Turn 4Mortals
finally walk upon the earth. After an incredible amount of time lingering in the heavens, they are set down upon the world.
The Daktils were among the first, though the shades may have been sooner,
the god of narration is unsure and they are quite ready for their new lives. The violent boar people find the moss of this world, while capable of sustaining them, bland and boring to hunt. They seek the thrill of carnage, of hunting,
of war. Then arrived the Daslugs
(I keep saying this like Daaaa Slugs, like they just walked into a party or something lol). These large wormlike creatures are mild and squishy, but provide meat for the Daktils. During the mating season they grow a think spiked armor, and provide for the Daktil's other need, a challenge. Daslug hunting and fighting almost instantly becomes an annual sport, much to the daktil's delight. Furthermore, they discover a new food sent from their god, the Zep. This anemone-esque plant lives a pleasant and peaceful light on the coastal seabed of the light ocean around [Daktils Be Here], but die after giving birth to young. Sharp eyed daktils can find a fair number of these salty treats if they know where to look. A fair number of daktils die to the predators of this land. While the glass spiders and the Mrikee are deadly, they don't receive the same level of reverence as the lurking decorator spider. Truly this beast is a formidable opponent.
Next are the Tortons. The hard shelled
republicans hermits who
hate minorities prefer to keep to themselves. These tortoise-esque have a natural desire to build walls and keep the rest of the world out. The tortons take up residence in Iphos, and immediately begin to understand the trials of living upon this world. They set out to tame the landslimes which have appeared in this area, and find it to be a difficult task. The aggressive and territorial slimes fire large rocks at the tortons. If it had been any other race, this task would have been impossible, but the tortons hard shell gave them some level of protection against the smaller rocks. Still, this made no difference against the largest of landslimes who would catapult boulders the size of tortons themselves. This led to the first deaths on your new world. This does not mean the attempts were fruitless, some land slimes were eventually domesticated into rather testy war machines. Its unlikely they'll ever be any more than that however, due to their size and temperament. The tortons also had issues with several other large predators. The first of which was the Mrikee, a creation of their own god. While these creatures weren't particularly deadly to the hard shelled tortons, they do manage to bite off a limb or appendage with moderate amount of success. However its another ambush predator that really gives them issues, the lurking decorator spider. This spider has a sinister intelligence, and is capable of understanding speech, however, its is incredible camouflage and power that makes it so dangerous. Capable of blending into almost any environment, the mountainous terrain of Iphos is child's play for these beasts. That aside, the tortons which remain indoors and eat their
xenophobe berries hedge-brambles, have surprisingly nice lives.
The Drachmites also descend upon the world. These symbiotes are actually composed of several creatures. The Drachmites appear as bearlike humanoids with a mane of long leech-like creatures, and calcifying colonial organism that grows over the body of the drachmite as it ages. These multiorganisms are matriarchal in nature and nomadic as well. However, they find city life to be fairly acceptable as well. They take up residence in the Celestial Meridian along with the Xaryia, who openly harass and bother their new neighbors, keeping them out of several sections of the city. Many drachmites find live near the city gates preferable to the inner city, as it allows them easier access to the fields of moss surrounding the city. This allows them to find food, mostly moss and hub slimes, fairly easily. The drachimites report that the hydraslimes... well... they can't put it into words really. They seem a bit distressed by them, despite the species being entirely peaceful and even interesting to watch. The drachimites avoid the hydraslimes, and keep a fair distance from them.
To the south, on the island of Cariddia, a new species of "plant" takes root. They are tall fleshy trees with bright red leaves and hard white bark. They grow eyes like most trees grow fruit. These trees have a tenancy to stare at nearby creatures. It doesn't seem as if the trees are capable of complex thought, but the staring eyes are rather spooky if one isn't used to them. Some of these trees also spring up on the southern edge of the hub.
It seems that the last race to join are the Cups. These (humanoid?) lizards are part plant and part animal. They have flowers and beautiful greenery growing on their bodies. They are deposited in the Hub, outside of the Celestial Meridian. There they find endless fields of soft green moss, occasional bushes which mark the entrances to caves, and far far far to the south, actual trees. Well, they may not actually be trees but a sort of plant like eyestalk, but they look and act like trees. Here they begin their journey, among the soft moss and the with lots of sunlight. They are particularly fond of the Cthols, these strange somewhat deformed looking creatures move slowly and seem to think in a way and pace very different than most mortals. The move slowly, or rarely at all, they lounge in a sort of peace that most animals and mortals can't even comprehend. Your Cups seem to admire this, often basking near the odd monsters.
