(IC) Lords of Creation: The Grateful and the Odious (LOC)

[mystic1110]

Beginning

The way it begins is how it always begins, with being.

There is always nothing at first and then something. A Creator cutting his hand open and bleeding meaning into the universe, or a Creator tending to the fruits of her Garden of Purpose, or even Titans - making All through their conflict, loves and deaths.

The shift from negation to anything but was always momentous. How could it not be? Existence is momentous. And so worlds have come into being with a word and that word then echoes and speaks to those who come after.

This time there was no word, no echo.

It all came into being, but how and why and through what and for what was lost in the act of becoming. It all came into being in silence.

Just a sunless void now, but even a void is not anything - nothing is hard to comprehend. It's even the absence of void.

But suddenly, as if time had noticed that time was, not only a void - there is a jewel, a hard rock of motive, a seed of reason - a world. A whole world suspended in the center of Now.

An endless ocean devoid of color, reflecting back the emptiness that surrounded it, but it was there, it was here. It was justification, finally - where no cause existed previously. And such ideas take shape and bend around such intent and are born. Specks of expectations and design. Power where no power was.

And as they begin to flicker and coalesce, as they gather - they will recognize themselves as Lords of Creation - and one wonders, what will they do with it all.

What will they make?

[Razade]

A Simple Stone: The First Land

Stories start at the beginning, but they also start somewhere as well. The First World, born in the Void, awash with water but something else. In its northern hemisphere stood a patch of land. The first land. It was small, to start, dominated by high topped mountains and low forested plains. The land was wracked with storms, viscious and violent and primal much like the stone and root that made their home. But there was more, for the world was born of powerful energies and these coalesced. The Elements. Fire, Water, Air and Earth. The first land was earth and the blood of the mountains was fire made physical. Water surrounded on all sides except above which was dominated only by clear and cool air.

Feet walked this ancient yet nascent earth, animals and birds and fish but more. The Elements were physical and their effects were as well. Flecks, small motes of elemental energies drifted through the land and where they wandered they breathed extra life into the primal wildlife. These beasts gave birth to monsters. Vagrants and Vagabonds, vast and minute hybids and chimera. Raven and Rollypolly, Bear and Beaver and stranger things, all spouting flame or dashing through waters as if they were made from it. Yes, the first land was raw and untouched.

Yet. Vast pillars etched with strange symbols rose like clawing fingers from the soil. Basalt walls in such disrepair lined the mountaintops and in a valley there lay A Single Stone. A basalt pillar like so many other. Had it always been there? It certainly couldn't recall, it had no mind to do so, yet stranger things could exist so why not a rock's dream? It dreamed of vast tendrils of raw elemental energies that ran beneath it like claws. Of storms tinged by these energies that wracked and warped mountainsides as boulders fell from the heavens as easily as raindrops and lighting was made like hail.

Spoiler: AP Actions

Show

AP: 16
PAP: 0

Create Land (1AP) - First Land: The First Land is a mountainous and densly forested land pocked by basalt pillars with worn writing and ruined walls and forts.. [Nature (Elementals) 1/10]

Create Mythical Concept (4AP) - The Four Elements: All of Creation is bound by four constants. Fire, Earth, Water and Air. These four Elements can be found through the First World in their true forms but also their pure forms. These veins of pure elemental energy run deep in the world and are rarely exposed to the surface. The four Elements can warp and change the natural world, imbuing all they touch with their innate nature. [Nature (Elementals) 5/10]

Create Monstrous Life (1AP - Vagrants: Exposed to elemental energies, Vagrants are hybrid animals blended with various elemental powers. Vagrants have no set form in light of this, a Vagrant may well appear as a mix of snake and bird made of fire just as easily as they may appear as a bull and crocodile that have innate electrical properties. Vagrants vary in intelligence, from pack animals that often serve as the leader of mundane animals, to near mindless brutes. [Nature (Elementals) 6/10]

Create Monstrous Subrace (1AP) Vagabonds: If Vagrants stand above mundane animals, Vagabonds stand above Vagrants. Vagabonds are massive monsters blending all manner of animal into their form. These chimeric beasts lack sapiance but possess cruel cunning and much like Vagrants vary in social hierarchy and temperament. Also like their Vagrant cousins, Vagabonds are possessed of powerful elemental energies. Vagabonds embody the more destructive aspects of their Elements, giant thunderbirds and lion gorilla made of living flame are small examples. [Nature (Elementals) 7/10]

Create Monstrous Life (1AP) Fleck: Flecks are animate Elemental energy, appearing as small orbs and splotches of the element of their makeup. Flecks are unintelligent, they simply exist to spread their element and to exist for as long as possible.

Bless (1AP) - Elemental Seeding The first land is particularly blessed with deposits of pure Elemental Energies, running in giant tree like veins under its surface. [Nature (Elementals) 9/10]

Curse (1AP) - Elemental Storms The storms of the first land are potent and some are more dangerous than others. Storms of flame, stone and hail are not uncommon especially around the mountains and the deserts between. [Nature (Elementals) 10/10

Gain Domain - Nature (Elementals)

Create Land (1AP)
Create Mythical Concept (4AP)
Create Monstrous Life (1AP)
Create Subrace: Monstrous(1AP)
Create Monstrous Life (1AP)
Bless (1AP)
Curse (1AP)
2+4+1+1+1+1= 10AP

16AP - 10AP = 6AP

[Draken]

The First Land: The Halls Beneath

Vicious life filled that single patch of land upon which rose a single stone. Hunting and haunting the upper caves for more of its like. How long must this state of affairs have gone by? With a thousand creatures born and slain in the claws and fangs of others, the bodies to litter the ground, fall into the creases and sink into the mud.

And the creases, the hollows, the holes. Stretching so far down, hungry maws of the dark deep. They hid a secret through all the land they covered, an unlit mausoleum for all that came before, and ever it demanded room for the upper world was set in its violent ways.

So the underground pushed the land aside. Growing it and cracking it, allowing the elements trapped free reign of the surface. Flame could jet to the sky, air could flow into the land, and water and earth could meld in forgotten places.

There were caretakers then, some might argue. Caring for the walls with soft limbs of clay and flecked with brown and green life alchemized of water and sludge and raised in flame. They steered clear of the upper world and gathered the corpses and buried them in walls and ceilings for reasons unknown, perhaps none.

These halls would come to be a great, verdant castle stretching wherever it could, The Fortress of Moss. Yearning for all that was and settling for the remains.

Spoiler: AP Actions

Show

AP: 16
PAP: 0

Create Land (1AP) - The First Land: The first land is an expansive continent with deep roots and high activity. Many of its caves are lined with marks of being worked by unskilled hands, it contain many holes with deliberately placed objects and corpses. [Undeath (Restlessness) - 1/10]

Create Monstrous Life (1 AP) - The Caretakers: The caretakers are the ambling remains of dead vagrants and vagabonds, haunting the depths at the behest of some alien mind. [Undeath (Restlessness) - 2/10]

Create Monstrous Life (1 AP) - Deep Moss: The first plants. Growing on the light of magma flows and the jolts of electrical monsters. Deep moss clings to cadavers and manipulates the remains to make them move again, infusing dead minds with its own directives. These directives naturally drive them to make primitive mausoleums and museums and store things for The Fortress of Moss, things which also eventually become seedbeds for more moss and new caretakers. [Undeath (Restlessness) - 3/10]

Create Advanced Concept (2 AP) - Construction: Although caretakers and deep moss are far too simple to understand what they are doing, a great deal of knowledge can be gleaned from their instinctual work. [Undeath (Restlessness) - 5/10]

Create Advanced Concept (2 AP) - Fossilization: Regardless of if the caretakers take hold of the fallen remains or not, all death eventually returns to stone. [Undeath (Restlessness) - 7/10]

Create Mundane Concept (1 AP) - Funeral Rites: More can be gleaned from the works of deep moss. Cleanness and health from the proper treating of the dead. Specially, if you keep them away from the moss. [Undeath (Restlessness) - 8/10]

Bless (1 AP) - The Shifting Land: It takes awhile, but the continent shifts and grows, although it may one day split. New environments appear in time. New opportunities for living things, new ways to fail and new canyons to fall into. [Undeath (Restlessness) - 9/10]

Curse (1 AP) - Tectonic Upheaval: But with all that opportunity comes the ever present threat of the trembling and bleeding world. [Undeath (Restlessness) - 10/10]

Gain Domain: Undeath (Restlessness)
Nothing ever fades from The Fortress of Moss

AP: 6
PAP: 0

[Anubis Dread]

Tafeita: Shelter

The stage was set. The story began. But even a stage full of extras and scenery still needed characters to drive the plot. And it is the nature of both stories and life to bring forth exceptional individuals to fill any roles that are not unfulfilled. In this particular case the world was empty of divinity but for a single stone. The life that dwelled upon the world did not think or feel as god or men, but they were still there. They struggled, grew, spread and died. In a world that has none to care or tend for them these feelings good and bad had great power.

