A Game of Gods

[deepdweller]

"Yes a telepathic language could work"

[MechaKingGhidra]

Though not nearly ready for its main purpose, the nearly undetectable speck recieved enough of a jolt to its.........metabolism, for lack of a better term, to send out a message to all those around it, caused by the language barrier problem of which no one had an ultimate solution for. No, that isn't correct. The massive amount of gender-specific dieties gave the growing god the influence to be like them. He sent a message. In it was the concept of allowing others willingly accepting others into their cultures and in some cases, allowing intimacy (not that kind, you sickos!) to further acts of love which would lead to spiritual understanding. Athough even this answer was not the best one to confront this confusion, at least now became another option which was added to the cluster at present time.

[ArlEammon]

Valkrath went back to the Sun. The Warp and the Sun merged together, creating a powerful source of energy which gave birth to a society of humans. Humanity now channeled energy directly from the sun as a result of this, and the society now had a few thousand citizens. They were situated only a few hundred miles away from the Manicorns, and they had already met the Unicorns by now. Humanity, now known as the Chin, had developed a religion surrounding the gods of Culture, Wisdom, and the cycles of Life and Death. For now, the Chin had a culture dedicated to preserving life, learning maturity and resourcefulness, and cultivating the arts of manners and courtesy.

[J_Muller]

Out of nothingness, a humanoid form emerged. With the sound of steel being drawn from a scabbard, Dios emerged into being, clad in shining bronze armor. Looking upon creation with his blue eyes, he had no desire to bring other life into being.

Looking around, he decided that floating in void would not do. With a wave of his hand, he conjured around him a grand hall, at one end of which was his majestic throne. But there was no one else present.

Stepping back out and looking upon the world, his ears detected the clash of battle. Down on the planet, a war was raging. He descended onto the planet, spotting a group of soldiers trapped on a hill. The enemy was closing in in great numbers, and the huddled men held their weapons tight and cursed at the fact that their prayers for salvation fell on deaf ears. But he was impressed at the fact that they were not afraid. By their dress and standards, he realized they were from a mercenary company.

Appearing suddenly, in his glory, above the hill, he set the surprised enemies to a rout, leaving only the shocked mercenaries standing on the hill, looking upwards to him in his glory. He spoke to them then.

"Brave Warriors. Your courage in the face of overwhelming numbers has impressed me. Take up my name, Dios, and go into every battle with the same bravery. For brave deeds, and brave deaths, you will be rewarded."

And so they went from that hill as his first worshipers, spreading his name wherever they fought, and began to earn a fearful reputation as men of bravery, savagery, and prowess.

[Warpfire]

Ithasna wandered off, leaving the other gods to take care of the language problem. Eventually, he came upon humanity. He watched them from afar, intrigued. After a while, he left, with an idea for later in the back of his head. The god headed to the North Pole, creation on his mind.

With the basic design of the humans in mind, Ithasna began to create. A race of beings were made, that resembled humans, but much, much bigger. There skin was an icy white, and they were generally strong folk. Ithasna called them the frost giants. He smiled, pleased with his new creation.

However, the frost giants would not prove as easy to control as the Zijorns. They were willful, chaotic creatures, and some did not want to worship Ithasna. A large group of them, calling themselves the True Frost Giants, fled into the mountains. They were a hateful group, believing themselves superior to the other races and any frost giant not among them. They began to cause trouble, coming down from their mountains to raid the sentient races.

[ufo]

Bladngan woke from his long sleep. He discovered that his creations had woken up much earlier.

He saw that they had in few days made superior advancement. They had, for a start, made their own currency. It was a dark wooden coin depicting Bladngan the day they saw him the first time, while he learned them how to build huts.

They had also evolved their own text, though not for writing messages, but for writing songs and music. The musicians would eventually have words for every single tune on every instrument invented yet.

They had also invented a couple of new instruments, like, for example, drums. Furthermore, they used their new currency to trade these instruments, and he saw that some of his people specialized in "singing" instruments out of the trees.

He smiled, he was happy. His people was evolved.


Suddenly, from the edge of the clearing in which the musicians had settled, came gigantic humanoid creatures. Their skin was icy white, and they were muscular. There were five of these beings. All the musicians in the town stopped what they were doing, to come out and look at these new creatures. Bladngan sensed something in his village and looked upon the world. He saw the frost giants and the musicians looking at each other, surprised. All of sudden the most forward frost giant picked up a musician and threw him away. The other frost giants crushed a building, and searched the ruins, while the musicians fled into the forest, screaming. The frost giants apparently found nothing of interest and fled in the same direction they came.

