" You gave me tools and materials. My current form is therefore your responsibility as much as my own. Notheless I think...do have to thank you, Lord Father. To be able to form my self was a good gift. "
Thereus merely looked as his father spoke. His face merely a mask of iron showing no emotions at all as his father brought judgement upon the other Lords of Creation.
" I...swear that I am your Son. I swear that I will honour you and protect you, Lord Father. Furthermore I swear that my creations will all live and cherish the fire and the heatness that dwells beneath the ground. "
As he finished his vows, he turned his back to his father and looked out over the world. It was a fair one even though there was not much to see. There was much potential there though and he already knew where to start.
" Father, I desire to be alone for a while. I want to see this world of ours and perhaps...make a few improvements..."
An eager grin appeared on God´s face as he prepared to throw himself out in the world and break it apart!
The god carried one angel in each of his hands, two held aloft by the throat and two dragged by the face across stone and scalding rivers. They struggled against his grip, but felt their strength draining as the hazes of the Godcrater permeated them. He carried them towards one of the plane's many pits, mocking them on the way. "Such frail creatures, so easily broken!" He tightened his grip on their faces, nearly destroying them. Muffled cries for Leaf were drowned in the geyser chorus.
Azazel/Go'El looked down into the depths of the pit with his working eyes; at its base was a churning, bubbling pool. Collums of reeking steam billowed outward. The angels were limp now, exhausted. The god raised one of the angels next to his mouth and whispered to it, "Zebus gave you something else, aside from your faces. I want to see it." The angel was slammed into the ground, knocking stones loose that fell into the dark pit. The god then plunged his bloody hand into the essence of the angel. It screamed and writhed and stabbed the god's arm over and over again. The other angels quivered. Thier cries had turned to whimpers.
His hand took hold of something. A twisting essence that was akin to a god, and at the same time nothing alike. The god's eyes lit up.
"So this is what a soul is..."
He gathered the soul in his fist, and crushed it. The angel screeched with a cry that would haunt the Godcrater for decades to come. The god threw the other angels to the ground and with his fell reach, broke thier souls apart. Their horrid screams were almost musical to him. Azazel/Go'El tore open a cyst upon his hand, and let his tainted blood pour into the pool. He gathered the soul fragments and cast them also into the pitt. The pool began to seethe and crash chaoticly. The toxic waters, now a blend of flithy, sickly browns and crimson, stuck together like thick, heated tar.
The god lifted the angels into the air, and cast the husks into the vat.
There was the sound of limp bodies hitting tar, and being dragged under. There was a long pause...
The god shook his heads. The angels had been too frail; even their bodies had been consumed. They were worth nothing anymore. A waste.
Azazel/Go'El turned and began walking back towards the bubbling lake. he needed to think, and to plan. But then he heard a sound, a sound unlike anything he had heard before. A dry, belted shriek that echoed from the rim of the vat. The sound of scrapping stone and slipping tar. The god looked back.
A taloned hand, half covered in new blood and tar, reached out of the billowing steam and grabbed hold of the stony edge. Then rose a face, hidden in scarred and malformed bone. The lean creature pulled itself out of the pit. It had wings, still wet with filth. Then anouther pair of hands emerged. Azazel/Go'El nodded, "You are frail no longer."
More and more of the creatures arose from the pit, then took to the polluted, yellow skies of the Godcrater. The screams of the angels, still ringing, were meet in harmony with the warped shrieks of the twisted creations.
Azazel/Go'El walked down to the lake's edge and began construction of his fortress-palace on the toxic lake, the creatures circling overhead.
Populate Populace (3AP):Corrupted Angels, also called the Craterspawn Nourish Populace (1AP): The Craterspawn swell in numbers and strength Command Populace (1AP): Azgo pours his hatred into his creations, and instructs them in pain and strength. The first Barbarians prepare for slaughter. AP Remaining: 0
He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. -Revelation 21:6
Every culture has its own account. Some say it entered that, when Death refused Life, he created discord. Others blame Fire's fickle loyalty. Still others say that evil always existed.
What do I say? I say that scholars talk too much. Evil's in the world, what difference does it make?