Tafeita was not entirely sure how those feelings had been brought together to form herself. Perhaps she had been a vagrant herself and been ascended, which would make sense given her appearance and that she'd come aware within a flock of the little ones. Perhaps she had simple popped into existence because existence needed her. Or perhaps she still wasn't here at all, and merely thought she was. After a moment the small beast shook her head, her large ears flopping at the movement. No, if she wasn't here then she couldn't help. And that just wouldn't be very good at all.

It was the nature of this land and its inhabitance to be cruel. Fire and lightning rained down from the sky. The creatures upon it, though wondrous, had been made to be powerful rather than gentle. They were doomed to live short and violent lives, and to forever be but a plaything or meal to a vagabond. Being a beast herself Tafeita understood the power of instinct, and the rule of nature. Some things were best left be. Simply clearing the land of the curse upon it? Giving the vagrants and other living things enough food and shelter to live out their lives in peace forever? It would bring nothing but stagnation and misery. Some danger, some suffering, was required for life to function. As loathe as she was to admit it.

Still, even if she couldn't change the whole world to her liking didn't mean she couldn't make her own little corner of it that acted as she liked.

It was little more than an effort of will for the land to sink around her, the vagrants around her surprised and panicked at their sudden loss of elevation. She almost began to begin the next step in her work, before seeing more vagrants in the distance. Leaving them outside her small slice of safety was unthinkable. The depression in the land deepened and spread far enough to include them, then further still when she noticed more that needed safety. Again and again she deepened the earth, until she was left was a crater a good third the size of the first continent itself. Deciding that was a good a place to stop as any before she caused the land to sink into the sea, mountains began to crop up around the lid of the depression of earth. And though the elemental storms continued to rage at the peaks, the mountains were so high that the storm could not rage over them. The air within the crater was still dark, and stale, and young, but it was also still.

Of course an empty crater of earth was no place to make a home! A vagrant could not eat dirt after all! Well, most of them couldn't. With a hum on her lips and smile in her heart the tiny divinity caused a great forest to bloom forth. That should provide more than enough food for even the most ravenous of creatures. Her vagrants seemed to be enjoying it. They feasted upon its fruits, and devoured the beasts of pure flesh that called it home. Some though were ignoring food and were digging their paws into the first. She supposed it was the nature of a child to try to imitate their parent. Chuckling to herself, Tafeita loped over to where the creatures were attempting to make a proper den. After all, it was also the nature of a parent to teach a child.

Spoiler: AP Usage

Show

AP: 16

Alter Land (1AP) - The Caldera: A large crater of earth which holds a fertile rainforest. It is surrounded by mountains, making it both hard to access from the outside and providing a safe harbor from elemental storms. Vagrants live within it, but vagabonds do not. By nature, at least. Since it is made from the First Continent it still has many elemental treasures and dangers underneath its soil.[Earth (Shelter) 1/10]

Bless (1AP) - Sanctuary: The Caldera is not afflicted by Elemental Storms. Extremely powerful and violent creatures find it hard to cross the mountains surrounding it, though it not impossible. [Earth (Shelter) 2/10]

Create Mundane Concept (1AP) - Homes: Creatures no longer simply wander the land and sleep wherever they end up when they get tired. Instead den making and territories become the norm for most creatures. [Earth (Shelter) 3/10]

AP Spent

Alter Land (1AP)
Create Mundane Concept (1AP)
Bless (1AP)
1+1+1=3AP

16AP - 3AP = 13AP

[Deja Who?]

Janika the Neverfail - The First Lands

Janika let out a scream of exuberant happiness suddenly and blinked in wonder.

What a joy it was to be alive!

Wait why hadn’t she noticed that before? It was of little concern. She was here and this was now and events were happening. The endless void of time before this was nothing.

“Words.. to speak... sounds break through this listless silence!” She shouted, enjoying her minor domination over the empty soundless space around her. Janika laughed again and started to take more stock of her surroundings. She was growing hungry and bored and knew great challenges lie ahead.

Spoiler

Show

AP: 16

Curse (1 AP) - The Curse of Hunger: All mortals of lower than Mythical Life are required something that sustains them whether it be food, elemental energy, or the wizard magic that keeps a zombie going. All mortals desire something that keeps them alive, pushing them to sustain themselves. [Life (Hunting)]

Bless (1 AP) - Murder’s Delight: The goddess of murder loves when mortals kill each other. This could be a blessing or a curse. When a mortal kills another mortal they are honoring the lord of murder no matter why they did it. Pleasure, war or self-defense it all counts as murder. When it’s done the survivor feels amazing and takes a small bit of the dying parties skills and power unto themselves. [Life (Hunting)]

Domains:
Life (Hunting) 2/10

AP: 14

[mystic1110]

The First Land: The Storms Above

Fire arcing through the sky. Hail flattening the forests below. Lightning racing through dark clouds. The elemental storms of creation shrouded the First Land and illuminated its inhabitants in vivid bursts of color, punctuated by darkness and frightening noise. Off the shore of one of the lands rock-strewn beaches, more a sheer cliff than anything there was a school of blind fish. As the sky spewed its deadly ice, they scattered and sought the shelter of the coral reefs that had begun to breath and live around the continent.

Shelter and home, safety, the fish could sleep in relative peace. The coral slept with them, still but alive. It bloomed with iridescent color - even glowed in the darkness, such that from the shores of the great continent the horizon glowed an eery electric teal. As they rested they dreamed of a sinuous trail of mucous - sticky, trapping them in its wake. Many of them woke up startled, not having the emotions necessary for fear. They fled the coral in their schools and would return later to it when their memory subsided.

Eniym, swam among them, unassuming - there were, after all plenty of fish in the sea. Fish, sharks, eels - she actually did not so much swim as she let the strong currents take her. The currents grew stronger, turning into waves, crashing against the coral barrier. Various water sport tore into the sea, sometimes dragging the creatures of the sea into the air only to fling them onto land to die or already dead. The storms raged.

She looked up, languidly, and allowed herself to be taken by a tornado. She wore her slime like a coat and it quickly expanded to encompass the storm that had begun to take her into the sky. The tornado became torpid and slow, as if it was a machine and guck had gotten to its gears. Against all logic it didn't die, but instead became a slowly rotating spiral of viscous liquid as she ascended into the cloud and into the storms themselves.

Spoiler: AP Book keeping

Show

AP: 16

Alter Land (1AP) - Coral Reefs surrounding the First Land. They are beuatiful and glow in the dark. THey also have a whole biome of underwater life. [Ocean (Turbulence) 1/10 ]

Curse (1AP) - Currents. The Oceans are full of strong and powerful currents now that also create large waves necessary for tsnumais that may batter the continents. The Coral reef does help in breaking the worst of the waves. [Ocean (Turbulence) 2/10 ]

Curse (2AP) - Every now and then an elemental storm may become torpid and stiff, and seem to stick in place. A tornado made of slime or even a lightning bolt that against logic just remains. A wall of fire that endlessly rains down. These torpid storms do not last forever, but simply seem to be slower and lazier than their kin. [Clouds (Languidity) 2/10 ]

16AP - 3AP = 12AP

[ChaoticHarmony]

Looloodi: A Beautiful Birth

As the mysterious basalt tower grew towards the sky, spreading primal energy across the land it erected, a simple seed took root at the edge of the First Land.

As the decaying walls forged the land above and below, creating a cycle of life and decay, a small sprout began to grow towards the water of the Still Ocean.

As the loving beast dug a hole in the earth, creating a sanctuary for all those who cared for peace, a beautiful flower bloomed as the stone is grew upon broke free of the First Land, and became an island off of its coast.

As the flower grew and grew, it saw its reflection in the water, and knew it was beautiful. It continued to stare as it grew, becoming more and more beautiful with every moment.

One day, as she fully blossomed, the flower had the thought to look back at where she had come from. It turned and saw the horror that was the First Land. Hideous beasts tore through the scarred landscape, ravaging each other in the fleeting light of electricity and flames across the sky. Decay and violence permeated the land. She knew such hideousness could not be what is meant for this world she was born into. She must make this world as beautiful as she knew herself to be.

With her purpose now known, a power welled within her roots. Her stem began to rapidly grow, rising to the bare sky until she was twice as high as any mountain. From there her petals began to spread, growing into thousands of branches, each one ended in a brilliant jewel of a flowerbud. She then widened until the trunk of her base was nearly as thick the land she grew from.

