Pantheon 2.0 - Game Thread

[Injerian Praetus II]

Murder is murder. Rape is rape. Rage is rage. Fear is fear. Feeding off of those things is your choice.

The hypocrisy!

Do you honestly sit there and believe the nonsense you write? How is it on the one hand you spout pretentious drivel and on the other you allow (nay, encourage it). You have taken, or represent, the realm of forests, yet forests are rife with the same things you accuse me of profiting from. Animals murder one another, they certainly have raped, they rage, they steal, they look down and destroy the weaker. This is the law of nature. Yet do you expect us to ignore that element that features so strongly in your realm?

[Astavyastataa Kadna]

If the borders shift, everything that was previously mutated within the borders of Yekithii will be unmutated.

Then I formally ask you to withdraw from the southern desert ... I had claimed that as mine and the Mistress of the Air had agreed before your return. Further, any followers who were on a mission south of the desert ... I request their return ... unmutated.

... My apologies for not conducting a proper census of the region. I had hoped to send in one of my forest experts to count and measure the trees, conduct meetings with the local wildlife and then prepare a mutation-feasibility study (which would be put on display for a month to the public for their feedback).

Apologizing is appropriate ... pehaps you are learning ... all also can see that you know the PROPER way to start a new colony. I call the Patheon and Hedra Iren to WITNESS ... an ignorance of appropriate procedures cannot be claimed ... Nor outlines for himself the approach he must take in the future! Let it be binding on him!

[Injerian Praetus II]

Apologizing is appropriate ... pehaps you are learning ... all also can see that you know the PROPER way to start a new colony. I call the Patheon and Hedra Iren to WITNESS ... an ignorance of appropriate procedures cannot be claimed ... Nor outlines for himself the approach he must take in the future! Let it be binding on him!

Perhaps you missed the sarcastic tone, child. When you grow up and enter the big world of politics (though, I can image you will still throw tantrums and scream) you'll learn to appreciate irony.

Now, go run away and play with your sandcastles and knock them down. That should suit the child of destruction.

[Astavyastataa Kadna]

Apologizing is appropriate ... pehaps you are learning ... all also can see that you know the PROPER way to start a new colony. I call the Patheon and Hedra Iren to WITNESS ... an ignorance of appropriate procedures cannot be claimed ... Nor outlines for himself the approach he must take in the future! Let it be binding on him!

Perhaps you missed the sarcastic tone, child. When you grow up and enter the big world of politics (though, I can image you will still throw tantrums and scream) you'll learn to appreciate irony.

Now, go run away and play with your sandcastles and knock them down. That should suit the child of destruction.

Ahhh, my malicious SLUG *chuckles*... by the last statement I assume you ... in your own way ... have agreed to my request. Please confirm before the pantheon!

[O-gon-cho]

“Jiayna—what happened?”

Silence greeted the echoes of Zhan’s accusatory outburst. Jiayna was not in the defile or above it, or she was afraid of his anger. Now Brecht began to lose his self-control, as a sick feeling crept into his guts. Zhan, on the other hand, had become really frustrated and now glowered smokily at the barren cliff faces.

“Hiding, are you?” He called to the empty rock. “That’s hardly surprising after your cowardly behavior! Well I’ll forgive you if you come out right now and apologize!” The edge to his voice didn’t sound particularly forgiving or inviting, somehow.

“Zhan, I don’t think she’s here,” said Brecht quietly, “and if she is you may be scaring her. Why not probe for her mind-shadow instead; it’s not likely she’d be so placid as to hide her emotions completely.” This last came out as if the rider was trying to convince himself of what he was afraid was impossible: Jiayna had gone between but slightly off course, and come back looking for them.

Zhan stilled at this, concentrating on the resonance of emotional content that clung to the tendrils of reality behind physical manifestation. The very rocks seemed like glass to a dragon in this state of sublime focus, and little could hide from such a deep empathic probe, be it plant, animal, or spirit of the wastes. This was one benefit of weyr-training; it allowed a degree of refinement and control over abilities that, at least according to ancient scriptures, were latent in every empathic dragon since the earliest recorded hatching.

“Nothing,” Zhan at last breathed in disappointment. “She must be far away indeed or more advanced in her studies than I realized.”

Brecht’s color was now approaching that of the dust on his boots. “Let’s go back to the destination site and look there,” he suggested. “We must just be crossing paths.” His voice sounded hollow even in his own ears, and Zhan at last began to pick up on some of his rider’s concern.