***
As each of the prime gods left the crown, they pulled at the universe. Does it exist, if it hasn't been experienced? As the gods went out into the world, the act of seeing expanded what was.
They pulled against the center. And, in particular, one little mote of existence, at the very center of it all. They pulled, and the atom couldn't resist. It split.
Fire and smoke and light rose high into the air above the crown. A tight funnel of heat forced the smoke upwards, where, when the air was cooler, it overflooded, giving the explosion the shape of a tree or mushroom. As far as the gods had gone, the force of the explosion went farther, and the light of the blast burned against their skin.
As the explosion cleared, everything seemed normal. The earth was unchanged, the plants unscorched. Except, just off center of the explosion, there was a figure. It was kneeling,
It stood up, and if anyone had been watching, they'd have seen perfection. However, if those watchers would have compared notes, they'd have discovered that they hadn't seen the same thing. What they had seen was absolute beauty... as they thought beauty should be.
What did the god that arose, Artun, see when he looked at himself? Since there was no mirror present, that is a tale for another time.
However, there was one other curious thing about the event. If there had been a watcher who saw this god's birth and hadn't been captivated by his beauty -- there wasn't such a being, but if there had been -- they would have seen a small whisp of shadow, as small compared to Leaf as Leaf was compared to the largest god. This wisp vanished quickly, vanishing under the mirage that was Artun.
3AP: Create Exarch - Artun, god of vanity. Artun has no set physical form. He appears to each viewer as the most pleasing visage imaginable. Even if there are three people present, he will appear to each as best pleases that individual.
No sooner had Artun alighted on the ground than curious flower petals swept into view. They brushed up against the 'god', trying to get a sense of what it was. They seemed to frown, whirling faster as more and more petals drifted into view.
Sa was not sure what to make of this other being - for Sa saw itself in the formless body of Artun, and vain though Sa may have been, it was a simple thing to realize that there was only one Sa. The flower petals seemed to jitter angrily at this persistent trickery, but held their tongue.
The simplest conclusion was that this god was responsible for the garden, and so it would only be proper for the gardener to invite him in. As suddenly as they had appeared, Sa's petals blew awayfrom Artun, retreating a comfortable distance away. They gave off a strong sense of deferrence, as they waited to be called out or identified.
Sitting on Leaf's shoulder, the sword sat and waited. The god of life marched on to where only he knew. A tiny eye opened on the blade, about mid-way.
phew! I never thought I would ever escape that place. Its a little boring until he learns and things start dying, if it ever happens... I wonder where we are going?
The sword lightly pulses a small bit of energy. Just small enough that Leaf wouldn't notice, but large enough that an inquiring mind would. Maybe that will get things rolling?
I am both selfish and chaotic. I value self-gratification and control; I want to have things my way, preferably now. At best, I'm entertaining and surprising; at worst, I'm hedonistic and violent.
He stood silent, unmoving as time passed, feeling no need to move or act. Then he caught movement from the corner of his eye. With speed surprising for his armored bulk, he snapped his hand out, catching a passing angel by the neck.
As it writhed and struggled to free itself, he peered into it's face. "What is this? It seems almost similar to my own work, but it moves of it's own accord and seems to think it is important."
As it stopped moving, he dropped it to the ground, only to be surprised as it vanished from sight. He growled. "What trickery is this? I want that creature back. It dids not have myh permission to leave."
Spotting another angel in the distance, he willed himself across the distance in the blink of an eye, snatching it up as he had the other. Pulling it close, he glared at it. "Where did the other one go?!" Yet, again he found his efforts for naught as the power of his voice from such close range flayed the creatures flesh from its body and it vanished from his grasp. "They vanish when death comes for them. Is that how this works? This time, I shall follow them."
Marcus turned and snapped his fingers at another angel in the distance, causing it to shoot across the distance into his grasp. Squeezing it's throat, he watched intently, seeking the spark of energy created at the moment of death. As the poor angel's mind slowly clouded over, it began to vanish and he secured that moment for himself, stealing the ride and flitting through existence leaving the angelic corpse behind.
