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

[LordArgon]

Sololond and the First Meeting
Sololond tore through the fabric of space-time quite happily. Next to him floated his entourage of wraiths, a few of which were half the night of the others. Sololond wasn't going to let the fact that the halflings had gone insane and died when exposed to the energies of the Abyss get him down, though it had instilled into him the need to find sturdier friends to talk to. And besides, they we're now his friends for all of eternity.
While debating sending out a signal like the horn he had sensed earlier, he happened across a massive green being. It was covered in bones and blood, and it seemed just the sturdy friend he needed. As he approached he saw a bird land on the shoulder of his future friend. When the bird spoke, his happiness doubled. "Hello there. My name is Sololond, and, if it is not too much trouble, I would like to learn yours."

[BaratheonFury]

Amongst the halflings Caerox sensed it. Somewhere in the woods a halfling fell, beaten to death, elsewhere they cried out in despair amongst the rattling of chains, but amongst the despair was one who struggled still against his dark fate. "This soul" Caerox vowed "will not be dragged into the dark so easily". The chains broke easily, his wrath unleashed, fueled by Caerox's embrace he turns on the wraiths driving them away, buying his kin time to escape with his last breaths. His wounds mortal, his glory eternal; his spirit rises not as wraith nor wisp, but a guardian.

Spoiler: AP actions

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Form Society (2AP)Halfling tribes:The halflings have begun to gather together around the spirit guardians for protection.
Create Mythical Concept (4AP) Spirit Guardians: Those that answer Caerox's call often linger on past death, their spirit both a ward against danger and an inspiration to yet greater deeds.
8AP - 6 AP = 2 AP
Domains:
Strength (Heroism)
Destiny(Defying)
Halfling (Leadership)
Death (Legacy) 4/10

[Deja Who?]

Janika the Neverfail and the Meeting in Caldera

"Fascinating." Janika remarks, watching the corpse of the dead Halfling seemingly spawn a new life. As it plucks out the orb, Janika frowns, feeling as if she has missed something. The goddess of death moves to further investigate before the raven is upon her.

"You speak." She confirmed, not really surprised. Things that were smart enough to speak often did so and it mattered little to her. "Caerox? I know not this name." She continued, shaking her wild mane of hair out and moving through the woods once more as she spoke. "I desire.. a fight. It aches within me. I have not yet found a worthy challenge to be had, though I have tried. This fool has barely scratched the surface."

"Speak not to me of duties, for I care little for them, I will do as I wish. Now, answer me this, little bird, who are you, and what have you taken from the body of that mortal?"

"Friends of yours?" Janika questioned the bird before regarding the shadowy figure, one barely standing in this reality as if it's physical form wanted to be elsewhere. It looked like a worthy challenge.

"I am Janika the Neverfail, the greatest warrior whom will ever exist, the master of all I survey. And who are you? I will engrave it on your epitaph once our business has concluded. Forgive my eagerness, but you and your entourage look quite formidable, and I wish to begin. One or all of you fight me or prove yourself a coward."

[ElFi]

The First Mediation of Many-As-One

"We are one fragment of the beings that comprise Many-As-One," The bird replies in a calm lilt, "We are the one and the thousand that wove the stars in the sky." It gestures with its beak toward the two stars far above the First Land where the Hall of Titans and Citadel hover. "And by claiming the mortal lives of these souls, Bonekeeper, you do little more than slay them pointlessly. They will never compare against a Lord of Creation such as you or ourselves. Not unless we uplift them first." It regards her coolly with both eyes, the glowing light of the halfling's soul emanating rhythmically from its breast.

Then many things happen at once. Another god appears, wraith entourage in tow. A guardian spirit emerges and drives away wraiths. Greetings and threats of death and combat are exchanged. It is all so wasteful, and in the face of this violence and waste Many-As-One experience anger for the first time. It is not a pleasant feeling.

"Enough," The bird intones, directed at all the different forces present and converging. As it speaks, more of the flock that makes up Many-As-One begins to appear, perching on branches or hovering midair, and their voices join to the raven's. "We will condone no further conflict among the mortals of the First Land. If you wish to discuss your disputes, do so in the place we have specifically prepared for it." All of Many-As-One take to the air at once, flying in a loose circle around the direction of the star that represents the Hall of Titans - the safe space created specifically to mediate conflicts such as this.

[Deja Who?]

Janika the Neverfail

"The Many-As-One? I applaud your work, Sky-Maker." The primal goddess grunted a quick compliment, her gaze for the first time turned upward to the painting of stars beyond the sky. "So you are the same as I. This had been evident to me, somehow, but I wanted to have it confirmed. Perhaps I then should challenge you, and bring this land low." Janika growled a little and cracked her knuckles menacingly.

"You want me to go up there? I have no desire to leave these lands as yet so meet that demand with blood or leave me. I take no orders." She threatened, eyeing the larger number of birds that had shown up. So many flying beasts. It would be difficult to punch them all. Perhaps if she devised some sort of long range..

"But if you have not the guts for it I will leave you. Both of you. It's no pleasure facing something too weak to pose a challenge. On one condition, you may have that.. bauble." She gestured towards the Halfling's glowing soul, still safe in the bird's breast.

"But I wish to examine it. Hand it here."

[GSisco]

Nasigune

As Nasigune watches the rat, which having only recently beginning to develop into sentience is unable to grasp the concept fully. There is a change though that the divine tome clings too. The rat begins moving around, suddenly looking into a nearby pool of water.

It slowly moved it's head from side to side, keeping its eyes on the water. Then it held out a paw to touch the water seeing that the image mirrored what it was doing. Another rat joined and suddenly thr first rat was faced with the realization that they were not the same. They are different and unique. The rat began to understand that there is a "me" beyond the "we". Only just began though. Unable to fully grasp or move forward from the concepts that have been thrust about it, both rats scurried off.

Nasigune called after them mentally to spread the awareness they have gained among their species and continue onward.