Another race joins the mortals during this era. The hydraslime. In a world of headless cyclopses, plant-lizards, smoky cave monsters, pig AND turtle people, and eye trees; these things are considered weird. And no one can tell you why. Not a single mortal can explain why they don't want to be near the creatures. In fact they likely tell you that they are rather interesting to watch from a distance and that they think the hydra slimes are probably very nice, but they just don't want to go anywhere near them. They are also usual in the fact that granting them a mortal soul, and all the benefits that accompany it, doesn't seem to have changed them at all. They aren't capable of speech, and don't even communicate really, they just sort of wave their long heads around in a manner that makes no sense. After studying it for a while, you come to the conclusion that its not even a sign language, its just general body language that all creatures use. They don't talk, and they don't pray to Mo. Or any other god it seems. Mo does get some influence income from them, despite them not really doing anything worship like. Weird. This species has zero interaction with anything but itself, despite living in the Hub and in the Celestial Meridian, and not a single creature is willing to change that.
The cursed prince takes Stolen's offer, and has his soul transferred into one of the stronger shades. This, unfortunately, releases that shade's soul, which is the equivalent of death (albeit is one of the rarer ways to go). This breaks the curse on the prince, as he did technically die (his soul was without a body for a moment). He then retakes his body, after stolen magically enchants it to never decompose. The prince, now a shade living in his own corpse, gives stolen the flaming sword and returns to his own world.
The lizard wizard joins the world, beginning his stay with the tortons. He does so mostly because of their reptilian kinship. Most tortons see him as a shell-less torton, and he's a bit of a peculiarity to them. He sees the tortons as lizard people with shells, and finds them rather unusual as well. He decides to live among them until a source of magic is introduced into this world. Once it is, he will teach the tortons and then travel to the Orathals to teach them. After-which he will retire to the Celestial Meridian.
The demi-goddess Ire-Aka finally exits her mossy castle. She walks (carefully) through the Celestial Meridian and only squishes one or two unwary by-standards under her towering form. She almost steps on a hydraslime, but in the final moments before her foot sets down, she sidesteps, kicking over a building in the process. After that she moves out of the city and walks across the moss fields. She comes across the Cups there, and seems to take an interest in them. Its at this point you realize she has no mouth, as she doesn't say anything to the cups, but just creates a small species of flowering plant around them. It seems as though she plans on lingering in their company for a bit.
The two new Gods continue their campaigns to be accepted into the pantheon. The muck god only needs one more vote and the passion god needs two more votes (I think).
Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shapeshifting master of darkness... In the distance a new world comes into being. It is close enough that it is view-able in the night sky of those who live in The Celestial Wheel. This is the work of the god Kyazir. He begins crafting an island chain and pilfers a bit of water for his ocean. This is no big deal, as there is incredible amounts of excess water for additional wheel hubs. The world is completed rather quickly, but it is barren and devoid of all life. The Tasatha wait in stasis for the world to be finished.
Petitions:
The first petition comes from the Inter-dimensional Association of the Afterlife and Spirit Worlds. During this era, the first mortal souls have shed their mortal coils, and this seems to be creating issues. With no afterlife to escape to, these souls are just floating around your world. Now, a certain amount of free floating souls is fine and an indicator of a healthy world, despite their tenancy to metamorphose into less savory forms, but a complete lack of soul disposal can lead to some major issues. So the IDAASW has come to bring this issue to your attention.
The IDAASW also has the second request. It seems an abandoned spirit world has drifted nearby and will likely collide with your world. This is seperate from the afterlife related to the first request, as this is a world of spirit beings, not the souls of the deceased. This won't necessarily be bad if it collides, but there could be some ramifications. The spirit world could latch onto your world, and become an additional plane. Or it could pass through and continue on drifting in the aether. Either way, unless action is taken, various spirit species could transfer to your world. You have a few options. For 8 IP, one could prevent the collision all together. For 5 IP one could ensure the the spirit world attaches itself to your physical world, thus adding an additional plane of existence, but also potentially adding some spirits to your world.
The third request comes from a familiar plant salesman.
