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Lux Anima
Apr 17, 2016


Dinosaur Gum

PRSM, God of Jewels
AGE: 4 ACT: 2 HP: 2/3

PRSM God of Jewels felt a divine fraction of itself shatter and splinter off into the ethereal void above and beyond the influence of the Box's realm. Perhaps it was just as well. PRSM didn't need that shard of itself to feel whole any more. So long as it still had that godly spark of divine power within it, there was nothing in the extant world that could hinder it from making its invaluable changes across the land for the betterment and enrichment of the world's peoples.

This was, after all, the Box's realm - the Black Diamond's little bubble of existence. PRSM the God of Jewels felt something strange emanating from the Black Diamond at the center of the known world, something too eerie to describe in common mortal words. There was a dark, seething, woeful energy trapped within the Black Diamond, and it was begging to be released.

PRSM saw the thousands of lost souls within the Black Diamond, trapped for the rest of existence with no escape, and it knew pity.

The God of Jewels stretched out its form, reaching out to the Black Diamond with millions of sparkling, iridescent clawed hands, their nails as sharp, as brilliant, as hard and resilient as diamonds. The spectral hands began to dig their scythed claws into the surface of the Diamond, gouging out Black Diamond Dust in great and complicated furrows that ran along the shining ebony facets of the giant jewel. The Black Diamond's runic markings would serve to alter its fundamental purpose in the world, to give the Diamond a reason for existence beyond acting as a trap for the souls of Pact-takers.

"There!" rejoiced the God of Jewels, drawing its powerful fingers across the Black Diamond in arcane etchings. "It's coming forth!"

Once the divine being had feverishly scratched the mystical symbols over the midnight-onyx gem, PRSM the God of Jewels raised its myriad scintillating hands all at once and pointed their glittering fingers at the Black Diamond's center. Great searing beams of light poured forth from their fingertips, and everything suddenly changed.

The Black Jewel at the center of the world began to glow from within, shafts of of darkling eldritch energy shooting out from the sigils the God had carved into the Black Diamond's facets.

PRSM claims the Black Diamond under its domain, allowing souls to reincarnate through the Black Tree: 1d20 16

It was PRSM's now.

The Black Diamond had been claimed by the God of Jewels. The metaphysical Box it formed inside and yet outside the material universe had been altered significantly, its Holy Rules rewritten to create a point of escape for the souls lodged within. The Pact with the peoples had been expanded to include a reincarnation clause for all those who take it, allowing spirits to be reborn into the world again as the fruits, seeds, roots, bark and leaves of the Black Tree, and from there their souls may return back into the people and the animals of the world again.

With any luck, the Tree of Hope may yet be restored, reborn anew as the world's central holy symbol of life everlasting. PRSM God of Jewels saw the great changes it had set in motion across the spiritual planes, and it knew that it was good.

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Natural 20
Sep 17, 2007

Wearer of Compasses. Slayer of Gods. Champion of the Colosseum. Heart of the Void.
Saviour of Hallownest.
Nate Went Ty - Remnant of The Game



-4 BUTT

LEAVE THE TREE ALONE IT'S NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG.

The Wandering Mage
Jul 22, 2010
+1 PRSM

[Sound-of-Thunder] Good sir, the world is in chaos, and it's all much to exciting. Why don't you take a nap in one of those nice pools of energy? I'm sure you'll feel rejuvenated.

