Introduction
Then he filled the land and seas with plants, creatures of the air and sea and those that crawled upon the earth. After he saw what he had made he created two that were different from all the others. These he gave the ability to reason and love. The first mortals had been created. As soon as these mortals came from the dust, a divine seed sprung up. The first god had been born.
Seeing these mortals, the first god was filled with jealousy. Misunderstanding his own birth he wondered, why had the All Father made them first? So, this god went over to them and began to corrupt them. When they had fully fallen sway to the god, they worshiped him and not the All Father. When the All Father came to them, they attacked him. In his sadness, he destroyed the pitiful creatures and looked at the Corruptor.
He saw only malice in the god's eyes and knew then that this god did not belong in this universe. Something of evil this pure would only corrupt the other divine seeds. So the All Father took the Corruptor away to a restart in a new universe that this world might remain in balance.
The divine sparks remained in the world, untapped potential for creation and power. Would these grow into more creatures of malice and chaos? or would they become champions of good and love? Only time would tell.
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Welcome to Pantheon. Pantheon is a game about gods. The point is to be creative and join in making a story in an open world with other people. You can make a character that is a god, there are no stipulations on what you can be. However, there are stipulation on what you can do.
All gods have portfolios. These are the fabric of that god's personality and will. Each portfolio can have up to three disciplines, each can overlap or be separate. 'Larger' disciplines take up more of a portfolio than 'smaller' ones do. A god can only create or destroy the things that are parts of their portfolio. Any god that wants to act on another god's portfolio must do it through intermediaries like mortals.
If a god dies, which is a possibility, a new seed is created that can be molded by its surroundings or by the activities of other gods. However, some of that power can be obtained by any other gods nearby, allowing them to gain new portfolio topics. It is taboo, to steal the essence of another deity in this way, but not impossible.
* A large discipline would be something like Good, Evil, or Nuetrality. These disciplines take up the place of two or three spaces on the portfolio list.
* A small discipline would be something like, Music, War, or Fish. These disciplines only take up one space.
* Extremely specific disciplines might take only half a space on the portfolio (GM's choice.)
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All gods can travel to any of the three realms at will. While in the realms they can continue working towards their portfolio only if the laws of that realm are not broken by their actions.
1. The upper realm, Paradise, is completely good. No evil can be done there. This a place where only good exists and all mortals who are good end up here when they die. If an evil god comes here he is restricted from doing anything that might harm others, even mortals.
2. The lower realm, The Inferno, is completely evil. No good can be done there. This is a place where only evil exists and all mortals who are evil end up here when they die. If a good god comes here he is restricted from doing anything that might help others, even mortals.
3. The middle realm is completely open to everything. Here all is free and gods can act however they want according to their portfolios. This is where living creatures exist.
Character Skeleton
- Code: Select all
God Name:
Titles:
Creed:
Gender:
Alignment:
Portfolios Governed:
Description:
Territories: (Metaphysical areas where your god has the most power.)
Symbol:
Personality:
Equipment: (Favored forms/abilities/artifacts)
History:(If any. If recently 'born' leave blank.)
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The Story So Far... Write a Post » as written by 13 authors
"There is a darkness in this world, as there must be to keep the balance."
"Darkness? I do not yet know what that is, but I don't like the sound of it," he mused. The word filled him with a strange feeling. As though something threatened to extinguish his light, but that was impossible. Nothing could extinguish light. He blinked as he felt a presence, grinning brightly as another joined them. He felt a connection to him.
"I feel... You are another light. But different from mine. What are you?"
The giant materialised, some feet in the air above the dead bodies of the ruby-thieves. Eyes still closed, Ludicia drew breath for the first timeβ existing in a place that was at once the mortal world and not, where she was invisible to all who were not deceased or divine. As the dust settled, she opened her eyes, flooding the room with a blinding light that emitted from her eyes.
"SINNERS," she said. Her voice was a booming, authoritative thing. It echoed through the ruins, shaking pieces of rocks down from the unused buildings around them. "I HAVE BEEN CREATED FOR YOUR PUNISHMENT. ALLOW YOUR SINS TO BE WEIGHED."
The criminals looked up into the light, and in accordance with the god's creation, felt compelled to confess their sins. There were many to take from, and Ludicia waited patiently until they were done. Only after the judgement did she notice the ruins within which she was floating. The giant's head reared towards the altar steps, and for a moment the air grew colder.
"LET US ADD BLASPHEMY TO THAT LIST," she said.
The sentence was clear. There was only one punishment befitting souls as tarnished as these. Ludicia's face grew a wide grin, as her giant form lurched forward and ripped the souls from their mortal forms. Her own body seemed to coil and change as the front of her chest opened. Within, a world of darkness and pain could only barely be glimpsed before the souls were delivered, and her chest became transparent again.
