Godhood XIV [Syrup Edition]

{SYRUP EDITION}

A universe ends
Exactly as another begins;
Not with a bang, but a whisper.

From the aether it grows ever upwards,
Tall and thick, but fragile even now.
Branches spread, come long and quickly tangled,
Yet it has nothing but the scent of promise.
Just that is enough.

With that meager breath of things to come,
Farmers come to till the fertile fields,
Bring out the sweetness - or perhaps the bitters -
Lurking deep within.

But on the horizon, others lie in wait;
Making plans to lurk when nightfall comes,
To take the work of others, call it theirs,
Leeches who claim to give the blood they'll take.

***

Six - my mistake, seven - have gathered to tend this forest.

It is empty of all but a promise of more to come.

The universe awaits creation.

Acts
Supernerd - Mi'Grata: 5
Bigro - The Matriarch: 5
Chwoka - Tlaca-Ica: 5
Garuru - The Arbitrator: 5
Truegreen - Oiren: 5
Dalmationer - Canary: 5
Schazer - Solbruin: 5

Universal Reference Sheet

SpoilerShow

Cosmic ConstructsShow

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.

Spun Sugar: An interdimensional lattice that makes it nearly impossible for mortals to travel from one plane to another.

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

Matriarch's PlanetShow

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.

Volcano of Fury: This tremendous mountain draws tremendous amounts of energy from the planet - cooling it down for the most part, but leaving the area around it (including the Temple of Parenthood) even hotter than before.

Divine Temple of Parenthood: A massive temple carved into the second-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.

SarteShow

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

Wiremoss: A grey, wool-like plant that cohabitates with the Summerweed. It grows and dies quickly, at which point its decomposition provides the soil - and thus the Summerweed - with more nutrients.

MelodyShow

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.

Platewood: Great trees with trunks of iron, bark of copper and silver, leaves of gold, and fruit of shining bismuth. Tend to form dense forests, their branches knitting together and forming a nearly impenetrable wall.

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.

Roundfish: These creatures propel themselves by sucking in and expelling water. Naturally transparent, their color based on what they eat - which is just about anything they can manage to fit in their mouths.

ProgenitorShow

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; a rare mutation allows some of them to hear and speak, as well. 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. Most of them live underground; these only occasionally surface, but always make a point of doing so during the collision with Sizzurp, so they may speak with the Screws. They can speak with the Snakevines using either sign language or writing.

RBs: Hat-shaped creatures made of delicious pre-cooked meat. Cheerful and prone to bouts of raucous laughter. Horseradish not included.

Buzzers: These pale yellow birds travel in packs and congregate on cliffs, where they build nests. The only sounds they produce are buzzes, and they are infamous for the incessant droning that occurs whenever they migrate.

The Penta Numisma: Five living artifacts, each with their own power: The Invincible Armadillo, the Toucan Tactician, the Skillful Sifaka, the Bull Berserker and the Shifty Wolf. Whoever controls one gains its power, as well as immortality - but if presented with a fair challenge, they must accept. If all five are gathered by one person, a single wish may be granted, subject to interpretation by the gods - at which point they will scatter once more.

OurnaroShow

Various Simple Plant Life: Vast swathes of floating, semi-gaseous plants have accumulated in Ournaro's atmosphere. The various different plants have adapted to the orbital cycle. In the warm season, the most active plants survive entirely on photosynthesis; in the cold season, various bacteria and the few remaining plant species survive primarily by consuming warm-weather plants that die. Thus, summer comes with a greater concentration of oxygen and a lower concentration of carbon dioxide, which returns to its previous balance in winter.

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.

Buzzts: Creatures which roughly appear to have the body of a kite, the wings of a bat, and the proboscis of a butterfly. They're active primarily during the warm season, when they pollinate the plants; susceptible to cold, they hibernate during the winter and are doomed to die if they fall to the ground.

Aerwhal: Large and lazy horned cetaceans who float through the sky, gobbling up plant matter as they go. Long-lived but rare in number, they tend to live solitary lives except during their breeding season when Ournaro crosses orbits.

Narkisst Afterlife: In death, the Narkissts' spirits ascend to the upper atmosphere, where they tend to the plants for eternity.

SizzurpShow

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. They take great joy in Sizzurp's intersection with Progenitor, for when it does, the inhabitants worship them as angels, and the Screws can gain the memory and knowledge of anyone they desire.