Podima
Nov 4, 2009

by Fluffdaddy


ZU, God of Unleashed Change

you utter FOOLS

you CANNOT comprehend the BOX

LET alone SEIZE or SHATTER it

WE will show you the ERROR of your FUTILITY

WA, AID ME

~~~

little EIDOLEM known as CARTON

YOUR comfort with the BOX soothes mE/Us

we would have it be FREED

BRING the CYCLE to a CLOSE

and let this WORLD and its PEOPLE make their CHOICES henceforth

UNFETTERED BY A CLOSED LOOP THAT SHACKLES AND BINDS

WATCH what WE do

LEARN from US

and when THE BOX OPENS

be the GUIDES for those WITHIN

SHAPE their POTENTIAL into a NEW FUTURE

Redirect the Alternating Currents to channel their flow through THE BOX and OPEN IT: 1d10 1

sniper4625
Sep 26, 2009

Loyal to the hEnd
WA, God of Changed Unleashed

Let the currents flow....

Redirect: 1d10 9

Junpei
Oct 4, 2015
Probation
Can't post for 11 years!
+2 to PRSM

[Sound-Of-Thunder], my son, I am sorry. Please, do good. Try and limit your destruction. Save the world I selfishly almost destroyed...

Soaring Kestrel
Nov 7, 2009

For Whiterock.
Fun Shoe
YMHO, Whisper of Spite


sound of thunder eat the box

eat the box eat the box eat the box

+1 BUTT

Dog Kisser
Mar 30, 2005

But People have fears that beasts do not. Questions, too.


XAOS, even wounded, revelled in the confusion it had caused. But that was just the beginning, wasn’t it? Sure, the crops were failing and people were terrified and some of their friends and family were getting dumber by the second because their medicine wasn’t working anymore but that wasn’t enough because because because there was always something new and exciting and different revealed by something breaking like a beautiful geode under a gross messy rock, right!? Part of [farming] was [grafting], [selecting] for traits to make the final product just [perfectly imperfect].

The God stretched out their will and touched the fear and confusion and anger and stoked them, stretching wild lines of power between their emotions and the orderly magics of this place. Sure some People could use Oddity and Telectroportation and whatever but not everyone could use it and who decided where the lines went between one Person and another anyway? A little piece of Chaos flowed down the lines and [scrambled] things up, made them more interesting for everyone.

What a wonderful [farm] it was growing!

(Preying on an already weakened part of the world, XAOS floods the area around the blight with chaotic magic, causing strange disruptions in the normal schools of magic as well as fracturing the power within those considered Masters of their craft. In the blighted areas, all Masters currently present find their powers vastly weakened, siphoned off to those previously powerless. Aberrant magics are on the rise also, with variants like Energy Poltergust or Hope Oddity cropping up and mostly causing trouble. As a consequence, People are fleeing from the Blights and staying as far away as they can!)

BUTT was a simple God, with simple desires. He saw something that no one had farted on, and by the heavens he would fart on it. A great, foul pressure built within him, and he directed it landwards, towards the profane tree in its centre. He let it loose almost carelessly, confident that the torrent of power would be sufficient… and yet he was not alone on this land. Powerful, ancient Whispers tore at him, fouling his aim. Other Gods launched themselves against his target for their own ends. He was buffeted and blown, shredded by his own power, and in the end it was all he could do to thrust the whole thing into a massive downburst of stench that washed over the land in a wave of destruction.

The Tree yet stood, unharmed by it all, even as the land around it fell to shambles. The God squeaked out a tiny fart of annoyance, then shrugged. It was all rigged against him, the best God of all, but he’d be a hypocrite of divine proportions if he didn’t accept a few Disgraceful Endings of his own!

(BUTT loses 1 HP! Due to Whisper interference and other, more powerful Godly Actions targeting the same thing, BUTT’s power failed to fulfil its goal, instead just blasting everything nearby and making an enormous mess and killing off 1 Population each from Cappucins, Trumpets, and Kineticks. Esperegrine remain in hiding, the Eidolem were protected by the Tree, and Divinante were down below.)

---
PRSM stroked the Box and the Tree with crystalline strands of energy, scratching runes of power into its surface. It did not strike out or attack him, nor did it resist. This is what they were all afraid? This silent, dead thing? How strange. He was barely aware of an outside attack on his prize - he deflected it almost without thinking as he examined the Box. The cursed thing had crouched on the world like a gargoyle for Ages, and now it was his, just like that. The modifications he’d made to it would allow the People of this land to reincarnate - properly, this time - ending the stranglehold true death had had on this place for a long time. Even as he watched, the gnarled and blasted tree seemed to glow from within, withered buds blossoming into glossy black crystalline leaves.

Even the Whispers seemed to like the outcome, for once, and a sense of relief spread over the few People lucky enough to witness it. The Eidolem bowed their heads to the God of Jewels as he sparkled and smiled down upon them. It was Good. Order and sense had been imposed on this thing that had so long been a force of chaos and confusion. He nodded once more and drew back to examine his handywork.

(The Tree and the Box have been tamed. The Tree blooms once more, and the miasma of dread surrounding it has been dispelled. The Box sits inert and sealed, but the runes inscribed onto its surface channel and direct the mortal energies of the dead across the land into new life. A tidy little system, though conceivably there is an upper range to its effect - some People on the very outskirts of the landmass might be too far to be captured. Perhaps it could be improved someh-)

---
The Gods WA-ZU watched the glittering fool primp and preen himself and congratulate himself on his victory, but they had a goal too, for once united. They were pretty sure this would work, pretty sure this was a loophole in the Jewel God’s system. Just in case, they spoke to the Hero Carton, giving him a command: to guide those within, to show them a new future. He nodded slowly, looking for once uncertain.

And then the Gods struck, slamming the power of the Direct Currents into the sealed Box. The Box was PRSM’s, and the power invested within the runes his to command, but they didn’t mean to affect the other God’s dominion, nor to claim it for their own. They merely wished to open it, to unleash what had been stored within, for its power to change the world once more! With only the slightest resistance, the Black Box creaked open.

PRSM roared in annoyance and trepidation.
XAOS cackled madly.
WA-ZU averted their gaze from a radiant darkness.
BUTT farted.

The Black Box was open at last, and it was empty.

(WA-ZU loses 1 HP! Also, whaaaaaaaa?)

---
[Sound-Of-Thunder] beheld the strangeness of the world, the changes that had been wrought by time and the efforts of People in his dormancy, and felt a passing puzzlement. The world was bigger, and smaller. Many People had died, but many more had grown up. The Population was unbalanced. He felt something, a little flicker of the glimmer of the shade of an emotion, and opted against redressing the balance. The Whispers demanded he leave the People alone, and he complied almost casually. He hovered over their cities, crackling with barely constrained power, but constrain it he did. Other things changed quickly, unseen forces touching the world like wind. Could these be the Gods there Whispers howled about? The voices demanded their deaths, but he could no more grasp them than he could the wind itself. He had never seen one of these Gods, despite his supposed heritage as their progeny. He ignored the fool voices and wandered onwards.

The Tree was different, somehow. It glittered and shone with his reflected power, and it felt less unpleasant to his senses. The Box was different, too. The crooked diamond thing hung open like a maw, and yet he saw no teeth within. People gathered around it, and he grew small and compact as he moved among them to see the thing. A Whisper demanded he eat the thing. How ridiculous. Anyone could see it was empty - hardly a worthy morsel.

Wait.

Not empty.
Not just empty, at any rate.
Not empty like a box, empty like a cavern.
Empty like the space between worlds.

An Eidolem stepped before him, unseen, causing him to draw back and surround himself with an aura of cascading Energy, but Carton did not withdraw. “Good morning, child of a God! I’ve been waiting for you! Well, not you, in particular, but someone willing to look inside. Really look. See, I’ve been charged to guide and protect those within. And it doesn’t look like anyone is within. But if you went in… then you’d be within!”

[Sound-Of-Thunder] watched the strange, fearless creature with an impassive, alien face, considering his words. The emptiness hauled at him, pulling on him like Coffee down a drain, but he sense no malice in it. Sensed nothing at all, actually, besides vastness. The Abomination hesitated, something approaching fear gnawing at the edges of its awareness for the first time in its existence. He turned away, then turned inwards, towards the voices. What to do?

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

BUTT, God of Disgraceful Endings
HP: 2/3


Grasping, forever grasping, two hands, the divine hands of BUTT.
On a ring of black the hands rest, and on the hands rest a ring of gold.
And beyond the ring of black rests a Space, virginal and immaterial, unsoiled and pure.
This is a heresy, for the thought of BUTT runs in the material, and nowhere shall there be allowed a space where you cannot catch a whiff of something.
Such are the vagaries of BUTT, and so shall they remain.
Evermore.


Fart in the Box: 1d20 2

Arcanuse
Mar 15, 2019


XAOS, God of Chaos

The soil was tilled, the seeds were sewn, the crops would soon be watered, and then.... Oh, XAOS simply couldn't wait! Giddily bobbing it's cloud up and down, emitting this most perturbing laughter to frighten the local wildlife.
Sure people weren't running around, infused with madness [wonder] or much manner of possibly malevolent mutation to infest their bloodlines [glory]...
But, what did happen was it's own [beauty]! It's own [wonder]!
Indeed, the [daughters] would likely be happier this way than if the [crops] went according to plan!

Oh, oh, but the events were reaching their end. XAOS would have to return home soon, leaving this world behind... Or did XAOS?
No, XAOS has a solution, a delightful, wonderful solution.
By accident, XAOS had leaned a bit too far in the way of the villain, instead of pure, unfettered primordial chaos.
And XAOS likes this.
It's new, it's bold, it's something XAOS hasn't seriously done before.
And now, XAOS would roll up it's suddenly existing sleeves, and set to wo-

Oh, XAOS almost forgot. If one of the other gods could pick a hero for what's coming, that would be wonderful.

Anyways, XAOS drew the blueprints, tore a hole to its realm as to grab a hefty chunk of it, and slamed that chunk deep within the earth.
From there, the earth would sprout a wild, shifting castle, nay, a fortress-palace. Armed to the teeth, filled with deadly traps and horrendous monsters... And some mortal it plucked from elsewhere and imbued with XAOS's power for a 'mortal avatar'...

Hm? were mortals supposed to do that? Eugh. Hopefully that would settle in time for the hero to show up.
Wouldn't do if 'Dark Lord XAOS' was just a gibbering dolt, not one bit.

XAOS get's on with building their castle fortress-palace and it's bound 'avatar'.: 1d20 7

Mh. Well. XAOS could pull the plug on it's 'rebuilt every century' feature, or having the realm-heart harvest XAOS's dying essence for energy... No, no. XAOS would try to scrabble some best of their quickly-fading energy to slap together a fake ominous ritual on the top floor. Hopefully the Hero doesn't think about it too much.

Lux Anima
Apr 17, 2016


Dinosaur Gum

PRSM, God of Jewels
AGE: 4 ACT: 3 HP: 2/3

There was a jacking slick and a jam and a crack in a seam as a splinter, a chink, a crackling crinkle of a gleam of the God of Jewels' holiest of essences divided itself into a second divine crystallized whole and divested itself of precisely one half of its precious holy energy into its new form, splitting itself off into infinitely branching fractalized facets of the potent holy continuum known as PRSM.

The half of the God of Jewels PRSM split off and shattered and fractured and spliced and spindled and cut itself into tiny little perfect kernels of diamondized hope. PRSM took these jeweled seedlings and began burying itself just beneath the great Tree's roots, designing these scintillating god-droplets to be instantly drawn into the Tree's roots and absorbed as its holy fertilizer, jump-starting The Tree's production of its seed-bearing Fruit.

These potent, PRSMatic, sparkling seeds that would be found inside the Tree's Fruit - the PeRSiMmon - would have the divine spark of PRSM in each and every one of them, to aid the glowing gemseeds in their lattice-like growth process once planted in the soil.

These holy PeRSiMmon seeds would draw their nutrients from the chaotic energies in the air and the soul energies in the soil, purifying the regions around them while growing big and strong. The trees made from the PeRSiMmon's seeds would acts as splinter-facets of The Great Tree sitting at the center of the land, expanding the broadcast of The Tree's benevolent aura.

So PRSM, God of Jewels appeared to the Eidolem and advised them - as the primary caretakers of The Tree and The Box - to wait for the great Tree to bear its special Fruit, and that these jeweled seeds from The Tree's Fruit must be planted across the lands in order to fight the Blight. High and low, lakeside, cliffside, caveside, seaside, and skyside. Anywhere there was room for another tree in a grove or in a site where the dead have lain or chaos has touched: so the seeds of the Persimmon must be strewn and encouraged to thrive and grow.

PRSM takes the glittering seeds of The Tree's fruit and bids that the Eidolem plant them far and wide, high and low, to combat the Blight of Chaos!: 1d20 6

Furthermore, so long as the other Gods do not wish to interfere with PRSM's decision, PRSM God of Jewels additionally bids that Carton of the Eidolem should send the Artifact Seeker-Finder-Ender after [Sound-Of-Thunder] before they might enter The Box!

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker

IMPY, former Harbinger.

[Sound-of-Thunder]. there are things you should know before making your final decision. Listen closely, and listen well, and I will share the entire history of your world as we saw it unfold...

+3 Sound-of-Thunder

sniper4625
Sep 26, 2009

Loyal to the hEnd
WA

Begin channeling the AC directly into the Kinetick hero.

powerup: 1d10 4

Podima
Nov 4, 2009

by Fluffdaddy


ZU, God of Unleashed Change

self-centered and CONTAINED as usual

a tragic WASTE from WA

THINK of what could BE

or WATCH and SEE what I will SHOW you

Guide a Trumpet Expedition Into The Box: 1d10 6

