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[Iituem]

This thread is for RP posts of the game Godhood V only.  Comments and discussion in the OOC thread, please.

OOC Thread

There were a great many casualties to the journeys of Xarn, before His eventual defeat.  Most remain forever undocumented, but I wish to take the time to examine one particular fragment, a shard of a great deity that pierced the Void and travelled to one of many, many 'Verses...

- The Scholar, Collected Anecdotes

A shard of Essence, a fragment of divinity and life, hurtled through space and time - the last remnant of a long forgotten battle between long departed gods.  It came in time to a solitary, dull ball of rock, one of several in orbit around a lone yellow star.  In situations such as these, the arrival of divine Essence typically prompts the creation of a new Overgod.

Not so, this time.  The trauma to the fragment of divinity was too great and upon its collision with the Essence of this world the shard splintered into three more pieces, scattered across the planet's near-endless oceans.


One splinter, the largest, sunk deep into the solitary mountain of the dull little world, shattering the landscape and itself in the process.  Flashes of intent, of thought without memory, forced the very earth itself into shape.  Clawing and digging its way from the side of the mountain, the first Titan emerged - a gigantic stone biped, with mammoth jewels marking its crown and an enormous, swollen belly.  Gulngris.

Three sparks of life burned within Gulngris' form - one in its head, one in its heart, one in its belly.  Unable to contain the power, Gulngris' belly burst apart in a shower of rocks and a second, smaller golem escaped.  Streaming from its chest was a bright, beautiful fountain of light - the very spark of life that animated it.  Almost as if to protect itself, moss and grass grew over the stream to seal it and young saplings began to spring from the second Titan's body.  Unlike Gulngris, who knew its identity from the first, this newly born Titan was Nameless.

The third spark, the spark of its heart, had sprung from Gulngris with the second, but fell instead to the scattered rocks and earth that had heralded the Nameless' birth.  Gathering about itself strands of Aether and binding the earth about it.  Calling on the faintest memory of a distant time, the Titan took the shape not of two legs but four.  The hound sat upon its new legs by Gulngris' side and let loose the first bark of the world.  Tawk.

A fourth spark had splintered also, lying deep within the mountain.  As time passed it grew hotter and more potent, fanned by the flames of the planet's core.  At last, long after Gulngris and its children had moved on, a brilliant red dragon burst from the mountain and breathed golden flames that lit up the sky.  Roln.


The second splinter found its way into the darkest depths of the ocean.  It too crumbled into three sparks, gathering the very darkness around them like a cocoon.  Time passed, years or hundreds of years, thousands or aeons, and the shadows rose from the sea.  They took the form of a terrible beast, spun from the very darkness of the ocean deeps themselves.  Uldum.

Like Gulngris before it, Uldum had its children too.  Unable or unwilling to support the two further sparks within it, the kraken vomited them into the sky with such fury that the air of the world - formerly still - churned around them in a nightmarish maelstrom.  One of the sparks began to burn with a bright light, spinning the clouds and winds around it until it took on the aspect of the lightning that now crossed from cloud to cloud.  The maelstrom began to turn of its own accord, anchored in the spark of storms.  Coriolis.

The third spark drew away from its great and terrible brother and mother, pulling wind and strands of Aether around it as its cousin had done before.  It too, took the shape of a long-forgotten quadruped, and stalked the skies with a cunning and sharpness that few of its peers possessed.  Feomybring.


The last splinter, the smallest and yet containing the most coherent fragment of the deity long gone, remained trapped in the crevice where it had fallen.  It stayed there for an age until Feomybring found it and dredged it from its concealment.  The shard whispered of what it needed, how it could be brought to form, and though Feomybring could understand the task it lacked the means to undertake it.  So the fox travelled for another age until, with the aid of Gulngris and Roln, it dredged metals from the earth and forged them in flame to the spark's designs.  When at last it was complete, the spark wrapped the iron and steel around it, a monster of metal and movement.  Tick.

Yet even this act had its flaws.  The spark could not take the heat of Roln's flame and fractured as its brothers had done.  This remnant became bound to the fire itself and, weaving strands of Aether around itself as its two cousins had done before, took the form of one more quadruped of a distant, lost style.  The wolf of flame stepped from the forge that had birthed Tick and bayed, heralding the birth of the last of its kind.  Olot.


The last of the Titans have been born.  The Titans are strong, stronger than any creature that this 'Verse has seen - perhaps than it ever will see.  But even they are not immortal, so before they too pass into history let us hear their story.

The story of the

Age of Titans.


(All Titans have 5 Titanic Acts, plus 1 additional Titanic Act if they opt to die during the Age of Titans.)

Spoiler: Very Basic Map (click to show/hide)

[Shootandrun]

He was darkness. He was silence. He was eternal.

His name was Uldum. He came from the darkest depth and his children were born in the sky. Now, he returned to the shadows of the Ocean, to the silence of water. There, no light could reach him. No power could distract him. He remained there for many years, hidden in the shadows, getting ready. There were other powers in this world. He was not alone. The Others were not perfect, unlike him, but he needed to make sure that these other creatures were not going to slow him down.

However, he lacked patience. After years and years, the Others did nothing. They were weak, unable to shape the world to their will yet. He was powerful. He was going to show them what True Power was. The world was young and old at the same time, ready to be shaped to his will. He gathered his strength, and he made his first move, before any of the Others could act. The continent in the center of the world moved. Slowly, the continent was separated into five parts. One went north, and the land there was covered in snow, one went east and another went west, and these two remained as before, one moved towards the south and the land became dry, and the last and the smallest remained where it was, in the center. Water ran between these five new lands, and Uldum’s Kingdom grew.