I have in my possession several species of plants, all of which only cost two IP. The first is a species of magical rose bush. It grows to the size of houses, and often has overhanging branches. This means that the bushes often have large open spaces beneath their long branches, very suitable homes for more natural races. The second is a type of tuber. It grows beneath the ground, like a potato, but it also has a tall stalk with a single large umbrella-like leaf. The stalk grows to be several feet long, with a very large leaf. The tuber itself grows to a decent size, about the size of a pumpkin. Its a slow grower, but a very low maintenance crop. Doesn't do very well in poor or rocky soil however. The third species is a fruit bearing nut? It looks like a big walnut, and if left outside for a day, it produces a small bitter fruit. Then of course I have a special offer, a race of cactus dragons. Poor thing's home was destroyed when an fire dragon lost a bet to an ice goddess. They cost 8 IP, and won't provide an influence income as they have a patron deity. That said, they will adopt any desert dwelling race that gives them a home.The fourth request is from a Major Elemental Spirit of Fire. It looks like an incredibly intense fire contained within a suit of black iron. Fire pours out of the holes in the armor.
I [Veridicus] have come to make an offer. I will provide this world with the basis for fire specific magic. In exchange, I require a dedicated temple. It can be natural/god constructed or it can be mortal constructed. I will also require a fair number of servants, who will depart with me. A minor elemental will remain on this world and dwell within my temple to care for the magic source. The race that provides the greatest temple to Veridicus will serve as a host for a minor fire elemental spirit and some of its members will be blessed with knowledge of fire magic. (Note: All can learn fire magic after this, assuming they can make it to the temple to learn, it will just be much much harder for the losers).
Player Inventories
Points: 30
Inventory:
Units: Tortons (Mortal, reclusive)
Points:15?
Inventory:
Units: Units: Daktils (Boarish, asexual, warlike)
Points: 15
Inventory:
Units: Tasatha (Need physical description.)
Points: 37
Inventory:
Units: Orathals (Boring, lots of religious things though)
Points:26?
Inventory: Flaming Sword
Units: Shades (corpse snatchers, cave-dwelling, fragile)
Points:21
Inventory:
Units: Oggernth (One eye, strong claws, cave dwelling, small packs)
Points:35
Inventory:
Units: Cups (Flower lizards, protective of nature)
Points:15?
Inventory:
Units: Drachmites (Not slowbro)
Points: 35
Inventory:
Units: Cups (sentient plants, predatory, territorial over best soil)
(Ugh, I had these fixed in my notes, but then didn't save them. So if you see any that look wrong, let me know).
Ire-Aka: A physical nature demi-god. Enjoys playing with mortals and also likes plants. Little else is known at this point. She likes the Cups.
Tentacle Head: Imagine a giant peach colored octopus tentacle that connects to a human torso instead of an octopus. That's what this is. Its considered a minor eldritch horror and is on par with an angel or demon. Currently hanging out Godzilla style in the ocean around the Hub.
Name: Daktils
Description: Porcine creatures, much like their god, the Daktil are an aggressive, standoffish race. Asexual reproducers, each Daktil is born with a clutch of pods inside themselves that only hatch into new creatures once the original has died, causing there to always be a need for conflict and death, whether from external or internal sources, for the species to grow.
Culture: As of yet, the Daktil just enjoy scrapping and exploring in the name of their god, and also out base curiosity.
Name: Tortons
Description: Tortoise people with majestic shells and a gift for magic, especially defensive magic and wards.
Culture: Sedentary individuals that like studying magic and ignoring the problems and plights of non-Tortons from behind thick and high walls. Will generally respond to threats by hunkering in their shells, and on a grander scale, hiding inside their walls and magic defences. They like living in underground fortresses or high up in the mountains.
Name: Orathals
Description: Humans, but it's their culture not their looks that make them special.
Culture: The Orathals are simple farmers and hunters heavily centered around their religion. They worship the spirit world and the mighty Eagle-god, this can be seen through many festivals including tribal dances, many holidays, religious hunts etc. They strongly believe in the afterlife and as their creator they have a natural need for balance.
Name: Tasatha
Description: The Tasatha are a humanoid species, moderately sized and resistant to magic. The flip side of the magic resistance is that they cannot actually cast spells or manipulate magic in any way. Considered the have a somewhat pleasing aesthetic to most mortal races.
Culture: Culturally, the Tasatha have yet to form much of significance, remaining mostly adaptable in culture.
