Turn 2: Ambition"Tch. Filthy star. How dare you disobey me?"
(EDIT: I think I was doing it wrong.)
Unmantle and create the Glorious, beings of pure light.
The cogs rumbled and turned within Dominus. Further he expended his power, if only for greater glory. To counteract the lackluster star he created, he demanded the existence of the Glorious. Shining with dazzling light, none could shy away from their magnificence. The Glorious he put on his Dark Star, to circle and sing and praise around it. To outshine everything in creation.
Each Glorious lives for a century, less if disconnected with a star. Some can travel down into the Flow or the Ark, sometimes as a side-effect of their creator's persona they try to pose as gods, other times they go out of mere curiosity.
To the Lumen, some Glorious will assist in using their light to heal and protect. Some Glorious will shine their divine light for the Verna, to aid in their photosynthesis.
((Did you want to rename Beacon? I assumed you wanted to rename Beacon.))
[10, Poor] Being created on a star appears to have a noticeable effect on their makeup, and the Glorious turn out beings of heat as well as light. More importantly, they are fairly bland otherwise, lacking special abilities or methods of transportation.
Glorious created on Dark StarNow Spirit of [Physical Power][Light]Beacon renamed Dark StarPlanner fluttered closer to Ark, sensing potential among it's uncomplicated forests. Feathery antennae twitched, sniffing the hidden scents of the trees. Ideas, plans flashed through his mind, most of them eventually discarded after some consideration. Planner spent a long time like this, simply moving above the surface of Ark, sampling and considering. Carnivores of any sort were infeasible currently of course, the life below consisting solely of plants. Perhaps gigantic giraffes? No, while that idea had a certain appeal, it was ultimately impractical, and it'd be hard to do anything useful with them later on. Living Blimps that foraged on the canopy? Intriguing but ultimately it didn't align well with his goals. Some sort of intelligent tree? He feared the Maker would create those anyway, so there was no need for duplicates. Finally, the decision is made.
Between one flap and the next of his crystal wings, they were suddenly filled with a tracery of fine, crisscrossing cracks. Another flap, and there was a loud ringing sound, the wings shattering into numerous shards. The shards shoot outwards, arcing down to the surface of the planet. There the shards shattered again, each of them transforming into millions of miniscule crystal motes. The motes shimmered, and became termites.
Immediately the myriad swarms of termites set to work, building immense temperature controlled termite mounds, housing their queens deep within. Workers scurried to nearby trees, chewing up and digesting wood for their great fungus gardens.
Meanwhile, Planner was slowly floating down, nearing Ark. As he descended, his body was contracting, shrinking to a mere fraction of his former largeness, until finally a still sizable grasshopper delicately balanced on the canopy of a particularly large tree, body haloed by the setting sun.
Planner unmantles, forming termites on Ark, with such an advanced ability for self-organization that each individual termite is essentially a neuron in an emergent mind. This "hivemind", while capable of higher thought, is primarily concerned with the optimization, expansion and improvement of the hive, and exploitation of nearby resources. The termites possess the three basic castes, Breeder, Worker and Warrior, as well as a few further specialized castes that be produced as needed, such as Warrior variants for dealing with specific threats, Silk-Producers and Flyers. Use 1 xp to improve their power.
Gain Sphere: Intelligence
((TL;DR: Sapient Termite Hiveminds.))
[2, Malus] Your termites emerge much as you envisioned them, though infinitely more neurotic. The rather... malleable nature of their intellect makes them paranoid and particular about where and what their components are, leading to constant pruning and review of their current set and all manner of panic and discord when individuals become isolated or come into contact with those of another hive.
On the bright side, that extra bit of power grants them a pleasant diversity of castes and abilities, which their superior intellect is typically able to wield rather proficiently.
The Shard created on Ark-1 XPNow Spirit of [Arthropods][Intelligence]"WRong! wrONg! wronG! Too weak! Too deep! Too much! Too little!" Ol'kuur screeches from his thousand mouths as he surveys the Kuron. He had overdone the caverns in the moon, perhaps sized them for a planet. But the damage was done.