This was not enough, she knew, for even at this tremendous size, she would be hard to see through all the storms and darkness. Her new formed branches began to sway, seemingly as though they were widening up. Similarly, the flowerbuds began to fully bloom, opening up. As each bud began to bloom, a soft warm glow began to emerge from the center of each one, blanketing the air with light.

Inwardly smiling, the flower feels herself shifting again, as though something was pushing her out of her body. From the topmost branch of her former body, the true form of the newborn Goddess comes forth. Somehow knowing without being told, two thoughts pop into her head. The Goddess, Looloodi and Ilianthos, the Tree of Light... "Those are, like, the perfect names....."

Spoiler: AP Usage

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Started with 16/16
Create Land(2): An Unamed Island now sits just off the coast of the First Land.
Create Avatar(4): Ilianthos, the Tree of Light. This giant flower stands far taller than any (currently made) mountain and was the first body of Looloodi.
Bless(1): Light of Ilianthos. Whenever Ilianthos is in full bloom, it emits a warm light that promotes the growth of plants. It is bright enough to provide excellent lighting for most of the First Land.

Domain:
Nature(Plants)
Earth(Gems)
Life(Beauty) 7/10

Ended with 9/16

[Toxic Mind]

Marah: Glories and Songs

For many thousands of years, through the rise and fall of civilizations, empires, and the camps of madmen around fires, there would be the Debate. To many, the Debate was meaningless, for even in answer it affected nothing, yet for a great number the Debate was all-consuming. How did it all begin? That was the Question, and it was a part of the Debate, but not the entirety. Many would claim that their god was the First, or the Only, or the True One. All of these labels and ideas and wars and fights and decisions and even the Debate itself were, in the greatest irony of the cosmos, utterly meaningless. After all, time was a decidedly mortal concept, and what need had gods for such a silly idea.

Marah came about because the universe needed connection. It needed some things to be bound together; at least that’s what she told herself. Marah did not know the answer to the question, but she did know enough to decide for herself that reason was good enough for her. She needed no better answer, because that answer provided her with all that she needed.

So it was that Marah found a world with nothing, though already some had created. She filled this world first with herself, for that was all she knew to give, and how. A vast ocean, that was of her, but also not her. Was the ocean there before Marah, or did Marah fill the world with it? It was a moot point. There were things in it that others had made, things that floated in it, anchored to the ground. She watched them for a time, but did not find them pleasing to her eyes. They were simple things, creatures that formed brief, momentary connections, but knew nothing of the greater ones. Marah knew then that she would remedy this, and make things that knew more than just base desires.

The coral reefs fascinated her with their color, with their vibrancy. Such life! Surely all things should see such beauty! Marah sang then, a song without words, but deep with meaning, a song that would resonate within the hearts of all living things. In a way they could never adequately describe, even if they had the means to do so, living beings were drawn to the sea. They felt its call inside them, and wished to experience it for themselves. Marah knew that the Ocean was dangerous, shifting and petulent, and so she ensured that it would provide nourishment for those that sought it. No creature drawn would find itself bereft of water and life when they reached its shores.

Spoiler: AP

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Starting: 16/16
-1AP: Bless - Song of the Sea: Living creatures find themselves drawn to the Oceans, and thus are more likely to make settlements, dens, and other swellings near it. [Music (Song) 1/10]
-1AP Alter Land: Waters of Life - The Ocean water is drinkable by any species or creature. [Life (Nourishment) 1/10]

[Feirgon]

The First Land: The Chryonic Desert

An infinitesimally small speck. A distant thought.

Nearing, the world grows in size until it encompasses all perception. Chryon is suddenly aware of their presence on the world. And as they took in their surroundings, a heat began to grow within them. This heat rippled through Chryon's existence and made them aware for the first time.

THIS IS THE PAIN OF EXISTENCE.

The proclamation felt right and necessary.

Taking a second moment to examine their surrounding, Chryon became aware that the land around them had become a desert. Trees and plants had been replaced by cacti and sand. And the fauna had adapted to these changes; more reptiles, smaller mammals, more burrowing and nocturnal living. In the presence of Chryon, life had to adapt and change.

Chryon realized that other parts of the world could be taught the truth of existence, so they pushed against the world, causing it to spin. In doing so, a piece of Chryon crystallized into a glass gem and buried itself into the center of the great desert they had created.

Chryon watched the world pass beneath them and found contentment that they could share their knowledge with the whole world.

Spoiler: AP Usage

Show

AP: 16
PAP: 0

Alter Land (1 AP) - The Chryonic Desert: An extremely arid desert of vast size. [Chaos (Change) - 1/10]

Create Mythical Concept (4 AP) - Adaptation: Life will strive to survive in even the harshest conditions. And, as pain is measure of understanding, truly powerful creatures will be born from the harshest environments. [Chaos (Change) - 5/10]

Create Mundane Concept (1 AP) - Day/Night Cycle: The world spins and experiences days when Chryon is watching and night when they are not. [Chaos (Change) - 6/10]

Curse (1 AP) - Chryon's Gaze: Days are painfully warm. Chryon wishes only to see creatures know existence through pain, not for comforts or security. [Chaos (Change) - 7/10]

Create Divine Favor (3 AP) - Heart of the Desert: A glass gem born from the melting of the desert sand as Chryon touched the world. It is said to be able to control the weather and is more powerful while controlling weather in a desert. [Chaos (Change) - 10/10]

Gain Domain: Chaos (Change)
Existence without change is meaningless.

AP: 6
PAP: 0

[ElFi]

The First Acts of Many-As-One

Deep in the recesses of space, far above the First Land, two eyes open. Then a thousand more do the same.

Many-As-One awakens in an endless expanse of blackness and ink, alone and yet very not alone. Many-As-One always have themselves, and so for company they will never be lacking. A thousand minds think, and one thought coalesces between them. A thousand beaked mouths open, and one victory cry of birth echoes across the darkness beyond them.

First steps are challenging. Many-As-One are unused to having a body, let alone a thousands bodies all acting in tandem. Their first manifestations are clumsy and formless, their first thoughts present but unvoiced. It is embarrassing and Many-As-One are grateful that their fellow Lords of Creation are busy elsewhere on the world far below. Gradually, clarity arrives. Form arrives. Many-As-One become a flock of a thousand crystalline birds, briefly assume the form of a humanoid, deem that form currently unnecessary and dissolve into a united swarm. After some time with this, they are ready. They are a god and a thousand gods. They are powerful and they are beautiful. No more dawdling. It is time to get to work.

Many-As-One observe the other Lords hard at work on the planet below, observes how they struggle and toil and subvert each others' abilities, introducing hardship and turmoil. So disorganized. Many-As-One counsel among themselves and choose to make a change against this. The flock disperses in all directions and get to work, for the first step is always the most critical.

Each individual bird that composes Many-As-One soars across the darkness of space, trailing behind it a primal thread of creative force. With a thousand working in unity, these threads weave together in an elaborate pattern, become tapestry, become creation. Hovering in this dark recess of space becomes a palace of gods, a place for the Lords of Creation to meet in peace and discuss their differences. And, perhaps, in the right circumstances, a deceased mortal may travel here to bargain their case with the gods, argue for a second chance at life. Many-As-One observe their creation, deem it acceptable, and dub it the Hall of Titans. The universe gains its first star.

Now, for the second. All mortal life eventually ends, Many-As-One know this to be true. But the lost souls of Creation have nowhere to travel to after death. Many-As-One set to work on creating their second star, likewise visible far above the soil of the earth. This star is a vast, empty city, waiting to be filled with the departed souls of inhabitants of the land. They will work there to organize the afterlife, ensure that all the departed souls will have a true resting place. Even now some birds depart from Many-As-One's flock, escorting the first deceased souls to their new homes in the second star of the universe, the Citadel.