However, he had not finished. He created dozens of rivers in all of these continents, except for the one in the center, and he made sure that there was less salt in these rivers than in the great Ocean. Once his rivers were completed, he created a gigantic lake in the center of all the continents, except for the one in the center.

Now, the Great Continent had been split into five, and water ran freely in four of the five. He still had work to do. He was lonely in the depths. The Others were strange and they had no love for his Oceans. Once again, he acted to change the world while the Others were still sleeping. He was the first to bring life into this world.

At first he made species of fish, as many as one could think of, some living in the Ocean and others living in the rivers and the lakes. Afterwards, he created another life form that lived underwater. These creations would provide food for the fish, and it would make his water beautiful. He called them coral in the Ocean and algae in the rivers and the lakes. Finally, he made some species of fish that ate other fish. Only the strong were going to survive, and their children would be stronger.

However, after all that, he realised that these creatures could not understand him, and soon he felt lonely again. He created another species of fish, and these were extremely intelligent for mere mortals. With his help, they built cities and tools at the bottom of the Ocean, and they served him forever. He called them The Deep Ones, because they never saw the light of the sun. They used strong tentacles to interact with the world around them.

After all this work, he was starting to be satisfied. There was one last thing to do: he did not trust the Others, and they were doubtlessly going to be jealous of His Own Power. They could not understand the Beauty of the Depths, and they might try to destroy them. To protect his creations, he created the Krakens, a species of creatures similar to him. He divided them in two species: the Greater Krakens, which were by far the biggest of his creations, greater even than his mighty Whales, and the Lesser Krakens, which were about half the size of the first species. The Greater Krakens lived in the Ocean, and the Lesser Krakens lived in one of the four great lakes. They could not stop the Others, but they might stop their creations if need be. Once the Krakens were finished, Uldum, weary, returned to his slumber. His Water was now full of Life, and his Deep Ones would continue to serve him even during his sleep. His work, for now, was finished.

-Split the continent into five parts. The smallest part stays in the center and the four other parts go in the North, South, East and West. ((Note: the four parts are about the same size, but they are different in shape. The smallest part is a big, round island in the center.))
-Create rivers in all the continents except for the smallest, and a big lake in all of the continents except for the smallest.
-Spread life in the waters of the world. Two notable species:

• -The Deep Ones, squid-like creatures, sentient, build cities in the deepest part of the oceans.
• -The Krakens, by far the biggest creatures underwater. Greater Krakens live in the Ocean and are bigger than a Blue Whale, Lesser Krakens live in the lakes and are about half the size of the Greater.

[adwarf]

Gulngris wandered the lands for many years he walked, he watched, and he slept, yet he never changed the world he walked upon. That is until Uldum acted, Uldum split the lands, and scattered them across the world, Gulngris could feel the earth's pain as it was ripped apart, and all could hear his cry of outrage at the one who had broken the lands. Angered, Gulngris hammered the earth for many days, and many nights, and by the time he was finished the world had changed it. Where once stood flat land, or unbroken ocean, had rose towering mountains of stone reaching up towards the sky.

Then Gulngris used his powers to bring two other planets to rise, and set around this world. They were similar to this land, and when he laid eyes upon them he felt relief for he knew something unchanged still remained. He connected these worlds together with portals created with divine power, so strong they could never be broken, and would never weather before the elements. They would connect these worlds together, yet keep them apart.

Next Gulngris created a lone mountain in the center of the central continent. It was over fifty times his size, and within it was contained every stone, every ore, and every gem of the earth. It was seemingly normal to all who saw it from outside, but those within would see its true beauty, and glory. It was a glorious thing, a monument to the earth, and would stand for thousands of eons to come, and beyond.

Finally Gulngris carved a cavern deep beneath that lone mountain, within it subterranean flora, and fauna, florished, and the cavern was lit by stones that had never before seen. The cavern was vast, and expansive all around reaching the height of Gulngris in both length, and width. Its reason was unknown, yet it remained below the earth.

Create Mountains all over the world.
Bring Two Worlds into Orbit around Ours, and Connect them with Portals.
Create the True Mountain.
Carve out an expansive cavern deep below the True Mountain

[Fniff]

Nameless loved the stars.

That was the only thing you could see in the grey landscape of his home. Nameless enjoyed trying to connect the stars, to make them less chaotic. But the more he tried, the more chaotic it seemed. That's what he loved about them. They were always different each time you look at them. He made such strange shapes in the sky, in his head. The more he thought about it, the more complicated the shapes got. Eventually, he gave them names. That one's a tree, another one is a deer, another is a wolf...

Nameless took out one of the things growing out of him. Yes, that looks definitely like a tree. He smiled as he put it into the ground. Nameless it was no longer. It was a tree. As he stared at the stars, the tree steadily grew. Soon, it reproduced. He was surrounded by trees for miles, and more then just trees! Bushes, palms on the beaches, pines, flowers! Nameless looked around. Something was missing. Perhaps...

He reached into himself, and pulled out a piece of his life force. Just a tiny bit. He put it onto the ground. It grew steadily as he watched. A shapeless thing hatched, pink and blind. "What shall I be?" It croaked from it's mouth.

"You shall be a deer." Nameless said, confidently. "You shall run very fast, and grow antlers."