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.

Mortals of Note

MelodyShow

Costro Memorius: A Redweed of the Greifous Feeder tribe. Serves Canary. Her blessing and the underlying culture has made it easy for him to gain tremendous prestige, and he now serves as their de facto leader.

Frue Hjerteler: A Redweed, formerly of the Tornbygge, who has formed a new tribe from anyone who would follow her. Serves Tlaca-Ica.

ProgenitorShow

Granite: A mysterious Saxa who controls the Shifty Wolf and the Invincible Armadillo. Allegedly, he has little interest in obtaining the other Penta Numisma, as he'd rather not deal with their bearers.

Princess Twistknot: A Snakevine who holds the Toucan Tactician and the Skillful Sifaka, and has used them to wage a great campaign to unite the Snakevines. Currently attempting to seek down and kill Old Blood Eye.

Old Blood Eye: A Saxa in possession of the Bull Berserker, who rides across the land pillaging whatever settlements he comes across. One of his eyes has been taken away, replaced with a finely-cut ruby.

Sample Costs AgainShow

Planets and junkShow

Planets: 2 for a small one, 3 for a plain ole earth sized one, 4 for a large one, 5 for a GIANT one. Gas giants can be made for 1 act less at each size.
Moons: 2 acts for your basic moon; the material itself and setting it in stable orbit around the planet.
Suns/Stars: 3 is the cost for an average sized sun.
The following costs assume an earth-sized planet:
Molten core: 1 act. Allows for tectonic and volcanic activity
Oceans: 1 act per 1/3 of the planet covered, assuming an earth sized planet. Usual number to invest is 2.
Metals and minerals: 1 act for scarce resources, or a concentrated area of resources. 2 acts for average resources, 3 for abundant resources.
Atmosphere: 1 act for a basic, breathable, gaseous atmosphere.

Life Creation Cost GuidelinesShow

Basic Plant Life, Insects, One Celled Organisms: 1 Act. These can also be distributed over more of the planet for less the cost.
Basic Small Animal Life: 1-2 Acts, depending on distribution.
Basic Animal Life: 1-3 Acts. Non-sapient animal life, or at insect life, or what have you. Basically, stuff that’s between the size of a deer and a water buffalo. Remember that how much you spend will affect the starting population.
Basic Large Animal Life: 2-4 Acts. Elephant to whale sized life.
Basic Massive Animal Life: 3-5 Acts. Think T-Rex.
Basic Supermassive Life: 4 acts and up, depending on what you’re making and whether you want it to reproduce or not. Think, well, bigger than a T-Rex. Titans and such.
Add Sapiency: +1 for basic, +2 for "average", +3 for insane levels of sapience.
Add Intelligence: +1 for basic, +2 for "average", +3 for insane levels of intelligence.
Add “Special Properties”: +1 and up depending on the “Special Property.” You want a rat that farts pepper spray? You have to pay for the privilege, son.
Add Obsession/Instinctual Attraction: +1 Acts. Make that two-headed boar you’re making intensely obsessed to partnering with the three-headed meerkats.
Alter Creature: 1-3 Acts depending on population and creature size.

You may not directly kill off a species once it has been created; then it'd be really easy for people to just insta-counter another deity's plans, and that's no fun! Feel free to shape the ecosystem against their favor, though.

Dealing With Mortals Cost GuidelinesShow

Appearing to Mortals (intangible): 1 Act. You can’t touch or be touched, but you can talk and look all scary. The simplest way to deal with puny mortals, and the cheapest.
Take Physical Form: 1 Act for anything that’s reasonable (become a bird, a humanoid, or something like that.) Take note, you can be killed in this form, but you just go back to being intangible. Unless you put extra acts into it, you have the regular abilities of whatever you took form of.
Ghostwriting: 1 Act. Carving or writing something without a pen, chisel, or hand.
Small Miracles: 1-2 Acts. Blow up a frog. Make a dead tree bloom. Basically, any small show of power that won’t give anything mystic powers or crap like that.
Large Miracles: 2-3 Acts. Part a sea, feed the thousands, stuff like that.
Possession: 1 Act. Force a mortal to your will by hijacking their brain. Most mortals won’t be able to stand this for long, though, so make sure you leap back out as soon as you do whatever.
Vision: 1 act. You can give a small "group" of people the same vision/dream/ideas
Divine Inspiration: 1 act. A single mortal is DIVINELY INSPIRED about a particular idea/technology [for example, if a mortal were inspired with stoneworking they would go on to develop MASTER STONEWORKING TECHNIQUES, or a mortal could be inspired to make a legendary artifact, that sort of thing]
Prophets: 2-3 Acts. A mortal linked to a god, allowing them to ask for clarification on this and that during their life-time. (I will have them asking you questions during turn end, in other words. There can be more than one at a time, but try to keep it within a reasonable limit.)