In the last part of their first act, Many-As-One drag cosmic trails across the space between their two stars. In the wake of the flock a bridge forms, woven of colors that mortal kind will never have a name for. But brave souls will one day, when the time is right, cross this bridge and parley with their creators, and it will be good.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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Start: 16/16 AP

Weave Plane- The Hall of Titans: The first star of the universe is created as a diplomatic grounds for the gods. When disputes arise, rather than it fall to pointless violence or wars of curses and blessings, Many-As-One invite their fellow Lords to parley at the Hall with their rival gods and come to a peaceful agreement. And when the time is right, mortal souls from the Citadel may travel to the Hall to bargain for a second chance at life. The Hall possesses a meeting room with a place for every deity that has and will be, and archives where artifacts may be kept and used by any deity who desires them. [4 AP] [4/10 Death (Afterlife)]

Weave Plane- The Citadel: The second star of the universe is an endless city where the deceased souls of the mortals of the First Land find their eternal rest. There, they become a celestial bureaucracy, helping still more departed souls find new homes and employment in aiding the still-living. All that lives in the First Land eventually finds its place in the Citadel, and that place will always be waiting and ready for them. 4 AP 8/10 Death (Afterlife)

Create Bridge- The Lordsbridge: This seemingly-endless expanse of light connects the Hall of Titans and the Citadel. Brave souls who have found their home in the Citadel may traverse this bridge to the Hall, where they may bargain with any deities present that they deserve a second chance at life, and obtain the possibility of being reincarnated in the First Land. 2 AP 10/10 Death (Afterlife)

Gain Domain- Death (Afterlife)

• Weave Plane- The Hall of Titans (4 AP)
• Weave Plane- The Citadel (4 AP)
• Create Bridge- The Lordsbridge (2 AP)
• 4 AP + 4 AP + 2 AP = 10 AP

16 AP Begin - 4 AP - 4 AP - 2 AP = 6 AP Final

[Anubis Dread]

Tafeita: The Tree of Light

A paw poked at the loose soil holding in place a wilting tree. A small muzzle snuffled at the roots, before dropping a coal of elemental fire into place and burying it. The tree soon looked a bit better, but was still rather gray and droopy. Mulling things over for a few moments, Tafeita eventually nodded to herself. The truth of the matter was that she simply did not know how to food. Or rather that the trees that she had made to provide food were simply not suited for the world as it was, but instead the world that she wished could be. They needed far more light and warmth than the dark world could provide. She would need to put more power into her project if it were to-

And suddenly it simply wasn't dark anymore. The Hearth Goddess let out a small squeal of surprise, her neck darting to the new source of light so quickly that she toppled over onto her back. A tree in the distance. One much larger and more beautiful than any of the one's she'd created. And the light from the tree had bathed over her own, causing the unhealthy gray trees to burst into greenery. And a few further ones also burst into redderry, bluery, and pink-with-yellow-spottery. Perhaps linking so many trees to elemental shards and leylines had more effects than she'd originally expected. Her children-by-surprise-adoption seemed to enjoy them though, even if the occasional fruit teleported them ten feed sideways or turned them into a ferret. So all in all a good day's work!

Day... now there was a new concept. And with a such a grand tree that grew so well it would surely provide Tafeita with brilliant new ideas for her own work! It certainly wasn't that the light was warm and would almost certainly be an absolute pleasure to nap in. Not at all. With a grout of flame the divine beast decided being where she was no longer ideal, and so was instead somewhere else. At the base of a beautiful bright tree that bathe the world in its light. Perhaps she should seek out its creator and compliment them... right after she curled up for a few moments.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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AP: 13

Bless (1AP) - Sacred Plants: Numerous plants now exist in the Caldera that are magic in origin, due to a combination of Tafeita's experimentation and the natural chaos of the elemental earth. They range from the utterly mundane, such as bananas that taste of apple, to the utterly fantastical, such as herbs that grant immortality. [Civilization (Agriculture) 1/10]

AP Spent

Bless (1AP)
1=1AP

13AP - 1AP = 12AP

[Earth (Shelter) 3/10]
[Civilization (Agriculture) 1/10]

[LordArgon]

Sololond's Emergence
Solitude. Endless solitude. It had been ages since the last time he had seen another. All he had was the empty void, endless and uninteresting. Lost in his endless solitude, Sololond almost missed the creation of the first world. Suddenly, a chunk of the void that was before empty, wasn't. Upon viewing the singular form of of the First World, Sololond felt something he thought he would never feel again, hope.
Sololond moved towards the First World, excited to no longer be alone. As tore along towards the first world, he saw many lights ignite into existence. As he grew even closer he saw all of the god's creations and creatures. Sololond flew among the many creatures and observed their fights and struggles. Desiring company, he reached out and brought some of of them into his presence. The energies of the Abyss that composed Sololond warped the creatures into creatures of the abyss. Feeling less alone with his new pets, Sololond decided to find some more conversational friends. From his body, ghostly figures emerged, and he sent them out to find other intelligent beings and bring them to him.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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AP: 16
PAP: 0

Create Monstrous Subrace (1AP) Void Rovers: Vagrants exposed to the void energies of the Abyssal heart of Sololond. Their bodies were shrouded by clouds of void energy giving them a resistance to magical assaults. The Void Rovers are less aggressive than the regular Vagrants, and are always found in packs. [1/10 Magic(Void)]
Create Monstrous Subrace (1AP) Void Rambler: Vagabonds infused with void energies. Like the void rovers, they are shrouded in dark indigo clouds of void energies, leaving them with high magic resistance. Unlike the Void Rovers they aggressively attack high concentrations of magical energy, feeding upon it to grow even larger. They ignore non-magical creatures, finding no sustenance from them. [2/10 Magic(Void)]
Create Monstrous Life (1AP) Wraiths: Chained spirits, formed from the remains of the countless dead being from countless worlds lost to the void. They have a humanoid shape, shrouded in mist. Their bodies are covered in rags and wrapped with chains. They hunt for mortal souls to ensnare with their chains and bring to their master Sololoth. [3/10 Magic(Void)]
Create Mythical Concept (4AP) Void Magic: Powerful magic utilized by those touched by the abyss. Void magic offers a powerful defense against other magical attacks. It also easily destroys magical constructs and beasts. It does little against physical threats, only leaving a sense of emptiness to things with a mind. It can also summon creatures of the abyss to the user's aid. [7/10 Magic(Void)]

New AP Total: 9

[BaratheonFury]

Caerox's Challenge

Deep within the ruins of a time long forgotten Caerox stirred from his deep slumber. Taking up his horn he set out to observe the creation of his peers, seeing first the moss going about their endless task. "Preserved, yet already forgotten" He mused as spectral visions of a glorious past flittered about him.
Leaving the Moss to their dreary task Caerox entered into the First land proper and gave three thunderous blasts on his horn, challenging any with the courage to approach him. Seeing the creatures flee in terror at the sound of his horn Caerox journeyed onward, repeating this routine thrice more before his challenge was answered, not by the mighty beasts of the forest or mountains, but the humble halfling.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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Create Major Artifact(Utility Artifact: Raise Hero) The Horn of Valor (5AP): A modest horn capable of inspiring heroics from the unlikeliest of places.

Create Sapient Life (2AP) Halflings: A small, forest dwelling people, what they like in size they make up for in courage.

Raise Hero (1AP) Hunts-Alone: The first to answer Caerox's challenge, a halfling hunter of great courage and skill.

probably going towards a Halfling domain but still unsure on the portfolio
8/16 AP

[LordArgon]

A Godly Sound

The loud sound of a massive horn drew Sololond's attention. He could feel the magic calling to him, telling him to meet the horns creator. "Quickly friends, let us find this horn blowing future friend." The wraiths follow the horn's sound, looking for the source of the challenge. They find a group of halflings and quickly surround them. They grab the diminutive halflings with their chains and begin to bring the halflings back to their godly master.

[RolandDeschain]

Selima

She came into the world without fanfare; no heralds rang out her coming; no cataclysms nor earth-shattering cataclysms accompanied her. Where she once wasn't, she now simply was.

A wisp of consciousness, in the beginning more will than sapience or even perception. She traveled the first world gathering form as she went, starting in the depths of the one ocean where she felt the inexorable potency of the massive Plates as drifted toward the fulfillment of their destiny. T'was there that her tactile senses were made manifest through the alabaster skin of her tall, willowy feminine form. She drifted through the Waters of Life on strange, nearly sentient Currents feeling the Song of the Sea wash through her, and trailed her fingers blindly along the Coral Reefs. She felt the pulse...the need that was life.

Lifting her slender limbs she rode the waves upward, taking her first hesitant steps upon the First Land...naked, deaf, and blind. Here, though, there was a tumult...a riot of life and flurry of activity. Her steps grew more purposeful, and as she strode across the land her elfin ears were formed. She heard the various Vagrants and Vagabonds and felt the Flecks that perished upon her skin. The Elemental Storms lashed her skin so she wrapped herself in their energies, blending fire and air to weave a diaphanous, opalescent gown.

Without eyes to see all was dark, but alas so was the first world in its entirety. A rumble beneath her feet, stilled her endless trek as she contemplated the ponderous growth of the Shifting Land...but this was different as if a great force were pushing upward through the earth. Wishing to experience this wonder, twin turquoise eyes opened upon her face and blinked in wonder as Ilianthos bloomed the first light upon the world. She stood perfectly still and watched the majestic tree rise to towering heights and force the darkness into abeyance. Beneath her feat the Light of Ilianthos brought forth a multitude of plants and growing things.

