Godhood XIV [Syrup Edition]

Oh, hello Fish, Oorin!

I ascend from the first layer, spinning slowly with the grace and glory of one of those big wobbly wind tube people that they have outside car shops. I forget where I saw those.

Oh look! A little robot thing! You have many memories, don't you? Well, you will. Also you are a cutie. Whoever made you is also a cutie.

I dink the librarian on the head with one of my empty sleeves. Dink dink.

Dink dink dink.

"Ah, me and El Arbitrito go way way back, all the way back to elementary god school. We're tight like..." Tlaca-Ica struggles with their fins for a bit and ends up rotating in place for a bit. "We're tight like... like... like a finger-crossing motion, you dig? He might not show it, I mean he never does, but I think there's some mild affection for me hidden in there. That or outright hostility. Hard nut to crack, that Arbitrator guy, but damn me if I'm not gonna try, right? Someone's gotta bring him out of that shell before God Prom. Make him take off his glasses and put on a shorter skirt."

Tlaca-Ica puts one of their unnervingly wet and cold fins on Oiren's shoulder and leads them aside for a more private moment. Oiren has to fight the urge to recoil when it briefly grazes his neck. "Look, Oreo, I respect the hustle, but I don't know how Tlaca-Ica's gonna take this. Sorry, uh, The Arbitrator. I mean, obviously there's gonna be outward apathy but inside? If he feels like EVERYONE'S just picking on him for no good reason... Look, just leave this prank stuff to me, especially double-u are tea The Arbitrator. I have a lifetime of whoopie cushions and buckets balanced on top of doors under my belt here. I think I've got a good repartee established, he doesn't really take it personally. Hammer —" Tlaca-Ica pivots and attempts to make profound eye contact with Oiren but that doesn't really work because neither Tlaca-Ica or Oiren have eyes. "— don't hurt 'em."

So much for that. Tlaca-Ica swims away to the material plane and splashes about alongside the Redweed.

Oiren stood for a minute, unsure of how to react. He turned towards Canary.

"I'm sorry, I must take my leave"

He marched off into the maze's center, the walls shifting behind him.

Dink. Dink. Dink.

I make sure the cute little Librarian recorded all that.
I'm sure it'll be very useful!

Turn End

War and peace arise now, swiftly cycling;
Creatures worship all except their gods.
Things are moving ever swifter forward,
But with these gains, one senses, may come loss.

***

The Eternal Watchwinder tinkers with the Labyrinth of Memory. As it becomes self-aware, its walls rotate, sink and rise, forming whatever pattern it deems best to display all the information it contains.

The Shining Cetacean forms a tremendous sphere of beverage, then shoots it off into orbit. Small streams flow off into the vacuum, forming rings around the core while the vacuum, in turn, leaves canyons, of a sort, in its surface. He then sends the strange, but graceful, Screws swimming and twirling through is oceans.

She of the Salamander improves the Redweed with more sapience, and the ability to group together into colonies. They soon take their first steps onto land. She then turns to Ournaro, slowing its winds and placing large deposits of metal at the poles, then spreading highly-varied plant life through its atmosphere.

She Who Tips the Scales slides in next, bringing the Narkissts to Ournaro. They quickly begin to form closely-knit colonies, building insulated fortresses and huddling together for warmth.

The Master of Prairies, seeing the Screws lack any sustenance but sunlight, spreads the Bummerweed to Progenitor. It is nutritious, but otherwise not particularly notable.

The Serpentine Seer steps forward. His first act is to create The Librarian, a keeper for the labyrinth of memory - a golden sphere, rolling through the labyrinth, writing down information not in the words of the Gods but in the languages of mortals; Oiren quickly aids its task by linking it intrinsically to the maze in which it dwells. He then brings the stone-bodied and beauty-loving Saxa to Progenitor, before granting the Screws the gifts of advanced thought and the entrancing Aurigni.

***

The Saxa are blessed with a slow metabolism, allowing them to subsist for a long time on little food. Every few months, they emerge to feast on the Snakevines and Bummerweed, before once again disappearing underground. The individual Snakevine colonies come to different conclusions - some of them form tight and dense, others loose and sprawling to minimize the damage done; but a few begin to sprout bright blue fruit, and take advantage of the situation to ensure the Saxa will spread their seeds far and wide. Ultimately, this leads to the befruited population dominating the landscape.