~~~

whispers that surround us all

guide SOUND OF THUNDER into and THROUGH the BOX to see what lies BEYOND

then at last

something

somehow

shall

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

Bifauxnen
Aug 12, 2010

Curses! Foiled again!




The whisper formerly known as BIFU, Goddess of Love and Friendship

at least one of them is good to the tree...

+4 PRSM

Natural 20
Sep 17, 2007

Wearer of Compasses. Slayer of Gods. Champion of the Colosseum. Heart of the Void.
Saviour of Hallownest.
Nate Went Ty - Remnant of The Game



-4 BUTT

You may call me the God slayer.

Dog Kisser
Mar 30, 2005

But People have fears that beasts do not. Questions, too.


Before it all turned sour and serious, as he knew it would, BUTT leapt into action. He was a simple God, with simple pleasures. Where some would see a doorway to the beyond unknown to the understanding of People or God alike, he simply saw a target. He swooped on past the guardians and the other Gods in attendance (drawing a wry chuckle from Carton even as he headed downwind) and let loose a powerful toot into the void.

And what a toot! Such force was unleashed that BUTT felt himself inverting, his Godly essence drawn along with his power into the emptiness. Just in time, he managed to pinch it off, retaining the barest fraction of himself. Even so, BUTT felt triumphant. A climactic scene in the history of this land, neatly ruined by his divine wind. Clapping insubstantial hands, he fled before things really got nasty.

(BUTT loses 1 HP! His powerful winds enter the Box and… are lost to sight and sense to God, Whisper and People alike...)

---
XAOS’ blight extended outwards even as it watched, and it felt a great and gloating [delight]. It also felt the tenuous ties that bound it together - and those fragments to this place - growing thin and rickety. If it must leave this place, it would leave a mark. It would leave a [farmer] to tend this place, to ensure that the [crops] kept themselves going. It broke the land in a blighted place, in what may once have been a Carlbucks but which was now [something better]. It pushed and pulled and pinched the land into a shape, then lifted and dropped the result haphazardly, allowing the forces inherent to this place restructure it as they willed. He drew the blight into a great swirling cloud for ambiance. Chaos did not preclude a bit of [theatre]!

This fortress-palace, this blessed unholy monument, it filled with cobbled together creatures, the dead and changed and misshapen and beautiful things that thrived in the blight. Deep within the palace, something grew in power. A fragment of the God, or some hapless Person, or an ancient evil - or nothing at all. And yet until it was discovered and faced and thwarted, the blight would not relax its hold on this land. XAOS’ drew back, dripping deliquescent ash over its domain until at last there was nothing left of it.