KEEP IN MIND THAT ANY AND ALL INTERACTIONS WITH MORTALS MUST COST SOMETHING.

EtcShow

New plane of existence: There are two in the beginning; the Material plane and the Divine plane [Where you are.] Creating a new one costs a hefty 6 acts for just something basic overlaying the Material plane. They can be improved upon later or made with more acts for something fancier. Be sure to lay down some rules of existence on the plane when you make it!

Tlaca-Ica makes a duck, a single duck, just to watch it suffocate.

Oiren Crafts a sun and sets a small planet spinning around it. The planet is barren, but it is a start.

Oiren is Exhausted after this exertion.

Spent 5 ACTS

0 Remaining

Tlaca-Ica makes an ice sun for the duck corpse to orbit.

(3 acts spent, gonna sit on my remaining 2.)

The Arbitrator shall create a planet, orbiting around Oiren's sun, a bit further away from it. It will be small, but it will fit in just fine. It is somewhat ruddy-colored, and is unimpressive at the moment. But, what's this? Cracks form here and there around the planet. Lava pours out of the cracks, forming the land into distinct shapes. As lava cools, the earth continues cracking. Systems of valleys are made, and the different lava flows meet together to form interestingly diverse minerals. The planet's rumbling peters out. The land has reached a tentative sort of peace, and the Arbitrator is pleased.

[-2 SMALL PLANET, -1 MOLTEN CORE, -2 MINERAL RESOURCES]

ACTS REMAINING: 0

Mi'Grata gazes upon the barren universe, completely devoid of the flow of nature. And Mi'Grata is displeased! Mi'Grata descends upon the newly created worlds, and has decided to lay a baseline for his own ideal world whether the other gods approved of its intervention or not!

First Mi'Grata inspects the planet made by the martiarch. It was a planet with an extreme temperature which required the light of some strange thing called an ice sun. Mi'Grata created a plant capable of surviving on the planet called a Winterweed, it was a small plant with a pale off-white color which took the form of a sprout with large leaves protruding from it, and it reproduces via budding. During the day it would absorb the cold energy of the ice sun and at night it would unleash it to protect itself from the immense heat of the planet. These plants were extremely hardy and would over time provide a stable enough climate for other life forms to persevere.

Next Mi'Grata looked upon the barren planet planet around the normal star. This world was inhospitable as it was. Mi'Grata decided to do something about that, conjuring forth an great jet of water which carved an Ocean into the planet! Mi'Grata would then create a plant that was able to survive there called the Redweed. This was a mundane plant which grew on the surface of the ocean which reproduced via seeds which would sink into the water until the water pressure shattered its outer shell; at which point it would have grown enough to survive on its own and float back to the surfacre. The red coloring would make it easily noticeable to future denizens of the planet.

Mi'Grata then looked upon the Arbitrators world. This one was also inhospitable; it was regrettable but Mi'Grata lacked the energy to both seed life upon it in addition to adding water. It would have to come back to it later.

Mi'Grata created Winterweed on the Martiarchs unnamed planet! (2 acts)
Mi'Grata formed an Ocean on Oirens unnamed planet! (1 act)
Mi'Grata created Redweed on Oirens unnamed planet! (1 act)

"Oceans? Oceans?! What's next, a freeway?! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Oiren watches the planets spin. Through the veil of the Divine Plane he stares down at creation. He observes silently, his arms resting rather than the flurry of movement that normally accompanies the god's presence.

"It will do. It has potential"

His gaze sweeps over the oceans now teeming with redweed. The pink waters lap against the barren and sandy shores. Unlucky washed up plants disintegrating into dust in the untempered radiation of the star.

"A good start for sure...but perhaps it needs something more"

One of his arms jumps to life, made of a dark chalky substance. Plans and ideas flowed from the dark limb marking the surface of the divine plane with symbols, glyphs, and runes. The plans and secrets of a god recorded, but incomprehensible.

