Pantheon - The Third Age - Game Thread

[Eugen Razvan]

I fully support Eztlicoatl's actions, sapling. As far as I am concerned, the continent belongs to him, and he should be allowed to do what he wants to your filthy forests. To be honest, I will gladly supply divine power to help him do what he needs, even if that means burning them to the ground.

[Zephyr]

He is welcome to try to burn "his" Trees. The way our domains interact will make that very difficult.

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Yes, it may be that I must have a presence of some sort in the Forest for this to truly be the case, as his wanton destruction of Trees on Malyth attests. But after this season, I will have a presence, and it will take more creative measures to burn them.

[Eugen Razvan]

What is this language of 'drps'?

But I gather what that strange scroll 'speaks of' and let me assure you, sapling god, there is no problem. Do you believe that some of us cannot see around such limitations? You lack creativity, child.

[Zephyr]

Yes, yes. Blah blah blah. As I said, Forests is my domain. I will not allow your boss to take it from me bit by bit. Since we were all newly Ascended, and I believed everybody deserved a place in the world, I made the rather generous gesture of giving him exclusive rights to Magni and Modi. I thought it would allow us to coexist peacefully. But now his true colors come out. He believes he will take the Forests of the world from me; stripping me of my own domain. It is nothing less than insane to think any deity would sit back and do nothing as his or her power is taken away bit by bit. He will not have Cook's Woods.

[Eugen Razvan]

Just because forests are part of your domain does not give you the right to the forests of Eiran any more than Calais having the right to every mountain and rock or Eztlicoatl having the right to sunlight. The Eclipse Court does not recognise your hold over forests, certainly the ones in our continents and islands, and we will do what we want with them.

As for Eztlicoatl being my boss . . . do not make me laugh. One of the benefits of the Eclipse Court is that we have no court head: we function collectively.

[Zephyr]

Surprisingly, that's a reasonable statement. Not just a "You are Bhakti! Must kill Bhaktis!" kind of thing. Let's see how long we can keep it going...

My domain is unique among the current pantheon. I am vulnerable in ways the rest of you are not. Any of us are vulnerable through our followers. But, unlike any of the rest of you, I am vulnerable through my domain. Forests can be eradicated. It's as simple as that. As you say, despite the ways the laws of our reality limit what you can do to a Forest, with a little creativity...
Ignore my followers, and you can still destroy the Forests. How many followers will I have if you do that? My sister need not claim any sort of rights to every bit of Earth, because you cannot destroy every bit of Earth. Dagon is safe from you, because you cannot eradicate the Seas. Things like War, Peace, Vengeance, and Fate are, obviously, well beyond even your ability to so much as harm. But you can surely harm Forests. Again, making my followers leave me. Who would worship a god of Forests who lets others do as they please to the Trees?? Only the mentally challenged would stay with me.

So, while I do not claim exclusive rights to every Forest, I do claim the right to care for them. And it is a right that, now that Eztlicoatl has claimed exclusive rights to yet a third Forest (I only insist on two for myself!), I will now demonstrate. I have been entirely willing to share them with all who do not harm them. There are many pantheons on many worlds. In which of them does a deity or deity's followers walk through the Woods, run into the god of Forests, and tell him he is not allowed there?? Insanity.

And remember, I wan't even fighting him on Cook's Woods! I only wanted time to get my followers safely away! But his arrogance and stubbornness will not allow it. Fine. We will do it his way. Good luck finding ways to control a Forest more surely than I can.

[Anaya]

Loathe as I am to wade into this delightful conversation, the Verdant Lord makes some valid points, as does the Lord of Worms.

Eztlicoatl, though I would agree that you are under no obligation to grant Zephyr time that his followers may leave your lands, I would ask why you do not grant such a request.

[Eugen Razvan]

I am vulnerable in ways the rest of you are not. Any of us are vulnerable through our followers. But, unlike any of the rest of you, I am vulnerable through my domain. Forests can be eradicated. It's as simple as that. As you say, despite the ways the laws of our reality limit what you can do to a Forest, with a little creativity...

Oh, you are asking for pity. You openly declare your weakness and then state how you should be respected. Reminds me of a blind and poor man hobbled and bowed before an army of kings and demanding of them of service and honour and duty. I saw those kings disembowel him, as they should, for no true king would countenance the weak and feeble in the kingdom of the strong. Of course, I am not asking for your death. But I hope you are not making demands . . . the weak do not have such bargaining poisitions.

[Zephyr]

*sigh* I wish I wasn't being forced to speak with a go-between...

An honest look at one's strengths and vulnerabilities is not a cry for pity. As for weakness, it's been said that he who can destroy a thing controls it. Let us test that theory. Eztlicoatl claims exclusive control of Cook's Woods, does he?