(XAOS loses 1 HP and perishes! Chateau Xaos rises from the land, eery and ominous and dripping with blight. The Chateau draws blighted creatures and People from across the land to itself, making the surrounding area dangerous and terribly wild. Within its confines, somewhere, a Dark Lord of Xaos broods and plots - or so it is said. Perhaps the castle is abandoned, waiting for someone to claim it? Until then, it is a dangerous place, and best avoided!)

---
PRSM drew another jewel-seed from his tree (yes, his, now) and gracefully passed it to an attendant Eidolem. He had blessed it with a fraction of his power, and thanks to the timely infusion from the Whispers beyond this place it did not diminish him in the slightest. He spoke to the awed Person and directed him east, towards blighted Caraffe, as he had many others.

The saplings would push back this inconvenient magic, returning things to some level of normalcy. Oh, there was a sort of interesting element to the wild magic that infested these places, possibilities beyond what this land had ever dreamed… but this place was troubled enough as it was. An Abomination stalking the land, deaf to the Gods; a vengeful ghost stalking the underground, picking off any so foolish as to stray into its territory; whatever… BUTT was doing… no, this blight had to go. Things had to be made tidier. Precise. Facets of a gem, each line straight, point to point. How else would these helpless People survive?

He drew Carton to himself, and the Hero came with typical nonchalance, unimpressed even now by the Gods. “Yes, my God PRSM, you have called and I have come. I tarried rather longer than you probably wished, but the odour…” PRSM ignored the insolence once more, then pressed on. The Artifact Seeker-Finder-Ender, Remnant of MEOW, the most powerful device ever passed down from the Gods That Were. Carton was to use it when the time was right, should the Abomination dare to attempt an entrance into the Box. The monster would be denied! Uncharacteristically sober, Carton bowed in acknowledgement.

(Saplings from the Black Tree are successful in holding back the blight, and a system for delivering and planting them is quickly put underway. Areas around the saplings are cured of the wild magic that plagues other locales, and wood from the saplings themselves are particularly effective against the maddened creatures often found in the blight.)

---
WA of WA-ZU split from his counterpart to find Joltine, the Kinetick Hero twice-blessed with the favour of the Gods. She was difficult to find, her Telectroportation keeping her moving. She was found among the skylands of the Esperegrine, busily working on… something. Some structure or machine, grace of the ancient notes that the Gods of Unleashed Change had granted her. So deep was she in contemplation that she barely recognized the God’s presence, and so WA gave her a small blessing of insight. Her eyes snapped wide, and she understood a secret truth. She busily scribbled her notes down before it passed from her. WA sensed a grim satisfaction, and sensed something dark settle within her. She’d made a decision. The God left, drawn away by his other half.

(Joltine learned something more of the Direct Currents, inferring a method by which she might channel their power directly…)

---
ZU of WA-ZU yanked themselves together with irritation, returning his focus to the task at hand. Canasta of the Trumpets hearkened to the God’s word, pleased beyond all reason that her prayers were finally answered. Despite her successes against the Kineticks, the God BUTT’s actions had driven the few survivors underground (literally) and entrenched them in safety. Her authority among her People had faded ever since, and this Hope from on high was greatly appreciated.

ZU bade her to be calm, then gave her a task: she would lead her People into the Box. Into the Box and into mystery! Canasta shrank into herself slightly, frightened despite her faith, but ZU would not allow it. They would not be alone. The Abomination [Sound-Of-Thunder] would forge ahead, baited by the Whispers on high, and protect them! This was not true in all senses, or even a few of them, but it cheered the Trumpet immensely. She gave him effusive thanks but ZU was already querying his shared memory of what exactly WA had done in the meantime. They had a strange feeling about this, and the dissonance cracked their shared existence slightly.

(WA-ZU loses 1 HP! Canasta and some of the Trumpets will enter the Box!)

---
On the fateful day, platforms were prepared to allow the grand procession entry to the gateway. PRSM magnanimously opened the way for them, directing his Eidolem to aid them where they could. Acting braver than she felt, Canasta lead the way.

The land stood tense with excitement. This Box, this Diamond that had been with them since time immemorial was a mystery beyond mysteries. None had thought to ever learn even a speck of its truths - and now here they were about to enter it. The delight of discovery was so pure that nothing could shatter it.

---
The Abomination [Sound-Of-Thunder] saw the People milling about the Tree. The voices from beyond pushed it towards the gate, always down and into the Box. It was its own creature with its own volition that could be bent by none, but its own curiosity burned within. It bent towards the gateway and was surprised to be halted by a familiar figure, the Person that had addressed it earlier. “Child of a God, this day is an unhappy one, for you. I am bound to honour my agreement with another, and so I stand before you with a tool of great power. Power greater than yours, I think. This is not as I would have wished it, but it is how it will be. Farewell.”

[Sound-Of-Thunder] stretched out a finger of power and crushed the creature. Strange, to think that one so insignificant would stand before it. But introspection would have to wait, for the Box becko-

“...Seeker-Finder-Ender, you are summoned. Your foe is before you. Fulfill your purpose.”

Immediately a flash of white light and a crystalline sound split the air, and the Artifact was upon him!

Energy leached from the Abomination like rain, draining into the land around them and setting the Direct Currents ablaze with resonant power. And though the Abomination sought to destroy its aggressor, sought to rend it into fragments with its great strength, the Artifact was the Remnant of a God in the moment of its greatest strength, its puissance tempered by an Age of dominance. The Remant broke him, rendered his manifestation brittle as glass, then brittle as air. A flash of light, and then…

A crystalline figure fell into the midst of the onlookers. The Artifact, dormant until needed once more.

([Sound-Of-Thunder is destroyed and captured by the Artifact. The Artifact itself is dormant, to be used by the Hero of another Age. But this day is not done…)

---
Terrified beyond belief, but unharmed, Canasta and her flock stampeded towards the Box. Cud wouldn’t have hesitated, and so neither was she. She was Loyal, and she would be Victorious!

---
Flickering between her vantage at the Black Tree and her station in the skylands, Joltine made her final adjustments. The Currents were primed. Her machine was primed. All that remained was her part in this. She sighted her target, then opened herself to the naked Energy of the Currents.


---
Canasta saw into the Box! It was enormous! The void was beyond anything she could understand, and she felt terror growing in her breast. But this terror was mixed with excitement! She would find the place beyond! She would lead her People to their destiny! She would be the first to think outside the Box! She would -

Light, sound, screams, pain. Canasta soared, burning, through the air. The Box. She was flying into the Box! What had happened? Dear God, what had-

She passed into the Box, and vanished.

(Joltine learns the Energy Magic of Destruction, Bercircuitry, and powers it using the Direct Currents. Trumpet Population falls by 3! Canasta is Lost to the Box! Joltine is Scarred! The surviving Trumpets are Traumatized. The Black Tree is burned!