Name: Shades
Description: Amorphous figures with barely tangible forms, shades have the curious property of being nominally invisible except that they do filter enough light to leave a shadow cast by light sources. They are weak, with their young barely strong enough to lift a feather, but have the curious property of being bodysnatchers - at least of unoccupied bodies. Corpses can be temporarily inhabited by shades, who are able to trigger the left-over nervous system and musculature to operate them to perform heavy lifting and other physical tasks. Most shades, especially the young, are extremely fragile and can be destroyed by strong wind, fire or other forms of damage that can disrupt their whole form at once. The strongest, oldest shades can operate in the common world without needing a body. Shades feed off living essence, but since most creatures can easily destroy or fend off naked shades they can only really consume essence from very simple life, such as algae and mould (even plants are risky due to the threat of raindrops shattering their forms). When inhabiting a body they can live off the rot decaying the body itself, or carry decaying meat or plant matter in the bag that used to be the corpse's stomach for consumption.
Culture: At this early stage of proto-civilisation, clans of shades in migration might look like shambling hordes of zombies; fresh bodies are needed to replace broken, decaying forms that can no longer be effectively puppeted and are essential for reproduction - without deep, dark caves with stable atmospheres new shades can only be spawned in fresh bodies where they will remain safe from the elements until they are strong enough. Little technology exists, although shades are sapient and fairly communal, and their society consists of bands of roving, shambling hordes reaving enough food and fresh bodies to sustain themselves.
Name: Oggernth
Description: Large, thickly built creatures with Claws of Stone, Oggernth have but one eye and are built for digging with their bare hands and climing. Oggernth come in a variety of colors, including Red, Maroon, Pink, Dark red, Almost black, and Green.
Culture: Oggernth group together in packs of 6-7 adults and spend their time digging tunnels through the earth or Scratching images into stone.
Name: Cup's.
Description: Called for their cup like flower's that grow on their onyx body's they are lithe slim and smooth. No jagged edges. Face's that jut about forcefully. Shimmering gemstone lizard's with beautiful moss greenery and plants growing on their form. They feed off the nutrients these plant's give them and in turn protect anf provide a safe place for the plant to grow. A symbiotic relationship. They are as big as a german shepard.
Culture: It is rather simple. Small family herd's compiling of 5 or 6 member's all protect and graze together. They protect eachother's fauna. Help grow fauna on each other's back and genrally work together. They are sentient. But their mind wander's. They seem to greatly appreciate those with a sentiment for plant's or animals that improve the flora's health on their back. (Remember, this is the dawn of time)
Name: Drachmites
Description: The initial drachmite 'race' is in fact composed of several symbiotic species. They can be divided into three main components. Usuri are almost-hairless ursine bipeds that form majority of a drachmite's physical mass. 10 to 25 small lamprey-like creatures are attached to a usuri's neck from which they siphon nutrients. In-turn, these lampreys are able add their mental processing power to the host's own, allowing a bonded usuri to think and react in ways impossible to non-host usuri. The third main symbiotic 'species' is a colonial organism, that resembles a cross between clams and barnacles, and is attached to the usuri's vestigial tail. This colonial organism is surrounded by a tough oyster-like shell that in time grows to cover much of a drachmite's body, forming a protective armour for the usuri. This armour fails to form if a growing drachmite is unable to secure enough calcium carbonate.While heavy. While the armour becomes increasingly heavy, the colonial creature is able to stimulate increased muscle growth to ensure the usuri is able to continue movement. Drachmites are able to drink seawater.
Culture: Drachmites are nomadic and congregate in small familial groups. In times of great bounty, many drachmites may group up to celebrate, mate, trade or share news and tales. Groups tend to be matriarchal although the matriarch's consorts tend to be almost-equal with the matriarch. Young males often form sub-herds that follow the main familial group from a short distance both to act as rearguards as well as to reduce annoyances to the main group. Sea water holds a special significance to drachmites as a 'flavoured water'.
