One tiny piece of a soul settles into a new body. Its memories are vague and incomplete, but something about this process feels familiar.
A
Shardform climbs to its feet. It is humanoid, unlike many of its fellows, and its eyes gleam with uncharacteristic intelligence.
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Gral bestows upon the Winged the ability to weave and produce metal silk, and sends a delegation of these new Steelweavers to the scarred market, both to reconcile them and to trade. As for the Brass Buzzards, Gral leaves them to heal, and then attempts to impart a lesson upon them: pain, though an effective motivator, is ultimately an unsustainable resource, lasting only as long as it’s controller wields it and its recipient fears it. In order to survive, one cannot rely on pain alone.Thus informed, Gral attempts to teach them skill, tactics, and, most importantly, control.
Gral: 1
Buzzards: 2Gral writes a new provision into the Wingeds' contract, meant to let them produce steel wire instead or silk. The extra words send waves of pressure rippling through the Bargain, causing the Spiderlings' bodies to morph. Metal needles materialize inside their exoskeletons and expand outwards, piercing their flesh like spears rather than coming out their spinnerets as intended. A few immediately die from the internal damage, but the majority of Gral's servants merely collapse, struggling to move despite the length of metal piercing their joints. None are in any position to glide away from the Nest.
The Buzzards listen to Gral patiently, but after his lesson is complete they show no real desire to change their ways. The flock swoops down to the sand, where they amuse themselves by pecking at stray pseudopods and terrorizing any mortals unfortunate enough to cross their path.
Hynsyr takes the corpse of his rogue soul splinter and uses his power to purify it by rebirth. From this piece of his soul he attempts to forge the Seven Rainbow Spears. Seven powerful artifacts that will act as both weapons for the Prismatics and instruments with which to safely channel their powers. For if he wishes for his children to be able to provide Tribute than his creations will need the ability to stand on even footing with the dangers of the this world.
6Hynsyr picks up the jellyfish corpse and allows his aura to burn it away, purging the gelatinous flesh of corruption. The cleansed soul-splinter is remade in the form of glowing metal, radiant with the thousands of shifting hues which appear in the Titan's eyes. Hynsyr stares at it, and his gaze hits the material like a smith's hammer. The metal shatters into seven chunks, which are masterfully crafted into seven deadly spears. The Prismatics approach cautiously to receive their weapons, heads bowed in silent awe.
As their hands close over the Rainbow Spears, the Prismatics' auras transform into massive columns of light. Their powers of creation are magnified tenfold when channeled through the spheres, made so intense that abstract shapes form and disperse around the kaleidoscopic lightfolk with each stray thought. One gives her spear an experimental twirl and a beam of energy sweeps across the sand, glassing everything in its path.
From the pure darkness forge a sphere made of darkness.
2AJAMA sinks their mental tendrils into the darkness. They gather rays of negative light into a globule of blackness, so dark the area inside is impossible to perceive. The Demiurge tries to solidify the clump into yet another sphere, but finds it difficult to keep control of the concentrated darkness. Black fog leaks out of their grasp like water and splashes across AJAMA's surroundings as clouds of unglowing anti-radiation. Some lingers in the ground, and in the branches of the bone fortress.
"Okay you guys make whatever you want, while I also make something."
Let the deer men build whatever they want from the glass, while I make a gun out of glass.
Dr. Bob: 4
Deer-Men: 6+1Dr. Bob picks up one of the smaller bits of glass and carves it into a tube, which forms the base of his new weapon. He forges thin panes and shards into clockwork pieces and hydraulic pistons to attach to one end of the hollow cylinder, where a basic mechanism takes shape, and molds a half-molten globule like clay to create a suitable grip. When the main body of the device is complete, he chisels away at the corners of his scraps until they are spherical ammunition, which he stows in his pockets. Bob drops one bullet into the end of the gun and pulls the trigger, which sends the glass sphere hurtling through the wall of the tower and out to the web, where it bounces off a strand of silk and shatters into a million sharp pieces.
