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[Fortis]

"Are they, Voidwalker? Their hopes and dreams and works will amount to nothing only if we decree it so," Luna answered. "Besides, for all their insignificance and smallness, they are still my creations, and I cherish each one of them. They love me in their own mortal way. Whatever pain I would endure from keeping them, I would prefer it to the sorrow of abandoning my own creations."

"But whatever you choose to do with your creations, my mind is decided. Until a god of death arrives, the Aether Elves will be born again."

[Lordinquisitor]

"Every soldier feels pain from time to time. It makes them hard. I`m not afraid of it." He smiled, though no one could see it thanks to his hood.

"Though, war without death isn`t right. How can they earn glory and how can they be brave if they can`t die? I vote for the reincarnation."

[Caesar]

Xarn's fist shone brightly, and once more pain was felt, more severe, and more concentrated. The Gods outside of the Refuge were almost completely spared, the waves of emotion, pain and suffering striking those in the discussion. For a moment, the constellation flickered, then to be no more than the vague spots they were before.

[Digital Hellhound]

Coradin slumped from his throne, the waves of pain assaulting his mind. After a few seconds, he started shouting lines of gibberish as loud as he could, rolling around the floor.
He then stood up, collected himself and coughed.

' I... I suggest we act as soon as possible, whatever we do. This.. this...it's... I...' his voice trailed off and he sat back down.

[Acanthus117]

Love...The Emperor In Chains began to bark, an almost terrifying sound. The other deities realized it was laughing. Love will only hurt you, in the end. the twin red orbs glowered with intensity.

[Lordinquisitor]

Gheronaton roared in pain, bleed flowing forth from unseen wounds on his body. He clenched the throne he was sitting on with his six hands, damaging the fine craft.

After the pain was gone, the blood stopped flowing.

"I.. Think Coradin is right. I will act as once. Once your creatures are mortal, too, i shall invite you to another meeting. Maybe you`d like to visit my refugium? You don`t have to set a foot upon the barren wasteland of incendium.. The refugium offers everything."

Bowing deeply he was suddenly wrapped into a column of flames. And then he was gone.


I will return to incendium and will make every creature with a soul reincarnate when they die. They shall remember nothing of their previous life, save the giants. The worthy ones still are taken to my refugium.

[Knave]

Natus sat in his throne curled up listening to his siblings exchange ideas on how to deal with the creations they had made. His tails flicked periodically, seemingly aloof, yet he pondered deeply. Without a dedicated god to deal with death, the ideas of a void and reincarnation seemed like the only viable options for the godly family.

Perhaps Natus had become too attached to the things he had created, but the idea of casting the souls into a dark void seemed like a cold and improper decision. He much preferred the idea of his sister, Luna. Her spirit was gentle and kind like his own and he naturally gravitated to her ideas.

Soon, Natus broke his silence, lifting his head as he spoke, his soft voice seemed strange coming from the mouth of a fire fox, "I agree with the others. Letting the souls of our creations be reborn seems like the proper choice to me." He paused and looked over the faces of his siblings, all so different, yet unmistakenly family. "When a creature dies, it's spark should fuel it's passions in the next life, even if it happens to be a different creature. What was a worm in one life, might be a mighty chieftein in the next... at least that is how I picture it. We have created these things and we must bear that responsibility. They turn to us for guidence and protection."

The pain came back with a resounding crash, stronger than before, and lasting longer. He sighed with great relief as it passed, trembling slightly.

He looked to The Chained God, the intensity of his words causing him to pause for a moment... perhaps out of fear? "If you are bored with your creations, perhaps you can just reshape them when they are reborn? Into something better, or more suited to your current tastes." his voice sounded more tired than before, the pain was taking it's toll.

[Fortis]

As the pain struck again, Luna gripped her hair and ground her teeth, though through force of will, she kept herself from screaming out in front of the gathered gods. As before the pain passed, and Luna sighed in relief. "I too agree. Xarn is in pain, we must help him soon." Luna said, and departed from Refuge.