With her business concluded, Ludicia paused mid-air to observe the altar closer. Though she was not a goddess of pain, she knew to recognise it and felt that there was much of it in this room. Quite possibly there was more to be done before she drew back intoβ wherever she had come from. The roomβ noβ the land itself seemed to quiver with sorrow, all emitting from behind her. Ludicia turned, and saw a form within the room that she had not noticed before. Someone powerfulβ more like her.
"APOLOGIES FOR THE INTRUSION," she said. "I DID NOT REALISE I WAS ENTERING ON SOMEONE ELSE'S DOMAIN."
Quite odd really.
The armored figure's body creaked loudly as they made to get up, they had rested here for long enough. If they planned to introduce themselves to their kin fully it would have to be now. The birds perched on the God's horns warbled loudly as they were once again jostled but soon settled down. It had not taken long for the feathered creatures to grow used to what appeared to them a moving tree.Standing at their full height the metal God lumbered towards their kin.
Kin.....These beings looked nothing like them at all, but there was no mistaking what they were. Such power could not be contained within a lesser creature. Closing in on the other Gods, the armored behemoth loomed over them and regarded them silently for a moment. There seemed to be a discussion going on about each one's place in existence. They could hardly be blamed, a new existence brought on so suddenly would be confusing for anyone thought the metal God was pleased that they were beginning to work it out.
And suddenly there was a thought. What would become of them were they not able to find purpose? What then would become of them?
Shaking off the intrusive thought the armored figure straightened their posture before dipping in a slight bow. "Well met. I greet you warmly. It pleases me to know that I need not suffer this existence alone." The metal God eyed each individual somewhat critically. "There is great power here to be sure. But I sense an uncertainty along with it. Have you met with difficulty since coming into being?" A loud noise broke off the God's words and the birds settled on their horns shuffled nervously. The metal God rumbled lowly, their voice even. "Ah and so I see it,a shadow cast over this new world. As it should be."
How had they known such a thing? The armored figure was so CERTAIN of how things should be, but had no idea where such conviction came from. Only that it existed and so that it was right. And the longer they existed the more certain they became. Was this the truth of their own existence? An unwavering conviction in all things right or wrong? It had to be, they had certainly not felt anything else since they had fallen out of the sky mere hours ago. Setting aside thoughts of their own existence to examine later, the armored figure turned their attention back to the other Gods. They were being rude. "Apologies friends. I have not taken the time to introduce myself, have I?" The God tapped at their broad chest with a metal claw. "I am-"
They didn't even know their own name.
At least not in a way that could be comprehended by anyone but themselves. One of the birds perched on their horns let out a warbling cry. "Raa! Ra!" The metal God rumbled softly in agreement. "I am called Rasteva, and these are my companions. To meet you all pleases us greatly. We would know each of your names in turn. More pressing we would know what it is that causes you to be here at all. What purpose do you serve?"
"Ah and so I see it,a shadow cast over this new world. As it should be." Alo had been so caught up in their self contained thoughts that they hadn't even noticed the world around them until a new voice spoke from behind them. Rather than turning to investigate their form simply inverted as it twisted around, the points of blue fire flickered out and reemerged on the back of their head as they looked at the large figure. It reminded them of their own form of stone, large and powerful and yet still different, they were not rough hewn but rather they shone in the light and.... Reflected the world back around them, for the first time Alo could actually see themselves, though it was greatly smugged and drawn they could see the orange light bouncing back at them. It was strangely surreal to be able to see at least some part of themselves almost caught in the body of another.
"What purpose do you serve?" Again Alo had allowed themselves to be distracted and caught up with their thoughts, allowing the real world to slip by their notice. It was strange, the others didn't seem to have such difficulties, perhaps it was through the fact that they possessed physical bodies rather than shifting forms of fire that they were able to keep themselves more easily focused in one single place and time. The thought brought a strange feeling to Alo... Sadness, the more of these strange creatures they met the more they began to feel alienated from their kind, each other them seemed to be so sure and confident in their forms and proud of them and yet Alo felt so distant, called to the ground beneath and the fire above and torn between the two extremes. Even this stranger, this Rasteva who seemed to hold a form unlike the others seemed entirely sure of their might and place in the world. They may not have a thin and frail form like the others yet they seemed not to need it, their power seemed great enough that they cared little either way what one would think of them.
"I am Alo." The God spoke as they stepped closer to the large being, watching the light of their fire dance across the larger being. "I am fire and I am the earth, bound to them as they shape me.... I am... I am different from some but not from others... It is strange, I can feel... Others like us and unlike us walking on my surface. We are not alone in this world, this band of us strange beings, there are others far far away and others lurking nearby. Some of them are like you all and others still are like Kassius and I... We are not like you, not entirely. No, we are a different kind of the same thing, you are... Aspects of whim, free to hold bodies of your choosing it seems whilst Kassius and I... We are fire and light and earth and strength and bound to them, we are Primals, locked in this physical world and subject to its whims even as we control it." Alo had been turning their head to look at the others as they spoke, though they forgot to turn their body along with the head, as they finished speaking they turned back to look at Rasteva.