And so it was. He named each bit of his lifeforce. He felt steadily weaker and weaker, but finally he had brought forth all the shapes in the stars. One bit of his lifeforce was left. He thought a bit, then smiled. Nameless would give something to the world that would never die out nor be regretted. He would give the world something called... choice. He took out a large chunk of his lifeforce, and threw it up into the air, where it scattered. From then on, every creature (Apart from the titans, of course) had a choice.  With his final lifeforce, he decided that it would be a good idea to have a protector... to stop the other titans from crushing what he did. Nameless tore out the remaining fire in his heart, and set it on the ground. The fleshy thing that grew from it stared up at him. "What shall I be?"

With his last breath, he said "Slask, the protector of the forest."

Then, he fell. Where he rests, the most beautiful flower stands. It is said that those who eat the seeds will gain immortality. But, it is protected by Slask. Is it worth the risk?

Create all the trees.
Put the densest collection in the south
Create all the animals
Create choice.
Create Slask.
Create the flower of immortality

[micelus]

Olot howled and waited. And waited. His howl had gone across the whole of the world, waiting for his cousin-brothers to respond. Maybe he heard something, maybe he didn't. Regardless, Olot ran. Why? To prove his power of course. He ran through the mountains and the forests and even through the lakes, burning and melting all that he stepped on and through. And yet even with a large amount of the world currently on fire, Olot was bored. So he found himself looking at the ocean one day and wondering, why doesn't it burn?, He wondered for an era perhaps two, and then came up with an idea. The oceans would burn.

He jumped out of the world and into the skies above and looked for the strange moving-fires he saw every now and then. He scooped them up in his mouth and spat them out to the world. Soon enough the world did indeed, burn. The land-dwelling organisms burned, fled to the other worlds, or hid under the earth. The moving-fires also changed the form of the world, bombarding it with craters and launching dirt and dust into the skies. And so the world was covered in ash and flame. It wasn't enough, Olot thought. The oceans didn't burn, only ripple. Olot was angered. He dived from the heavens and into the very ocean, causing tsunamis in his wake. He swam to the very bottom of the ocean and dug. He dug and dug and dug, occasionally feasting on the many-leg creatures with beaks. Eventually he found the fire-rock. He unleashed it unto the ocean. This was good enough, Olot decided. The water would feel the pain of flame and fire. Unknown to Olot, it would also create life; organisms would create whole ecosystems on and around these vents.

Finally, Olot was tired. Not bored or sleepy or even hungry, just tired of it all. He had burnt the world and all it's inhabitants. He howled. Whether or not his brothers spoke to him, he didn't care. He had forgotten about them many eras ago. He didn't even know if they were dead. Seeing nothing else to do, Olot searched for the largest crater he could find, sat on his haunches, and closed his eyes. He never awoke. His body became hard metal, golden and meteoric in look. The whole area feels like an overworked smelter. Those who touch the body are said to be imparted with Olot's Power and Flame...


Acts:
        Burn most above-ground organisms and turn the aboveground into hellish wasteland.
        Force organisms to live underground or flee to through the portals.
        Cover atmosphere with dust and soot.
        Create volcanoes/vents all over the ocean floor
        Go to sleep in the largest crater on land, turn into a hard golden, meteoric statue. Surrounding area will feel as if on fire. Those who touch the statue will feel stronger throughout the rest of their lives.
       

[10ebbor10]

Coriolis looked upon the acts of his fellow titans. He had decided to act later, but Olot had decided that he could cover the atmosphere with dust and soot. Knowing that he could not delay his actions, as the ashes and soot were devestating for atmosphere and the movements of the winds, Coriolis focused his anger and created the Storms, which he named after himself(the Coriolis storms). These storms razed around the equator, destroying everything in their wake, pulling the ash down from the higher atmosphere and letting it rain down onto the lands. Few things were to mighty and strong for them, among which the True mountain, which split the Coriolis storm in 2, only for them reunite at the other side.

Then, in order to prevent the other winds from blowing the ash up again, Coriolis  locked them in a semi-physical form. Coriolis  saw a vulcanic island, rising up from the seabottom in fury of ash and flames. Coriolis knew that he could use this Volcano, and so he sent Boreas(northen wind), in order to cool it down and clean it from soot. After that he locked the winds inside : Boreas, Notus, zephyrus, Eurus and the Minor Coriolis, the embodiment of the Coriolis storm. They are allowed to escape when needed, but are otherwise safely secured. The whole thing is magically protected and extremely hard to destroy.

However, the use of these titanic amounts of power on the winds resulted in the creation of Coriolium(a material he named after himself). This strange material is spontaneously created wherether the winds go. It usually rains down as a small layer of dust after a particularly severe storm. It is therefore most often found at the equator, just after a Coriolis storm. It also has some interesting properties: when heated, it weight lowers and it eventually starts to fly. This keeps happening even if it is ingested or absorbed by other living beings, leading to strange phenomena like flying trees.
This however had some interesting side-effects, as the vulcano and some of the mountains caught in the path of the Coriolis storm took flight and formed the flying islands.

Coriolis saw this, and he saw that it was good. But he had a few more things to do. He took some of the dying and burning animals of the ground, and fused them with his new material. This resulted in the creation of  airborne variants of most animals and the creation of a few new species. The most notable and the only intelligent species were the Windriders, or that's what they called themselves at least. Incapable of selfsustained flight they had to glide from island to island, trying to avoid the dreaded AirKrakens and the many other dangers that inhabited these lands. The Windriders look like  humans with the same flaps of hide as flying squirels, which they can use as improvised wings.