With a crack, he popped into existence and immediately went on his guard before the small god with the large sword with two near death angels at its feet. Feeling a pulse of energy, he grinned beneath his helmet. "What are you? And I think you should deliver that sword unto me. I can feel it calling, calling for others to take it from you. You do not deserve it."
------
The first true death. The corpse lie silently on the ground, unmoving and unliving. Then eyes opened once more. It was dead, yet it was not. It did not know now what it was. Climbing from the ground, it began to wander blindly, seeking things unknown even to it.
3 AP - Populate Populace - Angel of Death - From the body of the first mortal death trises the Angel of Death. These immortal servants (currently servind Marcus, Will likely be granted to Zebus later) are couriers of souls, buiding the depated into the afterlife. However, as a side effect of how they were first created, they have a distinct dislike and distaste for Guardian Angel, often seeking them out and using their unique abilities to kill them in the honor of their creator. To Angels of Death, killing a Guardian Angel is an unmatched religious experience. To make matters worse, each Guardian Angel killed has a small chance of being revived as an Angel of Death.
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Agni traveled south and slightly west, eventually leaving the sea and returning to land, floating over a featureless barren plain of stone. As the God traveled, it caught sight of flickers of fire dancing here and there in the distance. The Agni'Vohda were following him. The God's mouth creaked as a frown flickered across it. He should find a home for them, eventually.
A brilliant flash.
A wave of hot air.
A push of force shoving him eastward.
Agni blinked as a cloud of light expanded from northwest, near where the four Gods had once met. What had Leaf done now?
Agni lowered himself to the earth and hovered over it, waiting for any other divine pyrotechnics.
Story (Thanks, Thought): Before time and thought and memory there was the ancient progenitor. In him all was balanced, and yet he was impotent, unable to act. With strange aeons, this one crumbled and died, producing the barren world and the first four gods, Zebus, Agni, Leaf, and Pruinus.
Zebus and Agni were first born, but Leaf demanded mastery over all. Agni yielded, thinking it a joke, and a misunderstanding between Leaf and Pruinus made the little god think she had as well. But Zebus refused, claiming death was equal to life. Eventually, Leaf attempted to cast him out. He created the guardian angels, to protect life from Zebus' thieving ways. Pruinus sought to turn little Leaf's anger aside, but Zebus meddled again in life, giving guardian angels faces and free will. The first expression of their new will was to execute the god for his transgressions despite the intervention of both Agni and Pruinus.
During this time a fifth god arose, Onus, master of stone, created to act as a bridge between Fire and Cold. Onus created the mountain range called the Crown, which Pruinus decked with glaciers. Unbeknownst to all, a sixth god also came into being, Azgo, whose twisted form made him angry against everything. He twisted guardian angels into foul mockeries.
The Four-Now-Three parted ways. Agni went east and raised a son to be his ally, Pruinus north where she created a hall in the memory of the gods, and Leaf remained for a moment, to create a garden to commemorate his fallen brother, vow to honor him, and to secure his sword and essence against usurpers. With those in place, Leaf headed west. Sa, lord of promises, awoke from the committment Leaf made there.
Marcus, god of order, also awoke, and resolved to order the universe.
As the prime gods left, they pulled against the universe, causing an atom at the center to split, producing TASOE in a large explosion. The Ancient Spirits of Evil quickly constructed Artun, god of vanity, to hide behind. Sa convinced Artun to turn angels into humans, and the flower god provided sustinence for them.
AP: AP resets to 4 for everyone EXCEPT: Sa, TASOE, Thereus, Marcus. You guys keep your AP till next week's reset.
The new god stood and stretched. It felt good. Of course, Artun was Artun, and that was the best feeling in the world.
A gust of petals swirled around him for a moment, then retreated. That was an odd behavior for inanimate objects, but since the swirl remained still, the god started to think that it was alive. And, if it was alive...
"Ar you alive," he asked, and then followed that up with the most pressing question on his mind, "Is that what I look like?"
"Not bad, I suppose. You could use to be a little fuller in the corolla, you know. Your sepel need a tuck, and it looks like someone went far too heavy on the bilateral symmetry, but, all in all, not a bad first form for me."
Artun whirled his petals closer to the other god. "What do you think? How do I look?"