Meanwhile, the Snakevines find their growth stymied by the Bummerweed, which quickly grows to form great prairies; they resent it, and they begin to create primitive sickles and trowels to fend it off whenever it takes nutrients from a colony's soil. Not long after, a dispute is cut short in a settlement when one vine turns an axe against another - the beginnings of war.

Conflicts ignite throughout Progenitor, stopped only when Sizzurp collides with it, sending all the inhabitants into a stupor. Some of the Screws - noticing the Snakevines' complex settlements and behavior - attempt to communicate, but they have no writing, and the Snakevines no voice, so this attempt is stymied. However, the appearance - being marked by peace and happiness - and sudden disappearance of the birdfish leaves a lasting impression on the vines, who begin to view them as angels of a sort.

The Screws have more luck communicating with the Saxa, managing to exchange some basic words and ideas before the planets separate; though only a few of them are on the surface, those who encounter the birdfish tell tales of glorious, shining creatures from the stars, and the beautiful blooms that come along with them. With every intersection, more Saxa come to commune with the creatures of Sizzurp, until they have determined the cycle and made a tradition of coming to the surface when the Screws return.

As the Snakevines build idols and shrines to the angels, and the Saxa lavish praise on their visitors' beauty, the Screws grow proud. They embrace their role in the eyes of the land-beings, and - once the Snakevines have the idea to make sacrifices and offerings, mainly of slain Bummerweed - taking tribute from them and the Saxa. Yet with the lack of real resources, or even solid ground, on Sizzurp, their "inferiors" develop tools that the Screws could never create on their own.

Back on Melody, the Redweed begin to form into several different, distinct societies, each with their own language. After quite a lot of warfare and instability, three major, stable societies are finally established: The Greifous Feeders, who hold nature as sacred, and mainly live near the coast, that they may feed their dead to the insects they hold so dear; the Tornbygge, who believe that the most important virtues are hard work and creation, and live near the mountains, building great monuments and fortresses; and the Aoyo Mousou, who travel through the canyons, valleys and plains of the land. These groups frequently clash, but these fights usually don't last long; the smaller tribes have more to fear, as they will often be given a choice of death or assimilation.

Between Adaption and the deliberate breeding efforts of the local Redweed, the coastal Greifous become stronger and a bit smarter. The two species forge a powerful bond: in exchange for the shelter and food the Feeders provide, the Greifous become loyal companions in hunting and warfare. For reasons unknown to anyone, one in about every ten thousand Greifous will be weak and flightless, but have an extremely long lifespan; the Feeders soon figure out how to use these to make the training process easier.

The Energy of New Beginnings provides everyone with two acts; then, it is no more.

Acts
Supernerd - Mi'Grata: 6 + 6 = 12
Bigro - The Matriarch: 6 + 5 = 11
Chwoka - Tlaca-Ica: 0 + 6 = 6
Garuru - The Arbitrator: 0 + 5 = 5
Truegreen - Oiren: 0 + 5 = 5
Dalmationer - Canary: 2 + 7 = 9
Schazer - Solbruin: 1 + 5 = 6

Universal Reference Sheet

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Spoiler

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Cosmic Constructs
Ice Sun "Butts": This star radiates light that, instead of making whatever it strikes hotter, instead causes a significant drop in temperature.

Eruditio: An average-sized sun that emits light and heat.

The Spacetide: Between the two suns, where their radiation "intersects," great currents are formed from the difference in temperature, and beautiful lights emerge in the process. They're mostly harmless, but whenever Ournaro crosses between orbital paths, its own wind currents are magnified and distorted, and its rotation thrown off-kilter.

The Duck: The corpse of a single duck, orbiting the ice sun. The radiation has effectively left it frozen solid - perfect to be heated up for a romantic dinner!

Matriarch's Planet: An extremely hot planet orbiting the ice sun. Perfectly geometric lakes and rivers interconnect, cooling down the area immediately around them, and the radiation from the ice sun makes things otherwise more or less livable, but there are substantial portions of the planet that remain unreasonably hot.

Sarte: An icy moon which orbits the Matriarch's planet. It reflects some of the cold radiation towards the planet, and in return the planet's lost heat warms it a bit.