Coming back to Aether, she took up a crystal from a mountain from the shimmering land. By her will and strength, she began to shape it, and mold it into a form she desired. The crystal took the form of a great bird, with mighty wings and long trailing feathers, and a crest of feathers upon it's head. It's body was like the purest glass, perfectly clear, while the edges of it's feathers were tinted blue. Luna blessed it with her power, and it glowed from within with a light like Maia. "Awaken, first of the Rhea," Luna said, causing the bird to come to life. It bowed before Luna and spread it's wings wide in respect. "I have created you for a special purpose. My people suffer, from being forced to live in bodies that should long be dead. To release them from their pain, I have limited their days and brought death to them. Your purpose is to gather the souls that are released, and bring them to mothers so they might begin anew and not be lost to the void." Again the bird of crystal bowed, and spread its wings. It leaped into the air, and took flight.

With the cycle of rebirth established, Luna turned her attention to the land of Aether. Her tears of weeping had done much to change it, creating oceans, rivers, and seas and waterfalls over the crystalline land. She moved to reverse the damage, but then paused. She saw a group of elf children playing in the water, and other elves using it to water the trees and plants she had made. Relenting, she instead purified the water, and shaped the land around the new rivers.

Even as she worked to integrate the new rivers and seas into Aether, her thoughts turned again to the problem of death. If no god of death came, she would need to think of a more permanent solution for her people. She would need to craft an afterlife for them.

Act 1: Create water on Aether: Rivers, seas, oceans, waterfalls, lakes and such. Right now, they're all freshwater.

Act 2: Create the Rhea: A race of crystalline birds imbued with Luna's power. They gather up the souls of departed elves (or other races that worship Luna), and bring them to mothers so they can be born again. The Rhea themselves are not deathless and do age, but they reincarnate themselves. When one dies, they leave behind a crystalline egg, which will soon hatch into a new Rhea.

[dragnar]

Even as the pain returned, Dragnar remained silent. Soon after it ended though, he addressed the council for the first time. "My siblings, something must be done, and quickly. I propose that for the moment we place any of our creatures that die in stasis, holding them until such time as a god of death arrives with a more permanent solution. Until that time, anything we do will be only temporary, and even your plans of reincarnation are flawed, for if all who die return either life will stagnate with species unable to grow, or it shall spread out of control, no true death halting overpopulation. Whatever temporary contingencies we each make for now, we must Act soon." And with that, Dragnar falls silent once more, preparing himself mentally for the next wave of pain.

[HailFire]

Satae lounged idly on her Stone as it hurtled through the Heavens, examining the works of her elders. They were pretty, for sure... her eyes fell once more upon Aether, and Natus' planet, and sighed. Pretty, but boring. She stood and kicked a loose boulder off into the Void, and paced, scheming. The Universe was blossoming with life all around, and the awakening of Aether's elves was promising, but... hmm.

And then Xarn's pain and anguish lashed out across the Void; and she screamed as it tore at her mind, sending her reeling. "W-What is this?!" She gasped, as the pain subsided as quickly as it had come. Shaking, she stood, and as Incindium rounded the First Star into her view once more, she knew something was Wrong there. As she leaped from her creation, she noticed the Sanctum come to be, and her brothers and sister approach it to hold council. She shook her head and raced past it; they would doubtlessly argue among themselves on a solution, and now was a time for action.

She mused as she sped through the Void towards the volcanic world. She cared little for Gheronaton's creation, and had payed it little mind until now; while the strange black light of the First Star had it's own appeal, Incindium's harsh red glow only hurt her eyes, and the ceaseless cycle of violence of it's surface and those who dwelt upon it repulsed her. She pulled a cloak of shadows around her she dropped through the thick clouds of smog it produced, concealing herself to mortal eyes.

There, hovering in the stormy sky, she saw the problem. As the great battles raged across it's surface, hundreds of the Giants and Ferals were slain; and the souls of the greatest of these being dragged back to the Refugium, to be revived and fight and die endlessly. Yet, many of these souls merely languished on the broken steppes and in the magma seas, not worthy to be called true heroes, but not sealed into the center of the planet as cowards; and while their bodies lay broken, their spirits were unable to find release from their pain.