Seeing his task now complete, with atmosphere guarded from the ashcloud and the dangers below, Coriolis slowly dissolved himself, giving the last bit of his power to the Coriolis storm. Strengthened by these new powers, the Coriolis broke loose from the planet and blew through space (taking air with of course)  flying past the 2 moon planets and back. This still happenes every now and then, if the planets are in the right position when a Coriolis storm strikes.

Coriolis creates the Coriolis storms, mighty storms that raze around the equator, destroying everything in their wake. Intended to filter the atmosphere( might take hundreds of years).
Coriolis locks the winds inside a hollow volcano.
Coriolis accidently creates the mineral Coriolium, which causes some mountains and the volcano to take flight and form the floating islands.(Coriolium has the interesting property of taking flight when heated. As well as other I haven't told yet)
Coriolis creates airborne variants of most species, the most notable being:
-Windriders: Intelligent, can fly a bit.
-Airkrakens( dangerous creatures descendant from the lake krakens, (need to stay in fog/ clouds to survive)
Coriolis dissolves himself in order to strengthen the Coriolis storms, allowing these to reach the planet moons( once in a while) 

Edit: spellcheck

[NUKE9.13]

Tick moved. Fires burnt; water boiled; mysterious energies drove wheels to spinning. The mass of freshly forged steel unfolded itself; righted itself upon the land. The great clock adjusted itself. It awaited the beginning.
Tick.
The clock begun. Time was measured. Complex clockwork counts every passing moment.
Tock.
Tick sat and waited. The clock counted. Tick waited. The clock has four faces. Each measures a different time. The first measures absolute time. The single hand traverses its surface, moving at a rate of one instance per instant.
Tick.
The land moved. Mountains rose. Tick waited. The second face measures natural time. Several hands move at differing rates. One hand shows the movement of the sun across the sky; another the movement of the planet around the sun; another the lapping of waves. For every process which occurs in rhythm, there is a hand to measure it. 
Tock.
Life is born. Time has passed. Two eras. The third face says so. The third face has two hands. One measures eras. Another, ages. The hands declare it to be three past one. The era of birth and the era of creation have passed; now is the era of change. Tick knows the time.
Tick.
The fourth face has a single hand, but the dial has many complex numerals. The hand moves backwards. It tells of things to come. The hand passes the Numeral of Fire. It passes the Numeral of Air. Eventually it will reach the Numeral of Tick, and he will die. There is only so much time, and there is much to do before it has passed.
Tock.

Tick awakens, moves. With agonising slowness he walks across the world. He wades through fields of ash and darkened seas. He sets himself upright and clambers onto floating islands, which all but collapse under his weight. He makes his way to the portals, and walks under different skies on foreign worlds. He speaks.

"TICK"

The worlds listen. They are named; Asin, Balin, and Sepin. He summons the waters from Balin, the first, and makes Asin fertile. The life which fled the fires and winds of Balin flourishes, multiplies.
On Sepin, he summons the fires of Balin, and makes it hostile. The life which spreads from Asin or flees from Balin finds no home here. The equator is too hot and the poles are too cold, the air is thin and the light poor.

Mess with the two moons:
-Asin, the first moon, is made fertile; a world of verdant forests and azure seas, teeming with life from pole to pole.
-Sepin, the second moon, is made barren; a world of lifeless rock and constant volcanic activity.

An absence of life is not the opposite of life. Balance is not maintained. Tick walks to Sepin, and looks upon it. He reaches into the earth, and pulls up the metal and fire which is locked below. Deep within Tick, where the spark is strongest, he forges them. The UnLiving. Creatures of steel and clockwork like himself, given life by steam, and the spark of Tick. A pale imitation of life

He sets the unliving upon the surface of Sepin, and bids them build. The unliving go forth blindly, and forge an empire. Of steel and stone they build mines and foundries. They forge new copies of themselves, and expand. Roads and bridges they build, across the twisted face of Sepin. Towers and cities of cold iron, home only to the click of clockwork.

Create the UnLiving upon Sepin.

[Shootandrun]

The Others were awake. He was no longer alone. They acted, and he watched.

One of them changed the way the earth was made, and he moved other worlds to be near this one. Uldum cared little. They could not disturb his darkness, his silence.

Another created a pale imitation of Uldum’s life and spread it aboveground. Another might have been afraid, but Uldum was not. His krakens were mighty, and the species of the surface would soon learn to fear the depths of his waters.

And then, one of the Others acted like Uldum feared they would act. He used a mighty weapon to heat the world and burn, burn, burn! While the Dark One was still sleeping, that one spread fire everywhere on the surface, and he even went to the depths of the Oceans and created heat and light in waters where there should only be Cold, Silence and Darkness. But the Other’s victory was short. He was mighty, but not as mighty as Uldum, and once his work was over, he fell asleep in a place that he thought was safe. The Others would learn. No one could challenge the Deep One and remain unscathed!

In his wrath, the waters rose. For three years, most of the world was flooded, and even the mightiest fires created by the Other were vanquished. Some of his Volcanoes remained, but Uldum cared little. They could not do too much damage to aboveground life. While he was doing his work, another started to fight the ashes and the dust in the skies. Good. The world would heal.

Now, the world was nearly as before. The waters had returned to a normal level. Most of the fire had been tamed, and only a few volcanoes and vents remained. However, one thing was change: there was no life on the surface of this new planet. Uldum did not care much about the aboveground species, but he tried to help them, more because he wanted to insult all of the Other’s work than because he wanted them saved. Using the strength of his mind, he forced the animals to return to the surface, and he planted trees and plants where they had been destroyed. It would take years to make things as they were before, but life was strong. It could heal by itself.

