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[Inithis]

In a vast world, great kingdoms battle over lost treasures and buried wealth. Sorcerers call down lightning on armies, viziers stab backs, mercenaries flip-flop between sides twice before teatime, and over it all, a capricious pantheon of Gods spectate and participate with equal measures fickle compassion and malicious glee.

Through it all, though, life goes on. Villages cling to rough mountainsides and squat in open plains, subsisting and persisting the same way they have since before living memory, as immutable as the landscape they occupy. One may be burned, another may be abandoned, but always people return to fill the void, and life here continues on the same way it had. Out here, so far from the massive temples and ceremonies of the cities, the villagers and settlers learned to listen for the worldly kami that inhabited the ageless landscapes they settled, to make offerings to them in quiet shrines and private moments.

Here, in a particularly isolated mountain valley carved by an ancient river, a little village was settled by refugees from some vast conflict, one they hadn't known of until an army had shown up to loot their homes and steal their grain. Being wise, when they arrived they called out to the spirit of their new home, to sign a Pact: a promise between honest parties. They ask for your protection, guidance, and love. They offer the quiet worship - moreso, companionship - that a village guardian deserves. If they prosper, they swear that you will not be forgotten.

Who answers their summons?

Water: Your spirit has long waited in the river, dormant - when the village was founded, they solemnly came to the bank to ask for your blessing. Your way is one of an ageless calm and endurance, the endless rush of the waters, deep paths taken through mountain and valley - and the quiet affection for all the little things that live beside your winding route. You are slow to change and slow to wake, but your strength is deep and potent. When the village faces a crisis they consider great enough to wake you, someone will go to the riverside and cut their hand, letting the blood mix with the water and spark your senses.

Fire: Your spirit had long floated through the air, ephemeral, distant from the world. Only a short time ago, you were called and bound over the village hearth. The warm coals seep into your being - you feel the warmth of home after a long day away, the comfort of freshly cooked food, the hint of pride the potter has for every work they glaze. You are young and inexperienced, but your energy is boundless, and you are closer to humanity than a spirit that had long lived amongst nature. When someone wishes to call for you, they drop a bit of their meal in the fire to catch your attention.

Earth: Your spirit is a duality of dark earth and new sprouts, brought with the first settlers as they fled a now-forgotten disaster.  You were planted with the seeds they carried, foreign at first, but now at home in the rich soil of the river valley. You are an everyoung entity, sprouting anew with the planting, coming to the peak of your energy during the harvest, and settling in to sleep through the winter. The villagers call you by crushing a seed, and planting it under the earth - it never fails to draw you up to examine something so odd.

(This will be a cooperative, freeform roleplay. For now, you'll all influence the actions of the nascent village's guardian spirit. I'll be inventing new mechanics whenever we need them. Post the spirit option you'd like to see used, and we'll get this show on the road!)

[chubby2man]

Water sounds nice.

[Iris]

I think I will vote for Fire.

[Glass]

Earth rises to meet those who might call it.

Watch as this ends with a three-way tie and we just kinda do all of them.

[Inithis]

(I'll take a look in the morning. I suppose if no one else votes I'll let fate decide, but if anyone is reading this between now and then, here's your chance!)

[Strik3r]

These all sound like fun, but i think i like the premise of the Fire spirit the most.

[King Zultan]

I also vote Fire.

[A_Curious_Cat]

I also, also vote Fire.

[Inithis]

You had been adrift, as long as you could remember. You floated between thin wisps of cloud, across an endless plain split between blue and black, the only notable moments the chill as you passed through another one of your kind. It was a dream, but though you'd felt every second go by, you'd never known to wish for anything else.

Now, that had all changed.

In an instant, everything that you had been was burned away. You were wrenched from the dream, and a single moment of impossible pain resolved into a real, solid world around you. Your sleep was over, and for the first time, you wanted something: to never have to return to that mindless stupor.

Next, you looked down around you, through the Fire that you had been liberated by. Surrounding you were odd moving objects, which became animals, which became humans. All around them was an arrangement of large structures, which became buildings, which became a village. Your mind rang with the realizations, and in another second you understood that a hand was outstretched to you. You also understood what they were offering - a Pact.

"Spirit of the air, soul of the wind, we have brought you here and given you Dominion (you understand they are referring to the hearth you are settled in) and this we do freely, as a gift." The woman is sweating profusely. "We plead, though, that you consider our offer. We ask to bind your future to ours, your spirit to our village. This Pact will seal out fates together, to grow together, to work together, and that you shall watch over us, our children, and our children's children, as long as we keep our responsibility to respect and care for you." The woman is out of breath and her hand trembles slightly - is she scared? "Should you refuse, we will let you live in peace."

You consider the offer she's given you, given on behalf of the hundreds around you. You understand that she cannot have lied or spoken falsely - the terms of the Pact are visible in the fire around you, spelled in immutable truth. And... in truth, you're scared to accept. This is the first decision you've ever had to make, and it's the one that will decide your future. Can you really bind yourself so soon after becoming free?

