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No one exactly remembers how or when it started, as no one was there. Nothing was there. Eventually, it is believed swirling energies phased in and out of existence, as reality struggled to be born from the void. Stars, clusters of magic, and even primitive, formless worlds were created and destroyed in the span of a second. Nothing seemed to be able to tether matter in the void, as so nothingness and absence prevailed.
Until, after vast spans of time before time even existed, beings of pure energy, embodying pure concepts, began to form and learn to control themselves. To make themselves REAL. They would change from their original state almost immediately, as they began to make their mark on a young world.
This is their story.
She remembered.... nothing. But she felt as though she should. In the swirling chaos of the universe around her. In the heat of flame, and the warmth of light, the cold of ice, the solidity of earth, the liquidity of water, the burst of life that struck her as the scent of flowers or the roar of some darkened animal, Arazni was born, or perhaps reborn into this space and time. What had been before? She did not know, but there was a sense that something had been there before. Something from which life had been restored to her, but now she was new... again. This illogical grasp on the situation tore at her mind in strange ways, but she began to understand that some cosmological event had transformed the universe from a darkening, cold cinder of what it once was into something new, sparkling, and brightly ignited. The glow of life was all about her, the eternal flame. She reached out her hands to grasp the life around her, smell it, hold it up to examine in the light, and two spirits warmly greeted her. Their feathers burned with eternal life, and she realized, as she felt their warmth combine with hers, that these majestic birds were part of herself. But the chaos around here was harsh, and unforgiving. There was life, but no patterns, except the barest trickle of one in the earth itself. Crystals formed by their own laws, and conglomerate masses of stone and magma adhered in the chaos that still surrounded them. She felt a presence there, in the stone that rose to greet her... She looked and saw a guiding force behind the plants and animals that inhabited it. And the shadow beneath them all that served as a reminder.
I.
I am.
I am... Stokos.
To him, that was enough. The solidity of a name was enough to bind himself to the very concept of being. He gazed out, and began to grow disappointed. He wanted form, regulation, shape. And so there was.
He wanted sharp spires to jut forth from the sea, forming a chain of earth, of land, of solid substance.
And so it was.
(2 PP, make ocean. 2 PP, make mountain range/archipelago.
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The world has begun moving.
The world had been moving for a long time. Altering forms and shapes, constantly shifting, it had kept in motion since the beginning. Nothing was ever truly new. Yet, this time...
Something different is happening.
His mind slowly emerged from its void, recognizing the shift in the chaos. The weak register of other emergent minds was as faint as a distant star. But it was surely there, and he could not relinquish the realization. Living earth met conscious force, it disturbed and excited him. The minds behind them would mingle on this primordial paradise he slept in since the beginning.
It is time to awaken. To live...
The dark half of the globe bristled gently with twinkling light. Stones and rocks, veins of metal and fluid, plumes of steam and fire, clouds of ash and water all gained an inner glow and sentience. Yet they did not move as a creature would, their bodies inconsistent, and in a moment the light of life faded from them. Yet a few remained, moving on their own and feeling the world around them.
...See the coming of the first age...
The scattered living elements began to drift. The deep earth turned in their wake, slowly carving tunnels and caverns. They sought the changers of the world, fated to explore until their own inner light faded. One such colossal creature of dense water found the surface, and in its great heat burst apart, becoming tumultuous clouds filling the skies, bringing the first great rainfall to smooth the jagged surface.
Life has already begun.
(2pp, form underdark, 2pp, kick-start weather and create soil worldwide, 2pp, craft avatar in form of many elementals)
She felt the chaos around her taking shape. Oceans formed, mountains jutted from the sea. Caverns and dark places filled the earth. The winds blew, waters fell, stone terminated into dust and soil. But all was in darkness. She took the fire of life, its holy warmth coalescing around her and formed it into a sphere, hanging over the lands, but moving so that its heat did not destroy the life that might one day flourish on it.
(2 pp, mold sun (sphere of fire))
(2 pp, fashion Sun domain)
(4 pp, major craft alternate plane: Triseium (heaven))
The sun burst into being as a flower of living flame, an orb of red-golden tendrils in the dark space above the sea and land. With it, also, the power of the brilliant light it produced. At the center of that sun, a gateway to another plane of existence. One she created as an everpresent system of life and order, of all things beautiful that she could now imagine, or that others could.
From the other gods longing to be, I awaken. I grant to them the hopes and aspirations of the future and tear down the old to make way for the new.
(4 PP, major craft alternate plane: The twin realms of dream (Halcyon and Typhon.))
(4 PP, major craft alternate plane: the realm of the dead (Stygia))
I was waiting for someone to say round 2.
Are we on for round two?
2PP Craft (Minor) - Create an avatar; The Grey Traveler avatar of death.
1PP Spawn – Create a Creature; Malinakin, immaterial creatures that bring violent dreams to the living influencing them to be more violent. Sometimes traps the living in a dream they cannot wake from.
1PP Spawn – Create a Creature; Enuikin, immaterial creatures that bring dreams of lust and avarice to the living influencing them take what they want instead of creating it themselves. Sometimes traps the living in a dream they cannot wake from.
2 PP Craft (Minor) - Create an avatar: The Golden Phoenix avatar of life and healing.
2 PP Mold a great marble and golden palace in Triseium, with everexpanding halls and rooms filled with all manner of good and beautiful things (some not even created yet in the material world), elegant gardens of fantastic design, anything that can be imagined really, so long as it is good and life affirming.
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The heart of the earth must be kept safe.
Deep in the tunnels and caverns that make the underdark, the touch of Velgup makes rough living flesh from the stone. With humanoid bodies and large hands and heads, the creatures stand upright, averaging the height just under human females. Their skin a dark reddish purple, dry and smooth, eyes pale and cool, they have little black hair atop their scalps. They all appear feminine, gender being a non-issue to this sexual species. Consuming primarily flesh and fungus without sharp teeth gives them energy, though a careful mix of specific powdered stone and water give them minimal sustenance. Their numbers start in the hundreds, aware of each other and the avatars of Velgup. They call themselves the Derokh, or the people of the cavesongs. Speaking the Artificer's language, their words and hands shape stone and metal with the blessing of the Golem Father.
With no other sentient species walking the planet, the Derokh initially spread almost unopposed. Very few go to the surface ever- they cannot see the sky, sun or stars, and find little beauty in the vegetation and wind swept lands, calling it the Dirtrealms. The exception being an island, surrounded by the ocean wealthy with life. In the rare encounter with a Malinakin or Enuikin, the Derokh prove resistant, but not immune. Creation is easier for them (at this point) than otherwise, and violence almost an alien concept. They hunt small creatures still, their appetite and numbers small enough to kill larger creatures only in defense. They are too young and naive a race for such corruption to have their full effect.
It will not be easy. See what is to come.
Spirituality becomes a focus for the fledgling species. Awareness of the malevolent immaterial creatures and the realms of Triseium, Halcyon, Typhon and Stygia spread quickly. Though they revere Velgup and his elemental avatars, the Lady of Fire and the Ferryman come from their lips as well in respect. The race spreads.
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