Turn 1
As mortal Ascendants scrambled for power, Elder God and Younger alike excercised theirs.
In the Shadelands, the endless drudgery of the Luminicients and the Shades came to a sudden stop when Yukara appeared. Consumed by the Last of Yun, the luminiscients were turned to another purpose their souls melded condensed and retooled they were turned into the Hope of Yun.
A mixture of the nature of the Luminiscients and the Hopes and Dreams of Yukara, the Hope of Yun was not simply a shield. It was a mighty artifact healing even the most grievous wounds and reversing even ageing. This mighty artifact however took time to bring its full effect to bear, making it useless as a tool for combat.
However in due time it could even bring back a dead god.
Meanwhile the shades, left without a opponent, began a new to cover the Shadelands in a Black Desert, without opponents the task was done within a few years. Their taks complete, they became aimless as once more they had been robbed of purpose.
For years they stood in silent contemplation, before finally a council was convened. A congregation on a massive scale, the entire remaining population of the shadelands assembled. It was a Synode of a most unusual sort. No arguments came up, no speeches were held. Silence reigned absolute except for the howling winds rushing through the black featureless desert around them.
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Dwarves are by nature stubborn people. They rarely accept rules, but when they do, they hold to them with a fierce fanaticism unknown to any other species. Like so many things, worship of Udil had been slow to start and that of other gods even slower. But ocne established it has been persecuted with a fervor.
When the Dreams of mighty Yun invaded the Sleep of Dwarves, only few Dwarves went insane, only few Dwarves saw it as something great. A race who had so long seen itself as the most superior lifeform on all of Despair would not budge so easily because of Dreams!
No. Instead they became incensed. How could they dream of such great a place which shadowed their own? How could they accept that? THEY WERE DWARVES FOR GODSLAYERS SAKE!
This could not stand. The stagnating Dwarfholds began exploding in activity. The Kings under the Mountains and the High Priests began funding great works of infrastructure. Megalomaniac structures from bridges over bottomless chasms, entire mountainsides turned into massive statues, fortress-cities of breathtaking size and scale. Mines long abandoned were reopened, Underways long abandoned were cleared of their cave-ins, and made grander than ever.
These gargantuan undertakings had a never before seen effect on the economy. The Dwarfholds were flourishing.
However not all were so incensed, those of lesser willpower...or faith, fell into melancholy. Hedonism became the name of the game, The Cult of the Dreamer, starting out as groups of rich nobledwarves spending their time with rapturous orgies soon became more organized. But for now it was a small speck, only a taste of things to come.
Moreso when these loose congregations of revellers were torn to pieces by bloody-minded monstrosities. Horrified Tales of the beast of the Underways soon became bedtime stories to frighten children with. Some spoke of this as a sign that the godslayer was returning. Others maintained that it was a descendant of the godslayer coming to take his rightful place. Amongst more educated circles it was even speculated that a particularly bloody-minded part of the white sisterhood had returned to their ancient warring ways.
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As Yukara walked the Shadelands, she found them empty, devoid of life. Featureless deserts...until one day she saw something on the horizon, a blazing light, incandescent in its blinding brightness.
The Sun's Shard.____________________________
Old Hadria, long abandoned, had stood empty for aeons. But now, now it was once more a battlefield. As Undead and goblinoid fought tooth and nail for supremacy. Undead Cohorts of the Father's Cult against twisted mockeries of man.
For now it was a stalemate, luckily, for the beastly hordes were too occupied with each other to venture beyond the ancient city.
Lucky indeed, for the crumbling stale city states of Eversummer barely rated the name of towns, much less city or state. Decrepit affairs each and every one of them, they wouldn't hold a candle against a serious assault.
When the dreams of Nikalas beckoned them to greatness however a new ember was lit amongst the cold ash that was the ambition of the people of Eversummer.
It was slow, walls long forgotten were renewed, stocks of food were prepared and ploughshares were turned into spears and shields which were laid in hoard.
Amongst the Karas, ever a violent and belligerent people, the clans began a new era of civil war, ont he forefront a Karas Khan rumoured to cast spells of great power to vanquish his foes and strengthen his armies.
In the Fathers Halls, however this talk about enemies in the south was taken with the same apathy the giants had always shown in the face of divine shenanigans. One was used to gods battling and it was well-known from the fate of the three elder ones that interfering brought only misery.
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Even as those things transpired in the Depths yet another city was raised. On the buried ruins of the Tutelaspera, the mighty Undercity of Toresse was built. Massive on a scale that would shadow even the size of Udilsbor it was a masterwork of architecture, city planning and masonry. Automated Aquaculture and Agriculture complexes see to all worldly needs while the Shattered Remnants take care of the maintenance of the city. It is a wondrous paradise and many of the Crowborn start worshipping the God who so generously gave them all this.
Some however are discontent. it is a gilded cage for them. There is naught to do but enjoy life, which enrages many of the former scavengers.