Melody: A small planet, full of canyons and caves, and dominated by a single ocean. It has a vaporous core, also the source of its atmosphere; the metals making it up remain gaseous or liquid even at low temperatures, and frequently rain down alongside the ocean's evaporated waters.

Progenitor: This planet has a tremendous variety of canyons and mountains dotting the landscape. A bounty of useful minerals lies beneath the surface.

Ournaro: A gas giant positioned such that its orbit forms a figure eight around the two suns.

Sizzurp: A liquid giant, made of a combination of soft drink and soporific. Twice a year, its orbit (perpendicular to those of other planets) crosses with Progenitor, leaving the inhabitants of that planet in a bit of a stupor.

Plane of Memory: An as of yet small, but expanding-towards-infinite maze graces the center of this plane. The walls of this maze will record all the knowledge of the universe, and all the details of all the lives of those who have lived and died in it. As of yet, only the Gods may access this realm or read the information within.

Locational Constructs

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Matriarch's Planet
Winterweed: A hardy sprout which stores the cold of the ice sun during the day, and releases it at night to protect it from the intense heat of the planet.

Divine Temple of Parenthood: A massive temple carved into the largest volcano on the planet. Any creature who reaches it may give form to a new concept or being, provided they are sufficiently proud of it once it is finished.

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Sarte
Summerweed: Where the winterweed stores cold, the summerweed stores heat. It grows in thick clumps to share warmth efficiently.

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Melody
Redweed: An intelligent algae with a strong philosophical tradition and the ability to (slightly) shift the tides to their will. Their perceptions and communication are based upon chemical signals, particularly pheromones. Their societies are extremely hostile to any thought that challenges the orthodoxy. Three major civilizations exist - the nature-worshipping Greifous Feeders, the industrious Tornbygge, and the inquisitive Aoyo Mousou - as well as various smaller, unaffiliated tribes.

Sliver: A cavern-dwelling moss that absorbs metals from the atmosphere and uses them to produce a thin protective shell.

Cavern Greifous: The females of these insects are flightless; they pierce the shell of the Sliver and then lay their eggs inside. The males are winged, and frequently migrate to other caverns to spread their genetic material, feasting on Redweed if they hunger during the journey.

Coastal Greifous: Larger and stronger, as well as a bit smarter, than those of the Cavern, these Greifous have a symbiotic relationship with the Redweed - primarily the Greifous Feeders, who willingly feed them their dead in exchange for protection and companionship.

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Progenitor
Snakevines: This climbing vine easily twists and turns, mainly using this to capture the maximum amount of sunlight, but sometimes as an artistic exercise of sorts. They perceive the world around them through a sort of touch-based infrared vision. Worship the Screws as angelic, peace-bringing figures.

Bummerweed: Tall, wispy grasses that form swathes of prairie over Progenitor's drier areas. The Snakevines dislike them greatly, seeing them as leeches.

Saxa: Bear-like creatures made of stone. Fond of gemstones, often digging through caves to search for them. They only occasionally surface, but always make a point of doing so during the collision with Sizzurp, so they may speak with the Screws.

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Ournaro
Various Simple Plant Life: Vast swathes of floating, semi-gaseous plants have accumulated in Ournaro's atmosphere. They reproduce primarily when Ournaro crosses between orbits, briefly blotting out the sun until the population lowers again.

Polar Metal Deposits

Narkissts: Shrimp-like creatures who scuttle across Ournaro's icy core. They are intelligent, and adapted to high-gravity environments; they live in sturdy shelters built mostly of permafrost and dead plant matter. They are very sociable, but their language is disorganized, so that they may communicate a single concept in countless different ways.

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Sizzurp
Screws: "Birdfish" which subsist primarily on photosynthesis, and secondarily on the Bummerweed of Progenitor. Their appearance is distinctive, marked by vibrant green scales and corkscrew beaks.

Aurigni: These plants' seeds, when compressed, quickly grow to maturity in a glorious burst of color; not soon after that, they scatter seeds anew and wilt away.

