Having run its course, the flame consumes itself, and paradoxically ceases to be.
Having fulfilled its Purpose, the fire collapses in upon itself. It devours its own Nonexistent essence, exiting existence at the behest of a dead soul that still lurks somewhere inside. ALTERTH is not there, nor is the Empty, nor is Awake, but they are not Absent either. They become Nothing as the flames diminish, and are finally reduced to less. Their shared spirit drifts away on the wind, a fragment of a fragment, before the last wisp of burning essence finally becomes null. There is nothing left behind.
Death dies, and life is all that remains.
Zeristia, the Gardener rises from the ashes. Her ten eyes open in rapid succession.
((I am bad at making decisions, just now I decided to make more decisions))
"Knowledge is a noble goal, creation, distribution and preservation of knowledge will be our goal for now, first, writing may be useful"
Have anyone who can't fly stand on the crusted ooze, then lift it and fly to the desert bus.
"Hopefully they don't remember where we live, cause if they do we're screwed."
Get to the drivers seat and drive out of there as fast as possible, if the deer demons manage to follow lead them out into the desert and lose them before returning to the tower.
AJAMA: 1
Fragments: 6
Dr. Bob: 3 vs. Deer Demons: 5"Thank you."The Fragments congregate on the crusted ooze, where they start discussing their new purpose. AJAMA sees the embodied ones scratching strange glyphs on the ooze platform. They seem to be recording information somehow, though the symbols themselves give the Demiurge a headache when it looks at them too closely. Each one inserts knowledge directly into the sphere's mind, in a way that reminds it of the telepathy that Fragments have been using to communicate amongst themselves. Receiving concepts this complex is actually a little painful.
AJAMA turns its gaze away from the mind-writing and lifts up the platform. It speeds through the air, Fragments in tow, until it comes to Dr. Bob's perpetual motion bus. The Deer-Men inside wave at them and shout something, but they're too far away for anyone to make out coherent words. The bus speeds away before AJAMA can get closer, leaving the Demiurge in the dust. Apollyon broadcasts a feeling of confusion with vague undertones of unease.
A few minutes later, three Deer-Men with black fur come into view. They're running faster than their physiology should actually allow, and as they approach a Fragment points out that they're actually dislocating their own legs and knees mid-stride. It takes only a few moments for the associated muscles and sinews to reorganize themselves, just in time to be damaged again when the creatures' feet hit the ground.
Elsewhere, Dr. Bob drives into the Wetlands and brings his bus to a screeching halt next to the Glass Tower's moat. The demons are all far behind him now. They followed the bus for a fairly long time before he lost sight of them, but it's unclear whether they actually know how to navigate back here. If they don't, he just needs to hope they lost his trail.
"Hmm, your name will be...Mati, yes, that's an alright name. Now come my child, hunt with me."
Meruem will now search for more prey alongside his firstborn, using the time not spent searching he'll try to improve his essence bladder.
2 , 3The chimeric insect now known as "Mati" nods and follows its father out into the sand. They wander across sand dunes, past errant shards of glass and around pools of strange black ooze. No mortals or primordials cross their path, so Meruem passes the time by tinkering with the properties of his essence bladder. Most of its imperfections are a result of flaws in its lining. They act a little like pinholes in a waterskin, in that they make it possible for a portion of the captured essence to escape containment and dissipate into the aether.
Like a leak, this problem is also relatively easy to fix. Meruem plugs the leaks using a portion of his own essence, which he maneuvers directly into the lining of the bladder. Essence will still seep out of the organ itself, but it will bump into the insulative layer rather than continuing to disperse. The failsafe should work in most scenarios, though extremely dense essence could still potentially force its way through. Meruem also risks losing a great deal of his own essence if the bladder is damaged.
When he returns his attention to the outside world, the Spawner notices that Mati has come to a stop. He's looking down at a glass crater so large that its circumference must be measured in miles. Embers drift past them, presumably from the massive orange fires that are raging in the center of the pit. There isn't a single creature in sight, but Meruem can feel a high concentration of essence in the air. It's radiating from the center of the crater, which shines in much the same way as the stars.
Hynsyr will refine his mind splitting technique even further. Any amount of wasted time could be a deciding factor in the conflicts that have plagued the desert since the awakening of his kind.