The musicians silently came back to the village, and saw the destroyed building, and the musician the giants had thrown.

The stood silently, looking at him. Why was he just laying there? They did not understand. Bladngan also wondered why and how the musicians could be sleeping, after having been thrown.

The other musicians let the thrown one lay there, thinking he might just be sleeping, and thus not disturbing him.

Bladngan was angry. It was clear that these brutal, gigantic beings was the work of Ithasna.

And thus Bladngan went to Ithasna in the cold north.

"What is this, Ithasna? Why are your people attacking the musicians and destroying their buildings? Have they no respect for happiness and song?" he asked.

[sith_243]

After a few years had gone by, The Deer had multiplied and had covered a large portion of the plains and Forests near the Flames and Dwarves. The Tigers had also multiplied, Their numbers had become a problem among the creatures of the world. Zitask had been thinking over these years, finnaly, she decided to share her ideas with the other gods. She told all the Gods to meet her above the northern pole of the of the world. "Fellow Gods, I have been thinking about the world we have created and provided for. I have been wondering, why can't we show ourselves to our lesser creatures? We could share our knowledge with them, help them against the growing threat of the Tigers. Even help them build civilizations. I would like Valkrath to help resach this idea, using The Warp, and the creatures using their mythology to help." Zitask looked around to see the reactions of the Gods.

[Warpfire]

Ithasna turned to Bladngan. "I am sorry, but those creatures are difficult to control. They are chaotic and willful, and some of them, as you have seen, are evil." Ithasna sighed with regret. "What a terrible waste...my apologies about what they've done. I'm going to have to look in to a way of stopping their destructiveness.."

[thevorpalbunny]

A huge crystal appeared in nothingness. It was a perfect cube turned on its point, sparkling with all the colors of the rainbow. Then, all at once, it shattered, sending shards far and wide across the land. From the inside of the crystal emerged Pax.

Pax realized immediately that the crystals were in some way part of him. Looking down, he saw that there were huge shards embedded near the settlements of the mortals, and one huge crystal mountain directly underneath the noonday sun. He then realized that to teach others to master their inner selves, he must first find others to teach. Since he felt attuned to the crystals, he walked the world stepping from crystal to crystal, finding mortals to instruct. And it was right.

But something was not right. Though some studied and honed their bodies to be fine weapons and some mastered the way of enforcing their will on the world, none knew both. Pax needed a race to embody his teachings. So he created his own new life. Where clusters of crystals landed in rocks, the rocks took on life, and these new creatures which Pax named Mindborn all felt an affinity with the way of will through the crystals embedded in their flesh. So Pax gathered them together by the great crystal mountain which he named Mind's Razor, and set to teaching them.

[deepdweller]

Lar turns to the other gods helping him solve the language problem.


"it would seem other creatures need a universal language, but i will leave you other gods to create it, Im no language god"

with that he turned and went back to his land. When he got there he saw the aproching frost giants, he waited to see what the Flames would do. The giants aproched and the flames tried their flashing visual language. the giants ignored that and tried to pick up a Flame. but they were to hot for the giants to pick up so the giant that tried to pick up the Flame swung the tree he was carrying at the Flame. the tree caught on fire but the flame was dead(not that it matters horribly, because when they die they are "reborn") the other Flames were angered and attacked the giants, the bows and swords burned the giants, who were hurt even more because they were from colder reagions. The giants turned and ran with the flames shooting their bows untill the giants were out of range.

Lar knew that this was the cold gods doing, but as he aproched he heard Ithasna explaining what happend to Bladngan. he turned back to his area and decided that his Flames needed more defense, so he made another 50 flames (total of 100). he also gave them the power to craft First Fire into more than wepons.

so the Flames created small dome shaped houses of First Fire and a Fires Fire currency that was based on the color and brightness of the coin.

[ufo]

Ithasna turned to Bladngan. "I am sorry, but those creatures are difficult to control. They are chaotic and willful, and some of them, as you have seen, are evil." Ithasna sighed with regret. "What a terrible waste...my apologies about what they've done. I'm going to have to look in to a way of stopping their destructiveness.."

"An excuse was what I came for... But it would be regretfully if I would need to learn them warfare, somehow."

And thus, he went home to his people, the musicians. He saw that they had made a guild dedicated to making their dancing perfect.

But sorrow overwhelmed him when he saw the musician, which he knew was dead, but which his people did not. He sighed. He wished he could teach his people to reproduce, but he did not posses the powers to do so.