Once alone again with her thoughts, Nasigune began to contemplate where to go from here. A single piece of Looloonite lay at the foot of her pedestal. Focusing on it, she tried to transfer a small portion of her soul, her life energy, her existence, into the stone. The stone began to radiate with her energy, her soul. From here she could guide it where she needed but she had no need. She took her energy back from the stone and once again felt whole. Then she waited for another to enter. This time she hoped for one whom she could properly test.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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Starting AP 14

Create Mythic Concept (4AP) - Enchanting - Enchanting is the process of controlling and storing the soul or life energy in a nonliving object. Doing this properly can have various magical affects depending on how one does it. Using Looloonite makes it easier as it is so compatable with the life energy of the soul. You may capture the souls of slain enemies using the stone and many will because if you remove all of your soul, your body will no longer have the life energy it needs and you will cease to exist.
-Domain: Soul (Sacrifice) 6/10

4 AP spent
Remaining AP: 10
Domain progress:
-Soul (Sacrifice) 6/10
-Create concepts Soul and enchanting, 5 AP
-Bless Looloonite 1AP

[ChaoticHarmony]

Looloodi: At the Base of Ilianthos

Looloodi sits up suddenly, excitement clear on her face. "Then we should totally go to your safe haven! You can, like, show me around and, like, create some totally adorable babies of your own! It will be SO much FUN! We can, like, think about how to tackle that hideous mess over there after! Can we go now? PLEASE!" Looloodi quickly widens her eyes and pouts her lip, but it is obvious she already believes she will get her way.

[Anubis Dread]

Tefaita: Caldera

Show Looloodi the Caldera? Tefaita's tail swished behind her as she thought. The world belonged to everyone, and her works were hardly secret. The only argument against showing her sister the paradise was that it was still woefully incomplete. In face of her excitement though mere embarrassment seemed petty.

"Alright then," the Hearth Goddess agreed, flames roaring out around her to cover the two goddesses and more besides. A few branches and animals might come along for the ride, but it wasn't as though the Caldera was dangerous aside from a few vagrants. "Though it's nothing special, yet at least." Then with a surge of the flame they were no longer there but instead elsewhere.

Not much had changed since she'd left. The rainforest still immersed them. Fruits still grew on trees. Beasts still stalked through the undergrowth. The hole in the mountain range was still- wait.

The divine beast blinked. "...what?" Where before the Caldera had been ringed by mountains there now seemed to be a hole in them that lead to an endless field of golden grass. Thankfully the ring had not been so heavily pierced that the storm could get inside, yet she could still see the endless rage of elements from the ground on which she stood. And were those... monkeys? Hairless monkeys that seemed to be... very, very aggressive and fighting against black mist. With a bigger white mist creature that- "No seriously, what?!"

She... wasn't entirely sure how to process that. On the one hand, she technically had a people within her land now, which was a step towards the advancement of her sanctuary. On the other hand they were far more brutish and bloodthirsty than she would have liked, and clearly already had some kind of twisted divine guidance.

[The Succubus]

The Great Rat

The two beings were making their respective calls again, in the same back and forward pattern from before. The Great Rat noticed how with some of the sounds came movements towards different things. The flower-that-was-not-a-flower moved a paw towards the the trunk of the towering tree, whenever she emitted that high pitched sound that sounded like "Tree". Tree. Hmm.

The beast and the flower made a different noise as they looked at each other - "Goddess". Is that what they were? It knew itself as "rat". Were rats and goddesses similar? The beast looked a little like a rat but the flower did not. It had bare skin like a newborn rat. It was also bending over and touching the earth with its paw and where the paw moved, swift growing grasses and flowers appeared then faded, leaving behind a pile of petals. The petals surged upwards and took the form of a large creature without fur or flesh. The beast touched the petal-beast and it seemed to move.

The Great Rat felt a sense of satisfaction as it realised that its initial assessment had been accurate. The flower-not-flower and orange beast had mated, then the flower had bent over to give birth to their child. It certainly appeared a lot faster and easier for these creatures than it was for rats.

It turned away and headed back down one of the many, many tunnels that lead towards Tanglenest. As it did, something shot through the entire length of its being. A feeling, indescribable, powerful, overwhelming. It looked down and saw its paws in the soil of the tunnel, its fur touching the cold stone of the tunnel wall and felt a connection to every single rat in the entire world.

The Great Rat had awoken - and it scurried down into the dark to found out why it had.

Spoiler: AP Expenditure:

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Teach Mundane Concept - Language (1 AP): After watching the interactions between Tefaita and Looloodi, The Great Rat has grasped the basic idea of language and the rats have developed a very crude proto language comprised of squeaks, chitters and hisses called Rodent. At present, Rodent struggles with advanced concepts like time, spirituality, magic and so on but if another creature speaks very simply and slowly, the rats can get a rough idea of what someone is thinking. Just don't ask for a lecture on quantum mechanics or sociology.

Teach Mundane Concept - The Self and Others (1 AP): The rats now have an idea of the self, others and being an individual, following the wandering rat's discovery of the Book of Nasigune. They are slowly learning what this means and through the use of their new language, how to interact with one another. This does not extend to spirituality and souls yet but will evolve with time.

10AP - 1AP - 1AP = 8AP.

[mystic1110]

The Storms Above - Cloud Mire

In the swamps on the clouds above the world, Eniym swam in lazy figure eights and complicated patterns that contained no logic. She looked from the scum pond down upon the storms and the meetings of the gods. The cloud mire prooved to be a botanical miracle - mushrooms, ever industruous, quickly colonized the great strata of the oozy clouds, great forests of various shapes sprung up and grew widely upon those fertile swamps. The mushrooms would grow in long travails that draped over the cumulous clouds, such that the clouds were said to be wearing the finest dresses made of button caps and other strange shapes. From below one would see the clouds and their trails as if great strange beasts just floating the sky. Birds would nest up there in the solid sky, some species never bothering to go below to the trees and soil of the savage land beneath.