3Hynsyr's thoughts diverge, and his fragmentary consciousness runs through a familiar series of mental gymnastics. It takes only two or three seconds for a spear to appear in each of his hands, but the pieces of his mind still need to spend valuable time creating organizational schemes and assigning themselves to individual hands. The problem is made more complicated by the limited space in his head, which makes it possible for branches to interfere with each other if they think too loudly. To arm himself instantly, the Titan will need to remove that administrative delay altogether.
Before splitting his mind again, Hynsyr crafts a plan for each hundredth of his mind to follow. It's a simple procedure in which they assign themselves to a particular hand based on the order in which they awaken. It would've worked, too, if each branch actually woke up at a different time. Instead they all clamor for hand number one, occupying so much bandwidth that Hynsyr instantly blacks out. He comes to in a pile of solid-light chunks that don't even resemble spears.
After dismissing them, he stands up and tries another strategy. It involves dividing his mind into ten forks rather than a hundred. Each thought-stream will create spears in exactly ten of his hands, using techniques similar to the one Hynsyr used to arm his original twelve-armed form. It isn't quite as elegant as becoming a hundred different selves, but it poses less of a managerial conundrum. The ten larger pieces are more robust, even if they're less exciting. They can ignore each other for long enough to get a weapon in each hand.
Forgive me my children, for I have failed you
as I completely vanish, weave last will message
Don't fall to slavery of god worship
Eradicate remains of the darkness and any hostile species in this world, showing mercy is weakness.
Spread beyond the stars using rockets
Wear sunglasses and be cool
spell designed to make miniaturized star
improved sentinel armour with bigger battery, heat insulation and internal air supply
armed desert exploration vehicle
easy to mass produce weaving based handheld death ray
primitive space rocket
3Nazir feels himself dying. His spirit is coming apart at the seams, strands of essence unraveling until they are nothing more than dust on the wind. He feels strangely powerful, even though the borders of his mind are also wearing thin. The secrets of the universe are revealing themselves, in flashes that pass before his eyes like aetheric constellations. His soul is shaken loose of his body, and for a moment his thoughts echo out into infinity. There are strange and wonderful things there that he longs to bring back to the Primelings, or perhaps to the group of Spiderlings who he once taught to weave the Aether. Some knowledge, like the end of time or the edge of the universe, is simply too vast to be contained within the mind of a mortal. There are other things, too, though. Every possible permutation of Aether races through Nazir's mind. He seizes a few of them and uses the power of his own death to send them back to the physical world.
His message arrives as a psychic scream that brings the Web to its knees. Spiderlings hear the Weaver's voice booming through their minds, resonating with regret and urgency. A few final instructions ring through the cosmos, implanting themselves upon the mind of every living Spiderling. They know, instinctively, what Nazir desires for them: to destroy the enemies of the sand, to stand strong against the Bull, and to spread beyond the known boundaries of the world. Next strange technologies are described to them. Nazir grants them Aetheric schematics for weapons and vehicles and armor, everything that they might need to thrive in his absence. All gain from the experience, but only the most powerful Aetherweavers understand enough to extract useful information. They each record parts of the message in strands of aether and silk, forming a body of information that should, in time, allow them to unlock the secrets of their inheritance.
It is perfect and imperfect at the same time. Nazir wishes that he could stay, to mentor the Spiderlings and provide them with their full birthright, but almost none of his self remains. The last wisps of identity dissolve, and his soul returns from whence it came.
"I think you have me confused with someone else gral."
Ira focuses on healing her burns unless Gral gives her a task
1Ira examines her burns critically. They're not particularly significant injuries, but with Gral tied up there isn't much else for he to do. She curls up on the ground and rests, turning the injured portion of her back up into the air so that it won't be irritated by the sand. The burns gradually start to scar over at the edges as the World-Eater's supernatural metabolism does its work. This situations is strangely relaxing after all the battles she's been through recently. Before long she finds her mind drifting off, and then dozing off. The world around her fades, replaced by a similarly infinite dreamscape. At first she is tunneling up through the sand. There should be something up above her. She remembers a place full of air, where the other primordials made their home.
