Kevin's Watch

Hail Bretheren.

I am saddened to hear of the losses of so many important worshippers. My condolences. *bows*

The Master of Assassins would have more to offer than mere condolences, I believe.

Actually, you are correct brother. I would add that if any wish me to search my sphere to attempt to determine the identity of the killers, they have only to ask. *bows*

Nor Yekith wrote:Argothoth, I hope your followers are settled into Zamara and Darkmoon, and that the shaping of the stone and wood is to your satisfaction. All icons of my cult have been removed, so the cities are no longer holy ground nor support my churches.

I may also publicly make an offer of peace and harmony between our two nations. May your people flourish in the new lands and may we work together into building a better world.

I thank you for your generosity.
I will accept publicly you offer of peace and harmony, i want also to share with you knowledge, if you so wish.

Thank you, Norn and Vadhaka, for your kind words. It is truly a loss.

Maeror, I would respectfully request that if you find it in your heart, please return Caroline's soul to me.

I thank you.

Maeror,

Please see my Oath from several days ago. I can completely understand your suspicions, but if we are to strengthen the 'fragile peace', I believe we need to communicate openly.

If you suspect me of foul play, say so and let me try to convince you of my innocence. If WE cannot reach an understanding, what chance have our followers of doing so?

Undine

I am quite convinced that Undine, Maeror, and Adomorn all have the best of intentions. I do not believe that any need be concerned with any deliberate problems. Of course, our followers often act against our wishes, or before asking our approval. But I'm sure things can be straightened out with them.

Very well, I will voice this openly.
I would first provide some context for this by referring to an event which occured in our seventh season:

A delegation of Undine's followers from the south of Khenstorn reaches the Lord-General's army and demands to speak with him. Upon receiving their audience, they try to pry from him an admission that Maeror is a cruel deity who lets souls wander, lost and alone, for all eternity; when theLord-General refuses, declaring Maeror's criteria of judgment, the delegation's members draw daggers and attempt to slay the Lord-General , calling him a "blasphemer" and claiming that "Undine's kingdom will rise, and Maeror will kneel in front of the Lord of the Oceans!". TheLord-General , unimpressed, makes short work of all of them, thereafter praying Maeror that the knowledge of these souls be conveyed to the god, so that it may be discovered whether they were really acting on Undine's behalf or not.

Needless to say, my investigation only revealed that these followers believed they were acting Undine's will.

Now, the following has occured:

Camouflaging himself as a worshiper of yours, a follower of Undine manages to sneak deep into the lands of the Lord of Death, and gets close to Glianneth. Shouting Undine's name, he produces a dagger and hurls himself at Glianneth with such ferocity and swiftness that none of Glianneth's guards could stop him. Even though they pierce him with spears, and slaughter him, he plunges his dagger deep into Glianneth's breast, spitting blood upon the man's face and claiming "Undine sends his regards, in retaliation for the Night of Blood!" before crumpling to the ground, dead.

Initially I assumed the attack was sent by Undine. But I am no longer certain, for several reasons:
-Attack was apparently unallowed in the last turn.
-Undine had already exacted revenge.
-Glianneth had a high profile among my followers, but was virtually unknown to other gods.
-I believe that Undine has more to gai from cooperation.

Your tales are alarming. Perhaps another piece of the puzzle can be found in my own events. This occurred in our tenth season:

A group of unidentified creatures has settled into Magran, and they disguise themselves as your followers, exploiting the people's belief to kidnap and slaughter several of them. They have not yet been found out by mortal authorities.

This has continued since then. Unfortunately, with all that has happened to me in the last year, I have been unable to look into it. The disgusting truth is that I must allow several of my followers to be slaughtered every season because I must fight off meteors, fire-beasts, plague, and Abominations!

At any rate, it may not have been one of Undine's followers at all. But even if it was, as I continue to believe, and you have concluded, it is extremely unlikely this "person" was acting under Undine's orders.

From the turn before last -

A group of unidentified creatures has entered Magiddo and, under the guise of your priests, kidnap and slay many. Mortal authorities haven't discovered them yet.

Hmmm. I have been receiving the same reports for two turns.

Hail brothers and sisters,

Even though I have lost my beloved prophet, commerce must still continue.

The trade guilds are just about ready and should be prepared to depart next season. This is the list I have so far:

Nor Yekith - port of Nor Leviathan
Simjen - port of Zamara
Tsaloga - no port mentioned yet
Lord Adomorn - port of Archel
Norn - port of Meddla
Argothoth - Ai-argoth
Vadhaka - Aikul

The main port will be Magran. Jovian and Alsanin will also be ports.