On Kuron - Create a tiny region of crystalline caves, ideally with crystalline lifeforms in it.
[18, Bonus] You create a series of brilliant white crystal caves, complete with brilliant white crystal plants. The whole thing acts as a bit of a strainer... but straining out a variety of things, from the spirits of the dead to magical energies. The structure is fairly benign on its own, however, so clever creatures could probably figure out how to direct this effect.
Whispering Caves created on Kuron+1 XPShevel smiled at her prized creation, the world Flow. Many plants and aquatic creatures called it home, even a few land organisms that had only recently developed. It was in all senses pristine. Much of the land had yet to see a living organism and only the shallows waters held any great amount of life. It was thus, a waste. Yes, its great beauties were many and its processes wonderful, but it was still but a block from which the true masterpiece would be chiseled.
And so, with nary a hesitation, Shevel spun off yet more of her innate energies, casting them into the rivers of the world. That which she had offered would become something more.
And so, with the patience of an elder not of reality, she waited. One day, they emerged.
They were children to her; soft-skinned humanoids with hues of green, blue and yellow. They varied from the length of a crocodile to that of a cheetah. They were her children, the Djinn. She watched them from a distance for a time, wondering what they would do with the world. She watched them grow and age and was half-surprised at what she had seen. She had noticed that the Djinn stayed near the water, either the sources themselves or within the confines of the mist. When they had reached a venerable age however, they changed. Their skin became hard, cracking and twisting seemingly by chance. They in the end of their transformation, appeared to be stone humanoids. These Elder-Djinn were creatures of the desert, hermits in contrast to their younger brethren. Somehow, which surprised Shevel, they could also manipulate their surroundings with their mental senses alone; this impressed her greatly.
She eventually took the form of a veiled Djinn of middling age; all the better to watch her children.
Unmantle, creating the Djinn on Flow. They are an amphibious species that require moisture to breathe and water to breed. They gather in large groups around rivers and oases. When they reach an old age (~100) they become Elder-Djinn, stone-skinned creatures that prefer isolation to community. They can brave the desert without moisture. These hermits can also weakly manipulate their surroundings, this force often being called magic.. Use 1 XP to improve power.
Gain Sphere: Magic
[2, Malus] Your Djinn turn out wonderful... in most ways. There's a teensy, tiny problem with their elder form, though- they become more physically powerful and acquire... a certain hunger. Combined with their magical prowess and unimpeachable resistance to sun and heat, this tends to make them terrifying hunters that emerge from the wastes without warning, feast on their quarry with impunity, and vanish back into the sands without trace. This eventual fate for their elders has somewhat predictable side effects on their culture as well.
Djinn created on Flow-1 XPNow Spirit of [Life][Magic]Unmantle and create the Lumen, a race of strong, four-armed humanoids. They usually live in groups of 10 and go wherever their help is needed. They are able to use light to heal and shield others. They live on both the Ark and Flow
Gain the sphere of Protection
((You can only create something in one area at a time. I'll assume you'd prefer Ark, since it was listed first, orbits your star, and is more connected to things in general.))
[5, Poor] You create the Lumen, a fairly uncommon race of muscular, four-armed humanoids with innate defensive light powers and a propensity to protect the weak.
Lumen created on ArkNow Spirit of [Light][Protection]Unmantle and create a race of plant creatures, the Verna. Place them on the Ark and the Flow.
The Maker watched as a flow of molten God's Metal poured into his mold. Freezing the metal, he cast away the mold and gazed upon the statue. He chipped away at it, creating minute details, before moving onto another and creating a variation on the first. Creating molds from these, he copied many and turned the God's Metal into organic matter.
"Go, mine children, and remember always that you were forged of the purest god's metal, and bathed in the darkest liquid of the void."