All was a wonder to her, yet still the storms raged and the beast and plants of the First Land struggled to survive, stirring her heart and driving her onward. As she walked a great basin was formed and the storms were driven away, blocked by the encircling mountains. Climbing to the top of the peaks she looked down into The Caldera; the Sanctuary was a mercy...surely made manifest by a kindred spirit. And with that thought she became self-aware, fully cognizant of her purpose yet with little to no sense of her power.

She was nearly overcome with the desire to soak in all that the first world had to offer, and with that thought a thin, upturned nose sprouted from her face and she drank deeply of the multitude of scents. The lingering ozone smell of the fierce lightening and the softer, more subtle scent of the blooming flowers in Ilianthos' light. More....I must have more!

So she walked again, this time with great speed and purpose. A different smell called to her, one of death and acrid earth, so she went and there saw the Deep Moss and ambulant dead - the Caretakers. Though such things felt unnatural to her she forced herself to watch and learned of the mortality of living things, of their strange Funeral Rights. At a time when she was content with what she had learned she moved away, but had not traveled far when she heard a voice...the first she had ever heard; a voice of latent power. She felt the waves of Hunger sweep across the world, and bore witness to the tremendous import it had on all living things....she looked on in horror as Murder's Delight drove the beast into a frenzy of purposeless murder....and she fled.

With great haste she tore across the First Land, over mountains and through forests until a great light and wave of unbearable heat burst across her vision. She was there as the Chyronic Desert was born from the being of heat and pain. Hiding herself as best she could, it was her guiding hand that help the plants and desert creatures to adapt to their shockingly harsh environment. No, she did not create the ideas of Adaptation nor Sanctuary, but she held them both close to her and counted them dear. Her skin began to blister, but with a thought she bronzed it and steeled herself against the assault. A tumble of lustrous, auburn hair fell across her shoulders offering her further protection. The heat relented as the first world began to move beneath her feet...slowly....ponderously, and she bore witness to the first cycle of Day and Night.

A trio of thunderous horn blasts drew her ear and she left the desert to seek out the herald and what arrival it proclaimed. Within the forest of the First Land the Halflings came forth to answer the call, from where she did not know, but she sensed there was something of great import in this moment so she hid herself away to watch.

[mystic1110]

The First Land: The Storms Above

Before storms - come the clouds, great behemoths of frozen water, thunder bursts refracted within. She swam through them as easily as if she swam through the water, and the slime expanded off her leathery skin to fill the volume of those giants. They would become something more solid than mere mist, like hard foam - both light and impossibly strong. Thunder still roiled within, the clouds still despoiled the earth with flame a stone. Wind battered the oceans and the land. Uprooted trees, flung wildlife.

The Halflings would look up to the sky and see the clouds as they eclipsed the pure light of Ilianthos and the small warm moving glow from the desert. They had no name for the actual gods, but they would worship the tree of light for people always worship the light - Ilianthos, the Goddess of Bright. And they would curse and fear the Storm. A nameless goddess, the jealous sister of Ilianthos. Myths would spring up - of how the envious sister of storm banished her brighter sibling from the city of Moss. Of how she turned her own sister into a tree but could not hide away her purity. And how their father, the City of Moss itself, cursed the other sister turning her into the angry storm itself. Sometimes in her misery she would send a single bolt against her sister - and hold in place for days and days - they could see the slime of her disgust drip from the electricity.

And they would look up and see her in the solid clouds - not knowing that it was Eniym's home, as the clouds congealed and became shapeable. In the greatest of such sinewy oozed cloud she formed a slight depression and fashioned it into a swamp which she filled with her muck, and there she continued to languidly swim while myths not of her were told far below.

Spoiler: AP Bookkeeping

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12 AP

Create Land 2 AP - Cloud Mires, the clouds due to Eniym's slime have become sticky and solid - other than the fact that they feel like a mixture of clay and foam, they still act like clouds and the storms (torpid or not) still descend from them. At the top of such clouds - whole biomes can be found. Mostly wet sticky gross swamps, it is in one of these cloud mires where one could find Eniym. [Clouds (Languidity) 4/10 ]

12AP - 2AP = 10AP

[The Succubus]

The Great Rat

It is a difficult thing to decide, where to begin a story, for there is always something before the beginning. Do we begin with a world, a small speck of creation in the infinite darkness, or the violent powers that shaped and wrought that speck into something new and wondrous? Perhaps a closer look, a deeper look, beneath the branches of the Great Tree and the stone and soil that nourish it, might show us a beginning of many, many stories....

The tunnels stretched away in countless paths, twisting, turning and looping until all sense of direction was lost. Even the many creatures that called Tanglenest their home rarely strayed too far from the familiar chambers where they foraged, mated and slept. Yet every once in a while, one of them would stray that little bit further, drawn by curiosity and find themselves in danger.

It sped along the tunnel, fear and panic driving it through the darkness. A rhythmic crunching sound followed hungrily behind it, as stone ground against stone. It felt a change in the air behind it and jaws slammed together, narrowly missing its tail. The tunnel ahead split into two paths and it raced down the lefthand path before its whiskers brushed up against a wall.

Trapped. Fear. No escape. Danger. Danger. Sound. Close. Pain? Death?

….Wait....

Sound. Quiet. Movement. Quieter. Quieter. Danger? Gone?

….Safe?

It walked cautiously forward, sniffing the air and watchful for the return of the creature. As it walked away, a pair of soft blue eyes watched from the darkness.

****

She lay on the leaves and grasses that lined the floor of the chamber, utterly exhausted. The labour had been hard and long and the pain almost overwhelming. The soft chitters and squeaks coming from the floor nearby told her that her brood had been large and healthy. She began to stir. One of her children was very quiet and very still. Too drained to even feel worry and panic, she reached for the child with her jaws and with extreme care, pulled it close.

Still. Quiet. No breath. She began to clean. Please. Life. Breath. She tried again. Please. Please. Help. Life.

Movement.

Her child turned and touched its nose to hers. Safe. Alive. Joy. Content. Her children began to suckle and finally she allowed tiredness to overcome her. As her eyes closed and sleep came, she felt a comforting presence silently watching from the corner of the tiny cave.

****

Even below the ground, far from the storms and lights of the surface world, the tunnels and caves of Tanglenest were never completely dark. Fungi shed glowing spores here and there, giving some of the tunnels a soft blue green glow. In the pools of water that sustained them, tiny fish with glowing lures preyed on the insects that bobbed and floated near the surface.

Yet the brightest lights of all shone from the roots of the Tree that snaked through the tunnels and caverns of Tanglenest. They provided an important food source for the growing colony; insects were drawn to the roots and fed on the glowing sticky sap that flowed through them. In turn, they themselves were fed upon. The colony rarely touched the roots directly, save to gnaw on the ones that were sickly or damaged.

It scurried to and fro from chamber to chamber, looking for food. It had been two days since its last meal and lethargy was taking its toll. These chambers were close to the main nest and it seemed the insects were learning to avoid those areas where the colony dwelt.

Food. Hunger. Desperate.

Could it risk the deeper tunnels? Tanglenest could be a dangerous place; the tunnels stretched far and wide and plunged deep into the earth. There were predators that dwelt in the deep tunnels and other things as well.

Food. Risk. Fear. Death.

...squeak...

It turned. Noise. Tunnel. New? It sniffed. Food! It scampered towards the crevice where the noise had come from. The crevice opened up into an earthy chamber with a soil floor and a single large root in the centre, the soft light glowing like a beacon. Grubs wriggled and squirmed, casting shadows on the walls. Food!

As it fed, it failed to notice the large single pawprint that pressed into the floor of the cave...

Our story begins with a simple being, one born from the most basic of wishes and hopes. A god for a people without beliefs, a living idea with a simple name.

Rat.

Spoiler: AP Actions:

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Create Land (2AP) + Create Portal/Bridge (2AP): Tanglenest: The home of the rats. It is a series of tunnels large enough to accommodate rats with a few larger chambers here and there but not really large enough for a humanoid to enter. The tunnels run in all directions and lead to all sorts of places - after all, if there's one thing that can be said about rats, it is that they get everywhere. The tunnels have a slightly magic quality to them in that they twist and turn and can be extremely difficult to navigate, even for the rats themselves. The further away from the central nest under the roots of Ilianthos, the more dangerous the tunnels tend to become, with vagabonds, vagrants and who knows what else dwelling in the dark. As for the central section, there is light from various sources, mostly from the roots of the tree but also various bioluminescent things like mushrooms, insects and so on. It generally provides enough food and water for the rats.