Slowly the Gods attention shifted to the birds that perched upon the armoured beings shoulders, companions they had called them... It felt a homely word, a strange one and for such small creatures. Yet the more that Alo looked at the world around them and to these small and weak beings the more they felt alone, comprised of nothing but elements they were the outsider here and had nothing in this world like them, no living creature could all themselves proud of the fire, nothing existed that lived from the earth alone. No, Alo was alone. But they did not have to be, gently and cautiously they cupped their hands of fire together and pictured the birds, their feathers and their beaks, their wings and even their sounds and thought hard on them, willing and straining to create something even half as similar.
There was a sudden spark in between Alo's hands which as quick as it had arrived tore open in an explosion of light and fire that caused Alo's body to rip apart into a warbling ball that reformed a few paces back. This fire was like Alo but it wasn't Alo, it was controlled by another creature though they still felt connected to it. Their attempts to create something that seemed like the armoured beings companions had been both a failure and a success, rather than create a small and weak looking creature of black feathers they had formed a far larger bird, red and orange and yellow of plumage and wreathed in fire that did not harm it. This new creature was larger and prouder than the small black birds that perched upon Rasteva and would not be bound as they would. The bird was born flying and it lived flying, moving forwards almost as soon as the explosion of fire that had birthed it had dissipated it flew once then twice around the group before heading east, flying towards to unknown horizon, a trail of flame following in its wake as it let out a single piercing cry.
Alo looked after its creation amazed as it flew away, fixed to the spot as the realisation came slowly to it, though they could not truly grasp what it was to be a creature of flesh and blood they had still made one and though it had been a failure from what they originally wished to make it had been a creature that possessed and aspect of flame. They had made life and it bared their mark for all to see, a child of fire. With the dawning realisation Alo turned to look at the rest of the group. "Life... I created life... I do not have to be alone... I do not have to be different and alone forever.
She gasped in awe as a creature made of flame exploded out of Alo with a physical tremble in the ground, circled them, and then flew off. She returned to her bipedal form, it seemed better able to express emotion. "What was that!? Did you *make* that?" Could *she* do that? Could they all do that? She was so excited to try but she wanted to see how the others would react.
She sat there with her eyes firmly fixed on what remained of her creations, her legacy. A city brimming with the stench of deceit, and lawlessness. With the remnants of such a great civilization still steal from, and bleeding one another in the off chance that such an act would bring them riches or glory. Even then at this point she believed that the idea of glory would be beyond the very aspect of their morality.
Up ahead the room began to flood with a pale light, and this commotion caused several shadowy forms to flee from their own cover.
She however did not pay it no mind as her grief was holding her in the moment, solidifying the feelings of apprehension she was already experiencing for her creation. Only for her to look up as the being began to, for lack of a better word "take" the very essence of their souls. In one measure Alteez could easily recognize this one entity as another god, though in memory it was rare for her to see another, seeing as she was always so removed from the rest of the world. Standing as the god floated its way towards her, and she arose to meet it with the grim bearing of her champions skull in hand.
The god spoke with a loud continuance, as her voice began to pulse through what little remained of the once great throne room, and though this was happening she could barely find the will to face her. So as she raised her eyes to the near empty face of her new acquaintance, and sighed calmly as she rubbed a finger across the cracked brow of the ghastly reminder she now held.
"As it stands now, there is barely any reason to call this a domain at all. Though I command here, it is not my rule that is followed, as it once was." She turned away slowly, and strode out towards the back of the room, setting herself down on the once claimed throne. Still bearing her champions skull firmly in hand, as if to guard it in some form of perpetual care. "Just like the day I left them all those long centuries ago... so long now that I can barely remember it myself. But I find the refreshed memories.. painful." She continued as she kept cradling the aged, sand stripped object in her hands.
It became quiet for some time after as the two goddesses traded a solemn glance, and the silence was so prophetic that they could hear long unkempt sections of the city, crumble under the weight of ages upon them.
"As it stands now, there is barely any reason to call this a domain at all. Though I command here, it is not my rule that is followed, as it once was."
"YET DOES NOT THIS SYMBOL OF YOUR EMPIRE STILL STAND? Ludicia mused. "EVEN IF YOUR RULE IS FORGOTTEN, YOUR IMPRINT REMAINS. THE ALTAR WAS WORSHIPPED ONCEβ IT MAY BE AGAIN."
She turned slowly as the goddess passed her on the way to her throne.
"Just like the day I left them all those long centuries ago... so long now that I can barely remember it myself. But I find the refreshed memories.. painful."