[Eztlicoatl]

Eztlicoatl, though I would agree that you are under no obligation to grant Zephyr time that his followers may leave your lands, I would ask why you do not grant such a request.

You have addressed the Great Serpent with respect, for this I deign to respond.

I do not allow the Lord of the Forests the time he wishes because I know from past experience, he will not use it as he promises. His spy still dwells within my lands, and he never made any show of effort to change this, nor did his envoys ever meet mine at the designated place. Therefore, I shall not allow him time to deepen the roots of his pernicious creed and strengthen his degenerate followers within my lands.

If they leave, bearing no signs of his gutter-faith, nor preaching or practicing its vile dictates, they will find themselves unmolested. If they do otherwise, or if this cancerous devil manifests or displays any power on Kunis, I will eradicate his followers with a cruelty scarcely within the realm of imagining.

As for the fate of the forest itself, we shall yet see. It may be so that its wood could be put to use; it may be that it is reduced to cinders; it is yet most likely that it will be left as it stands, unless my hand is forced in some fashion, which will be the only guarantee of its decimation. Those who have known my friendship know that I have always kept my word. No less should those who wish to set themselves against me realise my resolution.

As yet, the One God has not acted against any religion without provocation. This is the way of things. For truth to have a purpose, lies must also be suffered to exist. Thus, the false creeds give purpose to the true faith.

[Brid]

Zephyr!
You had my sympathy with your efforts to rescue the persecuted tree elder, but now you show your true colours! Believe me - even the 'mentally challenged' will no longer worship you once your forests are dust!

*giggle* You really shouldn't have said that! I just love those trees you see standing all alone in a tilled field - 'fairy trees', they are called in some parts of Eiran. That's how trees should be - majestic, but alone!

[Zephyr]

Brid,

I'm not sure what you mean by "true colours." I will not be kicked out of my domain. As I am the only one of us with a physical domain that is both limited in size and able to be entirely destroyed, I do not expect all to understand my stance. But what do you mean?


As for Eztlicoatl's response to Anaya... I have no idea if he is lying, or merely wrong. As I said, he told me about this lone Tree Elder. He called it an Ancient Tree, which I mistook for some millennia-old Tree of great wisdom, but we eventually got that straightened out. I assume it was the "bedraggled" and "hunted" Tree Elder I had become aware of at the same time. I gave him strength, and spoke to him:

"The God of the Sun, Eztlicoatl, has also become aware of you. He has said that he will tell his Ssathiss to leave you alone if you go straight to the pass which leads through the Great Range to the North of Oaxcala. I will send others to the city on the other side of the moonbridge, Akadis. From there, you will come to Vor-ta-vor."

I also told my Prophet to send followers there to meet him. I divined the following information:

You strengthen the lone Tree Elder of Magni, who makes his way towards Vor-ta-vor, hoping to find solace after life as a prey.

As I said, he never showed up. If I remember correctly, I asked Eztlicoatl if he knew what happened, and he said he had no news.

[Anaya]

Thank you Great Serpent for your courteous reply. Whilst others may disagree with your actions, your reasoning appears sound to me.

As for Eztlicoatl's response to Anaya... I have no idea if he is lying, or merely wrong. As I said, he told me about this lone Tree Elder. He called it an Ancient Tree, which I mistook for some millennia-old Tree of great wisdom, but we eventually got that straightened out. I assume it was the "bedraggled" and "hunted" Tree Elder I had become aware of at the same time. I gave him strength, and spoke to him:

"The God of the Sun, Eztlicoatl, has also become aware of you. He has said that he will tell his Ssathiss to leave you alone if you go straight to the pass which leads through the Great Range to the North of Oaxcala. I will send others to the city on the other side of the moonbridge, Akadis. From there, you will come to Vor-ta-vor."

I also told my Prophet to send followers there to meet him. I divined the following information:

You strengthen the lone Tree Elder of Magni, who makes his way towards Vor-ta-vor, hoping to find solace after life as a prey.

As I said, he never showed up. If I remember correctly, I asked Eztlicoatl if he knew what happened, and he said he had no news.

It may be wise then to discover what happened to this Tree Elder so as to resolve at least one aspect of this debate. But then I am sure you know that.

[Zephyr]

True enough. However, that would require using my power in Magni. Which, of course, Eztlicoatl forbids.

And anyway, it has nothing to do with the fact that I will not be told that I am not allowed to act in Eiran's Forests. I agreed to give him two for his exclusive use, now he claims a third. Unacceptable.

[Eugen Razvan]

Fellow deities, listen to this sapling. Listen to his weak arguments. Do you accept his alleged hold over the forests in your lands? Would you accept it they were mine?