Create "Sapient"* Race (2 AP): Rats: The rats are very similar to the sort of rats you would find on Earth. Approximately 15-20cm long, not including the tail, with brown fur or black fur and fairly small. Tend to avoid fights as a rule but can be very aggressive when defending the nest or family or rarely when competing for mates. A fight between rats is usually just about inflicting enough hurt to make your opponent run away. Rats have never killed other rats. At present, they lack language or any communication save in very basic terms but The Great Rat is usually able to make them understand an idea or concept.

The Great Rat (Information): The Great Rat is something of a reflection of its people. It is quite intelligent, more than an average rat but still quite primitive for the moment. As its people grow and change, The Great Rat will grow and change with them - for example, if the rats learn agriculture, The Great Rat will bless crops to make them grow. If the rats learn the basics of speech, The Great Rat will be able to converse more easily with the other gods. The Great Rat watches over the rats and will do everything to keep them safe.

16AP - 6AP = 10 AP Remaining.
*Well, not sapient yet. It's a work in progress.

[ChaoticHarmony]

Ilianthos, the top of the rose

Looloodi smiles in pleasure and self content as she looks upon her old body, its beauty still a reflection of her own. But she knew now was not the time to admire herself. Now she must turn her attention to the world beneath her petals. She looks past the glowing blooms that cover the branches and spies two curious sights beneath the Tree of Light.

The first was a cloud unlike any she saw before. It seemed thicker and clotted, as though one of the hideous beasts of below had sneezed into the sky. It was disgusting and ugly, and it was getting a little too close to her beautiful tree. It was certainly something she would have to take care of soon.

The other was far below, laying at the base of Ilianthos. It was hard to tell what it was, but it was a pleasing bright orange that stood out among the greenery.

Looking again to the cloud, Looloodi decided it was moving sluggishly enough that it could wait, while the orange thing was already there. She begins her descent, her new strange body fluidly moving with ease down her trunk at tremendous speed. Without her notice, many of the gems that grew upon her body fell off, the turbulent winds flinging them across the land and into the sea. Many creatures would come to find the jewels in the future, and become enamored with their brilliance.

Upon reaching the base, Looloodi finally has a better view of the orange blob, and is now realizing..."Oh...MY....TREE! You are, like, SO ADORABLE! Like, totally cute! I know this isn't, like, from my island, I would have, like, seen it before. But there's, like, NO WAY this cutie pie came from that hideous place. Totally GROSS! EEEE! Who CARES!" Looloodi exclaims as she unknowingly tackles a fluffy orange Goddess in a hug.

Spoiler: AP Usage

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Started with 9/16

Bless(1): Looloodite.
This rare type of jewel comes directly from the body of Looloodi, and has been spread across the land and sea. A catch all term, Looloodite is actually many different types of gems and crystals of exceptional quality and beauty. One can always tell the difference between a regular gem and a Looloodite gem by the tiny soft glow in its center, and well as the inexplicable desire to look at it.

Domains:
Nature(Plants)
Earth(Gems)
Life(Beauty) 8/10

Ended with 8/16

[Anubis Dread]

Tefaita: Embraced

"Wha- hey!" the small beast protested, struggling in the plant woman's grip for a few moments in panic before her sluggish mind caught up to what had happened. It seemed as though a speaking creature of some kind had interrupted her nap. And judging by her radiant beauty it was none other than the one responsible for bringing light into the world and nourishing her plants. A fellow goddess no less. As both a beneficiary of her generosity and the young goddess' senior she had a responsibility to take care of her. And certainly shouldn't scratch her nose for interrupting her nap. No matter how tempting.

"Hello young one," Tefaita replied more calmly, still suspended in the air from the new goddess' embrace."I appreciate your words." After a moments thought a paw lifted its way out of their restraints and gave her a respectful boop of the nose. "I must compliment you in return. Your tree is a beautiful gift to the world.

[Toxic Mind]

Marah: Life Beneath the Waves

The coral fascinated Marah. It looked like stone, yet it lived and breathed and made more of itself. Moreover, it was hardy, resistant to the tides and storms, and provided excellent protection from predators without preventing them from ever succeeding in hunts. Marah wished she could find the being that made them, for they were clearly most clever and thoughtful. She watched the animals among the coral, and saw that living things needed places of shelter, safety, from the smallest fish to the largest predator. Marah thought about this, and asked the coral if she could borrow a piece of its-self and grow it into something more. The coral did not speak, for coral could not do that thing, but she felt its desire to be more, create more, expand more. For Marah, that was enough. She broke a small piece of the coral, and placed it on her wrist, where it quickly grew into a banded piece of jewelry. She healed the scar on the reef that she had created with an excited whisper of thanks to the creature that had given of itself. Then, excitedly, she departed.

She swam a distance. As gods reckon such things it was minute, no space at all, but as mortals would measure, it was many kilometers from the shores of the First Land. There, the ocean was deep, so deep that the weak light of the celestial bodies above barely filtered. Stronger light would reach, but now it was the dark of almost-true-night. The storm-wracked waves were far above, and the currents flowed freely, untouched by the tempest. It was here, in an undersea desert, that she planted the coral. She poured power into the fledgling, singing softly of a place of safety, a place where creatures could learn and grow and be protected and come together all at once. The coral heard, and it shaped power into purpose. Tendrils spread beneath the sands, and soon an entire forest of coral populated the area. The currents that so strongly buffeted the area found themselves stymied by the coral trees, their strength dispersed and made far more bearable.

In the center of this Coral Forest was a structure unlike anything the world had yet seen. A palace of soaring spires and twisted colonnades, spiralling walkways and multi-hued halls. A ready-made fortress of coral and stone, living organisms bolstered with divine energy to be nigh-indestructible. The Tide Palace was, after all, more than a simple coral building. It was a place from which undersea civilizations would grow, a place where mortals could meet and grow stronger together. Inside, many of the halls and rooms were flooded with water, but not all, for Marah saw a time when creatures from the surface world, perhaps these strange short half-lings or some other new creation, might walk among the halls, communing with the creatures that made their home here.

Thinking about such things reminded Marah how empty it all felt. Everything was colorful, but none of it was truly vibrant. Everything was alive, but none of it truly lived. She thought back to when she had first beheld the ocean creatures, and decided that she would create things like them, but that could think and feel and reason. They would be able to feel pain, but also love, and companionship, and loss, and everything that Marah could feel. She made them tall and strong, with webbed feet and hands so they could swim faster and longer, and gills to breathe underwater without fear. She gave them eyes that could see in the brightest reflections, and the deepest trenches. Then, last of all, she gave them lungs, so that they could breathe upon land as well, for Marah was ever filled with sorrow when she saw the fish beached and dying, unable to breathe. They were her Mer, firstborn of the Sea. She gave them a home among the Tide Palace, that they might be safe and thrive.

Spoiler: AP

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Starting: 15/16
-2 Create Land: The Coral Forest - About a day's swim from the shore of the First Land stands the Coral Forest, a vast undersea garden of coral "trees". These growths help mitigate the strength of the tidal forces in the area, and are an ideal place for an early civilization. [Civilization (Community) 2/10]
-3 Create Minor Artifact: Tidal Palace (Create Mundane Concept) - A Twisting Undersea Palace of living Coral, this place imbues those within it with some small part of divine creative energy, allowing them to advance far more quickly than a civilization left alone. It also serves as a handy defense in case of attacks! [Civilization (Community) 5/10]
-2 Create Sapient Life: The Mer - Undersea Merfolk standard, can breathe land and underwater, strong swimming ability and water dark-vision. Primarily living in the Coral Forest and the Tidal Palace now. [Life (Nourishment) 3/10]
Remaining: 8/16

Civilization (Community): 5/10
Music (Song): 1/10
Life (Nourishment): 3/10

[ChaoticHarmony]

Looloodi: At the base of Ilianthos

Looloodi sits stunned as the orange creature begins to speak, surprised at the being's incredible comprehension at such an early stage of the world. When the fluffy Goddess boops her nose, Looloodi's face turns an attractive red shade as she realizes she holds a sibling in her arms. "OMT! I am, like, SO sorry! I didn't realize you were more than, like, a totally adorable creature! You're, like, my older sis, right? Another Goddess?" Looloodi gently places the orange deity back onto the ground, then lays on her stomach so that the two of them are face to face."Like, Thank you about my Tree! Ilianthos is, like, the most beautiful thing around right? I mean obviously besides me of course, but it is SO much nicer than that gross land over there. I have, like, SO much work to do with that, you totally know what I mean, right? I'm, like, Looloodi by the way. What's your name, Sissy?" Looloodi beams an excited smile at her sister, clearly happy to meet a fellow deity that doesn't match the decaying landscape.