The two exchanged looks, allowing the silence to fall over the room momentarily. "I WAS BORN TODAY. JUST NOW, IN FACT. SO I AM STILL GETTING USED TO THE WORLDβ THIS, AND THE ONE BEYOND. AS SUCH I FEAR I CANNOT BE OF COMFORT TO YOU, UNLESS YOU WISH FOR ME TO PUNISH THOSE WHO HAVE WRONGED YOU, AS I PUNISHED THE BLASPHEMERS BEFORE." She looked at the skull in Alteez's hands. "IT IS MY PURPOSE TO BE THE BEARER OF SUCH BURDENS, AS IT IS YOUR PURPOSE TO RULE."
With this she fell silent again, listening to the echo of her own words. She felt too large for this place now that the silence had fallen and the criminals were dealt withβ like a horse stomping through glass, though she wasn't sure how she knew that. Bashfulness was a difficult expression to pull off when one looked like Ludicia, but she somehow managed.
Oh well, perhaps it was not hers to create. That or she could not create in that same way. Maybe, one day, she would figure it out. Day? She hadn't heard that word before but, somehow, she knew it referred to the current state of the skies. So she, instead, chose to fall back onto the grass and stare upward.
"Than you have much to learn if you are truly born for the first time, though it is easy for a god to sleep again several centuries and forget that which they sought rest from in the beginning." The skull was placed on the arm of the throne, and Alteez stood once again as she looked out from its high position among the whole of the temples hall. "That ideal does not strike me as unwanted.. taking hold of this land once again may be the way to save it from certain annihilation. If not from the outside, than at least from themselves." She returns her eyes to Lucidia as the goddess stayed hovering several feet in the air in front of her, and directly addressed her.
"When I was first pulled from the void by the lone voice of a soul in need, I had only the need to serve him, and help make his dream a reality. Now as I stand here on this desecrated mound, mourning his past trials, and the betrayal of his very blood for a simple crown. I know now what must be done for my children to survive the coming hardships." She proclaimed this statement as she turned around to walk past the throne, and took up the fallen kings head once more. Allowing the newly born goddess to follow at her leisure, Alteez ascended the stairs that lead back up to her alter. The focal point at which she returned to the world once more, and soon to be the beginning of her new rule over this land. She had only just returned after over a thousand years in the void, and the feeling of weakness was still in her after all that time. Her strength would be slow to return to her while she remained on this plain. So she would need someone to act out her will for her, and she knew just one being that would be unable to decline such a offer.
Slowly Alo's attention returned to real world and their head raised once more, blue eyes of fire flickering in certainty.
"I did... I saw the companions of Rasteva and I pictured them, thought of their entire being.... I wanted a companion of my own and yet I created something.... More... Something new. A child of fire... And a creature of eternal flame, one that shall never burn out even on it's death. Phoenix... The creature is a phoenix and shall forever burn... But if I could create something greater than the small, frail creatures just by trying to imitate them could I not create something all together new? Could we perhaps all possess this gift?"
Slowly though, Alo approached Akileia, one of the few to actually address them and manage to capture their attention away from the constant drifting morass that was their strange mind, scorching the earth every time they took a phantom step. "Tell me Akileia, you are a creature of... Form and substance, like those strange creatures that prance upon the surface of the earth. They fear the sight of me and flee feeling the fire... Can you not feel the warmth? Do I not blaze of nothing but the fire from which I control? I can't... I can't feel it... The warmth... Or the grass beneath... I don't... I don't understand... Why are all of you creatures of form and substance and I incorporeal? Was I crafted wrong? Am I wrong?"
She smiled at the god. "How could you be wrong? You are so beautiful!" She began to tap her toe on the ground, soft and rythmic.
"Living flame, Burning Burning!
Red and yellow always yearning!
Hungry for more, straight to the core
Don't you know you're perfect?
Powerful Earth Living Living!
Soil and dirt always giving!
Sturdy and fair, eager to share
Don't you know you're perfect?"
She began to stomp harder and lifted her instrument which shifted to become longer, with the strings attached to the wooden base. She pulled a long strand of grass from the ground and it hardened and split. She ran the new bow across the violin and it hummed. Then she played.
The words seemed strange... Perfect? Hungry? Powerful? Fair? Did those simple words really describe them justly? It was true they were powerful and the fire that they were formed from did indeed hunger for more and more to consume to simply allow itself to grow. Did that make them fair? They supposed it made them easy to understand and predict, they had one true purpose after all and that which could be understood could be controlled... Perfect that did not make them, they were split by the twin allures of fire and earth, the sustainer and the destroyer to be perfect. But perhaps there could be refinements, perhaps one reason for their alienation was that they were too simple and basic to be able to grasp the elegant world of the world these others lived in. But... Right now they were fire and fire grew.