Tlaca-Ica spots Oiren from across the plane. "I can write stuff down too!" they declare in a fit of jealousy and begin scribbling furiously with a piece of chalk stuck into their blowhole. It's also completely incomprehensible, but that's more likely because of bad penmanship this time around. One phrase sticks out as particularly legible though: "PURPLE DRANK??? (!!!)"

Solbruin appears upon the divine plane, preceded by an ominous Solbruin-shaped slice taken out of reality. She fades into existence before it, drawing all her arms together and bowing to the assembled gods in greeting.

"Well met, fellow deities," chimes the dark space where Solbruin's head should be. She speaks not to the assembled, but to the mortal plane on which her attentions are focused.

She has no time to lose. Solbruin seizes Oiren's planet in her many arms and begins to sculpt its surface, creating something wild and contoured and with far more dark spaces, canyons which twist down to the planet's heart. She gives said planet a molten core... molten to the point of vaporous. The new catacombs in Oiren's planet host eddies of mineral-rich vapour, condensing into clouds which rain fuel.

Satisfied, she finally seeds a few of the caverns with a creeping, silvery moss, something to slowly break down the mineral deposits likely to be laid down. The Sliver extrudes the atmospheric metal as a protective shell.

A holometabolous insect is also brought into being, one whose larvae live in and eat the moss. Adult females, flightless, pierce the metal shell and lay their eggs inside the moss proper, before dying. The males are winged, allowing genetic exchange between the scattered colonies Solbruin has seeded the caverns with.

"The moss, Sliver. The insects, Greifous."

Solbruin sculpts the heck out of Oiren's planet (2 acts)
Solbruin gives Oiren's planet a vaporous mineral core (1 act)
Solbruin creates the metalloid moss, Sliver (1 act)
Solbruin creates the insects, Greifous (1 act)

"Well met, indeed. I am xxxxx-xxx. But you may call me the Arbitrator. In fact, you have no choice but to do so. It's a long story."

After inclining his head to each of the gods, he flies around each of the planets in turn, and is content with the proceedings. He grimaces at the faker's antics, but he says nothing, as he knew this would happen anyways. He is especially interested in the creation of life, and ponders dabbling into the continued development of life.

I drift into being, with a sigh in the plane of my peers, forming of the white ephemeral foam that sweeps in little eddies around this new universe. I smile a sanguine smile, eyes shut, but still present. I manifest a cappuccino from the same frothing continuum, and sip.

"Oh, hello... I'm Canary, I suppose.. Probably."

I turn my attention to the universe, such as it is, and momentarily lose myself in its potential. So much will happen here. Oh yes.

I weave the fabric of the world, bending it around a point. A world pops into being, fusing itself together like a backwards firework. A large world with a core of ice and seas of frothing hydrogen, a world hot and acrid, which will be a seat of knowledge in the future.

A gas giant has been created for four (4) points. It shall be called Ournaro. It roils in a great, glorious storm of reds and oranges. It orbits incredibly slowly in a vast figure-of-eight between the two suns.

Next.. Next I see potential. I float to the planet of my peers, to the world built by the one they call Oiren.

I bless the Redweed with long term memory in its most basic form; the ability to recognize currents and cycles of the world, to know where to guide its seeds to live. With this comes thought, albeit slow thoughts. Oh, so slow and gentle.

The Redweed plants now have very basic sapience and long-term memory. Not that they can do much with it. (1)

I giggle as I listen to their slow thoughts. I giggle as I listen to the sounds of the beginning. All beginnings lead to an end, and this one shall be cataclysmic.

Tlaca-Ica joins in in the giggling, and continues long after Canary has stopped.

I watch the giggling form in front of me. It shimmers against the nothingness.

Oh, hello! You look like... What are they called...? A fish! Yes! You're very pretty. Do you like the planet I made? I made a planet, I believe. It will be very pretty too, and will have many thinking minds. Do you remember when I uhhh made the plants think? I think that was me. Yes, these are a start.

I attempt to quantify the universe. I may have forgotten some parts or remembered them wrong, but if I did, they were probably either boring or spoilers.

SpoilerShow

Oiren finishes writing. He looks to his star and planet. They had grown and changed, become unique among matter. They needed names, descriptors.

The sun, it would illuminate it would enlighten. It would be a beacon of truth. One of Oiren's many arms carved a rune into the substance of the divine plane, 'Eruditio'.

