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[Lord_lemonpie]

Da'at creates the Aether Whales. Aether whales are gigantic, whalelike-creatures. They are gray and covered with intricate golden patterns. They have gigantic gasbags under their skin, allowing them to fly to gigantic heights. They fill their bags and lungs with air close to the planet they live on, use the heat of the sun to make the air hot, and then float so high that they can almost touch the barrier. There, they feed themselves with vengeful souls, feelings of malice, leftovers of dark magic and any other threat to the well-being of the planet and its inhabitants. They turn all of this into energy to sustain themselves and a substance called "Slumberlight". They leave a trail of this slumberlight wherever they go. Slumberlight is intricate, woven light. If it remains undisturbed for about 3 hours, it will dissolve into light, allowing it to leave the barrier. If it's disturbed (being touched by a bird, or a giant storm shaking it around), it will slowly fall down to the planet. This woven light is both extremely soft and extremely strong, and can therefore be used to create powerful armor or wonderful clothes.

Da'at spreads the Aether whales to the Ark and Flow (if they can only be spread towards one, he sends them to the Ark)

[IronyOwl]

((Looks like Irony accidentally unmantled me rather than you.))

((I just noticed that you never deducted the XP I spent on the Natarki. I should have 0 XP.))

Oops. I'll hopefully remember to fix that next turn.

((IronyOwl, would an action along the lines of "transform the Soulflare into a malignant tumor" be valid? Are there whisperwings or voidspawn inside the Divine Barrier? I think the Barrier was made specifically to block off the Voidspawn? I'm assuming gods can pass through the Divine Barrier? Or not? If not, we can at least still create and modify stuff on the inside right?))

Somewhat. Cursing something with negative traits/nature is a valid action, though for a specific individual you'd need to be of a low enough tier.

I suppose since it was made specifically to keep them out, we'll say there's no void critters inside the barrier.

The barrier blocks divine entry, but probably not well enough to prevent deities from slipping in and out well enough that it might as well not.

[Pencil_Art]

The Maker tries to communicate with the new god, maybe learn it's name.

The Maker stirred uneasily at the actions of the new god. He knew not what it's purpose was, nor it's name.

[Demonic Spoon]

((IronyOwl, would an action along the lines of "transform the Soulflare into a malignant tumor" be valid? Are there whisperwings or voidspawn inside the Divine Barrier? I think the Barrier was made specifically to block off the Voidspawn? I'm assuming gods can pass through the Divine Barrier? Or not? If not, we can at least still create and modify stuff on the inside right?))

Somewhat. Cursing something with negative traits/nature is a valid action, though for a specific individual you'd need to be of a low enough tier.

So if I didn't unmantle, I'd have to curse the entire Death Scarab race if I wanted to curse Soulflare?

I suppose since it was made specifically to keep them out, we'll say there's no void critters inside the barrier.

The barrier blocks divine entry, but probably not well enough to prevent deities from slipping in and out well enough that it might as well not.

Void critters, meaning that the Whisperwings are also excluded from the inside of the barrier? Expected but unfortunate. On the sort of upside, no more Gloriouses can get through. I kind of liked the images of shooting stars crashing down in the midst of primitive tribes, the locals worshipping the new god who descended down to earth.

I'm sort of curious what happens when a god unmantles beyond Ascendant. It seems like it'd be harmless to try if you happen to have 2 xp in reserve so you could remantle right after.

[IronyOwl]

Turn 8: Why

Now, safe from the dangers of outside, Alerama focused on playing once again. The Goddess spent many years observing Ark and it's life only to find that it becoming boring with Rookit civilization conquering more and more land finding almost no competition. Furthermore, Alerama disliked the way how Rookit treated their alive tools. If they play rough with their toys then the Godess will play rough with them.

Create an ocean on Ark by pouring water at the centre of Rookit civilization

[18, Bonus] You sunder Rootrip with raging water, turning their forests into stormy seas. Needless to say, nothing else seems especially pleased by this either.

Still, life goes on- some of Ark's life adapts to live underwater, and some is stuck riding the waves. Nearer to the shores, trees simply emerge from the water as they would from any other obstacle.

Rootrip itself persists, though awkwardly; with their center of power now an ocean, they seem uncertain whether to adapt to life on the high seas, relocate elsewhere, or something else.

Stormy Sea created on Ark
+1 XP

"In every one of you, my children, lies the spark of divinity. Magic is found in your blood, ever ready to be turned to great works of art and innovation...But trapped within your flesh, it is too weak. Even where it extracted, your blood is too little; barely enough for the purposes you were made for. As such we must go about pooling the blood of the youths...without ending their lives prematurely. What I am saying gentlemen, is that they must be milked. We must begin with the basics of course. I shall tell you the wonders of medicine first..."