Settling on a tree on the Ark, as one of the creatures he had created, he watched, still, as his creatures and the Planner's Termites crawled into the likes of sentience.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Verna are adaptable creatures which use photosynthesis to generate energy. As such they generally settle near rivers and occasionally absorb nutrients from the soil. They catch insects flying about the forest to supplement their diet of minerals from the soil, sun, and water. They have bark as skin, covering muscle-like plant material. They sleep near power plants ((see below)) to regain energy.
They are set in a strict hierarchy, with the most important individuals several members of plants in a council, their stems intertwined. These command the rest to do whatever they deem best.
Reproduction is strictly controlled by the 'Cultivator' sub-group. It is their job to ensure that all plant sub-species are specialized to the best of their ability and able to do their job. Seeds are planted in large swathes upon the ground, power plants ((see below)) spaced in between to provide energy for the seedlings.
Energy is produced by huge power plants ((get it 
)), massive organic structures that spiral towards the sky, many snapping traps along it's length and huge leaves absorbing the sun efficiently. The energy is pumped into the ground surrounding it and other plants root into the ground to access the energy stores.
Warrior Verna are larger then most, and have more vines.
Not many Verna can use magic, but those little who can set it to great use, helping the Cultivators grow seedling at an exponential rate, and the power plants twice as powerful as normal, enriching the earth with their power.
Most Verna have leaf legs, which roots shoot out of when 'sleeping', with vine tendrils being used for grasping.
Gain Sphere of Intelligence.
[17, Bonus] You get a little... uh... "overambitious" might be the word you're looking for. Overambitious.
See you start by forging plantfolk, and that goes pretty good. Then you start diversifying them into warriors and elders and Cultivators and that starts straining things, but you're on a roll so... erm... you start trying to make infrastructure symbiotes for them to get food from, and, well...
Your ravening shapechanging plantfolk end up pretty cool, but they're not really as you envisioned them- too hulking, for one thing. They're also a lot less social than you intended, and while technically they could form elder councils, the results of multiple individuals merging is... not pretty, even by their standards.
On the bright side, they can root in and act like plants when sunlight is available (it never is, this being Ark and all) and are rather proficient at getting sustenance from other plant life, usually by sucking out sap or scraping away bark.
Oh, and as the final nail in the coffin of your plans- turns out neither your original visions nor your current flock are intelligent enough to acquire such a Sphere through their creation. You end up, somewhat embarrassingly, with that of Adaptation instead.
Weald created on ArkNow Spirit of [Life][Adaptation]+1 XPDominus (Cheesecake)
Spirit of [Physical Power][Light]
0 XP
Planner (Demonic Spoon)
Spirit of [Arthropods][Intelligence]
0 XP
Da'at (Lord_lemonpie)
Spirit of [Light][Protection]
0 XP
Maker (Pencil_Art)
Spirit of [Life][Adaptation]
1 XP
Shevel (micelus)
Spirit of [Life][Magic]
0 XP
Ol'kuur (Knight Otu)
Titan of [Caverns]
1 XP
Let it never be said that I pass on an opportunity to let a player's hubris spiral out of control. :3
Wait, so Sundancer does nothing to Flow? Kind of disappointing, since it being a desert planet, should be particularly vulnerable to "suddenly no sun", since deserts quickly get freezing without the sun's heat. Also leaves me with the conclusion that the stars were kind of pointless since the planets can just have their own innate warmth.
I may re-mantle to Abomination sometime (if I get the xp) and "fix" Flow by moving it around.
It'd also be accustomed to that, though; unless it was tidally locked, it wouldn't be a scorching desert world followed by suddenly a glacier, it'd be a scorching desert world that went icebox earlier and longer than scheduled.
Stars are indeed optional, though they're nice for tacking on additional effects. Flow has no day/night cycle, for instance, while Ark has those long, slow temperature/brightness swings.
I have to admit, I misread this title hilariously when browsing the forum. PTW
Mantis Gods? 
Mangling of the Gods would be best wrestling game.
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Topic: Mantling of the Gods [Turn 10: Symbiosis] (Read 23981 times)