Oiren turned his attention to the planet of barren land and prosperous pink oceans. It would need a name as well, but what? Oiren paused for a minute. Slowly, carefully, he carved a complex rune into the divine plane. Oiren sat back to examine his work. 'Melody' The planet would be called 'Melody'.

Tlaca-Ica names the ice sun butts

I whirl up to Oiren, empty sleeves flowing alongside me in a gale of wool. I inspect the chalk runes even as I forget their meaning. It's probably not important.

I turn to him, then turn away, then turn to him again, before finally spinning to a stop, gills waving in the white sea of the divine mists. The fog tastes like raspberry.

You write! Oh, I am glad that I am not the only one who writes. I do write too, you see, for words on canvas are just as ingrained in our memory as those in air, maybe even more so!
Oh, we should make a beautiful realm! A realm of calm whiteness and... What's the stuff called? Candyfloss! I love candyfloss! At its hub, a great wall of clay will stand, and on the clay shall be a history of all things, you see? When a little one dies, we shall ask of it to write down... well, everything! Everything it did! We shall keep a record of everything that ever happened!
Oh how lovely would it be to write down everything that happens here in this place, that when all's done, we can reminisce! We can smile and think back on the times when it wasn't done and recapture these happy days!

I shake my head, trying to remember what point I was making! Oh, how silly I can be. I probably thought it wasn't important and forgot it! But then, it comes back to me with all the good nature of an axolotl to its nest, holding in its cheek-pouches food for the newborns therein. Gone for a while, but for good reason. Probably.

Invention cannot exist without knowledge, my dear. After all, you are that which represents gaining knowledge, after all, and I am keeping it! Will you help me, Mr.... What was your name again? Onion?

"Oiren, I am Oiren. I would help you create this...Realm of Knowledge. Though it must be protected, guarded from those who seek to steal its secrets. For while knowledge is a treasure it can not be released at once. What would be the point of the destination if not for the trials of reaching it? It must be powerfully warded, entry only allowed for the dead and true spirits of knowledge. within must be a maze, twisting and inscrutable. Ever changing ever turning adapting to those who walk it so they may not find knowledge too far in their future nor past, nor will great secrets of the universe be revealed before their time. Finally, all that shall be written within shall take the form of Godly Script. Thus it shall be unreadable to mortal eyes or those who would misuse it.

All within, be they God, Mortal, or Ghost, must speak and record truth within. For without truth knowledge is wasted.

And finally it shall be maintained by special custodians. Among the dead those who searched for knowledge truly and without ulterior motive will be returned as spirits upon the realm and allowed to walk the maze and understand all they wish. So long as they defend the Realm from threats and share no knowledge before its time, they shall be researchers and librarians within a paradise of history.

Are these terms acceptable?

Yes! It shall have big, big mazes and lovely coffee shops, and shall house all the loveliest memories! There shall be library upon library and arching towers! Architecture of pastel and clay!
Oh, but any who defeat the maze and outwit its guardians should have bountiful knowledge! Indeed, anyone who asks should! They shall have such beautiful knowledge! Knowledge of foods bitter and sour, sweet and spicy! Knowledge of their death, and of their birth! Knowledge of loves lost and grandmothers dead, and of children born and friends made! Knowledge of the spinning of worlds as far back as I can remember! Since the first frozen sun shone... Oh, I forget when. They shall ponder it all and reminisce in that vast nostalgia for years! Then I shall serve them... What's it called again? The brown stuff with the sugar in... Tee. Yes, that.
It shall be done, then? I'm so excited!

"No you're thinking of syrup"

" I need rest first, I have not the power to call such a plane into existance, let alone modify it. That sun and planet have taken my energy"

Solbruin overhears the pair's discussion, the sweep of her arms eliciting a rattle from her chainmail robes.

"Forward-thinkers, it would be my pleasure to contribute to your designs, to see the construction of such a plane. We might layer reality itself, diffuse the Planes into something less two sides of the blade, and two extremes of the strata."

"What a joy it would be for a champion among mortals to overcome our designs and knock on our very door! It's rare to find younglings with vision like yours."

Solbruin glances down at the mortal plane, or you tentatively guess she does based on the head-silhouette.

"Of course, we'll need mortals fit to task, first."

I update the atlas with new names.