“How could she get lost, if that’s what you’re so worried about? I know we’ll be late for practice, but it can’t get any worse on the drill field than it has been these last few sessions. We’ll get her back and that’s that.”

“Are you sure she had the image right?” Brecht finally gave form to his fears.

“Let’s go,” intoned Zhan by way of reply, and they winked out once more. This time Brecht really noticed how cold and dark it was for the brief span of isolation they endured during the jump, and his concentration wavered just a bit. The darkness exploded into color and impossible shapes took on sickening perspectives as nothingness gave way to chaos for just an instant. Then they were through and reality reasserted itself.

Brecht gasped as he lurched sideways in the saddle; they had emerged at right angles to their previous orientation. “What was THAT?” He cried to his mount, who was winging valiantly in a steep banking circle.

Zhan didn’t sound too reassuring: “I’m not sure—you seem to have introduced an extraneous orientation into the visual we had agreed upon. Let’s hope nothing like that has happened to Jiayna! If we had been much lower we could have had a problem.”

When their respective heartbeats had decreased sufficiently, they took up the search once more, Brecht calling to the hillsides and Zhan contemplating the emotional tracks nearby. Although there was no reply, Zhan’s face took on a pained look. “Something’s happened not far from here, over that ridge. There’s a bizarre peaked echo as if something came to an abrupt halt…”

They were aloft before he could finish the thought, Brecht leaping astride the riggings just in time, not bothering to strap down. After a moment they could see a wide span of identical ridges and rilles cutting through a sloping mesa. Here and there a finger of harder stone stood silently, pointing in blame at a cruel sky. The land was as harsh and forbidding this side of the ridge as it had been soft and fecund upon the other.

“We’ll never find her in those badlands,” cried Brecht. “We have to get help, organize a search.”

Zhan was grim as he ignored the wiser head of his rider. He had felt something, and he was hot upon the emotional scent. Now he began blaring a call of need and alarm as he crisscrossed over the rugged rocks, looking for that elusive clue to Jiayna’s whereabouts.

“JJ!” “Jiayna” “Where are you—come out or call to us!” “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” “JI-Aaynaa!!!!”

No sound broke the echoes of their cries, no emotion or sign disturbed the etheric plane. Brecht was nearly done in and Zhan was growing desperate. Suddenly, a flicker intruded on the fringes of his troubled conscience.

Diving furiously toward what seemed to be an unbroken surface of sharp gravel and jagged spires of calcine, undisturbed for an aeon of drought, Zhan seemed bent on destroying himself and his rider in a paroxysm of desperation. At the last possible moment, a crevasse yawned in the shadows, and twisting in a way that any impartial observer would not have believed possible for such a large creature, the dragon folded his wings and spread his hind legs for impact just beneath the visible surface of the ground.

Brecht couldn’t react quickly enough and, although escaping injury from the rock walls now tumbled left and forward, rolling three times in the loess and ending up on his knees, white as ghost with lime dust. He spilled his lunch onto the shards of alabaster that comprised the floor of the hidden cleft and then rose shakily to his feet.

Zhan was desperately looking about for the source of what he had detected far above. Suddenly he froze, then cut loose with a ragged screech that drove Brecht to his knees again, hands over his ears. Following his gaze, Brecht could just make out a curious feature in the far wall: some kind of cave drawing or sculpture, it seemed at first. Zhan was still keening in that way he had never heard before, so he struggled over to get a better look without removing his hands from his head, which was beginning to feel numb from vibration. He stopped in horror. That was no bas-relief—that was dragon hide protruding from the solid rock wall. And it was Green.

For the third time in less than a minute, Brecht fell to his knees. This time nothing came up when he retched, and he too began making a swallowed choking sound. Zhan was on his side in the curled position of the un-hatched, coughing out the remains of a sob that stuck in his craw like some impossible hairball. It had at last become all too clear that he had caused the death of his truest friend, the one that was destined to be his for life.

“Hecch, wacch, uaccch.” That was what they both sounded like, if there was anything of speech to recognize in such a raw outpouring of grief and furor of despair. At last the darkness in the cavern was unbroken even by the feeble starlight from above.

[Injerian Praetus II]

Ahhh, my malicious SLUG *chuckles*... by the last statement I assume you ... in your own way ... have agreed to my request. Please confirm before the pantheon!

If you are willing to agree to a peace treaty and mutual respect of borders, yes.

[Astavyastataa Kadna]

Ahhh, my malicious SLUG *chuckles*... by the last statement I assume you ... in your own way ... have agreed to my request. Please confirm before the pantheon!