For Arby's, Tlaca-Ica wills into existence the RBs for 2 acts, an animal shaped like a giant cowboy hat with tiny tiny legs and a big mouth that splits the brim. They are made of piping hot roast beef and poop delicious barbecue sauce out of the top of their heads like an old-school oil rig to cool themselves down. Essentially, the perfect prey — one that even comes cooked and seasoned! Do not cry for the fate of the RBs, though; they lack any sensory information other than their winning Sense of Humor and as such are perennially happy, even without the Purple Drank coursing through their veins. They are prone to break out in fits of hysterical hyena-esque laughter at the (in their opinion, FANTASTIC) cosmic joke of their own existence. Besides, once their lives are almost certainly cut short, they can just hang out in the afterlife, which is way radder than their regular lives, wait, wait, shit, SHIT,

"SHIT, SHIT! Guys, we forgot to make an afterlife! All those poor souls are just stuck in limbo! What should we do? Should we slap reincarnation down and call it good? Have them hang around and take care of the Labyrinth? Stimulate their minds with perfect pleasure for all eternity? Get a proper Heaven-and-Hell setup going? Just blue-skying here, we gotta figure this out together."

Oiren re-enters the divine plane, arms ticking and clicking behind him. "Hmm, I believe we had some thought put into this already. I believe Canary described it as a ladder? The Realm of Knowledge is the first step so that creatures may record their place in the universe and the paradise of those who seek knowledge. Seeing as it is just about complete I propose we create a second realm, perhaps one of basic life? hmm...I have some ideas, give me a moment"

Oiren goes to work once again sketching a rune on the ground. The most obvious of the array of symbols, and central to the rune itself are the symbols for 'Form' and 'Harmony'. They are interwoven to such a degree that it is difficult to see where one starts and the other starts.

"Here's my suggestion, we create a realm where the shades of all the simple creatures go. They shall live in an idealized world. A facsimile of our own, and perhaps others. They shall not merely live as they used to. No, they shall change forms every so often. Every creature will get to live, for a time, as every other. When spirits of sapient beings enter, they shall be placed into the form of an animal until the point they choose to leave. Perhaps we can even add some sort of test, a metaphorical desert to cross to reach the next level. Though there will be those that remain behind by choice. Those that feel most in tune with the natural world will be granted this as paradise, the ability to become any creature, plant or animal, and preside over the test. Beyond that they may live as they like in this primal world. What do you think?"

I whisper in response. A chime in pink and blue.

All things must come to an end, Ouran. Though nostalgia and dreaming stagnation in bliss are wonderful things, they cannot continue indefinitely. We cannot have souls clogging the pipes of our alchemical equipment, so to speak! we cannot, because infinite expansion requires infinite material. All things must move upward towards their end, where they are of use to us. The waste that stays in place must decay and come to finality!
All resources are limited in the end, my dear, even thoughts. Why do you think I am so conservative with my own?
When they pass through the realm of knowledge, their truths and memories will be recorded. After that, successive layers must distil them more. The second, as you said, would boil off their primal natures! Once they reach the very top, all that is left is the pure, uncontaminated soul-stuff, which we may recycle, invigorate, subsist upon.
Oh, how beautiful such purity would be, such precious sparks. To cycle it back would be oh so efficient, and oh how it would be an end that cycles eternally.
We are built upon endings, my dears. Existence eternal is oh so boring. Endings are what makes it viable!

What was I talking about again..?

"So the idea, if I'm understanding you right, is that souls pass through circles of the afterlife like filters until they are inevitably refined to hundred-proof soulcohol that we can then drink, metabolize into acts, and shit back out into the universe. First circle could be Oiren's idea, ascend to the second plane, the Labyrinth, for enlightenment... I like it, but I definitely want there to be some form of "treat" in store for the dead, a consolation prize for having to deal with existence under our reign."

I smile, that is to say, smile slightly more broadly. Smiling is, of course, my default state.
Their treat is the End.

"Well Canary, I would gladly accept any input from yourself or others on this matter. I must admit this isn't my specialty. Hmm...what if I did this"

Oiren erases much of the rune and begins scribbling ferociously. Now the great interlocking center is comprised of 'life' and 'memory'.

"Hmm, simple minds, simple storage. Here, this might work. Imagine this, a vast desert and in every grain of sand is imprinted a memory. A flash of experience. Sunlight on leaves, a predator stalking, the silent cold darkness of a cave, the fearful countenance of prey. In all of this we can show the great magnitude of our work. Stronger spirits, sapient spirits, they would walk the desert and feel a fraction of our universe pass below their feet, feel what only the simplest of minds can feel, experience the simplest of life's experiences. When they come to the end of their journey they will ascend to the next level. How is that?"