The sight sickened her, but what to do? These souls' torment was surely the source of the problem, but this was Gheronaton's dominion. Even if she desired to draw the ire of the six-armed warrior, she couldn't change the nature of his creation.

And then the second wave of Xarn's immortal anguish lanced through her mind, and through the cracked lens of madness, she found inspiration. As the pain subsided, her eyes turned once more to their cool green of deviousness, and she grasped the Ether; pulling, stretching, and weaving it into a great net. She dredged the seas with it, pulling the souls from the seas and the broken bodies of the fallen; but only those discarded, so as to not to attract undue attention.

The first of her tasks complete, she raced back up into the Void, and looked one more upon the Sanctum. Surely their council would conclude soon, and she wouldn't be caught red-handed. She crushed the souls in the soul net, merging them into a great ball of Essence; erasing their sentience, but retaining their memories and experiences, for she intended to create new life of them. While she hated to destroy mortal souls, they were wretched in their agony (though surely not as much so as Gheronaton's prisoners in his Hell within a Hell), and she wished to put them out of their misery.

Quickly, she raced off to Natus' realm, while it's steward was away, and she broke off pieces of this ball, both large and small; and she cast them into the waters, the forests, and the mountains, blessing some with the spark of intelligence, until she had used up half of it, before bidding the shards to rise. She then raced off to the the belt of Aether, and did a similar thing- though she was careful to evade the notice of the elves- until the soul essence was depleted.

Satisfied, she returned to her celestial throne. It was only a temporary solution, to be sure, as more souls would perish on Incindium and be shackled in anguish, but reducing their population would hopefully ease Xarn's pain until her more... democratic siblings found a more permanent solution. And these new spirits, full of random emotions and experiences, of varying sizes, and waking to different environs, would become a near-infinite myriad of spirit beings, scarcely two alike, both benevolent and malevolent. She chuckled; once mortal life visited Natus, and mortals began to interact with her new creations, things were going to get... Interesting.


Satae uses an ethereal net to steal souls from Incindium, and uses them to create myriad spirits on Natus and Aether. Since this could take between one and three Acts at your discretion, I'll Save any remaining Acts.

Muahahaha.

[Karnewarrior]

  Roaring with pain, Carnis staggers in mid-flight. All at once he knew true agony, pain at being unable to die, unable to ever know oblivion. But the pain passed, and he continued on his path.
  He warped and twisted the Ether to his whims, createing a flat, squared planet. On one side was water, grass and birds, all kinds and sorts of life. There were waterfalls, rivers, and other things which bespoke happiness. He named the land Karne.
  But on the flip of the planet, there was hardened obsidian, jagged spurs of volcanic rock. There were rivers and seas of molten stone, mountains of pumice. For this side of the world he made the sinister creatures. Dark shadows, not quite alive, and so were unable to die, only be obliterated. There were spiny rats the size of boulders, and dead trees, warped and blasted, littered the landscape like rubble. This he named Lucimper
  But then, a great weakness overwhelmed him. He was spent. The sentients that would live on this coin of good and evil would have to wait for another day, as would the sun that the world would orbit. With a casual flick, he set the world spinning...

Carnis ceates the Coin of Good and Evil! On one side there is life, on the other there is hell!

[Acanthus117]

My creations do not have souls, Natus. They may be smarter and stronger than the beast, but when they die, they lose everything. They are but extensions of my will, existing only to further myself and to fulfill my desires, to slake my lust for knowledge. I see no need to waste my time on such trivial things like giving them a soul. And with that, The Chained God left the halls, wandering throughout the void, thinking on what had been discussed.

[Caesar]

Coradin drops a few of his Guardians down to Natus -- This action was free
Coradin creates the Refuge, a meeting- and relaxation place for gods
Coradin creates a massive beast of living stone to serve as his personal mount and the protector of the Refuge.