If you are willing to agree to a peace treaty and mutual respect of borders, yes.

I would think that as the Supreme and as the aggressor you would make the first move - as a show of good faith. And THEN we can negotiate details! After all ... what have YOU to fear.

[Benito Alvarez]

I have talked as of late about the morality of my decision to stand against Nor. About how we as dieties can only act as our nature deems possible. About how while one may be a god of White and another of Black, and about how whether one is more important or morally above the other.

What I have taken from it, and the stance I have stood, has been what I have always taken. I will fight for what I see as right.

The world Erian, as I see it, has been living a life of its own LONG before any of the Gods arrived. I do not see how any of us has the right to change the world as a whole. This world will long outlive any of us, and has long outlived out ancestors. So how can we say what is wrong or right with the world?

We can't.

As such I will respond, forcebly in nessecary, to defend this planet and all the life on it to live as they deem fit. We are gaurdians here, not Creators. We need this world as much as the mortals that walk its surface, and if the world saw the same "beauty" as Nor does, then it would have changed itself to the same resemblance LONG ago. I see Nor changing the World against its will, and I will stop him.

We each change the world, through our followers, in limited parts of the world, but no single one of us has a grip on the world as a whole, indeed when we leave the world will return to how it was before we arrived BECAUSE we have no single grip on the world.

I ask you all, what sort of world would you see it changed into? A world of Malice, Diease and Mutation? Or would you do as I do and leave the World to it's own decisions.

::EDIT::

I have seen that there is a demand for "proof". Very well.

I am merely the will to improve the world

I wish every organism to be alive; to await transformation at my hands. I wish to start no wars, for everyone, barring the weak, will survive for me.

Know only that I know how to better the world, and that there are no flaws

The world awaits the coming of the Yekith

Only, I have the power to direct the growth of life and the imagination and will to achieve this

Love is insanity - but I need your powers over nature. I never said I intend to eradicate death - I intend to eradicate disease and poverty, but death is a tool to keep society functioning. As well, to slay extradimensional threats

Do we need any more "proof"? At every turn Nor tells us that he is "peacefull." But tell me, where is the rest of the Pantheon after Nor has taken hold of the world itself? Does anyone really think that he will allows us to stay?

[Injerian Praetus II]

And if I stated I am willing to negotiate? Surely, you are not be so aggressive that you would declare war on another god who is willing to use diplomatic means to achieve harmony?

[Bhakti]

What do you have to negotiate with? You have stated - repeatedly - that you intend to transform the world! The way you intend to accomplish the "peace" you say you desire for Eiran is to Mutate it so every living creature belongs to you! Of course there will be peace! What's to negotiate???

[O-gon-cho]

:::eavesdropping on the above with eyes growing bigger and wider:::

Peace treaty? Is such a thing possible at this late date?

I am so confused regarding all this since the declaration was made...

[Bhakti]

The Declaration is not at all confusing. It contains two points:

1) Yekithii. As Yek says, nothing there had been claimed. Any of us were free to move in. Unlike the rest of us, Yek moved in in such a way that nobody else wants to move in. Indeed, who among us has the power or ability to claim such a huge amount of land in a way that keeps the rest of us away of our own free will? I could claim the Forests, and there might be some justification for this, but if I do not have the population to back up my claim, it is useless. Yek found another way. Very well played.

2) World Peace. As I said, his intended method of attaining world peace is to Mutate everything in it so none will oppose him. He has never said he will take a share of Eiran, and let us all keep our own. He has never said he will not obliterate the way of life our followers have chosen. He has never said he will not murder us. World Peace can be achieved in many different ways.

[Injerian Praetus II]

Then let the pantheon negotiate. Let the AllFather witness the meeting, and our words recorded. I am now willing to enter into serious discussions. I fear the worst for the world - great destruction is at hand. Perhaps we can all come to an agreement that benefits us all.

Is that too much to ask?

I . . . . am willing to be humbled.

[O-gon-cho]

Then let the pantheon negotiate. Let the AllFather witness the meeting, and our words recorded. I am now willing to enter into serious discussions. I fear the worst for the world - great destruction is at hand. Perhaps we can all come to an agreement that benefits us all.

Is that too much to ask?

:::small hopeful smile:::

Brethren...

Is there any possibility of pursuing this? Please???

[Bhakti]

What could you possibly promise? You have been pumping Mutagens into the waters forever. The go everywhere, Mutating whatever they touch. Adventurers snuck into Nor Pupae while you were away, and then came to Shakari. They carried Mutagens with them, and my people suffered "monstrous births" as a result. Even if you took the Oath to not intentionally act against other deities, their followers, or their lands, there is no way to prevent your vision of Eiran. You have set it up too well for your success. It will happen. You have nothing to lose by promising non-aggression.