When the storms came which they always did the clouds would collide and being sticky with Eniym's mucousy slime they would merge and stick together only to part with a loud squelch. A storm from below would be like storms that came before - elemental rage - except now the lightning would trail down the trails of mushrooms and fungus such that they resembled enormous jellyfish with tendrils wildly flapping in the winds. Creatures below would flee at the storm as being caught in the open had the additional danger of being electrocuted by the fungi. In the sky, a storm would be the equivalent of an earthquake as the squishy clouds and their swamps would crash and separate - forming smaller such goopy clouds with their mushroom forests in their wake.

More concerning was perhaps, that in these great storms, the mushrooms would release their spores which fell throughout the world like purple and green snow. Some days after a storm would find a haze of falling spores choking out the light of Ilianthos. During a torpid tornado, the conflux of wind would drag in the spores until the spores would clog it up such that the tornado would remain a solid pillar of mushroom and slime that would chain a particular cloud to the land upon which the tornado first touched the ground.

During these wild growths, Eniym did nothing. One would wonder for a goddess that may represent turbulence why she was content to stay still. Life seemed to go on - She looked on and life did go on. It went on without interruption. Meetings, growth, creation. Life went on with an inherent logic. Soil grew trees, Swamps grew shrooms, Ruins grew Moss. Life happened, and Eniym lazily smiled with her mouth which had no jaw. Her slime gluing the very storm together. Soon the winds would batter the neat progression of happenstance - eventually.

Spoiler: AP Bookkeeping

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10 AP

Alter Land 1 AP - Mushroom Forests grow out from the Cloud Mires. The spores they release are just mushroom spores - nothing fancy or lethal - just more mushrooms. Enjoy. [Clouds (Languidity) 5/10 ]

10AP - 1AP = 9 AP

[Toxic Mind]

Marah: A Stone's Throw Away

She left the Mer to their devices. They were growing on their own, exploring the Tidal Palace and living among it. Some had even taken to venturing beyond into the Coral Forest to hunt the fish that lived there, and gather plants and other edible sea creatures. Marah was pleased, but she also knew if she stayed, the Mer would never become anything more than pets, never develop independence. So she left.

She swam to the surface, avoiding storms and clouds, spores and lightning. She saw these things, but they were not what drew her. She saw a great land-anemone, its petals reaching far above the waves, but she passed this by as well. Something drew her, something inexplicable, to the Center. Not of the planet, but of the Land. It felt like a starting point, a place for beginnings. Marah is rained down onto the land. All around her are strange stone pillars, lifeless coral trees. One, though, is not so lifeless.

Mer theologians would debate what the first word that the Sea Goddess could have said. Some claimed it was their name, Mer, others that it was Ocean. The truth was rather more mundane.

"Hello."

[RolandDeschain]

Selima

She watched in secret as the beings of tremendous power gathered. When the green warrior woman killed the halfling she fled and hid herself away.

Striding across the savanna of the Savage Lands under the garish heat of Chyron's Gaze, Selima happened upon a watering hole. She seated herself among the reeds and watched the animals suffering under the blazing light come to drink at great risk for the predators knew this place too it seemed.

As she day dreamed she traced her finger through the air gathering Fire Flecks. She watched a dragonfly skim across the water, darting this way and that in its hunt for larvae. There was something about the simple creature that made her smile so she called it to her. As it hovered and danced to and fro in front of her she absentmindedly reach out with her hand now ablaze with elemental fire. When the fragile creature erupted into flames, Selima discovered her true nature, her divinity....and power.

Consciously she tried to save the creature's life; subconsciously she poured elemental fire and raw divine power into the dragonfly. The simple insect was transformed into a being of pure light and flame, and she gasped as it landed on her wrist. As it slowly flexed its wings she noted that the light and flame was infinitesimally weakening; that it would not survive the day without something to sustain it. Her first thought was Chyron's Gaze, but as she turned her head upward and looked upon the searing light she knew she could not....would not subject this new being to a life of pain and torment. Then she turned to the horizon, where Ilianthos, the Tree of Light cast its warm glow. Yes...that will do nicely. Come little one.

Cupping her creation in her hands she moved swiftly across the land until she stood at the foot of the great tree. She opened her hands as she craned her neck to gaze upward at the great tree's towering height. It knew what to do, for it was somehow imprinted with the goddess's will, so it flew straight to the great bloom at the top of the tree and there it fed upon the purest light of the First World. Ilianthos did not dim, for its light was in fact infinite, but the creature grew steadily until its size surpassed that of the bloom upon which it fed. While it gathered its massive wings flexing them once then twice, it embedded an egg within the folds of the great blossom, then it launched itself into the air.

The enormous dragonfly of light and flame flew higher and higher, until it reached the point where the void touched the sky then set off on its course...its great migration.

Selima tarried there long enough to witness the nymph hatch and begin to feed on Ilianthos' light, and when the great dragonfly returned to the tree from the opposite direction from which it had departed it alighted on the bloom and dissipated in a flurry of embers. The now enormous second dragonfly laid its egg and launched itself into the air to perform its migration.

The goddess remained to implant a tiny imperfection in the next creature's migration, then passed her hand over Chyron's Gaze damping its harsh and painful glare. Soon the First World began to experience seasonal changes.

Spoiler: AP Accounting

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Beginning AP - 16 AP
Create Mythical Life (4 AP): Aurora-optera - Dawnflies live a short life of singular purpose, and only one may perform its migration at a time. The Dawnflies fly a slow circuit around the first world, traveling counter to the revolution of the planet. The imperfection that Selima created in the Dawnflies is that they fly slightly faster than they should if they desired to return to exactly the same point.
Thus their migrations are altered by 1 degree each day(which is roughly 24 hours). There would, therefore, be no true equator as the "sun's" path is altered slightly each day. A full cycle of the Dawnflies is therefore 360 days(roughly a year).
Create Mundane Concept (1AP): Seasons - Each successive Dawnfly grows in light and warmth until halfway through a full cycle, when their power begins to wane slightly until the cycle is complete. The effect of this is that the light and warmth provided by the Dawnflies are at their lowest at the end/beginning of each cycle(winter), and peaks halfway through a cycle(high summer).
Bless (1AP) - Selima's Wards: The Dawnflies lie under Selima's protection and therefore cannot be harmed without spending the appropriate AP.
Bless (2AP) - Counter Chyron's Gaze. The simple progression of days and nights is no longer painful to the living things of the First World.