The Box remains.)

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

BUTT, God of Disgraceful Endings
HP: 1/3

BUTT farts

he plays bass

but most importantly

he disappears up own rear end


Ouroboros: 1d20 6

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker

IMPY, former Harbinger.

I can think of no more suitable terminus for that one.

+3 Butt

Lux Anima
Apr 17, 2016


Dinosaur Gum

PRSM, God of Jewels
AGE: 4 ACT: 4 HP: 2/3

A shimmering pulse of joyous, thrumming ecstasy broadcast itself far across the land as the sparklingly iridescent fractalized crystal form of PRSM, God of Jewels, suddenly faded into view, glimmering in the clear skies high above the Black Tree. As the God-being formed itself from the divine aether, it compartmentalized and subdivided itself into glittering branches of scintillating deific energy that spread themselves far and wide throughout the land's reaches, through subterranean caverns and skylands alike. Just as suddenly as it had appeared in the skies, however, the crystalline God's main central body receded and disappeared, its multifaceted mass flowing freely outward down three main branches as it apparated at three different points in spacetime - all at once.

PRSM God of Jewels amassed one of its shifting, dazzling nodes and appeared before the Kinetick Hero Joltine. The God addressed its first Chosen Hero as well as any other Kineticks or Esperergrine that may be assembled in that region of the Skylands.

"Joltine the Scarred! You have committed a grave sin in scarring the Black Tree! But - just as scars can heal over - so too can sins be forgiven. The Gods themselves are reaching an end to their potential existence, for better or for worse. Our kind will no longer interfere with the lives of the People - directly, at least. You're the gods of your own destinies now. You make the rules and you suffer the consequences, as it should be. Learn from your past mistakes, take care of one another, and may this be the last time you ever find the need to use Bercircuitry against a living thing. Farewell. May Hope guide and protect you."

With that, the shimmering God withdrew its fractal form and faded into trails of sparkling dust.

PRSM God of Jewels converged on a site belonging to the Trumpets, in the place where they held the treasure of ABZU, the Edge-of-Desire. As the God retrieved the Idol from its secure enclosure, it spoke matter-of-factly to the Trumpets nearby.

"Uplifted Trumpets, you have committed genocide in your revolution against the Kineticks and now in turn you have had an atrocity performed upon your own. Do not risk another. You must seek to achieve peace through non-violence from here on out. Until that time, you are truly unworthy to wield this weapon that has been passed down to you by the Gods. Farewell. May the Cards ever be in your favor."

As soon as the godly remnant of ABZU was wholly absorbed into the crystalline God PRSM's form, the shifting God's shining shapes receded from view and the sword was gone.

Taken from the Trumpets:


PRSM God of Jewels had its branching form coalesce and gather at a particular Carlbucks where the Miracle of CARL, Ceaseless-Voice-Thing, was housed. As the God slowly subsumed the godly remnant into itself, it spoke to the Cappucin and any other Peoples present at the famous Carlbucks.

"Cappucin and Carlbucks patrons, you are living in the end times of the Gods! It is of ultimate importance that you all aid your fellow people, no matter their origins. Do not support tyrants or warlords, and continue trying to make the world a better place. I believe in you! Farewell. May you all learn to peacefully spread the ways of Elixiration and Mo'Joe!"

Once the ex-deity CARL's actively-narrating power fragment was wholly integrated into the fractalized form of PRSM, the God of Jewels whisked itself away along its flowing crystalline branches with a shimmering flourish.

Taken from the Cappucin:


PRSM God of Jewels drew deep within itself and focused its last remaining divine energies on imposing its creative will over the two godly remnants to fuse them together into an Artifact that empowered the wielder to Heroism.

PRSM combines the Idol Edge-of-Desire and the Miracle Ceaseless-Voice-Thing to create an Artifact weapon, Edge of Ceaseless Desires, which seeks to create balance, justice, and order in the world!: 1d20 17

With its work on the material plane all but nearly concluded, the godform once known as PRSM God of Jewels, nary much larger than a hefty columnar Hope diamond spinning in the air, appeared to the Ace of Diamonds: Clarent.

The glimmering, fading God spoke to the Divinante, and as it did so it gave the shining, jewel-studded sword of myriad truths, Ceaseless-Desire-Edge to Clarent the Ace of Diamonds, raising them to a God-Chosen Hero.

"Clarent," the God spoke, "You have been Chosen by the dying God PRSM, God of Jewels, to bring balance and order to the lands above and below. You have a grand destiny that you must fulfill, Clarent, for in the Godless Ages to come you shall be one of the last People to have been Chosen by the Gods to lead. With this Artifact sword at your side, the path ahead of you will remain clear. Your first task: to obtain the Idol Shriek-And-Find in order to defeat the Haunted Ataraxia that preys upon your people. Your second task, once the first is done: to meet with Carton under the Black Tree to make yourself useful to the world at large. Your decisions from there on out will change the world to come, and the Edge of Ceaseless Desires plus the Remnant that I, PRSM, will leave behind will guide you in times of need. Farewell, Clarent, may justice, strength, and wisdom guide your blade whenever you prevail!"

At long last, the Ages of the Gods having finally come to an end, the God-entity known as PRSM merged itself with the Artifact-sword it had created, winking wholly out of existence aside from whatever pieces of itself it had left behind.

"May Hope guide them all," it had prayed, as its last coherent thought as a God.

Lux Anima fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Aug 6, 2019

curiousCat
Sep 23, 2012

Does this look like the face of mercy, kupo?

LIKE


+3 PRSM

Podima
Nov 4, 2009

by Fluffdaddy

ZU, God of Unleashed Change

we have ENGAGED in a spirited DISCUSSION

WAR is a futile DISPOSAL of value

the TRUMPETS and the KINETICKS are no longer LINKED

BUT neither can they COEXIST in this world

the KINETICKS' claim is STRONG as their CURRENTS

TRUMPETS have little CARE for where they were EXPLOITED

WA and ZU, UNITED in PURPOSE at LAST

SOOTHE the TRUMPETS' dire FEARS

GUIDE them in PURSUIT of the lost CANASTA

LEAVE the KINETICKS to their DEVICES

DEPART this WORLD now and FOREVER

Embolden the Trumpets to ALL follow Canasta into the BOX: 1d10 6

sniper4625
Sep 26, 2009

Loyal to the hEnd
WA, God of Change Unleashed

LET THERE BE PEACE BEYOND THE VEIL

Into the Box: 1d10 7

Bifauxnen
Aug 12, 2010

Curses! Foiled again!




The whisper formerly known as BIFU, Goddess of Love and Friendship

BUTT seems to have its ending sorted either way... PRSM is doing about as well as possible...