When he is done admiring his handwork, the Deer-Men reveal their own creation. At first Dr. Bob assumes that it is a life-size replica of a Deer-Man, but when he congratulates his children on their artistic skills, they shake their heads and fiddle with something on the glass statue's back. Gears clink somewhere inside it, and the the automaton's limbs shudder to life. It strides forwards with mechanical precision and stands at attention in front of Bob.
Show weavers how individual can write up secrets of weaving into certain library part of webway to promote sort of intertribe knowledge and spells spreading and achievements in studied passing to next generations, make this knowledge repository guarded from nonspiderlings
6Nazir tells his students about the strange sorcery known as "writing," and creates a simple knotwork alphabet for them so that they can record their new spells. It involves weaving very specific patterns into strands of silk, which can then be carried manually or woven into the vast library-tapestries which hang from designated locations on the great web. This makes writing trivial for Spiderlings, who can make their own thread and examine knots in minute detail, but nearly impossible for anyone else.
Now that Weavers have an easy way to record and exchange spells, Aetherweaving on the web enters an unprecedented golden age. Many obscure techniques become common knowledge, and each tribe develops several unique workings which differentiate their Aetherweavers from the rest. Many also think to encode more mundane knowledge in books, so that even non-Weavers can benefit.
Only the Ancestors, who have a better view of the spirit world than most, notice something strange occurring near the new Tapestries. When many written spells are gathered in one place, cobwebs of aether spontaneously begin to collect on them.
Ira says goodbye to the Dustwalkers and gives one last gift. The three-headed worm: A giant three-headed worm made out of Ira's blood and Dustwalker corpses on the battlefield whose sole purpose is to serve the Dustwalkers
3Ira uses her mouth to drag the blood and gore littering the battlefield into one large pile. She coils herself around it, using her own body to incubate the dead flesh and fashion it into a living being. A second worm takes shape inside this improvised worm, with a body that splits into three heads. The new worm is tiny as compared to Ira, and by her standards a mere child, but it is still the World-Eater's own flesh and blood. Primordial energies course through its veins, flowing from a spark of essence nestled in the seven chambers of its heart.
The Three-Headed Worm will grow in both size and power, but that may take a long while. For now, it takes its place among the Dustwalkers and makes a burrow in the center of their new fortress.
Dr. Bob, the Unmoved Mover
-Spidersilk net.
-Glass chunks
-Improvised glass tools.
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Kūhaku, the Mirror
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Nazir, the Weaver
-God of the great web.
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Ira, the World-Eater
-Blackened Scars
-Woven together
-Debt: Gral: Three Favors Owed
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Gral, the Contractor
-Contract: Winged Spiderlings.
-Contract: Deer-Men: One Favor
-Contract: Ira: Three Favors
-Heavily bandaged.
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AJAMA, the Demiurge
-Ooze-born Body
-Ooze-born Spheres
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Hynsyr, the Titan
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Shardform
-Echoes and instincts
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The Living Sands: An awakened desert that extends outwards indefinitely. It consumed ALTERTHENTERRINTARTINTH, the being which brought it to life, and subsumed a part of their consciousness known as the Empty.
--Demons: Crude imitations of the primordials made from sand and absence.
--Obsidian Archdemon: An obsidian dragon crafted by the Empty itself. It was granted the power to manipulate nothingness.
--Fragments of Emptiness: ?
--Shardforms: Obsidian creatures which absorbed the Empty's already-incomplete consciousness. The broken pieces of ALTERTH's identity they have absorbed give them animalistic intelligence.
-Steel Maggots: Metallic larvae which Gral accidentally created while trying to create bird Emissaries. After they were pulled off of the vulture, few escaped into the desert, where they accepted Gral's peace terms and moved into the shifting bog.
-Brass Buzzards: Brass birds crafted from Gral's feathers. They are infused with the pain it felt while creating them.