Zephyr, I do not recognise your right to the forests. If I had a forest on my continent, I would mutate it into something more useful. However, I am in the process of making my own forest - one of flesh, not of wood so at least you cannot argue it belongs to you.

[Anaya]

Verdant Lord, whilst I agree that if I were in your position I would be most displeased with the Great Serpent's decision, I can also understand why he decided as he did. If I were to declare the centre of my worship a place where no other deity may exercise their power, I would certainly not allow you freedom to do whatever you chose in the forest to the north of Ghalali.

I acknowledge that your domain is physically vulnerable in a way that many others are not, though I believe that it would be just as difficult to darkness the very sun as to destroy all Eiran's forests. Further, the physical nature of your domain could certainly be seen as a curse as well as a blessing. Surely the worship and care of the trees is not a difficult concept for the mortal races of our world to comprehend, and the trees themselves provide something tangible about which your worshippers may rally. Those of us whose domains have less physical substance have no such natural banner.

Remember Zephyr, it was your choice to claim a more physical domain when you ascended into divinity, just as it was my choice to claim a less physical one. Their have been advantages and disadvantages for both of us, yet we made the choices and must now abide the consequences.

I am sympathetic to your plight Verdant Lord, but I am afraid I have little else to offer you besides.

[Zephyr]

Verdant Lord, whilst I agree that if I were in your position I would be most displeased with the Great Serpent's decision, I can also understand why he decided as he did. If I were to declare the centre of my worship a place where no other deity may exercise their power, I would certainly not allow you freedom to do whatever you chose in the forest to the north of Ghalali.

However, if you had declared it the center of your power in the first place, and your followers were indigenous to Forests, I would have done what I did for Eztlicoatl. However, that wouldn't have meant you can then claim other Forests on Eiran for your exclusive use.

I acknowledge that your domain is physically vulnerable in a way that many others are not, though I believe that it would be just as difficult to darkness the very sun as to destroy all Eiran's forests. Further, the physical nature of your domain could certainly be seen as a curse as well as a blessing. Surely the worship and care of the trees is not a difficult concept for the mortal races of our world to comprehend, and the trees themselves provide something tangible about which your worshippers may rally. Those of us whose domains have less physical substance have no such natural banner.

Remember Zephyr, it was your choice to claim a more physical domain when you ascended into divinity, just as it was my choice to claim a less physical one. Their have been advantages and disadvantages for both of us...

While that may be true, I don't imagine you would want to be in the position I'm in; having to fight for the right to use your own domain. The advantages - their extraordinary beauty, and the chance to be an intimate part of this thing that is of such vital importance to the physical world - probably don't seem so good to you at the moment, I'd wager. *chuckle*

...yet we made the choices and must now abide the consequences.

I'm not sure what you mean by "abide." Sounds like you mean I must allow this. Which is not the case. But if you mean "deal with", then yes. Unlike any of you, I must now use power to defend my right to act within my own domain. Yes, that is surely a consequence of having Forests. *laughs*

I am sympathetic to your plight Verdant Lord, but I am afraid I have little else to offer you besides.

That's ok. I thank you for your input.

[Arcadia]

This disagreement sounds much like the one between O-gon-cho, uKulwa and myself.

Ez, I understand your point and I am in full support of your position.

Zeph, there is plenty of land in Eiran. You can easily relocate your forest instead of making a stink about it. And anyways, what is one forest to you? You can always grow another one.

[Zephyr]

Wow. Sure is nice to have family. *rolls eyes*

I will not relocate Cook's Woods. First of all, Eztlicoatl would not "allow" it. Second, even if he would, I will not relocate a Forest every time he decides he now controls another chunk of land that contains a Forest. Not even if he was willing to supply the power for such a thing. He does not make the rules on Eiran, despite what he may think. He does not get to take over new lands and tell me I am not allowed any access to those Trees, and any followers I have in the Forests there can leave immediately or die. The Tree Elders have lived in the world's Forests for two millennia, and the whims of someone with a whole lot of attitude should not dictate that they must leave their ancestral homes just because they became my followers before he decided he was in charge of those areas.

[Arcadia]

Wow. Sure is nice to have family. *rolls eyes*

*sarcasm* Oh, boo-hoo, Zeph.

Its one thing to stand up for yourself. Its quite another to stand foolishly against those who could easily destroy you and decimate that which you love - your forests and followers. Father never understood this concept and neither do you. You just don't understand that you win the war by not fighting at all.

I give you the perfectly good solution of relocation (because, of all the domains in the pantheon, yours has the ability to do this) and you stubbornly refuse. You could protect your forests AND your followers but no. You would rather tweak the noses of the old adversaries of your father. I could probably build you an entire continent exclusively for your use but I have a feeling you would refuse that as well prefering rather to bleat your rights.

When will you ever learn?