Focusing their attention over where Akileia made their strange music they pictured them as best they could, their voice and the way they moved and the way their voice trickled forth. They felt they knew how to do this trick now, the gift of life, but they still had to truly understand its full potential. It was less sudden than when they created the phoenix, rather than there be an explosion of heat and light there was a crackling, searing sound as Alo's body began to shudder and shift and slowly it began to tear itself in two down the middle. There was a noise of crashing lighting as the body of flame finally tore apart and the new body on the left dropped down into a ball of fire that grew brighter and thicker and thicker until it was a pure orange mass of blazing heat like a newly born star until slowly with a creaking of burning wood a pair of arms and legs separated from the ball which suddenly exploded open as the figure twisted as though emerging from water.
This new figure of flame was far slimmer and more elegant than Alo's form of fire, clearly a feminine to their masculine. Where Alo was one simple block orange mass of shifting fire with only two blue points for eyes, this new one seemed more defined and was impossible to see straight through. From the top of her head what had been the majority of the orb of fire had shifted into hair of yellow flame that twitched and shifted in the wind and blazed brightly against the red and orange of her body. Where Alo was left with simple orbs of blue fire for eyes and nothing else, this new body had a more defined set of features by far, where eyes and a mouth should be there were cavities of white flame that shifted and closed as though they were a real mouth and eyes.
"What am I?" Came the voice from the mouth of this strange little female form of fire. It was a voice of scorched ash and of a gently burning fire on a warm summers night. Slowly she looked at the world around her and at Alo themselves, their creator who looked on unable to show outwardly the blooming warmth of pride and joy at the sight of their creation.
"You are Altrewan, the Mother of Flame, you shall be the overseer of this world sparks and the master of the blaze that must cleanse. You shall act as the arbiter where I cannot..." Slowly Alo's hand reached out and gingerly their fingers gently laid on Altrewan's chest, sending sparks as though they were two white hot pieces of metal touching for the first time. "I am Alo, and you shall forever know me.... My... Daughter..."
Slowly Alo detached their sparking hand away from their creation to look over at the singing God, there was almost a sad look of pity in their impossible expressionless face. "I am not perfect Akileia, I am the master of Fire and Earth, but she, she IS fire, she is perfect."
She smiled wide. "She can speak! She''s just like us! You made someone just like us!" Akileia laughed and twirled. "She is perfect too!" She felt the need to do something, anything to mark this occasion as special. She'd never thought they could make more *people* like them, like gods...but not. She plucked a string from her violin, it shone golden in the midday sun. She looped it into a small band and doubled it over itself. When she was finished it had solidified into a golden ring. She offered it to the newly created mortal. "With this, you will never go without what you need."
Alo watched, amazed almost as Akileia took one piece of her own creation and wrapped it around, causing something new to be formed from the old. Strange, she did not fail to grasp the concept of creation yet she had not chosen to create a living being yet, as though she was far more content to make that strange noise of hers. Altrewan looked between the ring of gold and Alo before reaching out and gently taking a hold of it, taking care to not deliberately burn the gifting God. She looked at it with an almost curious expression before carefully placing it upon the middle finger of her three fingers upon her right hand. The heat that naturally came from the being of fire caused the band of gold to quickly heat up until it began to glow with a soft light.
"Thank you, Akileia, it is a beautiful gift."
What should have been a warm and gentle moment was cut abrupt suddenly as Alo's far more primitive and shapeless form suddenly spluttered and shook, diminishing slightly as they dropped in height. Altrewan quickly dropped to her knees before her creator, raising her hands as though to help them up though knowing that she was physical and Alo incorporeal meant that she could not touch them in this form. "Alo! What's happening?"
"Nothing my child, I am fine. It's just... I cannot maintain this form much longer... Every passing moment I find more of myself returning to the earth and it becomes harder and harder to create flame from the air itself. I must return to the earth to... Collect myself before I can return once more to this surface world."
"But what will happen to me?"
"Oh my child, you must endure without me for a time. Learn this world as best you can and be both the guardian and the cleansing flame when you must.[i]" They turned their attention up to Akileia. "[i]Please, guide my daughter, teach her the beautiful things that are of your domain so that she can teach them to the children to come. I shall return soon." As they spoke Alo's form began to slowly peel away as though the fuel that had been sustaining them had been running out. By the time they had turned to their fellow God there was little more than a head and shoulders left, by the time they had reached the word 'soon' the last of their essence burst apart in the wind and scattered into dozens of twisting embers.
Altrewan slowly stood, blinking slowly, she was strangely sad though she knew Alo wasn't dead she still felt almost abandoned by her creator, though they had no choice in the matter. She looked over to Akileia, a smile formed in the mouth of white flame at the gift giver.