The Stars: Glass spheres filled with fire. Gyaweft created them and threw them into the air to illuminate the world.
--New Stars: A second set that isn't accessible through the Great Web. Fortunately, that means they can't be blotted out by Spiderlings.
--Negative Star: A black sphere which radiates darkness, created by AJAMA after Gyaweft's death. It hangs above the bone tree.
Nazir's Web: A giant web that begins in the desert and reaches up towards the stars.
--Silken Nest: A new star that the winged spiderlings have claimed as a nest. It can only be reached by gliding or descending on strands of silk.
Knot-Writing: A written language Nazir formulated so that Aetherweavers could record their spells. It involves weaving complex knots into silk, and therefore comes intuitively to Spiderlings but is almost impossible for anyone else to comprehend.
--Tapestries: Libraries of spells and other knotwork which have been woven together and hung from the great web. Some have begun to collect aetheric cobwebs.
Spiderlings: A race of intelligent spiders which can live on light. They cover both the stars and the great web.
--Dustwalkers: A Spiderling subspecies which can feed on sand as well as light. They live on the sand and fight an asymmetrical war against it for survival.
--Winged Spiderlings: Defeated Spiderlings who made a deal with Gral. They received wings in exchange for service, and have built a nest on one of the new stars.
--Aetherweavers: A few Spiderlings who can perform magic by spinning aetheric webs. Nazir taught them the basics of their craft, allowing them to create fairly intricate wards against evil.
-Order of Strands: The first Spiderlings to learn the art of Aetherweaving. Many have strained their minds and bodies to hone their abilities, making them feeble despite their mystical strength.
--Ancestors: Weavers who have achieved immortality by becoming spirits bound to the great web. They are incorporeal, and their astral bodies make it easier for them to manipulate aether.
--Scarred Spiderlings: Spiderlings who have gained great strength and endurance because of their mistreatment by the Brass Buzzards. They built a market but have mixed feelings about Gral and his servants.
Shifting Bog: A large pool of mud drawn from the sand by Kuhaku. Islands rapidly form and dissolve as the sand beneath it moves. It has been tainted with Nazir's venom.
Glass Tower: A tower made of glass, raised from the sands by Gyaweft. It extends upwards through the web, tall enough that its upper floors reach the stars.
Black Ooze: A patch of black goo created by AJAMA which can grow by absorbing sand. A column of ooze goes deep beneath the earth, where it breached a reservoir of Emptiness.
Lightfolk: A species of humanoid mortals born from Hynsyr's golden light. Their powers of creation threaten to overwhelm their bodies, causing their inner light to warp chaotically. Many have begun to train so that they can gain more control over this ability.
--Prismatics: Seven lightfolk which glow brighter than the rest. They were hewn from the rainbow light of Hynsyr's eyes.
The Seven Rainbow Spears: Weapons Hynsyr forged from a rogue splinter of his soul and gave to the Prismatics. They amplify their wielders' magic immensely, and provide slightly more control over their powers of creation.
Light Spires: A rudimentary settlement made by the Lightfolk using their creation magic.
Einyar: A sea of golden light drawn from Hynsyr's aura. It preserves the spirits of the Lightfolk after death, so that the cycle may advance.
Deer-Men: A humanoid race with the heads of deer. Dr. Bob originally crafted them from the silk of Nazir's web. They were granted superior dexterity through a contract with Gral.
Bone Fortress: A giant tree grown from one of Ira's teeth, and given to the Dustwalkers as a gift. It has become a large fortress.
Three-Headed Worm: A juvenile sandworm created by Ira to serve the Dustwalkers.
Glass Crater: When Gyaweft flew his Sunship into the ground, it melted a wide swathe of the sand into glass. Fiery essence spilled from the ship still burns here, and sealed fault lines radiate from the impact site.
--Smelter's Grave: The center of the crater. Gyaweft's corpse lies here, alongside the molten remains of his Sunship.
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Topic: Sand & Souls - Let There Be Turns (Read 60552 times)