Podima posted:

DEPART this WORLD now and FOREVER

Ah, a mad rush to the centre again, and a new world!

+4 ZU

Natural 20
Sep 17, 2007

Wearer of Compasses. Slayer of Gods. Champion of the Colosseum. Heart of the Void.
Saviour of Hallownest.
Nate Went Ty - Remnant of The Game



+4 PRISM

The final act of the game is giving superpowers to a Divinante?

We remember our children, we will support them to the end.

Magnusth
Sep 25, 2014

Hello, Creature! Do You Despise Goat Hating Fascists? So Do We! Join Us at Paradise Lost!


+1 BUTT

Dinictus
Nov 26, 2005

May our CoX spray white sticky fluid at our enemies forever!
HAIL ARACHNOS!
Soiled Meat


The Whisper, FLIT

Freedom. Freedom of violence. Freedom of persecution. Freedom of war.

FLIT approves of WA and ZU. +1

Dog Kisser
Mar 30, 2005

But People have fears that beasts do not. Questions, too.


The world lurched along, ticking away time. The People were changing, discovering mysteries beyond even the Gods. Already some of them had passed from divine sight. This didn’t trouble BUTT even a tiny fraction of a morsel of a bit. He’d come here with a purpose: to fill the haughty void of this place with his own particular odour of irreverence. And now it was time for a GRAND FINALE.

The God of Disgraceful Endings would end himself - disgracefully. He manifested fully in the sky above the land, the twin orbs of his form momentarily eclipsing the sparking circles of the Direct Currents. Beleagured or betrayed or exhilerated or frightened, the People turned as one to observe the… display. Slowly, he inflated, puffing himself up to an obscene size… and then he let loose with a powerful blast, flipping the Switchgrass fields and toppling People for miles. The foul wind continued to buffet the terrain for nearly half an hour, then curled upwards, sending debris to rain down for many minutes more. Those few who hadn’t taken cover saw something strange. The bulbous orbs, nearly deflated, now seemed to stretch and curl in upon themselves. The winds kept curving upwards, cycling in towards the… eye of the storm.

And with a final, squeaking *TRAF*, BUTT turned himself inside out.

(BUTT loses 1 HP and Perishes! Frankly, this just causes a big mess and confuses People. On the other hand, the fertile material left behind by the… winds and the mass transportation of seeds and small animals are sure to cause countless new populations of organisms to spring up in unexpected places. Additionally… now that it’s all over with… it was pretty funny? Rude, and disruptive, but far less harmful than most Gods. BUTT’s name is already invoked as a mild, risqué curse, one which is already getting a lot of use as People across the land discover that the winds have carried their unsecured possessions Gods only know where.)

---
PRSM made his announcements. Joltine, high above and full of equal parts bloodlust and shame, barely heard him. She could not stop now. Could not stop until the Trumpets were expunged. But she halted, for the moment, long enough to allow the survivors to flee. She needed some fresh air.

The Trumpets heeded his words and fled. The other Peoples of the land, where they heard his voice, fretted amongst themselves about what ‘the end times of the Gods’ could possibly mean - (but, having just watched another God invert himself into nothingness, could hardly take seriously. They scarcely noticed the God’s removal of the Remnants. They all had their own thoughts to attend to, and the leavings of the old Gods seemed somehow less important in this modern age.

Finally, fading, PRSM made his way to Clarent of the Divinante. He folded and refracted the two Remnants into a single, glittering whole. He charged the man with a holy quest, beginning the first step on a path to glory… but the future was hard to see, now. The God of Jewels had polished his final stone to shining brilliance, and now he would cast it into the future. The time of the Gods had passed, and Clarent would lead the People into whatever future they chose for themselves.

(Clarent the Ace of Diamonds has become a Hero of Jewels. He has been charged to seek out and slay the Haunted Ataraxia, to rid the world of one of the Gods’ lasting mistakes in the long Godless Age that was to follow. He is Strong and Just, and will try his best to do just that. Will he be enough to slay that ancient horror? Perhaps.)

---
WA-ZU watched the Trumpets cower below the might of Bercircuitry, flee as their number was thinned by bolts from the heavens. Together in thought at last, the twin God went to their People and gave them a simple command: flee. Leave this place, pass through the gateway into the beyond. Within the Box lay the unknown, but surely this would be better than facing the wrath of their former lords reascendant!

All across the land and far below, the Trumpets heard the words of the God of Unleashed Change. They gathered their things, but eschewed anything that might slow them in their flight. They left behind a dormant altar that had altered their path so much, and could not hear the screams of frustration that must surely have echoed from the Ocean in doing so. They made their way to the surface in small groups. The Energy of Destruction was powerful, but it could not strike them all down at once.

The Eidolem neither helped them nor harmed them, for their charge was to guard the Tree and the Box and beyond that to take no part in this ancient conflict. They were a young race (in a manner of speaking) and did not consider it their place to mediate the affair. They were, however, saddened that it should come to this, that no peace could be found. But once the Trumpets completed their exodus, that would end things, once and for all.

Over the course of weeks, the second People of Cards made their way to the great portal of the Box and passed through it. Passed through, and were never heard from again. Not even the Gods could perceive where they went, but WA-ZU was satisfied that they’d gone at all. As the last of them past through, it was as though a great calm fell over the land. The Kineticks, wherever they remained, emerged from their hiding places, and once more the sky was filled with the light of their communications. There was joy and sadness in this, a melancholy air that spoke of victory and loss at once. The People of Energy would be safe, now, and they gave thanks to WA-ZU for that much.

(The Trumpets are gone. Not one of them remains on the land, and the Divinante collectively breath a sigh of relief, as though their mere existence had been a pressure on their chest. Though the two People of Cards never came to blows - how could they, when they both had other foes for so long? - there was no love lost between them. The absence of an entire People leaves the world feeling slightly… empty. The Trumpets had grown to be populous and powerful in their own right, and now there were cities that were just empty husks, full of riches that had been left behind. The Kineticks flooded into these, but the disparity in size (...and population) was such that they could never hope to fill them. Great conflicts arose over the rights to these ruins - but that’s another story.)

---
And then, just like that, the last God vanished. The Esperegrine alone knew the signs, understood the deep lore. This Godless Age would be the longest yet. The land had grown resistant to the Gods, had grown strong and wild on its own. The opening of the Box, somehow, had been the catalyst to the end. As soon as the very first Person had entered it, become immune to the influence of the Gods, their divine fate had been sealed. The Gods would not return.

Good riddance. It was time for the People to live their own lives.

---
(So, pardon the incredible delay in actually finishing this. Some hellish combination of work, baby, the beginning (and almost immediate implosion) of another game, and general malaise slowed me down. Stories must have an ending, however, and for those who remain I refuse to leave you in the lurch!