One last thing remained to do. He went to the place where the Other had chosen to sleep, and there, he unleashed his real might. For years and years, his strength gathered, and finally he sent all of his forces towards the meteoric statue where the Other had hidden his strength. After seven days and seven nights, he managed to break the statue in six parts. One would go on every continent, and the last one, the strongest, would go to the deepest part of the deepest Ocean, where it would be guarded by the Greater Krakens.

But now, he was weary. He needed to slow down, he needed to take his time and he needed to rest. He returned to the depths and there he slept. He was still alive, but not much. The Other’s strength had been mighty, but he had been slightly more powerful. Still, that was not something that he wanted to do often.

-Heal the world; make it as it was before. Only a few volcanoes and vents remain on earth. However, since Uldum does not know how to deal with the creatures of the surface, the nature will probably never completely heal without someone else’s help.
-Break Olot’s statue into six parts, send one part to every continent and place the strongest deep in the Ocean.

[adwarf]

Gulngris grew tired, and weary as time drew by, and his movements slowed, slurred by the weakening of his powers. His time was growing near, and his heart was filling with pain, and longing to once again reunite with the earth. Thus he walked for many years, time that went unnoticed by all, but the smartest of the lesser beings, until he arrived at the True Mountain. There he laid his hand upon the mountain, and it split in two along with the earth around it as it sheared apart, and showed the cavern below. It was time for the end, it seemed, and knowing this Gulngris laid down within the cavern.

The light within him began to fade, and the mountain, and earth reunited above his head. He touched the place where the shard laid, and said a single word "Live." every being heard it, it shook the very foundations of the world as power burst forth from the remains of Gulngris. The shard, and Gulngris fused with the very earth, and the immense power flowed through the earth, filling the dirt, and even the air with power it settled. The land regrew, were there was once a wasteland, grass, and tree took its place, where there was once failed life something else took its place, and bloomed. The world blossomed, and burst forth renewed by the last will of Gulngris. Forests grew, animals multiplied, as all that was left on the world flourished under the protection, and power that Gulngris unleashed.

So strong was the will, and power of Gulngris, that when most other power faded some stayed, and grew stronger, and more as the eons grew. The power flowed through the lands, and whenever wasteland replaced life, life would return ever, so slowly to its place. Lines of power formed that crossed the entire planet, all across it solid leylines of divine energy formed, and those places touched by it flourished beyond the surrondings. The world became what it once was, and Gulngris gave one last though 'It is done.', and then the last drops of his life seeped from him, and the Titan's existence ceased.

Gulngris became one with the earth, and his body melded with the cavern floor. All detail left except for that of his face, and a large crystal that shone brightly protruded from the earth where his chest once lay. It was the shard, or the remnant of the shard, that once lied within Gulngris. Where all, but his head laid the earth became fertile beyond belief, and hundreds of plants sprung forth to bask in the light of the shard, and the numerous stones that filled the cavern. The cavern became Gulngris's grave, and all Titans could feel when he died, and earth gained a life of its own, and the earth prospered.

Give Balin renewed life, and imbue it with the last of my divine power.
Create Leylines of Divine Energy

[thatkid]

Feomybring was wise.

As the others had acted, he had sat and watched.
As the dark one split the earth and formed others in its own image, Feomybring had watched.
As the first stone giant raised the earth and brought about the moons, Feomybring had watched.
As the nameless giant created life from the stars and brought wonder, Feomybring had watched.
As his powerful brother howled and ran and raged across the land, Feomybring was silent and watched.
As the thunderer healed the world and loosed its creations upon it, Feomybring had watched.
As the great automaton first moved in agonizing slowness and spoke, Feomybring listened and watched.
As the deep one and the stone giant worked their will once more upon the land, Feomybring had watched.

But the wise do not simply observe. In time, even the wisest will come to act.
For uncounted eons in the ebb and flow that had begun with the awakening of his metal cousin, Feomybring waited. And finally he too came to act.

In his wisdom he saw the deep ones who existed only as slaves to He who wrought them in his imagine and knew that this would not do. For knowledge and freedom go hand in hand as lovers.
In his wisdom he saw the flying ones, little more than animals with a spark of cunning and he saw that this, too, would not do. For wisdom is worthless in the hands of those who know not how to use it.
In his wisdom he saw the UnLiving forged in fire and metal and blindly working their craft and he saw this, as well, would not do. For wisdom must be tempered by thought and emotion.

Into the darkest depths he crept, and with all the cunning afforded to him he stole away two of the Deep Ones from their master's lair.
Among the floating islands he wandered, and with his knowledge of the world he lured away two of the Windriders from their floating homes.
To the barren world of Sepin he traveled, and there with the promise of something more he bid two of the UnLiving to follow him from their clockwork home.
And in this way he gathered two of each race, and took them to the center of Balin, the world between worlds.

To the two Deep Ones he gave a spark of his wisdom: The knowledge of freedom and free will.
To the two Windriders he gave a spark of his wisdom: The capacity to teach and learn.
To the two UnLiving he gave a spark of his wisdom: The storm that is emotion and the urge to act on it.

Here, in the combined image of these new six he made three more creatures. The mother, the father, and the child.
To them he gave the form of the Windriders, the structure of the UnLiving, and the intelligence of the Deep Ones.
At last, he bade the new six to grant these three a share of his gifts and to forever guard them against the predation of others as they procreated and spread across the planet.