She digs for what seems like an eternity, but she still can't reach it. The world above is gone, if it ever existed at all. There's only an infinite expanse of sand, pressing in on her from all sides. Tendrils form to drag her deeper, as if that would even make a difference. Eyes form to leer at her, demons and strange avatars to tear her flesh apart. The sand laughs as it presses in. Here it is still alive. Ira tunnels and bites but she can't stop it. The world is indestructible and as infinite as it was the day ALTERTH awakened it. She digs her way into a cavern. It's safe there, until stalactites of sand descend on her like colossal teeth. They chew her up and crush her bones.
Ira wakes up with a start. None of her wounds have healed.
On the verge of sorrow, Ashe's face lightens at the sight of hidden fishies! She takes note of which fish were tagged, tags the closest fish, and then flees from those which are 'it' to play tag!
2Ashe tags a vibrant red fish and paddles to the other end of the lake. It isn't as easy to maneuver out in the real world, where they're working within a series of lakes and rivers rather than a whole ocean, but despite that the game proceeds fairly well. The yellow guppy doesn't get tagged this time, presumably because it swam away too quickly, but the red fish actually manages to tag her back by hiding itself underneath a fern. It jumps out of the foliage just as she's about to pass by. All she sees is a flash of red before the fish retreats back to its hiding place. She brushes through every plant frond in the lake, only to find that it buried itself underneath some mud in the lakebed. Just as she's about to tap it on the fin, she notices that the plants are far larger than they were a second ago.
Yellow stalks grow from the bottom of the pool. They rise until they reach the surface, then continue until they're at least five or six times as tall as Ashe. Then the stalks grow thicker, and tiny seeds start to appear at the tip of each plant. They seeds scatter into the air, patter down to the water, then begin growing into new Omni-Grains at the same astounding rate as their predecessors. Even then, the tide of golden wheat doesn't stop. More stalks grow, threatening to bury the nymph under a thousand tons of plant matter. Her fishy friends are nowhere to be seen.
Use my sacred light to blind the spiderlings around me one more time, and leave the area. I won't try to convert them, at least until the next Council.
3 v 6Aton directs another pulse of power into his disk. Sacred light continues to flow from his body, blinding the Spiderling troops, but instead of an overwhelming flash of radiance it comes out as more of a prolonged whimper. The light gutters, only barely strong enough to capture the Spiderlings' attention. A few, particularly the ones outfitted with Pacts from the Merchants, gather the mental fortitude to pull themselves away. They rain acid and spells down on Aton as he plods away. While his disk is still bright enough to throw off their aim, a group of Sentinels cuts off his escape route with a pool of acid. He stumbles around it, enduring a rain of matter-disintegration beams that strip away the outer layers of his skin.
Salvation comes after his negotiations with Gral. The Ironwinged, Bone Fortress and Merchants immediately withdraw, leaving Nazir's own legions to fend for themselves. With their demigod leaders wounded or burned to death and most officers entranced, the forces of the Great Web have no real organization. It takes them only a few minutes to realize their command structure has collapsed. After that most of them retreat in a blind panic, carrying the their wounded on silken stretchers. Aton leaves at a significantly slower pace due to his various injuries, particularly the increased weight of his hooves.
Bind Aton to the Pact, ensuring debilitating conseuqences should he breach it. Afterwards, check in on the Scrap-ranches.
5 , 2A Bargain is struck and a Pact is forged. Metaphorical chains of obligation settle over Aton, binding him to the contract that they have agreed upon. They hang over his head like the sword of Damocles, balanced on a thin thread of silk. That thread will snap if the terms of the Pact are violated, allowing the Bargain to take its due. The consequences for Aton would be dire, perhaps even irreversible. In Gral's estimation, that is entirely just. An oathbreaker deserves nothing less.
The Scrap-Rances have settled into a routine. They're mostly overseen by Ironwinged, who also use their flight to transport goods from place to place. Couriers have become used to moving massive piles of scrap metal up to the Iron Nest, which has created a subset of particularly adept fliers within the Ironwinged population. The other Ranch workers mostly help the Shardforms work with the Steel Grubs. Larvae can still be dangerous, even after their transformation into livestock. While they're docile enough, their increased size makes it safer to handle them with large crews of workers. When the Ranches are short on labor, they generally choose to leave one or two of the Grubs unsheared rather than risking accidents.