The Chained God creates Shadowfiends

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

They are elementals composed of flame and darkness. They are simple minded beasts that guard Ss'Vadgrin, slaying anything that was not perceived as loyal to the Voidwalker, the definition of such loyalty could be changed by the deity at any time. They do not have souls, and are recreated a ways away from the place of their 'death'.

The Chained God keeps an act.

Most of the Pantheon gathers for a discussion in the newly created Refuge.

Dragnar creates immaterial caretakers called 'Librarians' for his library.
Dragnar keeps once act

Natus offers the fallen Stone Guardians a place on his world, granting them free-will.
Natus keeps one act

Gheronaton lets all mortal creatures on Incendium reincarnate until there is a better solution for death. -- Two acts

Luna creates water on Aether: It is all freshwater.
Luna creates the Rhea

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Rhea are a race of crystalline birds imbued with Luna's power. They gather up the souls of departed elves (or other races that worship Luna), and bring them to mothers so they can be born again. The Rhea themselves are not deathless and do age, but they reincarnate themselves. When one dies, they leave behind a crystalline egg, which will soon hatch into a new Rhea.

Satae uses an ethereal net to steal souls from Incendium, and uses them to create myriad spirits on Natus and Aether. After long consideration and deliberate thinking, I decided that this act took you two acts. (I argued with myself for about fifteen seconds.)

Carnis ceates the Coin of Good and Evil! On one side there is life, on the other there is hell! -- Two acts

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Coin of Good and Evil is a planet that is essentially divided into two surfaces, one half being dark and hell-like, the other temperate and hospitable.

Pain, death, reincarnation: The Gods had chosen for a temporary solution, and it hurt Every time something reincarnated, Xarn was torn in two, only to reform once again, their inexperience with death making the reincarnation a painful process. Still, even though the pain of before had decreased, real death, as it was demanded, was not yet there. Xarn's pain had already begun to mold him into a form, the very fabric of his being twisted and deformed. He roared, but instead of simple torment, all creatures, immortal, mortal or Godlike, were instantly wounded, a bleeding wound appearing on every head.

With reluctance he moved, slowly conveying Incendium, the planet that had been the problem before. He witnessed a gigantic reptilian monster as it was pierced repeatedly by a spear, clawing at the feral that attacked it in return. One feral, that had been surprised at the begin of the fight, was swept away, into the magma, while the creature fell to the ground in a bloody heap. Quickly the Feral turned to ashes, and with this destruction, its soul was released, slowly moving about, howling in pain. Xarn shivered as he absorbed part of this pain. The creature that had killed it did not die, even though it was bled dry and mangled entirely. The same it was for its enemy, the feral with the spear. Both they lied there, unable to escape their mortal shells. Xarn followed the howling soul, as it slowly went in the direction of a pack of smaller dinosaurs. They were guarding a nest with eggs, and, slightly before hatching, the soul occupied the egg, and the small creature inhabiting it.

Xarn was slightly relieved, but the pain kept a hold on him, now more continuous. As such, it also held a firm grip on the Gods in a vague constant pain. Aether called for his attention, and he answered its call. He was greeted by a much less welcome sight: An entire group of Aether elves had drowned as they tried to cross a river. Once more, they could not leave their bodies, unreachable by the Rhea that were supposed to help them into new bodies. A quick glance over the crystalline surface of Aether taught him that across the entire planet Aether elves were unable to die, whilst reproduction brought even more souls into this broken cycle, the Rhea helplessly circling across the planet, watching the situation envelop.

One of the Aether elves, in its eternal process of dying underwater, unable to move whilst drowning without an end, seemed to see him, the eyes just following him for a glimpse of his movement. He did not survey the other creations, instead returning to the constellation that currently housed him..

Xarn's fist had glown brightly for a moment, and the woman that had been drowning rose from the water, out of it, the water slowly leaving her, as she lost consciousness. The last she remembered, was a gentle, but burning touch, tormented eyes looking down on her, and a feeling she could only vaguely relate to what other, older women had described to her; the interaction with a man..