"Might I suggest a slight alteration? A dark highway cuts through the desert. Cool winds brush through your hair. It smells like colitas. Up ahead in the distance... a shimmering light. When you get there, there's a woman standing at the door. It could be Heaven or it could be Hell. She'll light a candle and show you the way. Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends. She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys she calls friends — how they dance in the courtyard; sweet summer sweat! Some dance to remember, some dance to forget. Voices from nowhere call out at you, welcoming you. Mirrors on the ceiling, the pink champagne on ice. They are all just prisoners here, of our own device. And in the master's chambers, they'll gather for the feast. They'll stab it with their steely knives, but they just won't kill the beast. You can check out any time you like...

but you can never leave."

"Does it not run counter to the definition of a lodge if your stay there is permanent?" Solbruin asks, but she realises she's talking to Technicolor Fishbreath and doesn't particularly need or want an answer.

"In my eyes, eternal paradise seems a disproportionate reward for the infinitesimal existence of mortal creatures. There would be myriad uses more for those souls, better than your proposals of fuel or paint or putting them out to pasture. Allow me to demonstrate."

Solbruin returns to Ournaro's slushy core, drifting over piles of vegetation until she finds a nest of Narkissts. She grants the Narkissts basic sapience [1 act], patiently waiting by the side of a dying Narkisst.

"The sapeint soul," explained Solbruin, "is unbounded to the physical, associating instead with concepts and essences. When these now-beings expire, their concept of self will link with the concept of Canary's sky-reefs."

"By my design, they shall tend to the sky-groves with what paltry power their souls may exert upon the physical world. Unlike a physical construct, the climactic extremes of the stratosphere do not faze them.

"However, I've bound the concept of self to the specific concept of the reef as it is alive - when the plants fall, die, rot and are devoured, thus also ends the Narkisst's post-existence."

"That concludes my demonstration," hums Solbruin, as though that explains everything.

(1 Act to give the Narkissts basic spaience
1 Act to give them a short afterlife where they tend the Sky-plants)

Tlaca-Ica, too, scribbles furiously on the walls of the labyrinth, even as they bucks away from them and the piece of chalk lodged in their blowhole. You can tell they're not runes in a language only they can understand though, they're just doodling at random, mixing in the occasional crudely-drawn penis for good measure. After Solbruin finishes speaking, Tlaca-Ica drops the look of intense consternation and concentration they've been wearing and turns back to the rest of the group.

"I've got it! I've got the ideas all compiled together. First we'll make a plane that mostly consists of... plains. Wilderness, untamed but tranquil, for all the dumb animals to run around in bein' dumb. In that plane is a gigantic desert of memory sand, and in that desert is the Hotel California. At the Hotel California they shall stay until they have killed their bestial urges with their steely knives, at which point they can check out and ascend to the Labyrinth and get themselves some enlightenment, some book-learnin' proper.

Then, when they inevitably give up on the noble goal of learning for learning's sake and dirty their souls by thinking about putting any of their knowledge to actual use, they are shunted off to yet another plane. This plane is structured as a gigantic, flashy TV quiz show that's all about your life. As you answer the questions, you forget the answers, leaving you a completely blank slate, at which point you are allowed to pick a prize, each of which is hidden behind a door. Behind Door 1, you finally get to experience the mercy of The End For Real as you are purified into acts. Behind Door 2, you are reincarnated and the cycle begins again. Behind Door 3, you are conscripted into the universe border patrol and standing army. Behind Door 4, endless pleasure, with all the material goods you could ever want, until you've had your fill and realize that you've actually picked the door that leads to the Twilight Zone, at which point you can cycle back and pick another door. It acts as a splitter so we can entertain multiple ideas, and if the mood strikes us we can go back and add more doors."

That's a total of 12 acts for the two planes, 1 act for the hotel, 2 acts for hotel administration, and, unless Arby will let us use the Librarian as the charismatic gameshow host, 2 acts for that as well. Seems like a lot, but I say, we split the cost of the two planes between the four of us and use 3 acts each. I'll foot the hotel bill next turn, before anybody's even had the time to finish crossing the desert.