Domain Actions: Sun(Dawn) 8/10 AP

Ending AP: 16AP - 4AP - 1AP - 1AP - 2AP = 8AP

[Razade]

A Single Stone on the Engraved Plains

The Engraved Plans stretch for some time, carved mountain peaks piercing into the sky but they give way in time to smaller and far more complex pillars. Each seems to be arraigned with a purpose, as if each row of the four story tall basalt pillars was placed with care and forethought but of course...they simply grow from the ground. At the center of it all was A Single Stone, the same as many of its fellows yet the writing pulsed and writhed with Elemental power. No storms swirled here, only the dark skies above.

"Hello." The Sea Goddess's words are echoed back as three figures pulled themselves from behind several more pillars. In heavy robes, as if to protect from some ancient cold, they loomed even if they were much smaller than the Goddess, eyes of elemental fire burning in the dark recesses of their cowls. "Why have you come to this place?" whispers the first, the other two moving to A Single Stone, hands like spiders with spindly fingers working over letters. "To bare witness?"

With those words the earth shakes and the Earth trembles. Vast fissures split across the First Land and the Savage Lands and with a rending crack heard throughout the world, the Savage Lands departed into the oceans as they split into islands and continents of their own. "The last Oath is remembered, even if time forgets so many others. This realm is a prison, and none shall breach it." the three entone, A Single Stone's surface rippling with lightning. The Savage Lands were shattered and cast across the oceans and seas, vast lands and smaller islands moving and drifting until they formed a series of barriers around the First Land and where the tree Ilianthos sat. In tuth, Ilianthos sat at the center of it all.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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Create Avatar (4AP) - The Gloam: Three robed figures, they speak in strange tongues and can read the markings on A Single Stone. These creatures do not display as Divine, and nothing is known to be beneath their robes.[Magic (The Fey) 4/10]

Alter Land (1AP) X2 - The Shattering: The First Land stands apart, no simple earth may touch it. The Savage Lands become The Shattered Lands as large chunks of the mega-continent are thrown into a series of islands and smaller sibling continents that ring the First World.[Nature (Decay) 2/10]

6AP - 4AP - 1AP - 1P = 0AP

[Toxic Mind]

Marah: A Stone's Throw Away

"A prison; that must be very lonely." There is a great deal of sadness in her voice. She did not like the idea of things being apart. Marah did not understand why the being had shattered the land, but she was not sure it mattered whether she did anyway. In truth, islands would serve the Mer well, allowing them much easier access to the land-dwellers. She did not wish them to be isolated from the rest of the world. "I did not come for that purpose, but I have done so all the same, if that is what you wanted." Marah says solemnly. "I came to find the elements-maker. My people need fire, and earth-things, and I wish to borrow them. I borrowed some of the coral and grew a forest. Can you give me fire?"

[Razade]

A Chance Meeting, As Expected: The Engraved Plains

The trio exchange a glance, knowing, silent.

"We cannot give you what is already yours. How can one look for the maker of things unmade? The Elements were here before you, Goddess, and they will remain after us all. If you have gone searching, you will have found its maker for it is the World." The first remains speaking though the other two join in time, shadows of shadows as their eyes continue to burn. "You may take fire, for fire is yours. Your coming was known and what you leave with as well. The Stone, it sees, it sees what has not and will not be. We cannot give you what is yours but we can give other things. Glimpses, for a Goddess."

[Toxic Mind]

Marah: A Stone's Throw Away

"Glimpses of what?" She says, curious. She was pleased that creation could just be used as she wanted. Maybe the others were also like this! Perhaps existence was already bound together in solidarity.

[Draken]

Dead in the Deep

A dead halfling was left behind by two and a thousand gods. Its life and its soul taken, nothing of interest to them left behind. Chryon and Illianthos eventually turned away from the jungle, and in the night, they came for the corpse. Caretakers, half-rotten and as such kept. No beast of the caldera willing to approach the things that came from the mountain's pores, nor indeed willing to approach those caves from which soft tendrils shyly crept.

A similar scene happened in the reefs. Night fell and the dead swam out of the holes left behind by the shattering of the land. Flooded tunnels hidden by the boiling curtains of fumaroles on the seafloor, around which swam unhindered great sharks with their guts replaced by worms and moss, old crab's shells filled with green and sludge, and squid strangely stiff and stained green over their pallor.

Now caretakers, they care only for the dead, who they ceremoniously take. An apt name. As long as there are bodies for them to drag to their caverns, they mind their own business. But some of them were hunters in life and though plants now, the brains remember the thrill of killing and deep moss is not picky about the age of the dead.

Even now, a fair man or maid of the mer folk swims through the night oceans and meets a great beast of the sea whose hunger is forever sated, but whose masters have needs of their own. Needs sated by teeth, pincer and tentacle.

In olden lands all proceeds as usual, but the caverns that surround the heart of the First Land - and in some other elementally active locales as well - are lined with great mounds of dead flecks. Heaps in which the deep moss rests in uncertainty and grows explosively.

The God Beneath carries on in silence as ever. Hopeful for what more will come to rest within its halls.

[ChaoticHarmony]

Looloodi: Caldera

Looloodi looks around in wonder before seeing the sudden concern on Tafeita's adorable face. "What's wrong Sissy? Is something, like, different than you remember?" She tries to see deeper, to understand what is bothering her older sister, but sees nothing overly suspicious. Yes, it was a bit more violent than she was expecting....maybe that is what was bothering Tafeita?

In the distance, she spies the first thing that seems out of place. A tall, green creature with barely any petal or foliage stands with a strangely unique bird on her shoulder. What must be dozens of similar birds perch sporatically across the trees surrounding the beautiful thing. Across from her, utter blackness seems to swirl. These things by themselves are not what seemed strange to Looloodi, but the sense of tension in the air, as though one wrong move or word between these beings could radically change the landscape. Looloodi gently taps Tafeita, pointing in the direction of the creatures. "Do you know them Sissy?"