Finally he led these nine beings on a journey lasting nine days and nine nights.
And for those nine days and nine nights they spoke, and traversed the ley-lines which his stone cousin had brought about.
And on the tenth day Feomybring left them, but from his teachings they had each gained something. An ability. The knowledge required to tap into these divine energies and enact their own will, limited as it were, upon the world.
And in this way Feomybring stole the gifts of the other Titans and created the nine beings of power, who knew that they must someday die but would seek to gather knowledge with their new-found abilities and, perhaps, store it so that the progeny of the three might someday access it.


-Feomybring steals away six beings, two from each of the sapient races, and grants them gifts of wisdom that separate them from their brethren. He then creates a fourth race, and charges the six with their safety.
-Feomybring teaches the nine beings to tap into Gulngris' leylines, essentially granting them the ability to work magic. This ability is not passed down through genetics, and so the knowledge is lost when the three finally pass away.

[Iituem]

The First Age

In the First Age, Uldum split the world.  Pangaea was sundered into Imsisa, Imulu, Imsatium, Imartu and Imrihamun*.  Great rivers and lakes flowed in four of these lands, but only the smallest streams crossed the plains of Imrihamun.  Now that its demense had been widened, tiny creatures were spawned forth by Uldum - little plants and beasts in the water, feeding on each other and the light of the sun, the mightiest of which were the majestic and terrible krakens.  In response to Uldum's actions, Gulngris stirred the sleeping fires beneath the earth and brought forth mountains erupting from land and sea alike.  These followed the secret lines beneath land and sea, dotting Uldum's vast expanse with island chains of stone.

Gulngris, unsatisfied with this alone, brought two lesser worlds from beyond the heavens and set them circling about the planet.  The tidal forces of these two moons rocked the waves, churning them violently and stirring the silent sea into nightmarish ire.  Whenever these two moons would reach perigee, great waves as high as mountains would crash upon the land.  Gulngris made two portals to these moons, but without an anchor the portals would shift and change - thus they were rarely stable in a single place for more than a single perigee and then would vanish and re-appear in a new location.

Drawing upon these forces Gulngris raised a mighty peak upon Imrihamun, filled with wonders, and beneath it a vast cavern, Apsu.  Water flowed in fresh rivers now from the mountain's peak, upon which there was always snow.  These rivers sometimes ducked beneath the surface and fed the Apsu below, filling it and carving fresh routes and caverns until at last they reached the sea.  Fed by water and the heat of the earth, Gulngris spawned life as Uldum had done - creatures that fed upon each other, upon the water washed down from above, fungi that fed off minerals and heat alone - creatures that never saw the light of day in the whole of their lives.

Life flourished elsewhere.  The Nameless walked the lands, forging from the spirit of stars a world of life.  Millenium after millenium passed by as his world filled with grasses, then bushes, then trees and forests - flora and fauna flooded the world from sweltering Imulu to frozen Imsisa, even on the high reaches of the True Mountain wehre their decaying forms would filter down through the subterranean rivers to feed the creatures of the Apsu below.  So, flush with life and the shape of the world, ended the First Age.


The Second Age

In the Second Age, Uldum brought forth a race of beings to serve it.  The dark ones, following the commands of their master, built great cities and societies in the deep, anchored in and centred around the rule of the shadow kraken.  So mighty and so deep were the greatest of these cities that they withstood even the perigee storms of the twin moons.  The Nameless, despairing that mortals of such intellect should be without will, gave up the greatest part of his life to give them the freedom of choice.  This gift would hold for the rest of eternity - no sapient race could ever be directly be controlled by another force again, unless it had been altered from birth to be so vulnerable.  Influenced, cheated, tricked, yes.  But they would always have a choice, flawed as it might be.  With the last of his strength the Nameless created a being to protect his creations, and a solitary flower as the last of his legacies.

Olot gazed upon the world and found it wanting.  To show his power he ran across it, burning all that he surveyed.  Fires spread across the surface for many years, razing plantlife and slaying beasts, driving life into the few secluded pockets where it had a chance of escape.  One such pocket was the Nameless Forest in the wettest part of Imulu.  Guarded by the force of Slask, the flames were swiftly quenched and the animals there refuged protected against the horrors of Olot's destruction.  Still others descended into the Apsu and lived amongst the creatures there - and some never came out.  A few desperate beasts even fled through the portals, but without air or sustenance beyond they swiftly perished.

Olot, incensed that he could not burn the sea, caused the chains of mountains and islands to burst with his fire.  Volcanoes erupted across land and sea, spewing gas and soot into the skies.  With all the world covered in darkness, more and more of life continued to pass away.  Even the Apsu struggled to persist, grievously overpopulated.  It was then that Coriolis chose to act, bringing forth mighty storms that razed all in their wake.  The storms cleared the dust, but everything else as well.  Though initially continuous, the storms eventually settled down and picked up strength primarily around the lunar perigee.  Part of this followed Coriolis' decision to seal away the strongest part of the five winds in one of the island volcanoes, tempering the strength of the winds upon the world.

Coriolium created by the storms fell upon the earth and became mixed up with the dust settling from the atmosphere.  Mixed together into muddy forms by rain along with chunks of earth suspended by the storms, fragments of earth floated up from the surface and clumped into solid islands in the sky.  A major part of this formation was due to extensive plant growth on the islands (being primarily composed of soil and with extensive sunlight).  Ingestion of coriolium from airborne plants and the soil led to a variety of suspended versions of land beasts.  With time some of these would evolve flaps and wings to take advantage of lift and gliding, and existing avians were greatly buoyed by the traces of coriolium.  Amongst these were a race blessed by Coriolis himself; Windriders, a type of gliding mammal promoted to near true flight by coriolium and granted sapience by the storm Titan.  In time, Coriolis faded into the storms themselves and gave them just enough strength that they might sometimes sear out to the upper atmosphere and even to the moons.