Tlaca-Ica puts their money where their mouth is and slaps down a hot steaming pile of 3 acts.

Solbruin is... huh. She's actually reasonably ok with this plan. Mostly.

"My thanks for giving souls the choice to defend this universe from outsiders. I did not think you so... perceptive to my parable. However. The Labyrinth records only the lives of mortals, and until their civilisations advanced considerably, none would be privy to the fragile nature of the universe proper. I could," she sniffed, "grant them an audience to reveal such things, but that's unbecoming for a goddess of darkness. You surely see my dilemma."

"I didn't think the rest of you wanted the mortals to know how the universe worked."

"I for one don't. What's the point of great secrets of the universe if we just hand out the answers to anyone who can build up the courage to knock on the front door? The workings of the universe shall remain hidden from mortals and we should probably change them around every so often so the bastards don't get complacent."

Oiren turned away from the group, leaving his sigil on the ground. He didn't have much energy, he felt elements of his domain were lacking from the world. He floated over Melody, watching it, looking over its surface, the great canyons and plains and oceans. Already it had sapient life, yet something about the planet felt, barren, unfinished. Oiren floated down to the surface. Thick red mud clung to his feet and squelched with every step. He looked out across the heartland of Melody. It was vast and it was empty, all but uninhabited. This would not do.

Oiren ripped an arm unceremoniously from his back. It was thick and metallic yet, somehow, seemed distinctly organic. He drove it into the mud, the thick base sinking deep into the earth, the fingers pointed towards the open sky. He sat down, and bored into its essence, twisting and changing its form, adapting it to its new purpose. When it was finally complete he stood up and admired his creation. Before him stood a massive tree. It's bark bore the colors of rust and iron and upon its twisting branches grew leaves which shone silver and gold. It stood alone, an imposing figure upon the empty plain. But not for long Oiren thought to himself. Before long there would be great forests of these trees, and they would grow thick and close, like a living wall. Some species of Griefous passed through this land on migrations, soon they would find a great barrier in their path. He would watch with interest to see how they would deal with it. For now he just spread them loosely around the plain.

With his designs complete Oiren slipped into the realm of knowledge. There was something that needed doing, something he'd meant to address some time ago. He trod across the carpet of spun sugar, leaving thick red footprints in his wake. A single spot stood out in the great swirl of candy floss. It was a spot, a very unusual spot. It wasn't very large, barely a handful, but it contained every imaginable color of cotton candy in one delicate spiral pattern. Oiren lifted the section in his hands, this would do nicely.

Created Platewood Trees (Massive 3 acts): These trees draw from the natural metal rains of Melody to create a thick alloyed bark. They often grow closely together, boughs and branches weaving together. A forest of these can prove a real problem for anyone wishing to cross

2 Acts Remain

"Okay so just so I'm clear, everybody's okay with my plan but nobody wants to throw the acts behind it to support it?"

What plan?
The phrase is said with genuine confusion!

I flit into being again above Ournaro, intrigued by the little spirits buzzing around. I instil a few subtle changes to the roiling masses of plant matter;
Expending 2 acts, I further modify the planet's verdant canopy, inducing rhythmical cycles into the planet's foundation.
During the rotation of the great sphere around Eruditio, the dominant plants on the surface are those most suited to standard photosynthesis, causing a high level of oxygen to be present in the atmosphere. They absorb all they can from the star, storing as much energy and nutrients as possible in sap, starch and pod to aid their survival over the second year. Even so, most will die off.
During the cold year, as the planet swerves around Butts, the high levels of oxygen are utilised by other plants and symbiotic bacteria, predominantly detritivorous, to respire. These produce levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide which, when the change is signalled by the spacetide, can be used to bolster the number of "warm" plants to again prepare for the second part of the cycle.

I add a basic pollinating species for 2 acts, birdlike gliders with leathery skin, resembling a kite with a long, trailing proboscis and small claws for latching to plants. During the warm year, they are active, feeding from plants. In the cold year, they hibernate in any alcove they can find. Occasionally, some will be trapped or taken down unintentionally by a dying plant, and will eventually reach the surface, where they promptly expire from the pressure, cold, and generally nigh-uninhabitable conditions.