Name: Kilaweas
Description: A plant-like race, they are well adapted to tropical climates. They have a roboust stem with wide leaves that ends in a huge and colorfoul flower-like structure, whith a pattern unique to each individual.The flower is actally a deadly predatory organ,and its extremely sharp petals close with tremendous force on any available source of food. They are surprinsingly fast thanks to their four root-like branched tentacles that help them slither on the ground and allow them to manipulate things. They are omnivorous with a strong preference towards meat and have a tremendous appetites, but when there is shortage of food they can enter a dormant state where they suck nutrients off the grounds like true plants. In this state however their thoghts are slower, as if they were drowsy at the best and often thy fall asleep.Their communication is based on smell, not sound, which is slower but allows thm to convey very subtle variations of meaning. They are ermaphrodites and aftet they reproduce by pollinating each other in their real flowers, much smaller and non-descript. After these flowers became big fruits full of seeds that the parents plant all together.
Culture: The Kilaweas live in small nomadic tribes . After their seeds are planted the Kilawea tribes leave the elders behind to care for the young saplings. The elders enter in statis, only to reawaken when the saplings emerge from the ground. They provide for them and teach them everything they need to know. After enough time has passed the tribe returns to the planting spot (each tribe has their own, and sometimes bitter wars are fought for the best planting spots), to reunite with the youngs and absorb them in the tribe and plant new seeds so the cycle can begi anew. The elders usually die soon after. The Kilawea like hunting, but, they are also starting to develop a primitive form of poetry based on pleasant smells. They are not usually monogamous, although it is not weird to have one or two favourite pollination partners.
Cthols: a "humanoid" race of eldritch neanderthals. They are incredibly unintelligent. Less so than most animals, and some rocks. But, surprisingly enough, they have souls. Honest to goodness mortal souls. Its likely that that eldritch creature was baited into that prison with more than a couple tasty worlds, and that this species is one of the twisted descendants of one of those poor bait universes. They are misshapen humanoids with skin that is a mix of fuchsia and lime green mixed together, and isn't brown, but another color that doesn't exist once you stop looking at it directly. Their head is elongated and has a ring of small yellow eyes with vertical slits around it's entirety. They have normalish legs, which end in black two pronged talons. Their three elbowed arms split into four tentacles at the wrist, each tentacle has a small beak at the end.
Xaryia: They are humanoid in shape, but their body and limbs are unnaturally long. They have no heads, but instead have a wide mouth across their entire torso. Their torso splits down the middle, and a large single eye lays in the center of this split. This means their shoulders are completely separated. The eye can turn all the way around and see out the back. This race of creatures is monsterous, and will not get along well with mortal races by default. This can change, and they may get along with some races by default, but as a general rule they're not pleasant company.
Hydraslime: A race of multi-headed slimes. They are blue and purple, and almost serpentlike. They have multiple appendages each ending in an eye and small brain. Absolutely no creature will approach them, not even demi-gods. Yet no one seems to think they're evil, they actually like them, they just don't want to get anywhere near these creatures.
Dark Vault: A seemingly ancient and unpleasant looking vault. Occasionally gods and mortals can hear knocking within. Contains a terrifyingly powerful eldritch creature that eats whole worlds at a time.
Ire-Aka Castle: A towering medieval castle composed entirely of moss. The demi-goddess Ira Aka lives there.
Celestial Meridian: A giant city on the Hub created by the god Janos. It has every architectural design that has ever existed.
Microbial life
Simple Green Plants: A kind of hardy moss that grows well under most conditions.
Dark Sea Eels- Incredibly long eels measuring at 30-40 feet long. Omnivorous, with wicked sickle-like teeth. Occasional biolumanescent dots.
Raspberry jellyfish- A species of jellyfish with multiple connected heads, each with their own locomotion, nervous system, and thoughts. Single digestive system.
Deep Lichen- A biolumanscent fungi completely surrounded by a photosensitive plant. The fungi provide enough light for the plant to create enough food for both to survive.
Landslidmes: These are the largest slimes on the planet, and are technically oozes as they don't hold a shape. They look like mudslides and often contain lots of mud and rock.
Quite territorial and aggressive, and also dangerous.
Daslugs: Large worm creatures slightly bigger than the Daktils themselves, that subsist on moss and slime. Normally very passive and squishy, which makes them ideal for domestication, their bodies become armour plated and spiky during mating season, followed by a marked increase in aggression. This way, their numbers are harder to cull as they're far stronger when breeding.
Zeps: Photosynthetic, anemone-like animals, that live in the ocean and sit on the seabed. After birthing young, they detach from the floor and rise to the surface, where they are carried to shore by the currents and die. Can be easily consumed raw or cooked.
Basic Slime Domestication: Tortons