                                                                                                    -A Meeting of the Houses, Memo 28, from the mind of Elder Lakim.

Teach the wonders of medicine to the Empire of the Eternal Spring.

[6, Poor] You teach Eternal Spring the wonders of medicine, though perhaps due to their... tendencies, they seem a little slow on the uptake.

Medicine granted to Empire of the Eternal Spring

((IronyOwl, would an action along the lines of "transform the Soulflare into a malignant tumor" be valid? Are there whisperwings or voidspawn inside the Divine Barrier? I think the Barrier was made specifically to block off the Voidspawn? I'm assuming gods can pass through the Divine Barrier? Or not? If not, we can at least still create and modify stuff on the inside right?))

******

Though Planner's mind was churning with further ideas, new creations begging to be created or modifications to existing potentials to carve masterworks from unworked material. But in the end he feared most the Cat-Thing's repeated predilection to subverting the creatures that others made.

He flew through the black void, approaching the fluttering Sundancer, its flight patterns well within his comprehension. The tiny pinprick of his first moulting, nearly invisible against its vast bulk now dwarfed the Planner who had further reduced himself since that first act of creation. He sped down the cavernous passage heading deep into the heart of his first work.

Behind him chitin writhed with renewed life, closing up the gap in the Sundancer's back, with new potential coursing throughout its entire surface ready to seal any other holes that may be created, preventing intrusion by enemies. This particular blocked passage would now only open for the Planner, with other sealings lacking the ability to open at all. As Planner neared the center of the Sundancer, he stretched out his divine powers, flowing into every cranny, asserting beyond the faintest doubts his sole ownership and control over its being. No others could ever be able to steal it from him, or twist it to their own purposes and gain. It was his.

Observe the effects of malicestuff buildup inside the Divine Barrier

[9, Poor] Your attempts to ID-lock your giant bug meet with mixed success. You manage to get the chitin to resist anything but yourself, but the creature is too massive and divine to properly mold to accept only yourself.

Sundancer modified

Ol'kuur is perplexed. His mapping seems to have found no clues as to the origins of the Emergent. And now she has gone and recruited one of his children for her cause, whatever that cause may be. It couldn't be a cause that most gods would like, or she wouldn't have taken the actions she did. And above the Kuron, the Voidspawn are hunting for divine blood, destabilizing Natarki minds below. Maybe the Natarki need to be able to strike against them from time to time?

Grant some rare few Natarki the ability to cocoon and slowly grow into huge creatures with great psionic potential. Though the eventual shape and powers of the resulting leviathan vary, most can survive the void and have tough hides. -2 size for rarity.

[5, Poor] Your attempts to ascend a rare few Natarki work, but not spectacularly. Perhaps because they're so rare, neither they nor the rest of the Natarki are very good at utilizing them for much beyond what they were already doing.

Natarki altered

Da'at creates the Aether Whales. Aether whales are gigantic, whalelike-creatures. They are gray and covered with intricate golden patterns. They have gigantic gasbags under their skin, allowing them to fly to gigantic heights. They fill their bags and lungs with air close to the planet they live on, use the heat of the sun to make the air hot, and then float so high that they can almost touch the barrier. There, they feed themselves with vengeful souls, feelings of malice, leftovers of dark magic and any other threat to the well-being of the planet and its inhabitants. They turn all of this into energy to sustain themselves and a substance called "Slumberlight". They leave a trail of this slumberlight wherever they go. Slumberlight is intricate, woven light. If it remains undisturbed for about 3 hours, it will dissolve into light, allowing it to leave the barrier. If it's disturbed (being touched by a bird, or a giant storm shaking it around), it will slowly fall down to the planet. This woven light is both extremely soft and extremely strong, and can therefore be used to create powerful armor or wonderful clothes.

Da'at spreads the Aether whales to the Ark and Flow (if they can only be spread towards one, he sends them to the Ark)

[7, Poor] Your Aether Whales turn out alright, but not spectacular. Their feeding zone is fairly narrow, their Slumberlight isn't really harvestable, and they're not very common or pretty. They do, however, serve as the only way out for the barrier's trappings so far.

Aether Whales created on Ark

The Maker tries to communicate with the new god, maybe learn it's name.

The Maker stirred uneasily at the actions of the new god. He knew not what it's purpose was, nor it's name.

[3, Malus]

"BOO I AM LARGE!"

"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE WRETCH!"

"I HAVE YOU NOW!"

"...UNLESS THIS CAVE HAS A BACK EXIT..."

You fail to catch the cat-thing, which you've inadvertently named Wretch. You do manage to catch up with its companion, who is... slightly more helpful. However, it's a Natarki, so...