SpoilerShow

Oh, Sally! That is a most marvellous idea! Arrange the worlds like the pages of a circular books. The first layer shall be the crucible above chaos and misty fire upon which the first impure samples are born, and as one travels upwards through the discs, they move closer to us! Oh, that is interesting... And stable! The ending of that is something which I am excited to see! Not, of course, that I'll cheat. Remembering the future is oh so tempting a prospect, but that would keep it fixed, and it would spoil things terribly.
In the meantime, I must sadly agree with onion, for my power is drained too! Soon, though, we will all rise again into majesty, and our work will be very much more interesting to read about.

Turn End

The Great Cetacean enters first, setting a dead bird spinning around a freezing star. The Masked Mechanist follows suit, though a bit more conventionally, with the simple star Eruditio, and the barren Melody orbiting it.

The Loving Mother brings about an astonishingly hot planet, with only the cold of the sun and its rivers to make it habitable.

The Once-Named One builds yet another planet, simple but rich in minerals, and quaking with the effects of an active core. It breaks and reforms again and again, creating vast canyons and great peaks. Then, there is peace.

The Great Bison, displeased by the barren worlds around him, seeks to grant them life. He carves a great sea into Melody, then fills it with the red sprouts; and in the Determined Coach's domain, he lays down a grass that can survive even the cruel heat of its surface.

The Celestial Shogun, in turn, provides Melody with both a core and an atmosphere in one swift movement, then adds moss-filled caves and the first animal life in the universe.

She Who Remembers To Forget sets a great planet into a shifting path, swinging from one sun to the next, cooling and heating as it does; then she follows Solbruin's lead, granting the Redweed the first stirrings of self-awareness.

The gods - some exhausted, others taking care to save their energy - now gaze upon their handiwork.

***

As wind is formed from differences in temperature and pressure, so it is when the light from Eruditio and the ice sun collide. These gale forces are accompanied by a stunning display of lights not unlike an aurora. When Ournaro crosses from one half of its orbit to the other, its atmosphere and its storms are twisted and churned into unpredictable new paths.

Though the winterweed is able to protect itself to a degree, life is nonetheless harsh. The Matriarch's planet lacks a thick atmosphere, so the days are exceptionally cold and the nights incredibly hot; most of the plant life remains near the coast, where the terrain is most solid and the temperature most consistent.

The redweed's sapience allows it to spread a bit more effectively, and soon it practically covers the ocean and the coast; in particular, it would seem that it has learned to churn the waters, which seems to spread nutrients around better and allow the redweed to grow more easily. But the oddest factor of its existence is that, with neither a large degree of logical thought nor much way to observe its surroundings, its mind develops in strange ways. No mathematics, for numbers mean nothing to it; no language, for it cannot communicate; and yet it manages surprisingly advanced philosophy, and stirrings that cannot be described to a more advanced creature - but that, someday, might become poetry and song.

When the egg-layers have finished their duty, the seeders of the Greifous migrate annually, and quickly settle into paths which cross over the ocean, so they may devour the Redweed if they need to.

The duck continues to orbit the ice sun, its eternal guardian.

The Energy of New Beginnings provides everyone with five acts.

The Energy of New Beginnings fades slightly.

Acts
Supernerd - Mi'Grata: 1 + 7 = 8
Bigro - The Matriarch: 0 + 5 = 5
Chwoka - Tlaca-Ica: 2 + 6 = 8
Garuru - The Arbitrator: 0 + 7 = 7
Truegreen - Oiren: 0 + 6 = 6
Dalmationer - Canary: 0 + 6 = 6
Schazer - Solbruin: 0 + 5 = 5

Universal Reference Sheet

SpoilerShow

Cosmic ConstructsShow

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 Spacewind: Between the two suns, where their radiation "intersects," great gusts of wind 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.

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.

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.

Arbitrator's Planet: Though on the surface it is mostly barren, 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.

”Locational Constructs”Show

Matriarch's PlanetShow

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.

MelodyShow

Redweed: A strange algae with a rudimentary mind; capable of surprisingly complex philosophy, but not a whole lot else. As of yet, they cannot communicate, and thus live in isolation. Its presence in water increases the intensity of waves and tides.

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

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.

Metaphysical ConstructsShow

Energy of New Beginnings: The birth of a universe empowers all divinities with a certain amount of creative potential! The number of acts received from this event decrease each turn, so be sure to establish something under your spheres before it's completely gone.