In this seed of discontent, the aimlessness and rootlessness of many of the others, the Dreams of Great Yun find easy purchase. Not harassed by mad monstrosities in the night, the Cult of the Dreamers grows at an alarming rate as many begin to lend their life to Hedonism.
And a fourth faction starts to appear, not many in number but quite vocal, a group of people had actively started worshipping the faith of the guardians, of the lesser gods of the corvid moon again. Despite the Daily reminder in Ravenas that their gods were as dead as can be, they loudly professed that they had returned. That they would be alive once more and that not worshipping them would bring great calamity.
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It is in those turbulent times that Snow arrives in Eversummer and Spring in the North.
Eversummer had ever been incredibly fertile, and its crops had been exported to all continents. When the first winter arrived however, no one was prepared. Crops which had never seen a winter withered in the cold. People unused to snow and coldness froze to death in their own homes and cattle regularly shorn froze with them.
At first it was seen as a horrible omen, until it returned the year after, and the year after. Winter had a cataclysmic impact on the wider populace of Eversummer...just as Spring had one of great boons to the people of the North.
As Spring arrives, the struggling forest of the north expands by leaps and bounds, though within the forest nothing changes. Skrettir and Wildmen live as they had lived for aeons, in some sort of peace with the strange new arrivals, the Hortis. The forests were large enough for both of them and it hasn't escaped either side that it was expanding.
Although peaceful both peoples kept to themselves, although trade was a common occurence. So also worship of Feros and worship of Euvon was exchanged and became an ingrained thing in both cultures.
The Northmen, so long hidden in their mountain fortresses were once more thrown into a theological crisis of the worst sort. Spring had arrived and it was somethign unknown to them. First feared it soon became clear how good it was to them. And when Euvon personally arrived, it caused an uproar. Yet another God? Inconcievable! How should he be dealt with. Clearly he had power equalling that of the White Phoenix, The White Stag or whatever other Ice God they worshipped. And so Euvon the Ever-Wandering became a thing. A man who brough Plenty and Life with him in Spring.
With the better weather, the Mountainholds grew in size and soon the first settlements began to once more be established in the Plains. Especially since the spring had another side-effect, it caused the horrible beasts that once dwelt there, the Ice-Wolves and the Bears, the White Stags and Phoenixes to vanish to places unknown. They only came back in winter. Life was much safer and agriculture became a feasible possibility.
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Ravenas stood empty. the Crowborn had left, the humans had left. The City was dead to them. And with that thought they broke something. As the last of the charges of the Guardians left the forlorn city, it became silent.
Argentus the Tree of Solitude, still adorned with the entrails of its maker and her colleagues, was now truly alone. Droplets of blood had never ceased to fall from the dead gods in aeons. However something else happened. As a single droplet fell, it stood in the air, unlike its brethren, it stood there and wavered. And then, ever so slowly, it crept back upwards, merged into the silvery bark and suddenly were the drop vanished, a silvery bud grew, and when another drop joined the first another, and another and another. Ever faster. And then the first bud opened, a flower silvery, iridiscent, red veins streaking along the petals, pumping as if alive...
And then the first of the corpses, that of Fatianna opened its eyes, a silver glow emanating from the socket. And then Corvus, and then Kar'lan.
Argentus, Voice of the Dead, Tomb of Gods, The Bloodsoaked Tree of Solitude, God of Renewal had awoken.
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VanirDwarven Mortal Ascendant
1 Minor Act
CoroneCrowborn Ascendant
1 Minor Act
TreboniusHuman Ascendant
Gem of Fire
Gem of Life
1 Minor Firebound/Lifebound Act
1 Minor Act
Talvius, the Dark PilgrimMortal Ascendant
1 Minor Act
YukaraVoidborn
1 Dream Influence
2 Voidbound Acts
Cult of the Dreamer (Emberdwarves) 1MApt
Cult of the Dreamer (Crowborn) 2 MApt
Conversion: 1 Act/3 Great Acts
Sun's Shard:
?
Hope of Yun:
?, Healing and Reviving Effects
EuvonYounger God of Seasons
1 Act
1 Springbound Act
1 Summerbound Act
1 Autumnbound Act
2 Minor Acts
Allfather (Hortis) - 1Apt
Lord of Spring (Skrettir, Wildmen) - 2MApt
The Wanderer, God of Plenty (Northmen) - 1 Springbound Act
NikalasYounger God of Fear and Bravery
1 Minor Fearbound Act
Ar'lak, the Creator (Monsters of Ar'lack) - 1 Minor Fearbound Act
Lo HarumElder God of Improvement
1 Great Act
1 Act
1 Mercybound Act
Lo Harum The Saviour, Lo Harum the Builder, Lo Harum the Merciful - 1 Act, 1 Mercybound Act
ArgentusYounger God of Renewal
1 Lifebound Act
1 Deathbound Act
1 Bloodbound Act
Author
Topic: Pantheon III IC-Thread (Read 2422 times)