[Anubis Dread]

Tafeita: Caldera

"No... no I do not," Tafeita admitted, following her sister's gaze. And frankly speaking she had no desire to get to know them at the moment. While she could accept the changes made her to sanctuary and appreciate new life even if violent there was still much work to be done. To teach these little monkeys the way of peace would be a great undertaking, not to mention ensuring that the stronger beasts of these Savage Lands would still be blocked from Caldera by her blessing. Then again, simply racing from one disaster to another would be a fool's errand. Perhaps gathering more information would be-

A sudden cracking of the earth sounded. And then said earth in front of her exploded. The Hearth Goddess' jaw dropped as the savannah in front of her, and yet another chunk of her jungle to boot, broke apart and started drifting away from each other. A situation that none of the creatures currently on said land seemed to enjoy. "Oh come on!" she huffed, stamping her paw and idly letting loose her precious Penghou seeds. They should keep things calm in her absence. "I apologize little sister, the tour will need to wait."

By the time she was no longer here but elsewhere the shattering of the continent had died down. Her own Caldera was mostly unharmed, now merely having a quarter of itself open to the ocean with no mountainous barrier, the rest still firmly attached to the main continent. The savannah though... well as much as she had disliked it the people upon it were very much a people. And people did not enjoy the world around them exploding. None seemed harmed - why would they if the divinity did not want them to be after all? - but it was not doing wonders for the order for their already rather violent and chaotic society. She would need to bring comfort to these lost souls. Perhaps she could teach them a new way of life to make things easier? Or perhaps empower their spiritual guardians such that-

The beast goddess' teeth bit into her tongue. No. Simply helping the small folk would do nothing in the long term. She was but a single divinity. If she used her power to help the people of this world every time one of the other divinities did something to harm them she'd be forever powerless, and the people would still suffer. She needed a more permanent solution. Something... self-sustaining. A one time cost that would forever help the people of this world. And she had been wanting to make her own children...

Nodding to herself, Tafeita sunk down to haunches and mused. The small folk were a good enough basis for her design. Yet to simply make her creation an absolute copy was unthinkable. She had her pride after all, and as much as she believed in function being greater than form that didn't mean she had no interest in form at all. What's more these were to be her first true creation of life! While making all of her creatures adhere to the ascetics of her own form would be the height of vanity, making her very first clearly her own children of body as well as cause was just common sense. It certainly wasn't that she wanted her first people to be cute, and couldn't envision something cuter than herself. At all. Really.

Earth would be their body. With dexterous paws the small beast stacked the loose dirt of the broken savannah into a crude idol of a small monkey. Then she added her own touches. She made them a trifle smaller, as strength was not a large concern, while enlarging its eyes and mouth to make a better smile. Then she added her own personal touches. Floppy ears and soft fur atop their head. A tail coming from their back. Some more fur on their hands and feet. When she was done she had to concede it looked more like they had been crossed with an especially fluffy dog rather than her own more mixed form. That was fine though. More important than the earth that made their body however would be the first that made their heart. Twisting her head, Tafeita bit into her chest and ripped out a golden flame. Gently she pressed her blood and heart into the idol's chest, until it sunk inside. And then with blood and heart beating within it the what instead became a who, and life was born.

The child, for adult in body it may be but new to the world it still was, looked around in wonder. Tafeita couldn't help but smile at the pure innocence of the Kobold she'd created. They would be the bringers of warmth, the ones who would seek out the people's of this world and build a hearth around which they could be safe and glad. They would build no cities of their own, nor seek war or wealth or glory. Work would be their joy, family their comfort and friends their currency. By teaching the other races of this world their skills, and performing their chores and labor they would bring peace. Why fight for food when it is grown for you after all? Why argue over who gets the best tools when more will be freely given? Survival would still be a challenge, but from outside threats alone would strife come. And when an outside threat came to a community they banded together rather than broke apart.

With a flick of her tail the Kobold was no longer a Kobold, but instead a kobold. One of their kind, rather than one of a kind. Her new people wandered across the plan, occasionally stopping to help the odd animal or sharpen a rock to give to one of its fellows. Soon they would find the smaller folk, and they would take great joy in making them tools and gathering them food. And so the small folk would need to fight less over resources, and would grow more peaceful. And as time went on being peaceful due to a lack of things to fight over would become being peaceful by nature, and the world would be a better place.

Unless the small folk population grew so quickly there were no longer enough kobolds to said them. Tafeita hoped that would not be the case. She'd set the kobolds to give birth to a dozen young in a single littler, which was about normal. Probably. And she doubted the small folk would give birth to too many more at once than that. They should grow mostly in parallel, with just enough kobolds left over they could seek out other races to help as well. It would be a perfect cycle!

(It would not be a perfect cycle)

Spoiler: AP Actions

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AP: 10

Bless (1AP) - Jungle Guardians - Penghou spread across Caldera, further reducing the chaos and violence within the crater. Though given it rose with the advent of the Shattered Lands it's a bit of a wash. [Earth (Shelter) 6/10]

Create Sapient Life (2AP) - Kobolds: Doglike small humanoids who are naturally hard workers, skilled laborers and subservient. They love nothing more than to find a community or creature they can help, settle down and get to work. That said though they are naturally subservient they don't put up with abuse. Many a story would circulate of villages working their Kobolds too hard and causing them to leave, leading to the ruin of their oppressors. Though having their own distinct culture they seldom create cities or states of their own, instead either wandering the wilderness in tribes looking for work or building settlements within or attaches to those of other races. [Earth (Shelter) 8/10]

Create Concept (1AP) - Labor: The concept of teaming up with others to do things for the good of the group rather than doing jobs individually, and abandoning creating goods you need to survive to get better at crafting a specific good than anyone could become if they had to provide everything for themselves. By banding together, bigger things can be made. By providing for others, you gain better goods for yourself. [Earth (Shelter) 9/10]

Bless (1AP) - Allies - The halflings gain the service of the kobolds! While they still need to craft, hunt and gather for themselves to an extent the kobold greatly supplement all of these, significantly reducing hardships and scarcity. [Earth (Shelter) 10/10]

Gain Domain - Earth (Shelter!)