"Gwoble gwoble! That's a greeting among gods, isn't it? It is now. Are you friends with the Great Maker? Don't be silly, you're got far too many and far too few eyes to be Maker. What, really? What kind of a name is 'Maker?' How silly. Me? 'Quirlomphthilus,' quite an attractive name if I do say so myself. Just screams 'adventure!' and 'mosscakes!' and 'that star on the left!'

Oh, sure, I know her, know her a lot. Name? Well I kept calling her Fallifilsis and Niklenik and Horivor and Almalephicitiphes, but she didn't seem to care much. 'Wretch?' Well, good a name as any, there's far too many Alaphiciphetaphilimenes as is.

Goals? Say that reminds me, do you know why Maker, the other Maker, the good Maker, sorry what? Well I'm sure you're fine at what you do, but I've never heard of you. 'Ark?' Now what kind of a silly name is 'Ark?' Is that short for Arkatelmineph or Alalalalalalark? Just Ark? Well that's odd, why'd you name it that?

Oh, Wretch! Yes, nice girl, nice girl, did you know her favorite joke? It goes something like this..."

Natarki engaged in conversation
Divine regret enabled

? ? ?

[11, Good] Wretch does something... interesting. It lures a Voidspawn over via song, and even seems to get on the creature's good side! "Good side" being severely relative in this case; the creature seems fond of her, but still, as far as you can tell, intends to eat her the second she's within range.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Planner (Demonic Spoon)
Spirit of [Arthropods][Intelligence]
0 XP               m   

Da'at (Lord_lemonpie)
Spirit of [Light][Protection]
2 XP

Maker (Pencil_Art)
Patron of [Life][Adaptation][Intelligence]
6 XP

Shevel (micelus)
Patron of [Life][Magic][Order]
1 XP

Ol'kuur (Knight Otu)
Spirit of [Caverns][Psionics]
0 XP

Alerama (Ukrainian Ranger)
Titan of [Shields]
1 XP

Wretch (-)
? ? ? of [Darkness][Destruction]

So if I didn't unmantle, I'd have to curse the entire Death Scarab race if I wanted to curse Soulflare?

Even then, it probably wouldn't work unless it was a curse that preyed upon their nature fairly heavily.

I'm sort of curious what happens when a god unmantles beyond Ascendant. It seems like it'd be harmless to try if you happen to have 2 xp in reserve so you could remantle right after.

Good point. Of course, a gap's a gap, and depending on just what occurs when you hit Ascendant...

[Pencil_Art]

((Dammit. These rolls, man. Guess it's what I deserve for getting two 20's in a row.))

The Maker again continues to attempt communication with the 'Wretch'. He also ponders over this 'Divine Regret'. What did that do?

[micelus]

Blood is your strength and source of power. Only by its use will our people ever become great.
-Memo from the Mother of Djinn

Teach the Empire to store and preserve blood, as well as using this blood to perform magic. Call it Hemomancy.

[Pencil_Art]

"The Empire. What a... creative name." The Maker comments.

[Demonic Spoon]

What the what was that turn. Ironyowl. Seriously. What.

Have the Aether Whales successfully halted malice buildup? If not, why didn't I observe the effects of malice buildup? This is important since it effects my plans for what to do this turn.

[Aether Whales] do, however, serve as the only way out for the barrier's trappings so far.

What does this mean.

"The Empire. What a... creative name." The Maker comments.

They're called the Empire of the Eternal Spring, empire is just a convenient shorthand to refer to them since there are no other empires currently.

[IronyOwl]

((Dammit. These rolls, man. Guess it's what I deserve for getting two 20's in a row.))

Yeah, I forget what I was gonna call it, but I almost titled the turn after the fact that half the rolls were blegh.

He also ponders over this 'Divine Regret'. What did that do?

Nothing. It's just that if you're talking with a Natarki, either your face is in your palm or you're Ol'kuur.

What the what was that turn. Ironyowl. Seriously. What.

Which part? There's a lot of parts.

EDIT:

Have the Aether Whales succsessfully halted malice buildup? If not, why didn't I observe the effects of malice buildup? This is important since it effects my plans for what to do this turn.

Oh, right. They haven't halted it, but thus far the effects seem minimal. Or maybe it's just that every race inside the barrier is too deranged from the get-to for you to tell when they're afflicted with pure evil and possessed by a malignant spirit.

[Aether Whales] do, however, serve as the only way out for the barrier's trappings so far.

What does this mean.

The barrier traps assorted Bad Things inside. Aether Whales are the only way for those things to not be in there any more.