"So what happens to me now then"
Deep in the bowels of the earth, where light had never before graced the depths, there was a rumbling of stone cracking against stone. In the farthest flung reaches of a cave where far far above the entrance opened up to the open sky there the noise grew louder and louder until the origin of it became clear as a figure walked out of the wall as though it had simply stepped through a door. This creature of stone was far far smaller than Alo's original image of flame and earth combined and was more reminiscent of their form of fire. Upon the destruction of their last form their conscious mind had separated from any attempts to maintain their body and scattered downwards, spreading wide like a net and recapturing all parts of their lost self that had returned to the embrace of the earth before coalescing and recombining in this deep and dark cave where their fresh body took form.
Though it was black as pitch in the deep parts of the cave, Alo had no trouble seeing, because they simply didn't see. It would be hard for a mortal being who had depended on their eyes to understand but now that they restored to a body of stone their vision, though lacking in colour and sensation was now able to see everything that moved upon the earth at once, though they couldn't hope to begin to concentrate of everything at once it did fill them with some relief that they could feel their fellow Gods still upon the ground, if ever they were needed they would know it.
Taking a step forwards they were surprised for a second to be surrounded by screeching creatures with flapping wings that detached themselves from where they had been hanging upside down. Alo hadn't even noticed them at first such was their stillness, yet it seemed the sudden disturbance of Alo moving had been enough to cause them all to take flight. Slowly their stoney arms reached up, extending outwards almost peacefully as the swarming screeching creatures- bats they realised- flapped chaotically around them until suddenly from the rock all around them those flying beasts were snatched out of the air by hands that lashed out from the cave walls themselves and drew them all into a sphere of rock, trapping them. When Alo felt enough had filled the orb they turned slowly to look at it, the beasts were contained but unharmed, they needed to be stable for Alo's experiment. They had created creatures in the image and likeness of others and achieved something greater than the idea but now it was time to creature something entirely new and these bats would serve well as building blocks, they were denizens of the deep and nested far away from the surface.
Alo pictured them as they should be, large, powerful, cunning. Though they were creatures that lived in the depths of the earth they were not of it, they were not bound by the earth. No, these would be children of fire and bound by the tenants of flame, to grow and consume and blaze brightly against all odds, like the bats they were originated from they would live in the dark and make these deep caves their nests yet the surface would know their strength and their intellect too, though it would be primitive they would not be stupid, dim witted animals that would fear the fire, they would one day become it's disciples and learn to control the sky above and the ground bellow. They would be the first born of Alo, a mighty race that would leave a legacy as fire does.
Feeling they had filled the orb enough with their energy and vision and power, with a wave of their three fingered hand the sphere cracked and shattered open, spilling the newly remade creature out. They were indeed greater than they had been before, standing at just over five and a half feet as a rule and packed with thick muscle these new creatures squawked and screeched as they spilled over each other, eyes which had been so useless before now shone brightly in the dark. Their faces had pushed inwards as their short muzzles receded and their brows had pushed out to protect their more vulnerable faces from the rocks. Their wings remained attached to their arms though now their fingers pushed out to reveal fully working hands capable of grasping the rocks as they pulled themselves up and looked around with a mixture of fear and aggression at their new surroundings. They didn't understand their origins it seemed and how could they? Just moments ago their minds had been driven by nothing but instinct and now they had minds and thoughts and desires that ran through their thin skulls.
Alo looked over the dozens of creatures as they scrambled around, investigating each other and their surroundings but not noticing them just yet. Yes, these creatures would do fine as a first attempt at new life, their first children had been moulded and would become a fine race that would stretch from edge to edge of the world, residing in deep caves and caverns where their wings would allow them to claim the world above too if they so chose.
"Ughsommy" Alo named these strange, former bat creatures, Ughsommy would be the name of their fledgling race, but they needed room to grow, this small cave would never fit them all for more than a few years before they began to grow. Turning with an outstretched arm Alo felt where there was a larger system of tunnels hiding just behind the walls of stone, caves that would never have been revealed but for thousands of years later when the stone itself melted away, and with the force of their will the thick wall of natural rock simply fell inwards, exposing the new home for their simple little creatures. They would stay here for a time and ensure that their children grew before returning to their daughter, these beasts may yet need a guiding hand.
"I cannot maintain this form much longer... Every passing moment I find more of myself returning to the earth and it becomes harder and harder to create flame from the air itself. I must return to the earth to... Collect myself before I can return once more to this surface world."
"But...maybe I can help you!" She was satisfaction, did that mean she could help Alo to stay? Did they want to stay? She watched helplessly as they gave some parting words to their creation and turned to her. They asked her to teach Altrewan. She nodded as the god descended into the bowels of the earth. Alo would be back soon, until then she would help the Mother of Fire with whatever she might want.
"So what happens to me now then?"
Akileia looked at the burning mortal with interest. She was beautiful and...surprisingly much like herself in both shape and features. Akileia felt a bloom of warmth at the perceived compliment. Just the existence of the living fire before her made her think. She hadn't thought that they could make thinking, speaking creatures. She had thought that those abilities were for gods alone. Then again, she hadn't even known there were others like her until earlier that morning. She wondered if she could make someone like her...
