand the forests. that leaves poor little grind at 0 DP for this week)

[Shmee]

Ran Kang

Ran brooded in the nexus, he saw the corruption of his people, he saw the other creatures that walked the world. The "elves" and the strange monkey creatures. And he brooded. The haven he had given his people was touched by another gods creatures...and without anyone asking to touch his sacred land. In his annoyance, he raised yet another land, the tip of it touching the land his people had begun to dwell in.

(Shape Land 1-1= 0 DP: Ran is now also at 0)

[Shmee]

Ahkmotept

"Awww don't be such a spoiled sport brother, its just in the name of good fun! And believe me, I know good fun when I see it, and I see it alot!"

He walks upside down along side Ran as he talks.

"At least I haven't had my real fun yet, otherwise you'd be in T-R-O-U-B-L-E, and believe me, I know trouble when I see it, and I see it alot!"



Duma opened his eyes and looked upon creation, and saw that it was good. Looking over the erupting panoply of existence in all its growing variety, it pained him.

He cast forth his perceptions, his essence, the emptiness of his being to envelop, inspect, insinuate into the fibers of creation. For that was his nature, to understand, to insinuate, and to be for all things the seed of their own destruction.

His eyes spread wide at the realm before him, the verdant greens and blues, and the creatures that dwelt upon it. So to did he see those that had entered existence with him. These petty godlings, self deluded and vain. Each new sight brought to mind a thousand new ways to tear them down, a million ways to turn each upon the next.

[Shmee]

Duma

Duma looked out across creation, in all its diverse and spreading life, and smiled. For his great work was about to begin, and all would return to the darkness from which it had been born. Until at last there was nothing, and he too could close his eyes, and know sweet oblivion once more.
Looking over the panoply of creation, he saw the creatures given life by the petty godlings who fought against the natural order of entropy. He saw the beasts and plants, the savage creatures of the land and sea, and deep within the forests, these curious beings called elves. And the god knew anger, for these beings worked to promote harmony and balance, and were anathema to him.

He knew that these being would work to slow the progress of his cause, and their nature would force them into opposition with his designs over and over again. He looked out across the ages to come, and saw that they would prolong this existence that pained him so. He saw what these creatures would become, and knew he must work to destroy them, and foster chaos within the world, he saw, and began to plan.

In the central reaches of the world, as close to the realms of the gods as he could act without provoking suspicion, he worked his will. The land rose from the waters, forming and shaping, into an idyllic land of streams and rolling hills, a cradle of life. From the earth and water and air, Duma shaped his children. He carved and cut, shaping and forming them to be pleasing to the eyes of gods and men. He removed every bit of dross, and left only what was perfect and bright, breathing into them life, and a powerful will and drive.

As the first of his children began to take shape, he breathed into them light, intelligence, and most of all, a powerful belief that they alone were chosen, they alone were meant to rule, and they alone knew the place of all living things. He saw what he created, and smiled, knowing that they would be a source of strife and conflict in the world. He looked down on his children, and named them Blessed, for they were perfect in his eyes, and perfect for the task before them.

[Shape Land, Beget Race, Teach Populous 20-5= 15]

[Shmee]

Slade

Slade sat there in the Darkness watching the creations of other lesser beings when he looked and saw the blessed and saw what they might do. Slade was pleased with the possibilities.

[Shmee]

Ahkmotept

"So two new gods enter our midsts, eh? A god who creates to destroy and a silly goth god of DARKNESS! MYmymymymymyyyy, what fun this will be! Chaos is beginning to form, and i'm gonna ride that little gravy train to an mmo deal baby! HeHEHAHAHOHE!"

The babbling of Ahkmotept isn't very useful for the gods, but what was at this point?

[Shmee]

The Grind

The Grind looked at the two new gods and shook his head. "Undoing Gods. We shall see."

[Shmee]

Ran Kang

Ran Kang watched his people, smiling. He breathed deeply, the other gods were not worth his time. His “Father” was dangerous, and blocked him from what he desired, the “Dreaming One” corrupted the lands he had made, and the others lay silent, but he knew not to trust them, they would only invite disaster with their powers. And he could not have that. But his people were who he feared for the most, and he taught them the art of making the ore of the land into weapons, not sophisticated yet, but they were young, and required time, the light touch of a lover.

(Teach Populace-Bronze Metallurgy -1 DP)

He then burned his name into their lands, blessing them twice with his name.

(Blessing -1 DP, Blessing -1 DP: Raise FP of the Amat by two, Amat now at 3 FP)

(3 DP-1 DP-1 DP=0 DP)

[Shmee]

The Grind

The Grind looked out onto the Elves, "Undoing Gods, Life must become abundant." The Grind sent his blessings, allowing the Elven to double their birthing rates.

(1 to bless the Elven, FP is now 15.)

All the Elven were fairly content, save one house, the house of Drow. They did not like the forests. They wanted their own lands, and demanded that the Great Grind give them their own lands. "GIVE US ALL WE DESIRE! WE HAVE WORSHIPED YOU ENOUGH! WORSHIP US!!!"

The Grind found the drow to be...wrong. These creatures wanted worship. These creatures would gain nothing from him. To be sure he did not bless the house of Drow he would lay a curse upon them. "Drow, you are no longer my children, take not the guise of Dryad. That is my blessing. You are now a shameful creature, begone!"

The Grind sent his power down on the Drow and sent them out into the churning chaotic seas, a small earthmote allowing it so they would not drown. The Drow were cursed of The Grind. There eyes glowed with sickly green and their hair was pure white. The Drow's skin showed now sign of wood or leaves, but was blacker then black. This also showed the displeasure of the Grind, for without him this would be the night sky.