As the storms cleared dust, so Uldum responded to the mighty volcanoes and vents that tore apart his deep cities.  Water flooded the world and all but the highest reaches of the mountains.  Even the Apsu was flooded and many of its denizens forced to the surface, whilst under Slask's protection the Nameless Forest became a swamp.  As punishment, Uldum broke the slumbering form of Olot into six pieces and concealed them across the world.  The greatest part, the head, lay to rest in a ruined city in the deepest part of the deepest ocean, guarded eternally by the greater krakens.

When the waters receded at long last the skies began to clear.  Though it took centuries, the world renewed though forever scarred by Olot's fury.  The decades of ash and destruction provided an unexpected boon, for the silty soil left in its wake led to a boom in life.  This too was urged on by Gulngris' final acts, imbuing the world with a mighty rush of life, spreading forth from the divine leylines that spanned the world like a spider's web.  Flora spread at an astounding rate and within a few short decades the world was brighter and more filled with life than ever before.  Much of this spread forth from the Nameless Forest, within and above which the Windriders made their homes.

So filled was it that Tick brought life through the portal to Asin, spreading it and making it a verdant paradise.  To Sepin he brought Olot's last fires and made of it a wasteland, a testing ground.  In this place he made the Unliving and commanded his clockwork minions to carry out their cruel mockery of civilisation, an empire without meaning or thought.  Yet this caricature was a complete one - included amongst the many works of the Unliving was writing and speech, never intended for emotion or philosophy but instead for the giving and receiving of orders.  Should a mortal ever decode these clockwords he would have the power to command an army beyond his wildest imaginings - unless someone else should command them as well.

After nearly two ages of inaction, Feomybring descended upon the world to bring wisdom and a fourth race.  Taking the best from the two sapient races and the one machine, he created a race of chimaera: the sleek, windborne bodies of the windriders; the keen intellect and predatory will of the deep ones and the organisation and discipline of the unliving.  To guard the three chimaera he granted four living beings wisdom and two machines sapience, and taught the nine the great secrets of the world.  These nine, spurred on by Feomybring's wisdom, sought to change the world.

Three, the Chimaera, built themselves a home in the sky, calling on the flight, the skill and the intellect of their forebears.  There they lived and bred and forged a new, brilliant species - but when the three forebears died the greatest part of their knowledge died with them.

Two, the Deep Ones, returned to the deeps and brought the curse of freedom and free will with them.  The hope of freedom, of a life beyond the clutches of Uldum, burned like fire through the watery deeps, and a great and terrible war broke out amongst Uldum's children.  When it had passed, the wise deep ones had died but so had a great many of their people.  Their civilisation lay in ruins, but those few that lived now lived free.

Two, the Windriders, brought back their knowledge and teachings.  They encouraged their people to develop, to learn, to advance and create.  They spent their short lives fighting the ignorance and apathy of their own people, and they made many sucesses before they too passed from the world.  Their legacy was culture and advancement, a true civilisation for the Windriders.

Two, the Unliving, returned to Sepin and knew that there was nothing that could be done.  The world that Tick had created would respond to their commands, now that they had the will and wisdom to give them, but all their brethren would be little more than tools - never raised to thought in their own right.  So the Unliving returned to Balin and before the others passed they gathered their wisdom as well.  Using a language formed from the speech of all four races they wrote nine tablets in gold, dicatated by each of the nine, containing the secrets of the nine kinds of magic.  These they hid across the world, so that those with wisdom might one day find them.

These two, Click and Tock, did not die.  They witnessed the last events of the Second Age, which were still to come.


*Named by convention after the north, south, east and west winds, and the centre of the storm.

[Map of the world to follow.]

[NUKE9.13]

"TICK"

Tick spoke in anger. This was not right, this was not what the clock said. The others did not remember the right path; their natures were flawed. Only he knew what was right and proper.
The smaller ones are nothing but trouble. There must be balance in their lives, or the world suffers.

He has named and formed the moons of Life and Death. The world below now resembles too closely Asin, the moon of Life. Therefore, the moon of Death must make its presence felt upon Balin. His own creations had already been stolen from him- but only a few. Most still stood before him, ordered and proper. Well developed, well learnt, in great numbers, of superior build.
Now he spoke unto them, commanded them. He bid them conquer the world of Balin, and exterminate all life upon it.
And so, in their thousands, in their millions, the UnLiving ventured to Balin. They built clocks to predict the locations of the portals, and infernal devices to hold the portals open longer. They built engines of war, to plough through forest and field leaving only death in their wake.
And they marched upon the five continents, and below, and above, and burnt the forests, the creatures, and built their mines and foundries to steal the bounty of Balin's earth to fuel further conquests. Their war was slow, and- by design- futile, but their persistence would see great destruction rained upon Balin once again. Like the tides, they would come and go, but always leaving behind reminders of their presence, and promises of their return; abandoned structures, decayed but not destroyed by time. Slain comrades, the spark still burning in their eyes, but rusted solid in the cold weather. Towering clock-spires, which count the time until their return.
For the living, this is a terror worse than wind or fire, for those are mere wild elements, the damage caused is accidental, impersonal. But the UnLiving can walk right up to a tree, and set their axes to it with a malevolence no mere fire can match.

Have the UnLiving invade Balin.