Please let me know if you are still wanting the trade guild and if the port stays the same.

condolances to all for their losses.

i too have been visited by these amorphous posers!!

allfather wrote:A group of creatures in Maayaa Nagoori poses as your followers and lures your worshipers into death and slavery, selling them to the highest bidder, far from their lands. Mortal authorities haven't realized this yet.

death and slavery? who are these creatures and from where or WHOM do they come?

Interesting. Was Bhakti the first to see this, or have others earlier?

I too, though not a severe.

allfather wrote:In Linver, a group of your worshipers follows your dogma out of a desire for personal gain, rather than out of faith; they pay lip service to you while they use your worship to favor their business.

Thank you Maeror for being frank with me.

The first event you quoted regarding my followers happened the turn after we found out

And the gods themselves felt the cries of suffering of the souls of their worshipers, devoured by Maeror when deemed unworthy of afterlife

If you like, I will take responsibility for the actions of those followers who attacked your prophet. But only because I did nothing at the time to protect their souls! Let's face it, if I had planned and supported their actions with divine power, when you were not protecting your prophet with divine power, they may well have succeeded!

I realise that statement leaves me open to the accusation that I did use divine power last turn. As you have already concluded, however, this was not allowed last turn. Neither did I use any power the turn before to this end - it was all focused on Regret.

Please accept that I am not pointing fingers here, nor trying to drag up the past to discredit you, only to defend myself. Sometimes it is hard to defend the actions of our worshippers. Again, perhaps their (mis)behaviour is my fault, but only through my inaction, rather than my direct action.

Undine

Murrin wrote:Interesting. Was Bhakti the first to see this, or have others earlier?

During the first season after our ascension the city of Alsanin was troubled by "evil fey" posing as priests and offering free help and counsel to the people of the city, but in the meantime kidnapping citizens and using them for purposes "best left unexplained". I suspect now that these "evil fey" were not fey at all.

Stonemaybe wrote:The first event you quoted regarding my followers happened the turn after we found out

And the gods themselves felt the cries of suffering of the souls of their worshipers, devoured by Maeror when deemed unworthy of afterlife

I do not wish to question what you have said, but I will correct this fault: it happened the turn after a 'dimensional wanderer' revealed that I was doing nothing with the souls; the consuming of power began around the same time as the attack, and your followers were clearly unaware of it.

Maeror wrote:

I do not wish to question what you have said, but I will correct this fault: it happened the turn after a 'dimensional wanderer' revealed that I was doing nothing with the souls; the consuming of power began around the same time as the attack, and your followers were clearly unaware of it.

I will take your word for this. I haven't been keeping accurate records unfortunately. The two events occured around the same time, and as I was unaware of any other reasoning behind the attack (honest!) I assumed one followed the other.

I hope you accept my other gesture as an end to our animosity?

On the subject of the imposters, I don't think I have received any information related to this. It is worrying however, and I can't help thinking that some of the misadventures that my followers have got up to might be linked to these people/creatures.

Angus totaled up the final column for the day’s transactions. The candle on the table was burning low and his eyes were weary - he had had a long day. The crickets tuned their legs loudly as Angus heard the other traders end their days, saying ‘good evening’ and closing their stalls for the night to return to their warm homes and warm families. Angus could almost picture their homes, dark against the backdrop of the night with yellow lights warming the inside of the house and the spices of the evening meals being cooked. He could imagine the sound of the children greeting their fathers and mothers as they returned home, entering their own secure worlds away from everyone else.

The day’s trading in Magran had been busy and profitable. It looked to be even more profitable with the new air ships from Zamara. It was an exciting time for a merchant and all of the members of the Trade Guild were preparing to travel to their assigned ports all over Eiran. All looked forward to the future.

Except Angus. He was happy to be a Guild member - one of the first and hand-picked by Caroline herself.

He had been so happy at being chosen by Caroline to assist in the training of new Guild members. Caroline had said that he had a special talent of influencing people. His devotion to Jove shown through in every mannerism and word and deed. He was an extremely successful and rich merchant who was best equipped to instruct the new members in accounting, banking, interest, and marketing. It was because of this that Caroline insisted he remain in Magran while she went away (she never said where she was going and Angus never dared to ask) so that he could instruct the new Guild members in their duties. He had wanted to join the others chosen to travel with the dwarrows in the air ship but Caroline would not allow it (he loved to travel and had been to every port in Eiran) . His devotion to Jove and his success in trading demanded that he remain behind this time to train the new recruits.