She shook her head, realizing she'd been lost in thought and looked at Altrewan to answer her question. "Alo said to teach you...but, what do *you* want?"
"Hello," she greeted, curtsying to the new being. "I am Cela." The girl beamed. "I can see what lies ahead for you, but I feel like you should find your path on your own. Akileia is sweet. She will help you. I have seen it. May I hug you?"
"IT IS MY OPINION THAT WITHOUT A GOVERNING POWER, PEOPLE WILL TOO EASILY TURN TO THE DESPICABLE ACTS WHICH WE HAVE ALREADY OBSERVED." She looked at the bodies of the ruby-thieves.
She then listened to the story of Alteez's birth, hearing some parallels to her own. Though Ludicia seemed to have been pulled from nothingness by an ideal, she had been pulled by a person. Ludicia's gaze turned to the skull as Alteez picked it back up. Then the two moved across the room until they came to the stairs of the altar. Ludicia unwrapped her legs which had until then been bent up under her floating body. As they touched the floor, her very form seemed to twitch and re-shape. The goddess shrank until she was the size of Alteez, a black cloak forming around her body. In place of a head, there was an antilope skull which turned slowly to where Alteez was standing.
A moment of silence passed as she waited to see what Alteez would do next.
"They are however.. vastly receptive to what we have to offer them, and being my creations my power clings to them in the simplest of ways. Even on this day I can see my essence still permeating his being, while death grips at his soul." She lits the skull as she maintains a tight hold on his chin and presses it against the spinning flames of the gate floating behind her. Its ivory shine began to gleam more brilliantly as she held it there, and only once the heat became too much did its form completely break in her palm. The flames reducing it to the barest of dust in her hand, though the dust stayed where it was, not running or sifting through her fingers. She lifted his chin and tilted the head to open his mouth, only just enough.
"I am in need of a new champion, and though I am unsure of his qualities, I am sure of a way to help guide him." Alteez began to pour the remains into his open mouth, and with that his body began to pour a dim light from within, helping to illuminate the alter along with the two gods in attendance. Only when the last of the dust was gone, and she moved the hand down to his chest, did something appear to happen. The wounds that shed his life upon the alter were breathing a soft light on the stones below, and slowly stitching closed as they did. But when they were done in their healing, she knelt down against his cheek, and spoke into his ear. "What once was two, shall now be one... this I command as you're god." As she pulled away a semblance of life began to return to the man before her, and his eyes flew open with a lazy urgency as it was obvious that his body was extremely groggy from his recent trip.
He tries to stand and produces a slim dagger from below his now stained waistband, weakly swinging it as he begins to try, and stand. Only for his legs to serve him little, and his body to fall to his knees as he finally pushes from the alters base stone. Shortly falling flat on the floor before Alteez, and Ludicia.
At first all he was compelled to do was find a way to escape this place he found himself imprisoned in. Constantly he shifted from dream to dream, conscious to conscious. Unsure of what he was and why he was here and the nature of this strange world around him. So he remained unnoticed in the collective minds of sleepers. Yet Nexus became more eager to escape, more eager to see this world beyond the one he knew his presence started to be more and more. Those in particular command of their own dreams began to see an ancient man on a silver chariot pulled by rams made of swirling star dust.
In an attempt to decipher this mystery, so called βsleep cultsβ sprung up all across the realm. Though small in number, and very far between one another, many of these groups quickly garnered a reputation for mysticism. Many of them employ the uses of hallucinogens and hypnotics into their rituals to better see the charioteer that was moving from dream to dream.
It was the combined effort of Nexusβ growing grasp of the world outside that of the dreams of mortals and the growing number of these cults and their strange occult mysticism that brought him out of the hazy seed and into full manifestation.
As soon as the air fit his weathered brow, the gaunt old man wearing the simple robe of midnight gain an almost innate understanding of so many things at once. He sat amongst the clouds at first. He felt light as a feather merely taking all these new sensations that were unreal in the place he was before. To touch something, to reason, to understand. Even from a distance so great and far away he could see the light beams far, far away.
As if almost instinctive, Nexus had the compulsion to go towards the great light he could see in his divine perception. To bring the night with him as he moved over the middle realm. Amongst the clouds, shapes began to manifest. The beautiful silver chariot brought into this world as he calmly reigned in the two horned rams at the end of the vehicle.
The snap of the reigns was like thunder in the air, and in a blinding speed he began to race across the skies high, high above the world. As he moved, the night went with him. To the mortals below, this merely appeared far up and slow like the natural transition of day to night. Those with the divine spark, they could see in the skies as Nexus rode above he was blanketing the skies with nightfall.