[Demonic Spoon]

Planner rushes across the inner surface of the Divine Barrier in crazed patterns that seem to contain no underlying order. He would have to be satisfied with what he had achieved with the Sundancer so far.

The malice buildup was worrisome by its very lack of noticeable effects. Fortunately, he'd planned for the Aether Whales not being a perfect solution to the problem, and had prepared a little something of his own...

With his divine will, he forced the ambient malice, bad karma, negative emotions, vengeful souls etc. to condense into several focused points, forming malice gravity wells that drew in the surrounding malice in a self-perpuating chain reaction.

Create the Hellstars in the void within the Divine Barrier, titanic collections of spikes jutting out from a central point. The sheer concentration of malice, damned souls and assorted badstuff contained within their bulk attracts any of the same that is nearby, forming a cloudbank around them, converging into a neverending malicestorm. As the storm rubs against itself and the Hellstar, agitated malice is discharged in the form of malice lightning, the spikes acting as lightning rods, sucking up the malice lightning and trapping it within the sizeable core of the Hellstar.

The imprisoned malicestuff is then burned up by the metabolic processes of the star, the tortured souls of those contained within slowly reduced to nothing by this extremely painful process of being burned up. Burning souls and burning malice alike are thus transformed into a ominous looking but otherwise harmless blood-red glow by this burning process, allowing the dim outlines of the Hellstars to be visible through the malice clouds surrounding them. They are also capable of focusing the light they produce into significantly less harmless rays of heat and coherent laser beams of light, mainly used to defend themselves. They despise beings with an aspect of darkness and will actively attack them, while being at least somewhat tolerant of other light-creatures.

As the ambient malice increases, so too does the amount drawn in by the malice gravity wells, and thus absorbed by the Hellstars. If the malice absorption should happen to turn into a runaway positive feedback loop, with malice being absorbed significantly faster than it can be burned up, and absorbed malice thus being compacted into superdense forms that are more difficult to burn up, Hellstars with such excess mass instead split into two new, smaller Hellstars, which will slowly grow again as they absorb excess malice. In this way, a rough maximum limit is placed on the total amount of excess ambient malice that can exist, as Hellstars will continue to split if there is too much ambient malice until a equilibrium is reached.

Hellstars can move, but their speed is glacial, and if they get too close to a planet they will get sucked in by its gravity well, crashing down to the surface and being rendered immobile by the tyrannic gravity possessed by the planet. They are still however capable of using their energy beams to attack and defend, and the rest of their metabolic processes should work pretty much as normal, though the effects a malicestorm might have on a planetary biosphere are probably unpleasant. -1 Size +1 Power

Spoiler: Hellstars (click to show/hide)

((No, I never read the manga the picture is from, the Hellstars aren't based on anything from it, the similar names are coincidental, and that pictured just happened to be a good depiction of what the Hellstars look like when well, I googled hellstar.

My luck is super frustrating >_<))

[Knight Otu]

Nothing. It's just that if you're talking with a Natarki, either your face is in your palm or you're Ol'kuur.

((It's not like that' mutually exclusive. Just in my case, it might be literally a face in several palms.))

Unmantle to uplift the Natarki to civilization level - the Lineages of Kuron. The leviathans, behemoths, and such are each in charge of a large collection of Natarki who seek to emulate their leader in some shape or form, sometimes literally, sometimes in aptitude and power suite. Should a leviathan die, its lineage spreads out to other deserving lineages, and if a new behemoth arises, it draws fitting Natarki to itself. Though each lineage molds itself after its Lineage Lord, two impulses are common to all - Expansion and Competition. They seek to expand their own lineage as well as the reach of the Lineages as a whole, and compete to improve themselves, aiming to come closer to their Lineage Lord, and the Lineage Lords competing who has the greater lineage.

Obtain Competition as my sphere.

[Demonic Spoon]

In retrospect, I think I might have gone overboard in going too far indepth about my Hellstars.

They've been festering at the back of my mind for at least a week though.

IronyOwl, could I fuse members of two species to create a new species? I want to fuse Whisperwings with Sunlight Rocs to create Whisperings that can teleport/Sunlight Rocs that can survive in space.

[Knight Otu]

In retrospect, I think I might have gone overboard in going too far indepth about my Hellstars.

They've been festering at the back of my mind for at least a week though.

IronyOwl, could I fuse members of two species to create a new species? I want to fuse Whisperwings with Sunlight Rocs to create Whisperings that can teleport/Sunlight Rocs that can survive in space.

As long as you don't fuse them all. I'd still like to get some of them domesticated, even if there's little to reach right now

[Lord_lemonpie]

Da'at modifies all of the Cathedral cores slightly, doubling the amount of space between the mushroom and the shell.