So, some final things. First of all, the Gods can submit Words of Power relating to their Remnants as usual, though being the last Age we won’t actually get to use them. May as well make them, though! Second, we ended on a bit of a downer. Not a huge surprise, given the last Age (and a general theme running through this whole thing, really!) but the land continues on. Despite the distancing of the Gods, the People of the land survive. Thrive, even. Despite their annoyance with the Gods, you have given them all the tools they need to stand on their own and grow. For the final section, I’ll do a single epilogue post (no several-week long CYOA this time) following a Person of your choice. They can be an existing Hero, or they can be a random citizen going about their life. We just need:
  • Name, Species, Traits
That’s all, this time. Feel free to suggest a general narrative for them, but it’s going to be relatively casual. See you soon, for the last time.)

Dog Kisser fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Sep 10, 2019

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

BUTT, God of Disgraceful Endings
HP: 0/3

Remnant: Trinket
Words of Power: Ephemeral, Fleeting, Smelly
Name: Whiff-Of-Something

Description: On occasions, usually the ones where you really don't want it to, the solemn and important sort, a strange putrid odor arrives to harry the People present for an awkward moment. It lingers, then leaves for somewhere else. And as always, the holy words resound: He who smelt it, dealt it.

Podima
Nov 4, 2009

by Fluffdaddy
Let's do Carton! Good neutral viewpoint character to see what the future looks like.

Arcanuse
Mar 15, 2019

XAOS, God of Chaos
HP:0/3

Remnant: Trinket
Words of Power: Heart, Soul, Fragment
Name: Heart-of-Pandora

Description: Pandora was always impatient in life. "Too soon, too soon!" Xaos cried forth. But Pandora did not listen. Broken, Diminished, split between worlds a voice mourns Pandora; and offers everything, everything and anything, to the one who makes her whole. Of course, whether enough remains of the voice to do more than whisper promises is unlikely. But there are worse fates than having an appreciative whisper.
-----

A person, eh?
Name: Dark Lord Xosa(?)
Species: ???/Chaos-Warped
Traits: Unstable, Wildmage, Cultist

Bifauxnen
Aug 12, 2010

Curses! Foiled again!


Don't have any named character in mind, I just kinda wanna look at a random average Esperegrine, to see their top-down view of the new Age. Good ol Esperegrines, chill to the end. :3:

Natural 20
Sep 17, 2007

Wearer of Compasses. Slayer of Gods. Champion of the Colosseum. Heart of the Void.
Saviour of Hallownest.
As always I wish to look at one of my children

Name Natalie
Species Divinante
Traits Beginner Fourtune - The ability to perceive the future, but only if the unit of time is the number four (4 seconds, 4 minutes, 4 hours, 4 days etc..), Loyalty, Deception[/b]

I'll argue for this so that our great mod has the ability to tell us a little more or less of the story based on Natalie's perception of the future.

Junpei
Oct 4, 2015
Probation
Can't post for 11 years!
I'd like a bit of focus on Kibou, Sound-Of-Thunder's mother.

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker
One fate I wish to know.

Name Kibou.
Species Espergrine
Traits Mother-of-Abomination, God-Jilted, Survivor

Lux Anima
Apr 17, 2016


Dinosaur Gum

PRSM, God of Jewels
AGE: 4 ACT: [Remnant] HP: 2/3

Remnant: Miracle
Words of Power: Reflection, Wisdom, Protection
Name: Aegis-Of-Mirrors

Description: The Aegis-Of-Mirrors is the legendary pair to the PRSM-forged sword Ceaseless-Desire-Edge. This miraculously-powerful reflective shield can only be wielded by someone who is pure of intentions and self-aware enough to know how their own weaknesses can be exploited adversaries. Legend has it that the wielder of this shield must fight and succeed against a shadow version of themselves.

- - - - - - -

Vote: Carton, guiding Clarent to be a good Hero.

Soaring Kestrel
Nov 7, 2009

For Whiterock.
Fun Shoe
+1 for Kibou

Dog Kisser
Mar 30, 2005

But People have fears that beasts do not. Questions, too.

Until he came to me from the void
I was no one, nothing special
A scholar, a student of the divine
I would stare at the Currents
And contemplate Them

The Gods, those from beyond
They had made us from whole cloth
But where did they come from?
This thought and others plagued me
Until he came to me from the void

He was luminous and beautiful
A Person of such august beauty
That before he spoke I knew Him
“Elpida”, he called Himself
When he came to me from the void

We courted, and I was flattered
To bear the attention of a God
Is nothing less than intoxicating
Better, he spoke to me of things
He saw when he came from the void

We are so small, so finite
Compared to Them, out there
They intersect with us for a time
And then they vanish from us
And return to the void

But they do not end
They persist, and they observe
Cut off from this place
But influential just the same
From their thrones in the void

We were in love, and we loved
(Passionately, deeply, fervently)
And it was no great surprise
When I learned of the miracle
A child of land and void

But then He turned from me
Telling of the destiny of our child
Telling of the things he would do
The things he would be for us
And withdrawing into the void

I hated Him, then, hated them all
And yet I cared for this life
This creature of two worlds
“Esperanza”, he was to be called
This life in the void inside

He was birthed in a storm
Birthed into a storm
Our Esperanza twisted and torn
By the taboo that was broken
The void turned widdershins

And then I was nothing
No one special
The mother of a disaster
The bearer of a monster
And the void claimed me

I persisted, watching him live
Watching the thing explore our land
Influence it utterly with casual might
So much like his father
My poor son from the void

And then he, too, left
(After annihilating the Tree of Hope)
(After unmooring the Black Tree)
Sinking into nothing
Like his sire from the void

He will return, I know it
But I will not bear witness
I am old, and I am bitter
But I have let fly my hatred
Of the Them in the Void

I cannot erase what has shaped me
I would not erase what has broken me
I have lived a life unlike any other
And I go easy, now
Into the Void

Perhaps I will find Him again?

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Dog Kisser
Mar 30, 2005

But People have fears that beasts do not. Questions, too.

It was a long time after the Gods left when Clarent found me. The poor Hero had been charged with killing the haunted Ataraxia which lay beneath the light places of the land and to Save The World by PRSM of the Jewels. Well, true to his word, he had gone below and, after a titanic battle, slain the thing permanently with the Edge of Ceaseless Desires.

The cursed old thing had finally dissipated into primordial ash, and, though the Cataraxia wept for its loss, they’d blessed him too, invigorating his holy form with the rare Magic of Karmaturgy. He’d been feasted and praised for days. And now? Now he was empty. He lay down next to him his blade and his shield, the latter - he confided in me - he’d found half submerged in a puddle of Coffee after its location had been revealed to him by a blessed dream.