But soon he noticed something. The winds from the north pole had come to this part of the world. The musicians started to become slower, and they would stay inside most of the time.

He turned to Slanil

"Slanil, can you teach my people to weave clothes to protect them from the cold?"

(MusScribe, Slanil is the god of weaving, right?)

[Birile]

Lirlehlis looked down upon all of the new forms of life that the busy gods had created. And he witnessed, too, the deaths of the musicians and the Flame at the hands of the frost giants.

Feeling the bewilderment of the musicians and pain of their creator, Bladngan, Lirlehlis spoke with Bladngan and said, "Bladngan, you understand that some of your creations have died, and you mourn. And I sense your musicians do not understand this concept of death. Let me teach them, so they may understand and increase their knowledge. It will be a painful knowledge, but in time it will help your musicians."

And so Lirlehlis went to Bladngan's musicians and gave them the knowledge of Life and Death which he had imparted on so many of the other creations already. And the musicians were sad. With this new emotion, Bladngan's musicians created some of the most beautiful music ever to be heard up to that point. And the music helped to ease their pain and remember the musicians who had died. The power of the music was such that Lirlehlis wondered at the musicians' ability to evoke such emotion and was much impressed by Bladngan's creations.

Then, Lirlehlis looked to the Chin. He noticed many of them worshipping the concepts of Life and Death and felt... pride. Their understanding of the value of Life and sanctity of Death gave him hope and also gave him the desire to continue his work. He had much respect for the god, Valkrath.

[ufo]

"I thank you Lirlehlis, for teaching my people what to do and how to recognize the dead."

[thevorpalbunny]

Pax had taught his people well. They were very skilled in all three of the battle manifestations of inner control. But there was still one problem: He had had no new recruits of other races in years.
"What must I do to spread my teaching?" Pax asked the foremost telepath of his students, a gnome named Morgeth, one of the few non-mindborn among Pax's followers.
"Many are impressed only by battle. But there is nothing I have seen that is worth fighting."
"There is a god, Dios, who represents all that is chaotic and pointless violence. I hereby declare Holy War to remove this blot of chaos who defiles battle. You are declare Master Sight, Morgeth. I shall start a council of masters who will carry out this war."
This, Pax did. He appointed a mindborn monk Master Fist, a duergar swordsage Master Blade, and a mindborn shaper psion Master Mind. He created a crystal pathway near the hall of Dios, and the legions of Pax moved like a huge wolf-pack toward the halls of chaos's warriors.
(OOC: If this doesn't un-kill the thread, nothing will )

[J_Muller]

(([Dr. Frankenstein]It's ALIVE![/Dr. Frankenstein]))

Looking out from his halls, Dios saw the hordes pour out from the crystal path. Smelling battle in the winds, he called out to his warriors.

"Courageous men of battle! A foolish god has declared war upon me! Come to where they attack, and push them back in my name! Blessings upon all who fight in this war!"

And his warriors came from far and wide, and the shouts of battle rang out from the fields where men fought and died for bravery and glory.

Dios gave all who came to fight access to his armory, wherein could be found an everlasting supply of arms.

But Dios realized that many of his followers came from far away, and would take time to reach the fields of battle, and that the forces of Pax were there already. So he forged out of bronze strong as steel a hundred giant metal warriors, with the strength of ten men each. He gave unto each of these golems a sword and sheild, and gave them animation, and placed them at his halls as sentries, to defend against any who would oppose his devotion to battle.

[sith_243]

Zitask had kept secret contact with each of the Races, from this, came the Assassin profession. The assassins became Mercanaries for both sides of the Conflict between Pax and Dios. Since Zitask had been in existance since the dawn of time, she had the Knowledge about how to wage a secret war, that she could influence from both sides, even though she wasn't friendly with either one. She had also learned how to see through her minions eyes, she could see everything the Tigers' saw, the Deer, and even those who had dedicated their life to serving her. She could now Spy on everything that happened in the world. Her influence had spread to every race and culture in the world, the promise of power had lured in those who wanted more, powerful, roles in life into her service.

Once the battle begins, or once they make contact with one another, Zitask will go into hiding and will be pulled into a trance, so that she may use her abilities.

[Hoorex]

Meer-dar's army horde was large to say the least. All he had done since the dawn of time, while his enemies spent it talking of language and peace, the War God had built a fortress, and an army. Now covering all of his own land, Meer-dar watched with glee, hoping that someone would have the brains to bring him into the conflict. He would not come without invitation. It was rude.

[ArlEammon]

Valkrath continued to teach the Chin wisdom. The priests and mystics of the nation of Chin were prospering, and he hoped to make an example of an extraordinary ancient Empire with them.