βNight comesβ¦β He expressed in the gentlest of whispers.
"I... I confess I do not know... Alo commanded me to be the cleansing flame, but does that mean I exist simply to destroy? OR did they wish for me to maintain the balance of nature? I fear this is something I will not truly understand."
Altrewan's ruminations on the nature of her being were swiftly interrupted by the presence of another God approaching them, this one seemed also more like Akileia when compared against Alo. This Cela seemed kind and almost graceful too, as though there was a common connection that tied them all together.
"... May I hug you?" Altrewan was taken aback by the question, it was certainly not one she had ever expected to be asked, especially so openly.
"Is that wise? I am living fire and can do nothing but burn and destroy, would you yourself not be harmed by merely touching me?" She paused for a second before looking at Akileia again. "Do you think that is why Alo created me? To be a destroyer? Is that my purpose in this world or am I free to change that?"
She looked around at the others. "We're gods right? That's what Rasteva said. Maybe it's our duty to help people in need. People like you. And maybe it's our job to make more people too..."
______________
The Colony practically buzzed. They'd seen the thing in their dreams and they were scared. None could decide what it meant and none of them could tell the others exactly what they were scared of. Sleepless nights led to angry, grumpy Ughsoms. Bickering turned into fighting and the fighting only got worse. Until one Ughsommy leaned back and spread out his wings to get attention, clinging to the roof of the cave. The small colony ceased their clicking and jostling and looked at their fellow. Then, he spoke.
They turned and looked at each other, the clicks and warbles that they made were clearer, with actual meaning behind them. They were able to debate and convince. Language saved the young race from a war that would have ended them all too soon. Though, that particular Ugh was never seen again.
But he still looked at her with little knowledge of what he was doing in his eyes, onLY for some strange, foreign realization to don on him in the moment. Like a distant star brushing against the edge of the sky, and he exclaimed with a brightened exhilaration. "My queen.. wait.. what?" His hand gripped the edge of his head as he began to wrestle with the information running rampant in his mind. She pressed a hand against his sweating brow as she began to cradle him slightly, in that moment the pain of his predicament could be seen behind the lids of his eyes. As what looked to be the knowledge imparted upon him, running through the vault of his mind like that of a dam broken loose.
His eyes cleared for a second as he spoke. "How... do I know you?"
She smiled in short order for him and ran a few OF her fingers through his hair as she laughed. "I am you're god, and you are my new champion." He could see the gaze coming from her distant starlight eyes, and felt she was speaking the truth. Only for him to pull away, falling back once again as he could not truly come to terms with what she had said. Gripping his head tightly as if that would help the tide rushing through. Only for her to stand, and gesture to calm his pain.
"When I pulled you back from the brink, I gave you something.. the memories of you're long, dead king. In fact a fragment of his being now sits withing you as we speak."
- 47 posts here • Page 2 of 2 • 1, 2
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View All » Add Character » 18 Characters to follow in this universe
Newest
Nexus
God of Dreams, Sleep and Night.
Alseyas
The god of Spirits and Weather.
Alathar
God of Battle, Valor, and Honor
Akileia
Goddess of Music, Satisfaction, and Flow
Aordins
The God of Knowledge and Wisdom
Alteez
Goddess of the celestial void.
Cela
Goddess of Fate and Rivers
Alo
God of Fire and Earth
Rasteva
God of Order and Conviction. A sign of coming winter.
Cungathiloth
Goddess of Darkness and Madness
Trending
Cungathiloth
Goddess of Darkness and Madness
Aordins
The God of Knowledge and Wisdom
Alseyas
The god of Spirits and Weather.
Akileia
Goddess of Music, Satisfaction, and Flow
Nexus
God of Dreams, Sleep and Night.
Cela
Goddess of Fate and Rivers
Alathar
God of Battle, Valor, and Honor
Rasteva
God of Order and Conviction. A sign of coming winter.
Alo
God of Fire and Earth
Samnang
The God of Luck, Lust, and Languages
Most Followed
Alathar
God of Battle, Valor, and Honor
Aordins
The God of Knowledge and Wisdom
Cela
Goddess of Fate and Rivers
Alseyas
The god of Spirits and Weather.
Akileia
Goddess of Music, Satisfaction, and Flow
Cungathiloth
Goddess of Darkness and Madness
Alteez
Goddess of the celestial void.
Alo
God of Fire and Earth
Rasteva
God of Order and Conviction. A sign of coming winter.
Nexus
God of Dreams, Sleep and Night.
View All » Places
0 posts · 0 characters present · last post 1970-01-01 00:00:00 »
The realm of Evil, where no Good may be done.
0 posts · 0 characters present · last post 1970-01-01 00:00:00 »
The home of Good, where no Evil may be done.
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The Pantheon: Renewal
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The Pantheon: Renewal
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Created Beings
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Created Beings
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