[Anubis Dread]

Tefaita: Ilianthos

Say what you will about Looloodi's odd manner of speak, she was clearly a kindhearted deity of good taste and character. It was rather nice to know that her small pocket of the world wouldn't be the only part of it to see beauty and safety. "I am Tefaita. And your tree is certainly far nicer than the earth from which it sprouted," the goddess of the hearth agreed, her head twisting to look at the world which the plant goddess had deemed not nice. "Rather than unkind I'd go so far as to call it cruel. Creatures struggle for survival, both with each other and the world that has deemed life its enemy. And to change the world so utterly that such a thing is no longer the case... perhaps it is not above me," she conceded, "but I'm not the sort to destroy the lives of all that have found a place in this chaos simply so I can start again and make a world more to my liking."

Shaking off her melancholy, the beast goddess' gaze returned to her sister. "Still with your beautiful tree and my humble slice of safety there are still places in the world that nourish and give life. It would warm my heart, if it were capable of being cold," she chuckled. "When it comes to grand projects this wondrous tree would be beyond my ability. I am a nurturer, not an artisan. You have great talent. It is a shame there is still so little to behold its light."

[GSisco]

NASIGUNE

In the ruins of an ancient fort, there is a pedestal atop which an ancient tomb lies open. As the Lord's of Creation fill the First World with all they have to offer and bring about great works, the tomb awakens and waits. From it's perch it can see through the ruined walls towards the great and magnificent tree. The tree that was giving life to this world.

The tomb felt a connection to the tree and the life. It knew that they all shared one thing that brought their being into existence. A soul. As soon as the tomb thought this, it knew this to be true. It also knew that if it had a soul it was more than a mere tomb. It had a personage too it. It needed a name.

Then the wave of hunger washed over the land. Though the tomb needed no sustenance to survive, it was infused with a hunger for power. Then it decided that it's.... Her name would Nasigune. She would draw people to her so that she may use them to gain power for herself and for them.

Then the tree released the most beautiful stones and Nasigune looked upon those that came near her and knew how she would use them. They came from the life tree and therefore were perfect for storing life. She would use them to harness the power of life and creation, the soul.

Now that she had her bait, she would wait for someone to find her.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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Starting AP 16
Create Mundane Concept (Soul): The knowledge that all of creation has a soul and that the true power of the universe comes from souls.
-Domain: Soul (Sacrifice) 1/10

Blessing: Nasigune has blessed thr Looloodite around her with the power to function as soul stones. As the blessed ones encounter others the blessings will sprread until all Looloodite is blessed. The concentration of power will also draw people towards them.
-Domain: Soul (Sacrifice) 2/10

Remaining AP: 14

[Draken]

The World Beneath

Legend says that the Fortress of Moss yearns for everything, and so its reach goes far and wide. It began on the First Land, but never stopped.

There was a time, once, when a tunnel broke into another. And a rat fell from the claustrophobic burrows of Tanglenest into the quiet halls of the mossy deep, nameless through they might have been. What use for names have primitive plants and corpses after all?

The rat was clever and saw this open space with the caution it deserved, open ground was home to terrible vagrants and murderous vagabonds after all. And it wasn't long until the rat head the sounds of hooves and smelled the smell of death, so it fled back into the tunnel to hide and wait the vagrant to pass. It was a tall creature with an excessive neck and far too many iron tusks, but the rat noticed that its eyes were gone and its movements were slow, so it felt relief.

Up until the caretaker turned to its tunnel and approached its face to the small hole, brushing the small, still creature with its discolored tongue, dry but soft with some green cover. The encounter was brief, and the creature pulled back and went on its way, the rat, unharmed.

With the danger past, the rat jumped back into the hall and looked around, the walls were smooth, chiseled stone, sometimes bearing some marks in relief, not that the critter could make sense of any of it, drawings of things none had seen and words in languages none spoke. Against any better judgement, it went down the hall, the way the caretaker came of course, not the way it went. Not all better judgement was abandoned that day.

It could tell to some extent that the tunnel grew deeper as the air grew more stale, but at the same time it was rising up the slope of a hill or the foot of a mountain. It was on the dreaded continent, of storms and tremors, it knew for there was one of the later while it crossed the hall. But it was weak, so likely not far from the great tree.

In time it came upon a great chamber. Its walls filled with alcoves, and the alcoves filled with the scent of old corpses and wet ferns. The chamber had many columns and those too were smooth, and their bases and tops curved out to form smooth arches. And everywhere there was a brown and green moss growing, and in the center, the corpse of a terrible lizard crackling with azure lightning, still and half buried in moss, but still illuminating the room. The rat scurried about, checking the alcoves, keeping away from the lizard, for even dead its energy was dangerous and the bolts proved as much.

And then, it felt hunger. So it tested the moss to see if it was edible. Chewing a bit. There was a sound of shuffling. And a shifting of shadows.

The caretaker had moved. In life it was a vagabond, vicious and ravenous for ten lifetimes, but its time had passed, and before any lesser creature had been brave enough to feed on its remains, the land had split and swallowed it whole, delivering the body to the deep and the moss. It was nothing a rat should concern itself with, nor a thing that should concern itself with rats.

But the moss had concerns.

The rat wisely fled, hurrying into the tunnels and digging into a wall, and up. Up and up and out of these halls, away from the caretakers and into the light, hoping in its tiny heart that no storm raged above. Tanglenest delivered it into a decrepit fort facing the great tree, letting the critter bask in all of its glory for the first time in its life. From atop ruined battlements nobody built, to prevent the assault of forces that never had been. It was quite the common thing, a running joke between a Fortress and a Stone, perhaps.

But there was something else there for the rat. In that fort, there was a distant presence.

More importantly, in that fort, there was a book.

Spoiler: Details

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I decided to go with the rats first rather than the halflings, because it is funnier that way.

And this is Nasigune's fort that I am delivering a rat to!

[The Succubus]

The Great Rat

The nest buzzed with energy, with excitement. The rats could sense it, something happening among the roots that reached ever upwards from the ceiling of Tanglenest. The faint breeze that wafted through the tunnels carried a scent the rats had never come across before. It was bestial, large, yet without the sharp coppery tang of blood that would mark it as a predator. There was also something else, something that marked this creature as more than just a simple animal.

The Great Rat followed the scent along the tunnel and slowly climbed the roots that led to the surface world. Its people tended to avoid the surface - the loud noises and flashes of light that came from far away, beyond the leafy cover of the Great Tree frightened them, as did the strange floating things that carried an odd, alien scent, detectable to their noses even all the way here.

Peeking out from a burrow, its small blue eyes locked on to the source of the scent that had been weaving through Tanglenest. It was indeed a beast, with orange fur yet it's form was hard to describe, seeming to share traits with many different animals. From the perspective of The Great Rat, it looked a little bit like a rat, except considerably larger. It was also asleep.

Another scent came to The Great Rat's nose, this one from far above. The scent was incredibly complicated, like a rainbow of smells, as if someone had gathered every flower in creation into one single bloom. It was fascinating and wonderful. The source appeared to be a strange flower moving down the trunk of the tree, with tiny glittering lights bouncing away from it with every movement. The Great Rat was puzzled. It was a flower, yet it was also a beast as well. The beast part did not have any fur, save for a long flowing clump that grew from the top of its head.

The flower-that-was-not-a-flower also appeared to have spotted the orange beast and was quickly heading towards it. The flower's graceful motions did not appear to be the cautious stealth of a predator waiting to pounce but more that of excitement and eagerness...

*POUNCE*

The flower emitted several loud and high pitched noises, then rushed to embrace the orange beast. The Great Rat started at the noise but continued watching as the beast made a shorter, different noise. It wasn't the sound of an animal in pain. Perhaps these two strange beings were mating? The Great Rat thought about it. Black furred rats and brown furred rats often mated with one another and a larger female would sometimes breed with a smaller male, if it had shown cleverness or to be quick.

The mating ritual complete, the flower and the beast separated, yet continued to remain close to one another. It was odd. The flower would make a series of high pitched shrieks and chitters, then the beast would respond with different sounds and the flower would begin again. Then they both turned and looked toward the distant land, far from the tree, far from the island, far from Tanglenest. The loud noises and flashes of light were more common there and that distant land also carried a scent.

It smelled of death.

[GSisco]

Nasigune

Nasigune watched the creature as it entered her fort. The furry little thing sniffed around an approached slowly and cautiously. There was something in it's eyes. Something not quite complete. As if the rat had a powerful soul but didn't understand what that means.

Nasigune began to turn her pages slowly, trying to grab the attention of the rat. Come closer. Come closer, she thought at it.

Slowly the rat cocked it's head sideways and inched forward. It sniffed the air with each step. There was no breeze. What was this thing moving? Was it alive? Finally when it was al the way against Nasigune's pedestal, it's nose touched a page. The beast's eyes went wide as understanding of what it meant to have a soul. Nasigune went still as she watched to see if the spark of awareness inside the rat would rage to life.