Spoiler

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Alter Land (1AP) - The Caldera
Bless (1AP) - Sanctuary
Create Mundane Concept (1AP) - Homes
Create Mythic Life (2AP) - Penghou
Bless (1AP) - Jungle Guardians
Create Sapient Life (2AP) - Kobolds
Create Concept (1AP) - Labor
Bless (1AP) - Allies

AP Spent

Bless 1AP
Create Life 2AP
Create Concept 1AP
Bless 1AP
1+2+1+1=5AP

10AP - 5AP = 5AP

[Civilization (Agriculture) 1/10]

[LordArgon]

Spoiler: Previously on Dragon Ball Z

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QUOTE=Deja Who?;23713134]Janika the Neverfail

"The Many-As-One? I applaud your work, Sky-Maker." The primal goddess grunted a quick compliment, her gaze for the first time turned upward to the painting of stars beyond the sky. "So you are the same as I. This had been evident to me, somehow, but I wanted to have it confirmed. Perhaps I then should challenge you, and bring this land low." Janika growled a little and cracked her knuckles menacingly.

"You want me to go up there? I have no desire to leave these lands as yet so meet that demand with blood or leave me. I take no orders." She threatened, eyeing the larger number of birds that had shown up. So many flying beasts. It would be difficult to punch them all. Perhaps if she devised some sort of long range..

"But if you have not the guts for it I will leave you. Both of you. It's no pleasure facing something too weak to pose a challenge. On one condition, you may have that.. bauble." She gestured towards the Halfling's glowing soul, still safe in the bird's breast.

"But I wish to examine it. Hand it here."[/QUOTE]

"If it's a fight you want, then a fight you shall have. If that is your condition to begin our friendship, I will stive to meet it."

[The Succubus]

The Great Rat

The tunnels of Tanglenest echoed with chitters and squeaks. The rats were learning quickly how to communicate with one another. Some emphasised the use of their voices and the fledgling language, others used a combination of sounds and movements but a few were still relying on scent markings and postures.

The Great Rat moved through the tunnels - an intangible presence, yet the rats were somehow aware of it and felt calmer, more secure and purposeful as it passed them by. Its ears pricked up - there were a series of sounds coming from one of the rats in the outer reaches of Tanglenest, sounds that were not the usual subjects of food, mating or space. They stopped and started as if the speaker was trying to describe something it had no words for. The Great Rat trotted over to listen.

"Far tunnel. Fall tunnel. Cave open. Beast not beast den. No life beast moving. Grass. Moss. Strange air. Beast not beast sniff. Lick. Not eat me. Large tunnel. Stone burrow. Strange thing. Flat tree many leaf many mark. Touch..."

At this point, the rat stopped. How could it describe the moment when it went from mindlessness to self aware? The strange sensations as though a thousand lights had sparked in its mind? The Great Rat paused for a moment, as the rat's companion left the chamber and headed back to the main nest. It sniffed and could detect the scent of moss on the speaker. This was an unusual rat - more resourceful and bold than many of its kind. It shared The Great Rat's curiosity of the world.

It reached out a paw and touched the head of rat before it. The rat looked up and saw a large ghostly rat before it, with soothing blue eyes and care and affection in every strand of fur and whisker. It spoke.

"Wander. See. Learn. Be safe. Be quick. Return to us. Teach."

The ghostly rat faded from sight and the wandering rat, feeling energised and purposeful, scurried away down one of the infinite tunnels of Tanglenest.

Spoiler: AP Expenditure:

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Raise Hero (2AP): The Wandering Rat: A rat that became the first semi-sentient member of its species, following its journey through the Fortress of Moss and its encounter with Nasguine. After eating a little of the moss that grows in the deep places of the world, its memory is considerably enhanced and learning speed improved. The Great Rat has blessed it with additional speed, agility and resilience. It does not need to eat very often but enjoys food as much as any other rat. From most perspectives, it doesn't look any different from a normal rat but to those with godly vision, they can see a glowing blue pawprint on the rat's forehead.

8 AP - 2 AP = 6 AP.

[RolandDeschain]

Selima

She walked for a time with Ilianthos' at her back and so came she again to the encircling mountains. Climbing to the top she looked down upon the lands of The Caldera, and this time she descended into the sanctuary leaving behind the elemental storms and strange mushroom rain.

So it was that she came across the beautiful woman with diamond covered roots, and the orange furred animal of indeterminate origin both of which were wreathed in godly power. Where her courage had failed her earlier, this time she steeled herself and approached the two, "Greetings....sisters. I am Selima an admirer of both the Tree of Light and this sanctuary."

[Razade]

Marah: A Stone's Throw Away

"Glimpses of what?" She says, curious. She was pleased that creation could just be used as she wanted. Maybe the others were also like this! Perhaps existence was already bound together in solidarity.

"Of much. Of Truth."

The Gloam moved closer, their hands weaving together to form a giant screen that ripples with magical power. The Mer swam beneath the waves, their Coral manse much changed as towers stretch to the surface of the waters. These towers are magnificent palaces above the waves as well, races and creatures foreign and alien to the Goddess walked and traded and all was connected. The world hummed and buzzed with languages and songs never again spoken and great vessels ply the skies as easily as they skimmed over seas.

But all is for naught. The skies above turn the color of blood, the winds blew up giant water spouts and whirlwinds and the world shattered. Not the First Lands, not the Shattered Lands. Not even the lands that the Mer Goddess would never walk upon. The World, the First World, rent asunder as magma and molten elemental fire and earth reign down as all is rent in twain. Gods, Gods long dead if they lived arose from beneath and lay all foundations to ash.

[Deja Who?]

Janika the Neverfail Messin' up the Caldera

"Really? You'll fight me?" Janika said with excitement, her gaze leaving the soul bauble for a moment to regard the Welcoming Void. "..hmm.. How? Will you meet my fist from in that void?" The war goddess mused before stumbling as the Shattering occurred and her attention was once again called.