[King_of_the_weasels]

*chnk CHNK chnk*  Tawk opened his eyes and lifted his head from his deceased companions chest, his ears twitching upward.  The noise drumming from above him.  He lifted himself and climbed from the chamber to the cavern's exit.  The light hitting his eyes for the first time in eons, and as he focused, he saw... them.  Men of iron, bellowing smoke and steam into the air around the mountain.  Digging, Mining the earth below them, carrying the metals and forging more tools, tools of destruction.  For what purpose?  Why were they here?  This wasn't the purpose of this land, to be destroyed by soulless monstrosities.  These thieves, stealing away the riches that were placed there for greatness, not for mindless destruction.  Tawk paced on the peak, watching in anger as the Unliving continued to plunder his home, and his master's grave.  He had to protect it from them.. no... no from everyone, no one deserved this land and it's spoils, he could see that now.  He descended into the caverns once more.  Digging into the walls and floors, flooding the tunnels for the last time.  Making one final visit to the grave of his former friend before unleashing a howl which shook the foundations causing the mountain to collapse and sink into the ocean.  The Unliving on the mountain heavy and rusted sunk to the depths.  Nothing was left but the snow covered peak barely standing a fraction of it's once great height.  Tawk lied his head down on the peak and mourned once more for his friend, now forever lost within the rubble.

Sink the true mountain into the sea, protecting it from the Unliving and anyone else wishing to rob it of it's resources.

[Shootandrun]

He was awake. After so many years, Uldum was awake.

After a few minutes, he realized that the Deep Ones were no longer serving him. They called themselves free, and lived only for themselves. Their civilization had been the greatest of the three, for they were mightier than the Windriders, and they had emotions and a will of their own - albeit weak, but it was there - that the Unliving could not understand. And now, the greatest cities of this world lay in ruins, and thousands upon thousands of Deep Ones were dead. The Titan who had given them freedom might have thought that he was wise, but truly he had only doomed the mightiest species of Balin and the two moons.

Uldum had heard enough. On the surface, beings of metal, twisted copies of life were destroying a world that the Dark One had tried to save. He was tired. He was weak. His battle against Olot’s power had left scars. A Titan, even sleeping, was a mighty opponent. Most of Uldum’s strength had been spent healing the world and destroying the statue. He was only a memory, ready to be forgotten by the great powers of this world.

He rose from the seas, for the first time since the siege of Olot’s statue. A great shadow covered the world, and for a moment, even the Unliving looked at the skies to understand the origin of the darkness. One last time, Uldum looked at the world. He saw the ruins of the cities of his people, the scars of the Great Fires, the destruction caused by the machines of metal. He saw his own weakness. He saw his failure to remain the mightiest of the Titans. He had been the first to come out of the long sleep, the first to mark this world with his Power. And now, his end was near.

He spoke. He used a language that no living being had used before and yet every creature in Balin, Asin and Sepin heard him, and all of the intelligent races understood.

“Darkness always comes.”

And then, he unleashed his power one last time. With all the strength left in him, he cursed the Deep Ones. Every Deep One in the world died at the same time, and their souls fled Balin and reached Sepin. There, they took the forms of strange shadows and ravaged the land and destroyed all the Unliving of the planet. The creatures of metal were powerful and determined, but they did not understand their enemy. They did not realise that the shadows could not be destroyed by any physical means. The Unliving did not understand that Death itself was invading their world. Within hours, the machines were destroyed and the clockworks towers were brought down. Finally, Uldum closed permanently the portal between Balin and Sepin.

As his last powers left his body, Uldum died. The Deep Ones were now in an endless exile for their betrayal, and the Unliving had lost all the factories that they used to build other Unliving, and the knowledge to build them. The last Unliving remaining were surviving on Balin, a world where they had no allies and no way to gain strength.

With his last strength, Uldum curses the Deep Ones. They all die, and their souls take the form of murderous shadows. Uldum sends them in exile on Sepin, where they destroy the Unliving of the planet and the factories that they used to build other Unlivings. The portal between Balin and Sepin is closed.

[micelus]

He was dead.

He had been dead for some time, eras perhaps. In his life he had made the world burn in a glorious flame. In his death, he had been a beacon of power...Till the water titan took vengeance and split his body into six pieces all over the world. Course, even then his power seeped out, although with less ability and less strength.

But even while dead and metal, a titan is not without thought, no the body may have been lost but the mind survived. And the mind of the titan once known as Olot saw his enemy die and kill his people. It laughed within itself for many a day, but then thought on what he could do.

He wandered the world while he thought, watching the tides ebb and flow or seeing the cycle of life as it went. But on clear nights, he would gaze at the stars. The stars were constant, always there and always watching; surpassing the life of titan and planet alike. It saddened the spirit-titan somewhat that even a titan would be lesser than a star. He moved on.

He saw the changes in the world; the  world had healed and new creatures resided the earth. Winged apes and squid and fish, floating isles, clockwork creatures, not unlike his father-mother Tick;  leylines,  and a strange race of apes, different from their brethren. So much change after his time, he sighed. The world was no longer his. He knew that his cousin-brothers still lived, although the spirit cared little. They would die in their time as all titans did.

Eventually, the spirit-titan knew what he would do. He left the land, the atmosphere, the world itself, passed the moons and into the dark void. He went far, very far until Balin was nearly a dot. There, he focused himself, using all his remaining energies. The divine energy overflowed in the spirit, and then it was released. Olot the titan was no more; Olot the star had been born.

Create the star Olot, also called the Wolf Star, a gigantic blue star  that can be seen from Balin and its moons. Any individual  race born under this star will have increased strength . In certain months, Olot will be closer to Balin. These months, called Wolfsky, will be more arid and hot than usual and also increase the strength of any fire or lava flow.