He’d come to my cottage at the foot of the Black Tree because there were precious few of us left around any more. Not that there’d been many of us to begin with, but the last Heroes had either died or withdrawn. I didn’t keep much track of them - but then I’ve always been a little withdrawn - but it seemed to weigh heavily on him. Clarent, the Shining Light, Scion of PRSM, had been charged by his God with a holy task, and now it was done. “Carton, you know what it’s like. They speak to you, and you’re just filled with this… Energy, like a dozen shots at once. They fill you, and you can do anything. And now they’re gone. What do I… what now?”

My mouth twisted with something snide, but he was just so earnest. He probably was the best of us, and I didn’t feel like kicking him when he was down. I just really wasn’t the best Person to talk to about this. Joltine was long withdrawn from all of us, hidden up with the Esperegrine and watching out for her People, but she probably understood better how he felt. That sense of purpose and driving divine guidance. It had never been like that for me. The rest of the Eidolem had looked up to me, taken words of support and advice from me, but I’d never been any sort of formal authority because I didn’t accept any kind of formal authority. After all the accidents and messes the Gods and People of this land had wrought over the Ages, the idea of anyone actually having any sort of divine wisdom just seemed… silly? The Gods may not have been evil, but neither were they any smarter than the rest of us.

But Clarent was here, now, and looking for answers. He’d been trained to expect them, so I put on a haughty, mysterious face, and told him to hold out his hand. A wind stirred, surrounding us with a shower of blossoms from the Black Tree, and the Hero’s eyes widened. Trembling, but with his face serious as the edge of a knife, he laid his hand palm up. I withdrew something I’d hidden, and reverently placed it in his palm and told him to look closely. He drew it close to his face.

There was a small sound, and his face contorted from the stench. He flung himself backwards, enraged, then landed in a battle stance. “You dare!? I come to you for aid and you-!” To my credit, I kept my face almost perfectly smooth. “Clarent, look at it! Look upon the Remnant of a God! They chose to leave that behind!” Oh Gods, leave that behind behind. Don’t laugh, don’t laugh. “The Gods were People, Clarent. Some of them were fools and some, like your patron, were better than others. But that doesn’t mean that their commands have to define your life! Good Gods, man, you’re going to outlive the Gods many times over. Your own lifespan might span the entire cumulative period that Gods were even incarnate here! You can’t spend your life pining for them.”

He looked unconvinced, maybe even anguished. drat, I wasn’t trying to crush the man. “Come with me.” I walked away, and, after a moment, he followed.

---
We walked for a while - while I dabbled with Telectroportation Joltine was famously prickly about other Peoples using it too heavily - and eventually found ourselves at one of my favourite spots: the Carlbucks near the Western Coffee Lake. It was chaotic and maybe even a little grungy, but it had heart, and history. It had a lovely view of the sky, the Black Tree, and even creaky old Chateau Xaos. I gestured at it. “A God left that here. A castle of capital E evil, filled with mishapen beasts and foul, twisted Magics. Do you know why?” “It was in their nature.” “Yes, but it was also their legacy. The Gods are powerful, ephemeral things. They touched our lands, left bits of themselves smeared across our rocks and memories, so that they wouldn’t be forgotten. We look at that, or at the Currents, or at… hell, any of this, and we see them. But not forever. At what point does it stop being them and start being us? They gave us the pieces, they died, or left, or whatever, and now we get to build with them. How long do we keep thanking them? How long do we continue in their memory? I’m not speaking out of hate, but out of practicality - how do we, any of us, live in a world without our Gods?”

Clarent was quiet, but he didn’t look existentially crushed or anything. He looked thoughful, which is why I liked this place. After a long few sips, he ventured. “So. We have the pieces. How do we know the right way to put them together?” I laughed wryly and shrugged. “I don’t think there’s a right way to do anything. Anything you do is going to hurt someone, and we - the Heroes - are going to be expected to do them anyway. They trust us. They look up to us. They look at us and they see something like divine authority, at least implicitly. But…” Clarent nodded suddenly and picked up the thread. “But what happens when we die too? We’ll outlive this generation, and the next, and maybe another, but we can’t be depended on. Not forever.” “So unless we want that future generation to feel like we do right now-” “-We need to start figuring stuff out now. Not a plan for their future, but a framework so they can figure it out on their own!”

My jaw dropped. That was exactly it! Only I couldn’t have articulated it myself before he said it. He was incandescent now, lit from within with a new sense of purpose. It was good to see, and I wanted to keep it stoked. “Hey, Clarent. Know why I like this place?” “Good Coffee?” “Sure, that and the Remnant they use as an art piece on the patio.”

He nodded sagely at it, sipped his Coffee, then nodded at Chateau Xaos. “So I just got a brilliant idea. Why don’t you and I go knock over that evil castle, steal the artifact at its heart and vanquish evil?” I grinned and opened my sack, revealing a sickly pulsing lump of crystal.

“I did it last week. It won’t last - some new evil always takes its place. I was thinking of returning this, actually. Leave something for the next generation to do, right?” Clarent nodded again, thoughtful. “Yeah, you probably shouldn’t have that out in public”.

---
We walked and talked for hours, mostly keeping clear of Clarent’s adoring fans. We even tried to call Joltine, but she said she was busy. She offered her congratulations on his vanquishing of a great and ancient evil, which was nice, at least. I suppose trying to coordinate the effective resurrection of your culture and People after generations of war was a good enough reason to ditch the impromptu Moot we were holding. We eventually ended up back at the Black Tree, staring at the Black Box. It was open, still. It couldn’t be closed, now, but largely People had gotten used to it. Every once in a while, someone would lose a kite or something to the yawning mouth of it, but that was just life.

Clarent sat on his shield and whittled a Cangrove branch idly. He nodded towards the Box, and I waited for him to ask what I was expecting. “Carton, what is the Box?” I laughed sickly, weakly, and pointed at it. “It’s a Black Box, my friend. The Gods placed it here, Age after Age, bit by bit, by accident. They all had a hand in it, and now it’s something beyond even them.” “Yes, very cryptic. But what is it?” “A mystery. There’s only one way to find out - step inside.”

After a beat, he rose, and walked towards it. I said nothing, but stiffened. He couldn’t be…







He stood there for a long time.







He reached out and placed one hand against the hole in the world, palm flat, not yet breaching the threshold.







And then he turned and came back to his whittling. He didn’t say anything for a while, then looked over at me. “I’m alright with a little mystery in my life, aren’t you?” All I could do was nod.

“Yeah. Some things we’ll just never know.”

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