I am having such fun with Ournaro. Oh, it's so nice. I shall make it oh so pretty. What do you think?
Oh, I like your insects, Solbraun! I had forgotten about them, but I am glad they exist.

The Arbitrator shakes his head. With all the different plans for souls, the afterlife sure was getting confusing.

"Why don't I just eat them? Surely not everyone wants to live essentially forever, and this way they become one with the universe while not necessarily continuing to exist. Also, you will clearly need a judgment system."

The scales around his neck starts to glow, and two lights leap out. They float around for a bit, waiting for consensus. They are the Judgment Orbs. When the afterlife is finalized, they will analyze each soul, and determine them to be WINNERS or LOSERS.

[-2 JUDGMENT ORBS]

ACTS REMAINING: 3

Tlaca-Ica gives them different-colored bowties to differentiate them and make them a little more charismatic.

OOC:

Unsure about why the other gods were concerned about making an afterlife for creatures that were never given souls in the first place, Mi'Grata once again makes an assessment of the world. There were no serious problems, but there could be an issue if the world continued to progress as it was.

Most of the Matriarch's planet was too hot for water to take a liquid form; so long as it was like that it would be difficult to establish a proper ecosystem. Cooling it down would likely earn the Matriarch's ire, but Mi'Grata figured something out. The ground began to quake on the Matriarch's planet as a single cylinder-like mountain arose. Thus the Volcano of Fury came to be! When viewed from space the Volcano resembled the nozzle on a soccer ball which could be used to fill it with air. Periodically the unstable Volcano of Fury would emit positively immense amounts of magma and hot gases raising the surrounding area to an extremely high temperature... But in doing so the great volcano would draw the heat from the rest of the planet. Mi'Grata's plants would now be able to thrive and the average heat level of the planet remained at its present level.

Sarte had the opposite problem, but no gods concerned about its temperature. Mi'Grata then created the Wiremoss, which would grow in places where Summerweed thrived. Wiremoss was grey in color and was reminiscent of hair or wool. The Wiremoss would grow at a quick pace, and decompose into nutrients upon death, and it would grow to be rather long. As nutrients are spread across the planet the Summerweed would be able to slowly expand its territory by processing more heat than normal, then clumping up before the nutrients were depleted.

Melody appeared to be stable enough for the addition of more critters. Thus Mi'Grata created the Roundfish! The Roundfish could grow to be up to three inches in diameter and were about as round as you might think. They move around by absorbing water and then shooting it out to permit them to make either steady movements or quick bursts of movement. They had four billowy fins and big mouths with no teeth. They were naturally transparent at birth although their coloration will change to resemble what they eat, and they will try to eat anything that moves provided that it isn't much bigger than them.

Progenitor was also surprisingly stable despite the giant ball of purple liquid crossing its path. It too was ready for more creatures. Thus Mi'Grata created the Buzzers! The Buzzers were small herbivorous birdlike creatures capable of flight. They were yellow in color with fluffy white wings and a hooked orange beak. Buzzers will gather plant matter wherever they can find it to create nests and feed themselves and their young and creating nests on the cliffs. Buzzers tend to travel in packs, creating a rather loud buzzing sound wherever they went.

Ournaro also appeared to be developing fairly well on its own, but there was room for additions. Mi'Grata then created the Aerwhal! The Aerwhal were extremely large creatures that resembled whales. They were typically blue or purple in color, although radically different colors like orange and pink were not completely unheard of. They had numerous bag-like internal organs filled with air that permitted the massive creatures to float despite its girth. The Aerwhals lazily floated across the sky and consumed a large amount of plant matter, though this would not be an immediate problem as they would take centuries to become fully grown adults. The Aerwhals had a single menacing horn on their heads which they could use to deal some serious damage in the unlikely event that they felt threatened.

Sizzurp was... Actually, Mi'Grata had no idea what that purple chemical Sizzurp was made of actually was. The fact that it could pass through another planet without issues was just plain baffling! Mi'Grata decided to leave that one alone.

Mi'Grata created the Volcano of Fury! (2 acts)
Mi'Grata created Wiremoss! (1 act)
Mi'Grata created Roundfish! (1 act)
Mi'Grata created the Buzzers! (2 acts)
Mi'Grata created the Aerwhal! (4 acts)

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SpoilerYo for all intents and purposes creatures that are both sentient + sapient do have souls so there's that.