The Ironwinged report something strange happening to one of these untended Grubs. After growing larger for about a week, it curled up and stopped moving or eating. Its metal exterior has frozen in place, becoming a thick shell vaguely similar to the pupal casings that the Shardforms recovered from the Bog.
Dr. Bob, the Unmoved Mover
-Regent of the Tower
-Spidersilk net.
-Improvised glass tools.
-Glass automaton
-Perpetual-motion bus
-Vial of Einyar
-Red Liquor
--------------------------------
Kūhaku, the Mirror
-Catatonia
-Rain-Maker
--------------------------------
Ira, the World-Eater
-Empty
-Woven together
-Debt: Gral: Two Favors Owed
-Minor burns
--------------------------------
Gral, the Contractor
-Contract: Winged Spiderlings
-Contract: Ira: Two Favors
-Pinion Blades
--------------------------------
AJAMA, the Demiurge
-Ooze-born Body
-Ooze-born Spheres
-Sphere of Darkness
--------------------------------
Hynsyr, the Titan
-Hundred Armed Form
-Knowledge of Essence
-Edge of Infinity
-Maker of spears
-100 spears of light
--------------------------------
Ashe, the Collector
-Brass feathers (underwater).
-Glass trinkets
--------------------------------
Meruem, the Spawner
-Flawed essence bladder
-Infused with Nothingness
-Firstborn
--------------------------------
Aton, the Herder
-Seared
-Broken horn
-Weighed down
--------------------------------
Zeristia,
Bestiary:
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: Spirits made from the scattered pieces of ALTHERTH. They were driven out of the sand when Ira consumed the absent heart.
Apollyon: A Fragment which usurped AJAMA’s original body and converted it into Nothingness.
--Absent Ooze: A Nonexistent strain of Black Ooze that Apollyon can produce. Other Fragments often use it to create makeshift bodies.
Shardforms: Obsidian creatures which absorbed the Empty's already-incomplete consciousness. The broken pieces of ALTERTH's identity they possess give them animalistic intelligence.
--Awakened Shardforms: A herd of Sharforms who were granted sapience by Gral. They’ve agreed to provide the Sliken Nest with raw materials in return for goods.
Steel Maggots: Metallic larvae which Gral accidentally created while trying to make avian 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.
Steel Grubs: Steel maggots that have been bound with Pact-collars and transformed into livestock. They have grown larger than their sapient kin, but are unintelligent and largely peaceful.
Brass Buzzards: Brass birds crafted from Gral's feathers. They are infused with the pain it felt while creating them.
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.
--Ironwinged: 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. They were later granted the ability to weave metal.
--Ancestors: Aetherweavers 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.
--Sentinels: A army of biologically and magically augmented Spiderlings, created by elite Aetherweavers with Nazir's guidance. They serve the Spider Demigods, and stand ready to protect the Web alongside them.
Primelings: Ten entities created by Nazir and a group of the most powerful Aetherweavers. They watch over the Web in Nazir's stead, but are weakened by flaws in their weaving.
--Ekhor: A proud warrior who wears a larger variant of Sentinel Plate. He was nearly killed in the War of Sands.
--Sekhmet: A Primeling with flaws in the Weavings that form her mind. Despite being a brilliant tactician, her behavior is consistently very odd.
Merchants: Four steel vultures made from Gral’s essence. They are capable of using the Bargain.
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.
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.
Three-Headed Worm: A juvenile sandworm created by Ira to serve the Dustwalkers.
Crops: Hemp, potato, corn, and bean plants created by Dr. Bob.
Suspicious Mushrooms: Mushrooms that sprouted in the Glass Tower after Dr. Bob’s disastrous attempts at brewing alcohol. They spawn clouds of hallucinogenic spores.
Atlas:
The Living Sands: ALTERTH once awakened the desert and allowed it to consume him. For a time his creation was infinite, but now most of the sand has died. The few surviving pieces are a shadow of what they once were.
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.
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.
--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.
--Market of Scars: A grand market built by the Scarred Spiderlings in exchange for their resilience. The Ironwinged sell metal equipment there.
Shifting Bog: A large pool of mud drawn from the sand by Kuhaku. When the sand was alive, islands in the bog constantly formed and dissolved. 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.
--Moat: The Tower is surrounded by a lake. Only one thin bridge connects it to the rest of the sand.