[Deja Who?]

Janika the Neverfail - The Savage Lands

"Weak!" Janika declared as she dissipated the form of a Fleck she encountered. She'd been watching these things go through their routine for a while before she decided to try and destroy it. It didn't put up much of a challenge. "Garbage. That wasn't very much fun." She mumbled with a twinge of disdain in her voice. These lands didn't offer much variety of beasts yet.

With barely another thought she touched the ground where she stood in the First Lands and allowed her power to spread through it, and the land changed, and the land grew, and the sea retreated from it. In a matter of moments another great mass of land was formed connected to the First Lands making the continent even more massive. A great African-style Savanna whose boarders touched the Mountains, the Caldera, and the Great Desert. All manner of basic life sprang forth from the ether spawned from the godly energy of this act of life. Elephants, gazelles, lions, hyenas, rhinos... these words did not have meaning yet, but soon they would to describe this fantastical creatures that now roamed these lands.

"Looks pretty nice, if I do say so myself. And I do." Janika muttered smugly before exploring her new land. She watched as these creatures hunted for survival. Animals were forced to either hunt or starve, whether it be for flesh or for plants. She watched with elation as a lion took down a majestic gazelle and feasted upon it, the lion growing stronger as the slight god-spark that animated the poor creature drained along with it's life. The god of death nodded at this. Things live, and things die, and it continues onward. She followed the lions for a time watching as they hunted till something else took her fancy. A wildebeast had managed to survive a hunt and now ran, scared and bloodied, for shelter. Janika followed this creature as it reached the edge of the Savannah lands and ran downward to take shelther in the rain forests of the crater.

The goddess of war touched the trees of the jungle with glee. This was new. It was pleasing to her, much as her lands were. The Wildebeast knew it would find safely here, and now it lay on it's side, wounded, breathing heavily, trying desperately to cling to life. "You mortals. I've barely given you life, but it's all that you things desire now. You don't even know what else there is. You cling to this fledgling world like a baby bird that won't leave it's nest. You don't even know why you want to be alive so badly, do you?" She questioned the unknowing beast before quickly snapping it's neck. No need for the beastie to suffer. It's purpose was concluded.

"Why.. did you do that?"

Janika was startled for the first time in her life and her eyes snapped over to witness a Halfling in this Caldera for the first time. A creature that could talk. Facisinating. "You there. I've grow bored. Fight me."

"Fight.. you?"

"Yes." Janika replied, as if it was a simple request. This sentient creature may understand her more, but it sure wasn't any quicker on the uptake than the wildebeast. "This creature died because it was weak and if you're weak I'll kill every last one of you. End your existence. Unless you beat me."

A look of horror crossed the Halflings face before it was replaced by determination, the purported courage of the Halflings was not a lie. The short mortal approached the goddess cautiously and she smiled a horrible smile that spread from one side of her face to the other.

"Yessss."

It wasn't a long engagement, and soon the Halfling lay dead, beaten to death by the rock next to his head. Janika frowned. This boy may have been a hunter, but he wasn't a very proficient warrior, or a killer. The goddess of death poked at the now lifeless form, examining it. She wouldn't really kill all these creatures. No point. They were garbage and weak. But maybe a creature with intelligence could get stronger.

That was it then. She would find the rest of these things and test their resolve in earnest.

Spoiler

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AP: 14

Create Land - The Savage Lands (2 AP): A large mass of land that reminds one of the common African savanna, complete with new creatures you'd expect of that type. If you've seen the Lion King you'll know basically what is there. It's about the size of Africa as well, placed right up against the First Lands to expand that place into a massive land. It also touches both the Caldera and the desert if neither of those places simply falls within it's boarders anyway. There are plenty of new animals that live out their daily lives in the light of the flower sun day in and day out, hunting and killing each other. [Life (Hunting)]

Domains:
Life (Hunting) 4/10

AP: 12

[ChaoticHarmony]

Looloodi:At the base of Ilianthos

"That is, like, such a cute name Sissy Tafeita!" Looloodi says before listening to what her sister Goddess has to say about the First Land. "But, Sissy, isn't that, like, why we're here? We can totally, like, make more eyes to see. All those nasty creatures over there, maybe they, like, just don't know better. Maybe if they were, like, I don't know, shown by creatures who know what peace and beauty is like, maybe they too will, like, calm down and be willing to change."

Looloodi stares at Tafeita for a moment, then begins to gently stroke her fur. As she continues petting her sister, and idea forms in her head, a vision of what could be. With her free hand, Looloodi strokes the ground where they lay, petting the grass like she does to Tafeita's fur. With every stroke, the grass grows a little more, quickly growing flowers whose petals fall to the ground as soon as they sprout. When thousands of petals have fallen to the ground, Looloodi gently pats them, sending them flying into the air in a beautiful display. "You know Sissy, maybe, like, its ok that you're not an artisan like me. You can still, like, totally make things beautiful....just, like, on the inside instead." the petals dance in the air for a moment more before beginning to take a new shape, each one landing on top of another to help complete this new form. When the last petal lands, a new creature stand next to the Goddesses. It appears feline in nature, but instead of fur, thousands of multihued petals cover its body. It remains completely motionless, as though something is missing before it is able to come to life. "I think that's pretty special, don't you?"

Spoiler: AP usage

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Started with 8/16

Create Mythical Life(2): Unknown Creature. This plant based creature still appears incomplete, as though it awaits the power of another to fully give it life

Domains:
Nature(Plants)
Earth(Gems)
Life(Beauty) 10/10 NEW DOMAIN!

Ended with 6/16

[ElFi]

One-Of-Many Meets Another

Unseen to any living thing present but Janika, a single crystalline raven alights on the chest of the corpse of the halfling she has just killed in combat. It examines the features of the body with softly glowing eyes, then, in one swift motion, plunges its beak into the corpse - no flesh or clothing is torn, the point simply passes into the halfling as if it weren't even there. The raven straightens, and clasped in its beak is a rounded glowing orb the size of a marble. The soul of the halfling that had just fallen. The raven swallows the orb, preparing to later deliver it to the Citadel, where the halfling make takes his place among his brothers and sisters in an eternal rest.

For now, though, this singular bird that makes up one of the many aspects of Many-As-One lifts its wings and alights on the shoulder of Janika as she moves away. It's weightless even as glass talons painlessly sink into her shoulder, anchoring it in place. "Bonekeeper," It asks, addressing its fellow Lord of Creation, "Explain something to us. We do not understand why you take the lives of Caerox's children. Is it not our duty to shepherd and enlighten them? You are merely wasting souls that may yet serve an important purpose."

[Anubis Dread]

Tefaita: At the base of Ilianthos

"Outer and inner beauty, huh?" Tafeita muses, looking upon the creation her sister had brought into being. That was one way to think of it. It seemed... wrong, however. The light of Illianthos was not just beautiful, it was nurturing and wondrous. And her own Caldera was beautiful in its own way in form as well as function. Perhaps the divide was not so simple. A difference, rather than a lack.

Patting over to the still creature, the Hearth Goddess gently rested her paw on its forehead. Then breathed life into the wood. A warm heart of fire burned within it, as wood become flesh and flesh then became wood-yet-also-flesh. A beautiful scent engulfed her, a calming sensation that made all seem right in the world. And the first of the Penghou rose to its feet, a stunning green tiger as much plant as beast opening its eyes to behold the world.

Yet it would not be the last. Even as she wondered at the sight before her Tafeita saw seeds blowing out from its flowering mane. A rainbow of life setting sail upon the wind to take root elsewhere on the tree. Feeling a trifle greedy, the beast goddess' tail lashed out and curled around a stream of life. She had a great desire to plant them in her own garden.

"To create... yes, truly it is a wonder," Tafeita spoke quietly. "I have been far too focused on the wellbeing of others to create my own children. That shall need to change, if we are to bring goodness to this world."

Spoiler: AP Actions

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AP: 12

Create Mythic Life (2AP) - Penghou: Powerful spirits of nature, the Penghou combine the aspects of both plant and beast. They vary in appearance, but they are all animals considered to be sacred, with plantlike aspects and are usually at least the size of an elephant. They're also a riot of colors, and are often bedecked by a multitude of shining flowers. Despite often being based off of predators Penghou need no food or drink, and nor do they make battle against any but those who would disturb the peace of the places they guard and call their home. This is rather infrequent, as the very scent of a Penghou's flowers stills rages and soothes the mind and soul. [Earth (Shelter) 5/10]

AP Spent

Create 2AP
2=2AP

12AP - 2AP = 10AP

[Earth (Shelter) 5/10]
[Civilization (Agriculture) 1/10]