Looking around, though... the sea of faces, staring up at you. Expressions of anxiety, curiosity, but among the auras of the assembled crowd, you sense a persistent hope, a scattered idea of a better future, laid squarely upon you.

You extend a hand, a shape barely formed by wisps of flame, and set your palm against that of the woman before you. Immediately, you can feel something change, the thoughts of those around you becoming clear, and you can see pieces of their lives and thoughts suspended around them. As you make your first step onto the floor below, you step into a new life.

You can feel yourself solidifying, taking on a temporary Form - it is strongly influenced by the humans you are surrounded by, but it will always be yours. What shape do you take?

[Strik3r]

Since we are closer to humans than other kinds of spirits, we likely empathize with them and their need of being able to relate to things well. As such i think the form we take should be as familiar to them as possible. Rather than take a form "influenced" by the humans, it should just be that of a human. Unless there is something saying we can't do that, i say our physical form should just be a human, with features reflecting our nature as a young, inexperienced fire spirit; A youthful-looking human female with long, vibrant, flame-like orange-red hair and soft-looking amber eyes.

[Iris]

Since we are closer to humans than other kinds of spirits, we likely empathize with them and their need of being able to relate to things well. As such i think the form we take should be as familiar to them as possible. Rather than take a form "influenced" by the humans, it should just be that of a human. Unless there is something saying we can't do that, i say our physical form should just be a human, with features reflecting our nature as a young, inexperienced fire spirit; A youthful-looking human female with long, vibrant, flame-like orange-red hair and soft-looking amber eyes.

I'll take that. +1.

[A_Curious_Cat]

Since we are closer to humans than other kinds of spirits, we likely empathize with them and their need of being able to relate to things well. As such i think the form we take should be as familiar to them as possible. Rather than take a form "influenced" by the humans, it should just be that of a human. Unless there is something saying we can't do that, i say our physical form should just be a human, with features reflecting our nature as a young, inexperienced fire spirit; A youthful-looking human female with long, vibrant, flame-like orange-red hair and soft-looking amber eyes.

I'll take that. +1.

Sounds good.  +1

[King Zultan]

Why a human it seems like people always chose those when it comes to games like this, why couldn't we be a dog or a deer?

[Inithis]

The tiny wisps of flame cooled, slowing, until each was a needle pulling thread, weaving skin around your soul. It wasn't real, of course - not in the way they were - but you felt compelled to get as close as possible. It wasn't enough to have the vague shape of a human; you had to be able to breathe, to move, to approximate life. You could tell it would make them more at home... and at the same time, you felt it would help you to understand them, too.

You take your first breath, ecstatic that you'd succeeded. The townsfolk assembled would note most of what you were breathing in was the smoke of the fire, to no ill effect. You didn't really need the air.

As you walk forward, though, you feel somewhat dizzied and overwhelmed. The feeling soon passes, but you feel... dimmer, than when you had first arrived? You aren't left any time to think about it -

- Because you're already being lifted aloft.

The crowd assembled for your binding has erupted into cheers! Already, you can see them taking out tables for an impromptu celebration in the meeting hall. One of them has you up on their shoulders, bouncing you as they jump about with a few friends. The auras in the room are practically on fire. You can tell from all of them that they've waited a very, very long time for this day.

The rest of the night passes as a haze of feasting, laughing, and games of skill (notably impaired by their prodigious drinking.) You were of course the guest of honor, even if you spent most of the night just watching the festivities, still getting used to existing in this world so utterly different... so much more real than the dream you'd been trapped in.

The morning comes, and very near to the entire village is fast asleep. You're up and about, amber eyes burning a hole in every wall, rock, and tree, taking it all in. Then, you could suddenly smell - taste - the slightest bit of smoked meat.

Your form disappears from the streets, and you can feel your world reorienting around the meeting hall, your awareness suspended just over the hearth. In truth, you'd briefly forgotten that you weren't really a human, or a creature of flesh at all. Irritated for a moment (with yourself? The world?) you pull your form back together, and settle into the flame, a slight pout to your expression.

In front of you stands the woman from your binding, the Pact-offerer. You realize she hadn't been present for the celebration. She gives a small formal bow,

"Good spirit of the hearth, (you needed a name.) we have..." She gives a short cough.

"I have summoned you to reach an understanding about what your role will be here, with us. I trust your guidance and wisdom, of course! But, I'm sure you'll need time to adjust, and it would be my humble pleasure to assist you." From the hints of her aura, you can tell she very much does not trust the guidance and wisdom of a spirit that's been on the earth for less than a day.

"I would be happy to show you around the village, to explain a bit of our history and present. Or, maybe you would be better served by a short climb - I could show you the landscape of the valley and point out a few landmarks. Or," she wrinkles her nose at this, " we could... try to get right to work."

How will you proceed?

and, of course... What is your name?

[Inithis]

Why a human it seems like people always chose those when it comes to games like this, why couldn't we be a dog or a deer?

You will be pleased to know your Form is entirely mutable. As it may suit you in the future, you may alter it as you'd like - after all, it's just one of many ways you can Act on the world.