The void once more housed new creations, which quickly sought their place within this universe. Myriad spirits roamed the planets of Natus and Aether, some curious, some hateful, but all of them lost to their new environment. Most of them kept away from the really living, although some confront the Aether elves. The Refuge was a proud addition to the universe, although it wasn't visible to any but the immortal Gods themselves as the Refuge's protector circled around it. The Shadowfiends wandered the surface of their home, restlessly seeking intruders, aggressively watching their surroundings.

And the librarians..? The librarians began furiously writing and drawing.

All new living creations take their place in the universe, some starting to compete with one another.
One elven woman on Aether has experienced 'the mercy of Xarn'.

A universe without death
Instead of brief pain, all Gods now experience a constant less extreme pain.
Xarn is in a painful condition, and the pain is changing him.
Some living being still do not seem to die, while others do, enabling their souls to seek the temporary reincarnation.
There is still a gap in the Essence, this one will only let through a God with the sphere of death, and then close again.
The situation will worsen every turn unless a God of the sphere of death shows up and finds a place to 'rest' the normal mortal souls Note: Gheronaton's Refugium will still act as a place of afterlife for the ferals that show the special condition for obtaining their real immortality there.

Code: [Select]

Acts:
Luna: 2
Natus: 3
Coradin: 3
Gheronaton: 1
Alex: 4 (Did not do anything in about twenty-fours hours, and as such, the acts are stored.)
Elan: 6 (Did not post any acts, and as such gets to store them. I used a system of chance to determine whether his six stored acts would have any dire consequences, but they did not.)
Carnis: 2
Satae: 3
"The Chained God": 3
Dragnar: 3

I'll also update all turn posts with a universe summary from the next one forward.

[Acanthus117]

The feeling of pain spiked once more, weaker this time. The Voidwalker waited for it to fade, yet it didn't. The deity even felt a stream of black ichor cloud its vision. Irritated, the deity knew that the changes would be deadly, even to the deities themselves, if something was not done. It could feel that another member was to join their pantheon; the barriers that held the endless void were... weakening, just enough for a god of adequate power to pass through. He That Knows All consulted its tome once more, and found the spell it desired. It chanted once more, and the deep baritone growls seemed to shake a section of Foundation. With a final mighty shout, arcing lighting, red as the God's own eyes, flew from its hands, and sundered a hole in the very walls of the universe. The Gateway to the Void howled, an eerie sound that could be heard in the darkest nightmares of every sapient being in this universe. It then bound this hole to only let through whatever the Watcher in Chains desired. The magic took the form of an obsidian gateway, engraved with scenes of death and chaos. The Portal would do, for now. The Emperor In Chains sent a magical extension of its will, through the Void and beyond, seeking what it desired. After what seemed like a few hours, it was satisfied. It reeled in the magical tether which had been weighed down by its catch. When the god finally pulled in the tether, a great hulk of metal burst through the gate, which had expanded so as to avoid damage. The Watcher in Chains looked on in satisfaction at what it had reaped from all those far off places. Great metal ships, all of them lifeless husks, were what it had gathered. Human, Ss'avessi, Covenant, Geth, Yuggo-Kathani, Barashistho, the list of craft that had entered this empty universe was endless. The Chained God collected these ships and hurled them throughout the universe. They tended to take orbit around Aether and the other inhabited systems, yet they never were pulled in by its gravitational forces. The Chained God smiled behind its cocoon of steel, as it admired what had occured.
The Chained God rips a permanent hole in the Foundation, one that will let him pull in things from beyond this existence. It also stabilizes it by creating a magical obsidian gate that enables no one but the Voidwalker to allow anything/one passing through it. Lastly, the Chained God gathers an armada of dead ships from all different realities, and sets them on a permanent route near the inhabited planets and stars, never to land upon them.

[Blargityblarg]

Galt stand upon the threshold of the universe, waiting for their chance to set right the unexperienced fumblings of their elder siblings. In their mind, a plan forms for the solution to the conundrum of mortality without a Hell.

Galt bide their time, waiting for the next action of Xarn to wrench them through the weakened aether.