"What?! Who dares?" She called out, glancing about wildly before seeing that one side of the Caldera was now completely missing- spilling out into the ocean! Even more alarming, her primal lands beyond had been sundered. Janika tightened her hand into a fist and punched a nearby tree which uprooted it on the spot.

"Now I'm really itching for a fight! Taking all comers!"

[LordArgon]

"Hmm. You are right, my intangibility makes our fight difficult. Perhaps we should fight with our creations instead of our fists? We could instill a fraction of our power into a mortal creature and see who comes out on top."

[mystic1110]

The Cloud Mire - Mushroom Gardens

Life happens, it happens without the Gods - it can build itself. The primordial sludge on the clouds rippled with potential. Life begot life, the algae bubbling and burping, the smells of creation like sulfur rising into the cold air. Mushrooms bloomed and joined - they formed folded layers that resembled minds, they formed appendages to swim in the swamps, they formed limbs to crawl out. The lighting illuminating the floating spores.

Some of the crawling things would reach the edge of the sticky clouds, the edge from which trails of fungi would drape down like gentle cliffs. Some would fall and when they hit the ground below they would disintegrate into their disparate parts - a puff of mushrooms, just more spores during such storms. Sometimes they would clump, but any life beyond the life of the flowers that composed them would be gone. they would just be splats of lichen on the rocks below.

And yet - life happens, and its impossible to tell how long in those days, and it was impossible to tell if Enyim was a clockmaker or a designer, helping the process, or if the electricity and flame and the conditions in the Cloud Mire were such that the ripe fruits of the muck gave birth to intelligence. Mushrooms were joined together in symbiotic relationships - some acted as digestion, the stronger more fibrous ones acted as muscles. Instead of crawling they would begin to walk soon. Particular fungi acted like chords allowing them to speak to one another in the language of clouds and spores - it sounded like different breaths in quick succession.

On their backs, large thick petals grew furled but bloomed when the clouds breathed fire below. The mushroom petals melded together into permeable hollow wings. Eventually, these strange weird creatures would again, no longer crawling, reach the cloud edge and look upon the savage world below. One would step off, and unfortunately, they would plummet down, to strike the ground and in a plume of red would be converted to dead lichen again - a beautiful impact that would provide a beautiful fungal growth. Another would step off as well and try to flap the blooms on its back and it too would impact the ground and paint the soil in vivid greens and purples - soaking up the decay. And yet, a third would flap their blooms, and luckily catch an updraft of hot air, and would be taken up higher than the clouds upon which it was born and evolved from and then gently float down to the ground - its fibrous feet alighting upon a rock lightly.

From below, seeing these symbiotic fungal forms float down from the clouds - they would look like angels.

Spoiler: AP Bookkeeping

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9 AP

Mundane Concept 1 AP - Evolution. This isn't fancy pants magic speed evolution - this is just the regular eon-long concept of evolution. If the gods leave the land alone - evolution would just take place. [Ocean (Turbulence) 2/10]

Create Sapient Life 2 AP - Angels. They are made of many symbiotic mushrooms working together - like a hydra or a Portuguese man of war (or a lichen). They are somewhat intellegent at this point, but not really much better than dumb animals. They cannot yet fly on their own power they can only glide on hot updrafts which they use to come to the land below and then ascend to the cloud swamps above. They do not yet have a purpose or reason in doing so - they are literally mushrooms that are accidentally figuring out how to be. [Clouds (Languidity) 7/10 ]

9AP - 3AP = 6 AP

[neriractor]

Daghir Born

Continents made and shattered as Vagavonds and Vagrants will to do, light for the world: from beauty and pain, from wings and combustion. The self, speech grasped by the highest of rodents and the lowest of halflings... A measure of unity, little helpers from bigger ones; sent to do good, barriers raised against... himself? is okay, they didn't exist anymore, not in a way that mattered... And like the everchanging constant he enjoyed of the small voices life changed, while still remaining life. All of this and more had passed in his absence, as he contemplated the first spoken words, those from the skull taker, those that awakened him; and its held meaning...

"Words... to speak... sounds break through this listless silence!"

joy in defiance? he ventured to guess, and decided to meet the word maker for her opinion. Unseen, he watched for a while, as she spoke with shadows and shining birds. similar, yet different beings to her and to himself. He retreated, incapable of approaching the godess...

Daghir, Caldera

It was a matter of trying, he thought and was now amidst the mountains that sought to keep him away, and he saw beauty and safeguard and mercy (or at least thats what he thought they would look like, had words a form), and as usual he passed their messages through him, divinity through god and back. Finally, he took a word for himself, one they had used in almost unison, and united will, that he had wondered about and now returned with his own spark, flowing out of thin air around the godesses as it would do if there was a source: "... Sisters?"

and the word reverberated, creating voices of their own, joyful even when transmitting anger or shame and with no knowledge but to repeat as they heard, he now had sisters of a sort around the globe and just a hint of what would be a smile if he had a face, that he should break through the listless silence...

Spoiler: AP expenditure

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-Create Monstrous Life, -1 AP (Echoes): untangible and formless, the Echoes are playful, if lacking the intelligence or drive to be malicious or deceitful. They appear where they may have, when Daghir spoke and enjoy near perfect emulation of other voices, mimicking what other races say with just the tiniest bit of variation denoting another being and perhaps a hint of a giggle when several echoes are together. [Magic (truenaming) 1/10]

domain acquisition:
-[Magic (truenaming) 1/10]
-[history (language) 1/10]

16 AP -1 AP: 15 AP left

[ElFi]

A Call To Action, and A Time to Wait

One-Of-Many has vanished from the Bonekeeper's shoulder, and the other members of the flock likewise depart. It sees no reason to involve itself further in her squabble with the First Warlock, violation of the sanctity of the soul as his actions may be. It will not convince them to turn back from their heinous acts or to see reason on this day. Another time, another season, Many-As-One will return with clearer heads and sounder arguments, and perhaps then something approaching a consensus can be reached.

