Flapping your wings in contemplation, you sigh and speak once again.
"Come, let us walk." The door leading to the outside flies open and as you touch your talons to the ground your form shimmers, flickering into a chiseled paragon of physicality, though of a sort he has never before seen. You notice that though he is bewildered by the sight of your true nature, he holds his tongue and exits the structure without complaint. Pausing to fold your wings behind yourself, you follow and are pleasantly surprised and mildly disturbed in equal measure to find that despite the diminutive height and scrawny, malnourished build of the Osterat the entrances to the ruins are built to accommodate those much larger.
As you meander through the shattered citadel, being careful to direct your follower away from the invisible energy fields you discuss the peoples of his world, their views on the gods, and what sort of approach he thinks might work better in future. He knows little beyond the basics but he's surprisingly forthcoming with answers to the questions you pose.
- According to the mortal, whose name your learn is Urul, the Osterat were once powerful and cunning paragons who reigned over a sophisticated empire. Though you were already aware of this, you're slightly surprised to hear that their dominion extended across many planes and was built on the backs of countless slaves, whose labor they used to erect great monoliths to their glory that were destroyed, and set their mystic spires into place, which were melted and rendered powerless. He claims that before amassing their empire they evolved naturally, free from the influence of any god and take great pride in the fact even now.
- In the expansion of their empire, the 'gestalt avatar of their wise men's power' overthrew several minor deities and absorbed them to gain their strength. After bringing a dozen realms to heel, it seemed they couldn't be stopped before the treacherous and sinister Dhiruer, God of Knowledge, Sorrow, and Pestilence insulted them by demanding that they trade the secret of their spire's formation and allow his priests to evangelize in their lands in exchange for access to his afterlife and one-sided trading rights. These dignitaries were executed in such a way that their souls were rendered unto oblivion, and after the fourth death without a definitive response, the deity declared war. Supposedly the realms under Dhiruer's sway were less numerous but with divine backing and the help of many prophet-led slave revolts, the deity managed to gain the upper hand and in a century's time, conquered them and devoured their avatar in a swarm of vermin.
- The ancestors of the Osterat were then humbled in the most total way possible, and when the devastation was complete Dhiruer threw the realm as far into the void as his power could fling it, so that it would crash on the outskirts of creation, isolated enough that it could never again rebuild its empire. Because of this, the loss of their knowledge, ruination of their realm, and forced devolution their outlook on divine entities has moved from pragmatic atheism to murderous hate, and the closest thing they have to a holiday is the ritual torture and consumption of vermin during the rare occasion that their last remaining moon is both in a new moon and obscured by the shattered ring of what was once its twin. Likewise, their culture shames sadness as dishonorable and encourages the depressed to bury their sorrow in rage. You get the impression that they still hold a significant grudge towards Dhiruer.
- Urul explains that the Osterat have descended into a primitive stone age augmented by what little artifacts remain of their previous civilization, because while they retain the knowledge of metallurgy, their divine foe made sure to slowly and brutally strip mine the reality before throwing it aside. Allegedly, the state of the world outside of the ruins was ushered in by methodically forcing unnaturally severe famine and pollution over the course of several centuries. The soil is depleted and drained of moisture to the point that permanent settlement is effectively impossible outside of a handful of sheltered fortress-towns that change hands almost annually. You get the impression that the grudge between the mortals and the deity is, or at least was mutual.
- When you ask how he thinks you should best go about bringing the Osterat clans around to your way of thinking, he has the following to say: His people are paranoid to a fault and doubly so in the presence of anything overtly supernatural, so you should attempt more subtle miracles than the mystic spring. They have an almost rabid hatred for anything divine, to the extent that he can barely bring himself to trust in your intentions even after experiencing them firsthand. Apologizing for his mistrust, he suggests that having an Osterat speak and do miracles in your name might smooth things over. Lastly, despite the bloodlust that's become the norm among them, each and every mortal is obsessed with regaining the glory of the past, and he's convinced that if you promise that and prove you can deliver, throngs will flock to hear the message of Eroth, as nebulous and ill-defined as it currently is.
Good to know, good to know.
How has your opinion of the situation changed with this information?A) Your disdain for Dhiruer burns even brighter now that you've uncovered the scale of his petty spite and sickening lust for power that matches your curiosity.B) Your disdain for Dhiruer has grown to include the Osterat, because heedless of their current state, they brought it on themselves by murdering his dignitaries.C) Your disdain for Dhiruer has grown to include the Osterat, because heedless of their current state, they brought it on themselves by building their empire's foundation on brutality.D) Your disdain for Dhiruer has lessened, as despite his malice his actions were justified, but you've begun to disdain the Osterat for their horrendous past.E) Your disdain for Dhiruer has lessened, as despite his malice his actions were justified, but you don't disdain the Osterat anymore than before, since their actions are not those of their ancestors.F) You have another, more nuanced and enlightened opinion. [Specify]What do you plan to do next?A) Declare this mortal to be your prophet, and bless him with the power to bring your message to the peoples. [Specify]B) Find the clan which the mortal hails from, and seek to bring them into the fold before the raiding party arrives with a distressing report.C) Discover the location of the cookfire-makers the band was seeking to raid, and enlighten them with your thirst for deeper understanding.D) Undertake another, far more intelligent plan. [Specify]Mantles: Discovery
Epithets: N/A
Servitors: N/A
Champions: N/A?
Followers: N/A
Your Godly Realm: A quiet place, ideal for contemplation and currently bereft of any inhabitants save Eroth, its creator.
Osterat: Once home to an illustrious civilization, it has been destroyed by a god-sent cataclysm of an inconceivable scale.
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Topic: You are a Nascent Minor Deity (SG) (Read 8504 times)