But the loss of his wife last season - sacrificed by diabolists - left him bereft. He could not forget the look of terror on her face when they found her body atop a black alter in the forest. He wept bitterly at her death and threw himself into work to block the pain of loneliness. There was no warm home with fragrant cooking waiting to be eaten for him. He had his trading office. It was warm enough and far from simple. The wooden desk he worked at was a fine piece of furniture, inlaid with mahogany and mother of pearl. His candles were fragrant with myrrh. The walls of his office were lined with maps of Eiran and trade routes all over the world. Lush carpet covered the floor and damask curtains covered the windows. But it was empty of family and hearth and home.

Still, all these riches comforted him. He had amassed quite a fortune and would never be hungry. But, he was lonely for his wife, Sara. She so enjoyed the wealth he provided for her. He often brought a small, rare trinket home to her just to see her excited reaction. Sara was a good woman who appreciated the blessing that Jove had bestowed upon them and she was generous in her charity work. Sara volunteer her time and his money to those less fortunate. When the famine the previous season had hit the city, Sara donated money and food to those less fortunate, unlike many of the other wealthy who had hoarded their food and demanded payment from the poor for a crumb. Sara and Angus had followed the teachings of Jove that all are entitled to the riches of the world.

Sara was now gone and Angus was alone. But, Sara’s death was not the only thing on Angus’ mind. News came that Caroline herself had been kidnapped and sacrificed by diabolists. Caroline was dead and Angus could almost hear the wailing of Jove in the heavens. He felt the pang of Caroline’s death more keenly than even Sara’s death. He felt guilty that this should be so because Sara was his wife and he loved her passionately. Caroline was another matter. Caroline had been his mentor and teacher of the great goddess Jove. Caroline had given Angus a clearer and deeper understanding of the ways of Jove. It was Caroline who taught him to listen for the laughter of the goddess in the clinking of coins. It was Caroline who taught Angus to see the goddesses hair in the shimmer of gold.and gaze into the depths of a sapphire and look into the eyes of Jove herself.

Being the senior Guild member, all had looked to him for guidance. All of Magran had looked to him with questions in their eyes. What would happen to them, now that Caroline was gone, they wondered. Their unspoken words gave Angus some unease. He was not the leader. What did he know?

He put down his quill and carried the candle to the shrine of Jove in a separate room of his office. It was a small room, dominated by a golden statue of Jove. He kneeled before the statue and lit the incense before it. He covered his head with his cloth-of-gold, closed his eyes, and began to pray. It was during these mediations that Angus felt most at peace. At one with the diety, as it were. He could let Jove’s blessing wash over him and restore him.

“Jove, goddess of wealth, thank you for a profitable trading day and grant that tomorrow bring even greater riches.” He stopped and looked at the statue trying to clear his mind of all of the loss. The incense was heady and fragrant and it burned his eyes but he loved the smell of it.

He closed his eyes again to help blink away the tears that formed from the incense. “Jove, I grieve for the loss of Sara and I pray that you replace her loss with the wealth of your light. “

“Tell me what I must do about Caroline. Show me the way of Jove so that we can endure her loss. The people are frightened about the evil that they have seen and heard and are looking for guidance.”

Falling ever deeper into his mediation, Angus reached a place of peace deeper than he had ever reached before. Suddenly, he could not control the meditation and he began to fall ever deeper into a trance. As he fell, he realized that he was not falling at all but rising towards a burning golden light. Inside the light was a woman with sapphires for eyes and hair of spun gold.

Then I will give you to them.

Jove’s voice shimmered as she spoke to him. The richness of her presence astounded Angus. He had never seen a vision so striking. The heat of her warmth touched every nerve in his body as if the heat was holding him firmly to the ground, even though he floated high above the earth.

Caroline’s soul is with me in the heavens. She has served me well and obediently and deserves eternal paradise. Bring her body to my temple in Jovian. Embalm her and encase her in gold and diamonds. She is my martyr and you, Angus, will take her place and be my prophet.

Angus’ eyes were tearing but not from the incense. They were tearing from the great light of Jove.

Much has happened to the gods and evil is showing its face on Eiran. I need a prophet to lead my people and keep them safe.

Angus was dazzled by the goddess’ presence. He felt an elation of power surging through his body. He saw wealth as vast and unending as time itself.

I choose you, Angus, to be my new prophet. Your devotion to me is plain and your gift for trade and profit is not exceeded. You influence will be a great boon to my future plans.

You are to be close to me. Come, walk into my embrace……