[Astavyastataa Kadna]

Then let the pantheon negotiate. Let the AllFather witness the meeting, and our words recorded. I am now willing to enter into serious discussions. I fear the worst for the world - great destruction is at hand. Perhaps we can all come to an agreement that benefits us all.

Is that too much to ask?

I . . . . am willing to be humbled.

Hmmm ... the SLUG humbled ... that would be interesting!

I am NOT authorized by the Pantheon to treat with you ... however, I am personally interested in how far your will for peace goes.

Would you withdraw all to the Borders of Nor Pupae? Would you bring down the STAR ... so all can see your compliance? Would you withdraw all affects of Mutation and Malice from all other Lands? Would you agree to be sealed in Nor Pupae? A Petition thru Hedra Iren and the AllFather to my SISTER to allow me to impose the Barrier of Chaos and Destruction around your lands ... so that if your 'beauty' or KING leave ... your continent will be riven and destroyed.

You would be free to beautify Nor Pupae all that you want ... your influence outside from ALL your domains and DRP would be restricted. [Someone might invite you over for tea ]

Are you prepared for such - perhaps if so you can convince Justice and the Pantheon to listen.

I stand for Justice and will be guided by his decision!

[O-gon-cho]

Back at the training grounds, the first few dragons and riders had begun to filter in for the second session of the day. Most were reluctant and not fully refreshed from the afternoon break. Suddenly, a ripple passed through the air, and dragon heads snapped up in alertness. From afar off, the air currents carried the skirl of a haunting melody, an ululation soon taken up by every dragon until the very sands danced and writhed in agony. So the weyr first came to know the discordant tones of the Keen of Mourning, as one and all grieved the loss of Jiayna’s flame.

Jiayna lived on in the memory of her kind, in a form of existence just beyond what a human could call memory or a dream. Like every dragon, she knew from before the first crack in the egg what she was, and that she belonged to a collective that loved her. Now that tribe drew more closely to bewail her absence even as it cemented her last moments into the gestalt.

How to describe the cessation of existence? For Jiayna, it mattered no longer. For those she left bereaved, it was everything. At the last moment before she was to have followed Zhan and Brecht to the rendezvous, her nervousness had reasserted itself, and although she knew what to do and where to go, she needed that reassurance from her friends in order to go through with it. Too late, they were even at that moment slipping away, and she flinched as she sped to catch up with them. As a result, her visualization slipped just a little.

This was, alas, enough to send her spiraling into the same kind of chaotic, hallucinatory vortex that nearly spilled Brecht and Zhan when they had gone looking for her. When she emerged from between she was careening toward a rock spire on the wrong side of the ridge, unsure which way was up or how to right herself. Desperate, she strove to restore level flight and screamed inwardly as a wing-joint let go. Just before crashing she got the impression of cracked and jumbled rocks rushing up at her, and shut her eyes reflexively.

Unfortunately the reflex also threw her back into between just enough to transport her a few yards farther than she might otherwise have gone on momentum alone. There was no way to open her eyes any more, as her thoughts and vitality took on a momentary electric fire then crystallized forever into the mineral structure of the living stone. That the process was too quick to be painful was a blessing. That her mind refused to release its hold on her flesh for an instant was not. Confusion and fear were replaced by an incredible slowing, crunching and grinding to eternal stasis as her dying aura imprinted itself on the landscape. It was this trace that Zhan had scented, the only legacy of a brief gleam in the sunlight, a soft wing on the wind, a short melody in the long song.

The dragons endured the grieving time as they had since before the scriptures were ever written. Flying, eating, and conversation were kept to a minimum and the normally carefree younger ones kept silent, or hummed ancient unwritten dirges in twos and threes. Communication with Riders was also minimized, except to offer solace to one bereft of a partner. As Jiayna had been Riderless the weyr community was spared this additional sorrow, but there was still the matter of consoling the despondent Zhan.

Zhan hadn’t shown any sign of responsiveness since they found him and Brecht in the cavern where Jiayna was entombed. In the days that followed Brecht allowed himself to be groomed and had resumed eating, although he refused to talk about the incident. But Zhan had been unreachable, both to the other dragons and to his Rider. Now his skin was dry in patches and hung loosely from his increasingly gaunt frame. His pale eyes were sunken and half-lidded at all times, and he never stirred from his spot in the den. Brecht was going out of his mind with worry; he had never realized how deep the bond between his mount and Green Jiayna had been. Now he betook himself to the Weyrleader’s council chamber to address the matter formally and ask for help.