[thevorpalbunny]

Fool. My soldiers of mind can shatter those golems.
"Emerald Dragon masters to the front! Harriers, avoid the golems!"
The small army pauses as the slowest troops move to the front. The Emerald Dragons are the vanguard, followed by the psions as heavy artillery, guarded by Sapphire Heart masters. Stone Body and Diamond Mind masters made up the flanks, while Ruby Wind and Amber Claws harried the enemy in small groups and Opal Mirror masters guarded the rear. Pax himself strode at the front of the army's main body.

(OOC: I've renamed the six schools available to swordsages: Emerald Dragon = Stone Dragon, Sapphire Heart = Iron Heart, Stone Body = Monk, Diamond Mind = Diamond Mind, Ruby Wind = Desert Wind, Amber Claws = Tiger Claw, and Opal Mirror = Setting Sun.
I was planning on this from the beginning, originally it would have been against Meer-Dar and have started much later.)

[J_Muller]

((Sorry, it actually totally slipped my mind that you posted.))

Emerging from his hall, Dios marched at the head of his gathering army into battle. His forces were even then still outnumbered, but their ranks were swelling fast, and the bravery and tenacity of his warriors made them a match even for the psionically-powered warriors of the enemy. Charging into battle, Dios sought out his opponent Pax for single combat, a wordless, chaotic battle cry ringing out from his lips and thundering for miles around.

[thevorpalbunny]

Pax smiled as he watched as the flood of Dios's chaotic warriors crashed on the dam that was the Emerald Dragons. The Dragons formed a jagged formation, zig-zagging like the edge of a saw, marching forward to crush their enemies in the inner point of the V shape. The harriers crash inward from the sides, trying to push the horde toward charging the battle line to add force to the penetrating charge.

Then Pax heard Dios's screech, barely describable as a battle cry but clearly the sound of a god out for blood. Which suited him just fine.

He halts at the front of his battle lines, motioning toward his front line. A dent in the lines forms as two sides of a "V" gradually turn into a square, with walls on the back side and half the floor made of crystal rising quickly from the ground as Pax holds the breach against the mortal barbarians.
As it finishes growing and the sides also grow crystal walls, he steps back into the cavity and assumes a readied stance. He hurls a challenge to Dios: "Want a fight, Dios? Come and get one. Unless you want to surrender, of course. That would be understandable, because your horde certainly can't beat a true army of masters."

(OOC: For the effect of the Dragon formation v. barbarian charge, see Battle of Watling Street)

[J_Muller]

((Yeah, but in that case each Roman soldier was already better than each barbarian, which helped. Dios' followers are highly skilled, hardy barbarians who know no fear.))

The two armies meet with a thunderous crash. Dios' barbarians rush headlong into the fray, grinning madly as they attack the enemy with murderous intensity. Wielding all manner of weaponry, they fight until their weapons are broken, then leap at the enemy soldiers and engage them in hand-to-hand combat to kill them and take their weapons. Hulking barbarians lash out with an ogre's strength and become whirling tornadoes of death. Mad sorcerers dash about the battlefield, dealing death with spells and giggling with murderous pleasure.

A sizable company of mercenary cavalry, enraged at having arrived late to the battle, crest a hill to the left flank of Pax's forces and charge headlong, lances extended.

Dios holds his gleaming bronze sword high, his muscles rippling as he leaps into direct combat with Pax.
"You will find more masters among my followers than you at first think, fool. Now, let us see how you match up for a true warrior in single combat!"
Holding his shield out, Dios swings his sword, aiming to cut Pax diagonally across the chest.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Alope opened his eyes and wondered, for he was strong,and the air gave him comfort. He looked down at his body, and saw that he was nothing, just a ripple in the air. he looked up and saw that a storm was raging above him.
He drew the clouds to him and made a body, or more correctly armor, hanging on the air...no, him.Alope wore chain-mail on cloudstuff. he called down the power of the sky, which manifested itself as lightning. he shaped the power into a fitting form, a spiked ball and chain, and a fan of cloudstuff. he cried out giving voice to the sky. then he melted away, to observe the world.

(OoC: great thread! i like it!!)

[Anonymous Man]

Morlinor opened his eyes and saw the war between Dios and Pax, the war which had summoned him into existence. He appeared as an empty suit of black gentleman's clothes, and a top hat. But he knew that he was not yet ready to ease his purpose, that of death. So Morlinor first sought out Lerlehlis, and spoke with him. Lerlehlis, I propose an alliance, for it seems our purposes are similar.