--Sandcastles: A series of elaborate sandcastles built around the moat. They were crafted so masterfully that they won’t dissolve in rain. Ashe later added an incredibly detailed sand city of her own.
--Garden: An irrigated garden containing several different types of crops.
--Laboratory: A room furnished with chemistry equipment and various glass containers.
Light Spires: A glowing city made by the Lightfolk using their creation magic.
--Temple of Yig: A golden temple which houses Yig, the First Tribute. It is an intricately-carved cathedral with walls made from an aurora.
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.
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.
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.
Wetlands: Areas of the sand and the Great Web which Kuhaku continuously showers with water. The rain is heavy enough to form rivers and lakes.
--Abandoned Nests: A nesting ground that was briefly occupied by the Brass Buzzards. It is strewn with metal feathers and bloody talon-prints.
Canal: A shallow canal that Ira dug to fulfill one of her favors to Gral. It was meant to channel water from the Wetlands to various other parts of the world, but it overflowed and flooded the Glass Tower instead.
Knowledge:
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.
Bargainer's Tongue: A simplified version of knot-script which can be etched into a flat surface rather than woven into silk. It is comprehensible to non-Spiderlings, but not as intuitive.
English: A written script based on twenty-six letters and a few punctuation symbols. It was introduced by Dr. Bob and is primarily used by the Deer-Men.
Metalworking: Blacksmithing techniques that are typically available to the Ironwinged. They can be used to weave metal objects.
Aetherweaving: A magical discipline which involves spinning spiritual webs. It was taught to the Spiderlings by Nazir and is available to the Tribes, the Primelings, and any other arachnid capable of making silk.
Lightforging: Creation magic unique to the Lightfolk. It is a powerful but chaotic ability which can be used to make solid-light constructs out of one's own aura. More advanced techniques allow practitioners to create complex materials such as metal or wood.
Eight-Talon Way: A powerful martial art created by the Brass Buzzards. It is purely offensive in nature, but consists of strikes so lethal that defense isn’t usually necessary.
Agriculture: Farming is only feasible in the wetlands, but plants watered by Kuhaku’s rain grow quickly. The Deer-Men have been taught to cultivate and use several kinds of crops.
Prayer: A technique which allows Lightfolk to tap into their connections with Yig and Einyar. The Prismatics have learned how to use it to communicate with Hynsyr.
Photosynthesis Enchantments: A personal enhancement Weaving developed by the Ironwinged. It increases the amount of energy that Spiderlings can absorb from light.
Items:
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.
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.
--Chaos Ooze: Blobs of ooze which have accidentally been made to assimilate a variety of substances and concepts. They were later sealed away.
--Silence Ooze: A strain of chaos ooze that can feed on silence. AJAMA transplanted some of it to the empty desert, where it has grown rapidly.
--Crusted Ooze: Semisolid ooze variants which have been hardened by intense pressure. They take slightly longer to grow as a result of their density.
Pact-Arms: Metal weapons, armor, and tools which can compel their wielders to carry out tasks for the Winged Spiderlings. Most are in the possession of Spiderlings on the Web.
Tribute Tokens: A currency minted by the Ironwinged and infused with the power of the Bargain. They see light use in the Great Web but are not considered especially valuable, so most of the economy still relies upon bartering.
Sentinel Plate: Magical armor developed for use by the Sentinels. It can drain the force of attacks and release it in the form of telekinetic blasts.
Life Machine: A machitech device that can be used to shunt vitality from one area to another. Additional upgrades gave it the ability to drain life from sand, which a Merchant used to create a patch of fertile soil around the machine.
Factions:
Spiderling Tribes: Prominent groups of Spiderlings, mostly organized by subspecies. The are scattered across the Web, the stars, and the sand.
--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.
High Council of the Web: The governing body of the Great Web. It consists of delegates from each of the tribes, as well as one Primeling. Most meetings take place in Nazir's nest at the top of the Web.
Lifeweavers: A group of Ancestors who helped Nazir create the Primelings and Sentinels.
Warpriests: A Lightfolk religious order which protects Einyar, the Temple of Yig, and the Light Spires themselves.
Ministry of Light: Civil servants appointed by Hynsyr to oversee the Light Spires. The seven Prismatics were installed as founding members.
Author
Topic: Sand & Souls - Let There Be Turns (Read 61582 times)