For now, the flock is needed elsewhere. The First Land had been shattered, and the death and destruction that followed was immense. Many-As-One scatter in all directions across the landscape, collecting the lost, forlorn souls that await their final rest. Once they reach the Citadel they will know true peace, true enlightenment, true purpose. If only the other Lords would understand this fact as Many-As-One do. But, a time for reconciliation is not now. It will come, with patience and contemplation.

The work is immense, and at times almost seems to be too much. Many-As-One discourse with itself, decide on a plan of action - they will create a helper to assume the role of master over the cycle of death and reincarnation. One-Of-Many, the member of the flock that conversed with Janika, offers a viable candidate: the first mortal soul whose life was claimed and soul reaped, a simple halfling hunter but born with a vigorous spirit of bravery and loyalty. This soul is unraveled and rewoven, becomes something more, becomes First-Of-His-Name, the shepherd of the dead and guardian of the living.

Satisfied with this, Many-As-One retreat to the Hall of Titans for a time. Their strength falls at ebb, but it will return with time, and with every passing moment their comprehension of the universe grows. It is only a matter of time.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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Create Avatar- First-Of-His-Name: This divine being, once a simple halfling hunter slain in battle by Janika, has been remade by Many-As-One to serve as their herald and the master over the conduction of lost souls to to the Citadel. Appearing as a hooded figure with glowing silver eyes and a pair of scales, it is present at the moment of every being's death and, in the event of reincarnation, their second birth. [4 AP] [4/10 Civilization(Heroes)]

Starting AP: 6 - 4 = 2 Ending AP
Domain Progress: 4/10 Civilization (Heroes)

[bc56]

Tenebreon: The Designer is in Darkness Born.

Drip...
Drip...
In the deeps, Tenebreon awoke. Water ran off the folds of his cloak, and it dripped against stone, one drop at a time. The god caught the next drop before it fell, rolling it about in his unseen palm, feeling its dampness, its coolness. The god reached out and felt the stone walls of the tomblike chamber, cool and damp. The water came from a crack in the ceiling, over which a stalactite had grown. Tenebreon studied the stalactite and felt the minute depositions taking place. He felt the channel where the water flowed out of the chamber, and he understood his escape. He took a drop of water and threw it at the wall of the chamber. Then he did it again, and again. He cut a passage through the rock, one drop at a time, up and out until he broke through the surface of the ground. The light of the day struck Tenebreon's eyes, and he was in pain. He retreated back into the darkness and waited. When night fell, he returned to the surface once more. He had plans, and he would need a lot more water for them to work.
Tenebreon found a river and dived to its bottom. There, he struck the earth, breaking open a crack into which the river flowed. Tenebreon widened the crack until it was a great sinkhole, channeling the entirety of the river's flow downward. Tenebreon directed the water, carving out chamber after chamber beneath the ground, each more magnificent and elaborate than the last. These would be his workshops, these chambers shaped by the river which flows through them.
In one of the deepest laboratories, Tenebreon constructed a wall of stone sunbursts, each of which was capable of rotating into different positions. The river surged against the wall, and by aligning the sunbursts in different ways, the water would flow through the holes between them and carve the patterns the patient god wished into the wall behind. When he began to turn the pieces into position, however, Tenebreon encountered a problem. Some of the discs were too close together, and their rays caused them to turn together, rather than separately. But Tenebreon was inspired by this. He wiped the system away using a torrent of water and tried again. This time, the sunbursts connected together, so that when one was turned, they all turned to the desired position together, at once. He attached one more, with a stone handle for the ease of turning, and then returned the flow of water to the chamber. This time, it worked exactly as intended, and Tenebreon used it to carve out a perfectly cylindrical tunnel beyond the barrier.

Spoiler: AP and stuff

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Start: 16/16
Domains: Darkness (caves), Knowledge (planning)
Alter Land: The Tenebral Laboratories [1]
Beneath the land is a series of chambers, each more elaborately designed than the last, where Tenebreon experiments with water and stone, shaping the rock to his will by force of water.
[Craft (engineering) 1/10]
Create Advanced Concept: Clockwork [2]
By placing gears together, complex tasks with many moving parts can be undertaken simultaneously. This is a huge boon to Tenebreon, and to engineers who emulate him. Without more advanced materials than stone, its utility is somewhat limited.
[Craft (engineering) 3/10]

[Draken]

[Clan Green Hands- Northwestern Caldera]

It had been seven generations since the clan had come to the Caldera, where they stayed for... Basically every conceivable reason, as the First Land outside was incomprehensibly horrible. They had moved in when a languid storm lingered over their hunting grounds for ten weeks and all game had fled, leaving only the vagrant piranha who swam in the rain and surely drowned when the weather turned to mushrooms.

It had in turn been five generations since the clan had found the caverns from which the caretakers walked. The ambling dead were frightening in the outer world, as was everything else, but here more of them were docile, and curiosity took the best of a brave halfling even when safety was not assured. Plus the shallower caves were a decent enough place to live. It was not unusual then, for the short folk to explore the caverns of the caretakers at night when they were away on their quests for bodies, and from these they learned of the alcoves where the corpses rested, and the smooth stone walls and the moss. They learned that the caretakers were protective of the moss, and someone even found that even the most vicious caretaker ignored a halfling covered in moss.

From that discovery the Green Hands earned their name, as they first covered themselves in moss to walk safely beside the caretakers. Then they took to letting it grow over the pelts they wore, and that was safer still. In time, they came to leave their dead at the mouth of the cave for the caretakers to claim and bury in their alcoves, a suitable end for a halfling's life, better than some beast's belly for sure.

It had been two generations now since the clan had welcomed its first kobolds, who took to the habits of the Green Hands as well, and let the moss grow on their fur, all the better to walk the deep halls and see the carvings on the walls, for what little sense could be made of unknown words and images.

It was in this place that these folk first whispered the name of the god beneath, from their smooth caves and safe behind their stacked stone walls.

There they paid their respects to Caerox and Tafeita and The Fortress of Moss.