After some discussion and having consulted the loremaster, it was decided that a delegation of senior dragons would attempt an intervention to jumpstart the healing process. After all, what sense was there in compounding the tragedy?

[Injerian Praetus II]

Would you withdraw all to the Borders of Nor Pupae?

Absolutely not. If other deities are allowed to expand, why cannot I?

Would you bring down the STAR ... so all can see your compliance?

Again, no. Why should I have to show the world what I am doing with my own lands if you want me to withdraw from the rest of the world?

Would you withdraw all affects of Mutation and Malice from all other Lands?

Ignoring Yekithii, what other lands?

Would you agree to be sealed in Nor Pupae?

If other deities agreed not to expand, perhaps.

A Petition thru Hedra Iren and the AllFather to my SISTER to allow me to impose the Barrier of Chaos and Destruction around your lands ... so that if your 'beauty' or KING leave ... your continent will be riven and destroyed.

This is ridiculous. So I am to become a prisoner, for what?

You would be free to beautify Nor Pupae all that you want ... your influence outside from ALL your domains and DRP would be restricted. [Someone might invite you over for tea

I thought you wanted the Star to come down, and now you say I am free to do what I want with Nor Pupae?

[Injerian Praetus II]

What could you possibly promise? You have been pumping Mutagens into the waters forever.

Into the coastline surrounding Nor Pupae. For defense.

The go everywhere, Mutating whatever they touch.

As opposed to other gods' effects spreading into the world . . .

Adventurers snuck into Nor Pupae while you were away, and then came to Shakari. They carried Mutagens with them, and my people suffered "monstrous births" as a result.

Oh, so now I am responsible for everyone? Basically, this is not my fault. Further, I have made it clear I am conducting an inquisition of my lands, so that anyone not of my cult is imprisoned or forced out of my lands. So even though I try to catch them all, because I fail now and then, it's really all my fault.

Even if you took the Oath to not intentionally act against other deities, their followers, or their lands, there is no way to prevent your vision of Eiran. You have set it up too well for your success. It will happen. You have nothing to lose by promising non-aggression.

So basically, I've no choice; I have to destroyed.

Give me a break, Bhakti. What of AK? You argue Malice and Mutation is a bad mixture, what about Chaos and Destruction? The god of undead? The god of demons? I could go on. If you really want to argue I'm a threat because of who I am, please at least carry your principles further. Even the god of justice can see this is an abuse.

[Astavyastataa Kadna]

Would you withdraw all to the Borders of Nor Pupae?

Absolutely not. If other deities are allowed to expand, why cannot I?

Because your expansion brings Corruption, Disease, Malice ... it pollutes the surrounding land as your pollution has injured the God of Love.

Would you bring down the STAR ... so all can see your compliance?

Again, no. Why should I have to show the world what I am doing with my own lands if you want me to withdraw from the rest of the world?

Because we DO NOT TRUST you ... our observation would ensure you are not building anything to potentially breach your ... confinement.

Would you withdraw all affects of Mutation and Malice from all other Lands?

Ignoring Yekithii, what other lands?

We would NOT ignore Yekith ... but I have been a short time in this reality and have heard your Corrupting influence destroying children of Bhakti ... clearly your influence, unintended *snorts* or NOT is adversly felt beyond Nor Pupae!

Would you agree to be sealed in Nor Pupae?

If other deities agreed not to expand, perhaps.

Expansion by other deities is, not by its nature, corrupting!

A Petition thru Hedra Iren and the AllFather to my SISTER to allow me to impose the Barrier of Chaos and Destruction around your lands ... so that if your 'beauty' or KING leave ... your continent will be riven and destroyed.

This is ridiculous. So I am to become a prisoner, for what?

Yes, you are to be a prisoner - for the saftey of the World ... and to keep the inadvertant adventurer from spreading your Malice!

You would be free to beautify Nor Pupae all that you want ... your influence outside from ALL your domains and DRP would be restricted. [Someone might invite you over for tea

I thought you wanted the Star to come down, and now you say I am free to do what I want with Nor Pupae?

As I said above ... we do not trust you!!

Further ... as I stated ... I am NOT negotiating. I am NOT empowered to do so. I am personally interested. When you hear what I am interested in. And Bhakti and others. You may the grovel at JUSTICE's feet ... beg for mercy ... and perhaps he will agree to negotiate with you!