Stelae of Typhon

I could have manifested, but I dislike the sticky feeling my eyes have in the mortal world. And what's that sweating thing about, anyway? Ick.

I suppose I'd feel differently if I'd actually come from a mortal. Not the case. As near as I can tell, I'm one of the 'wild-born'. Not my title for us, but no sense in bucking the system. Basically, I'm a bunch of belief that congealed around a spirit and got driven to near insanity by the prayers that just CONSTANTLY roll in. Is this color of lipstick really offensive? Could you kill my husband, please? Can you turn me into a fish for a day? Oh Typhon, I don't want to die here, please calm this snake! I don't get to be calm, annoyed by all these requests, how am I supposed to calm down a snake?

But the prayer that got to me was one of hunger. My people were fisher-folk driven from the shores of the great lake nearby. Duh, go where there's fish. Mortal and Moron share over half their letters. Coincidence? I don't think so. But travel is dangerous, so I got together with a bunch of other tribes. Their deities and I hashed out a rudimentary agreement, and we should have a fairly large and diverse city in just a season or two. Right there on the coast, with an entire SEA of fish. Morons.

Anyway, I didn't want to go myself, and the dream thing isn't really me. So I sent a snake, and let it order them to the coast. So they sat, and debated, and whined about how hungry they were. And finally, they decided to move to where the fish were. I don't know which was more miraculous - my talking snake or that they made the obvious decision before starving to death. At least they had the sense of mind to put up a few huts in addition to the dock I ordered. Seems that mortals have to build their homes rather than just find a pliable spot in the heavens.

I know, I know. Obvious to you. Never was mortal, learning this stuff as my worshippers complain about it. In retrospect, I probably should have made commandments about how to pray, but I feel I get an honest feedback the way it is. And I've noticed the Belief flows freely that way. I may not have the most belief of the pantheon that's forming, but I'm not exactly in last place, either. Go figure that Night-Singer managed the most with the least investment. Dang dream-competent deities.

Well, for having only been around for two seasons, I'm actually learning quite quickly. Now I just need to keep my worshippers from converting to worship my 'allies', and keep watch for Loves-Women and Bears-Children to keep them from out-breeding my followers, and my people should prosper. I suppose they'll get their own government; I kind of forgot to pick one for them. Whatever, my prayers aren't filled with a sense of oppression and despair, so my people aren't discriminated against. Except by the followers of Lightning-Mind. If that bigot weren't so potentially useful, I'd be tempted to build up some terror and send some sea vipers to explain to his priesthood that pretty much everyone is allergic to their venom.

But control isn't my thing, either. Look at the sea; you'll find it free. The tide rolls in; the tide rolls out. Big waves or small, smooth or stormy. As IT wills, not as others command it. I knew I was a sea god, I love that place. Mainly because it washes that icky sweat right away. Water, salt, little bits of air; everything a deity needs to be comfortable with, right there like a humongous stew. And just full of life and other useful things! No wonder the undines like it so much.

But the undines aren't my big concern, nor gnomes (made of rock, can't swim so well, I guess they won't harass my people), nor even the salamander slavers. Nope, it's the humans. Not My humans, mind you. Love those folks, in spite of all the trouble they cause me. Without them, I'd just hang out in the Burning Emerald Valley (my dominion) and be BORED. I mean, you'd think that with the variety of dancing flames, that I could keep myself distracted for at least a week. No such luck, I need the mortals. I need the prayers. I need to smell out what's happening, not use my Divine Smell to suss it out directly.

Nah, the humans causing the problems are those other tribes that we joined for 'safety' during our travels. Thought-Bringer's people (Lightning-Thought, from earlier, I use different names for the same folk. Don't worry, there's only four of them right now. I'll try to keep them seperate until you can tell who they are.) are just intolerant and rude and violent. Fortunately, they tend to throw bulky, unwieldy objects, so the need for vengeance is minimal and there hasn't been a blood feud - yet. Not that I'd mind having a few souls to pick up, I just don't see that as advantageous. From what I understand, dead folk don't generate the tasty faith that living ones do. No variety or spice or something like that. Ah, SPARK! Spark of life. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I want more worshippers, rather than less.

Which means I have to put up with Bed-Athelete and Eternal-Midwife. One brings fertility and the other aids in childbirth; it's just a matter of persuading them to do these things for my people as well as their own. Love-and-War wants to head south and put the smackdown on the slavers. Hey, no objection here. If my followers get assigned to row in galleys, they're still close to the sea. Very close, if their boat leaks.

Doctor-Mother is annoying for another reason. We agreed on a communal hospital, and already her doctors are running around, pretending they run the whole complex. That's going to cause friction later; at least I hope it's later rather than sooner.

And finally, there is Nightlord. He actually seems fairly lenient on his people; clearly they respect that more than my people do. He got his people moving with the least amount of effort, and reaped AMAZING profits. Oh well, season one to him. In any event, his followers seem the most compatible with mine. For now, anyway. It could also be that they're across the city from mine.

But I can see this stelae is almost full of runes, so I'll stop talking to it now. I'm sure another one will grow from the ground soon.

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Which means I have to put up with Bed-Athelete and Eternal-Midwife. One brings fertility and the other aids in childbirth; it's just a matter of persuading them to do these things for my people as well as their own.

I busted out laughing at these two names hehe. So true about breeding more followers.

Good story so far. Looking forward to hearing more. Is this part of a game you are running?

I plan to make up a followers rule for long campaigns instead of relying on the random chart to generate kids. Dont worry it will not change anything, just add flavor

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Is this part of a game you are running?

Actually, it's a game he's playing in. I wasn't sure initially, so I checked and learned he was aprt of the UHCL Gamers' Guild too. I started running NGoM last night as a demonstration and introduction, and it caught on quite well. The game has nothing to do with the story I'm writing, incidentally.

Very cool, no?

Yes very cool.

Fate wrote:

I plan to make up a followers rule for long campaigns instead of relying on the random chart to generate kids.

Out of curiosity, where do I find the random chart? I was just planning to use a formula based on Habitat, Temperament, and some other variables.

Humans produce +1 person per 10 tribesmen per year. Lush grants a +1 to the base, Ample +0, Harsh -1, Uninhabitable -2

Birth or Fertility God allied to you in the Pantheon +1 to base
Disease God allied to you in the Pantheon +1 to base
Birth or Fertility God against you in Pantheon -1 to base
Disease God against you in Pantheon -1 to base

You are a Birth or Fertility god +2 to base

You can only gain half your total population a year maximum.


Things like that. Working on a death rate formula similar, but not quite... I haven't had to consider much more for my group at present. They started in Rothena and instead of going to one of the existing cities, they've set up a village of their own at the natural harbor (looks like one on the map) at the border of Rothena and Guthenoth, north of Vohens.

I'm trying to not mess with your Stelae for season one, but because of talking about the game so much, I have attracted the attention of other players and it is possible there may be two, perhaps four new gods joining the game in season two. I gave them a rough introduction to season one, and they used negligible Belief in season one, separate from the rest of the pantheon. In spite of your absence we proceeded into the start of season two with their tribes encountering the pantheon's tribes. As they came from one point Celd of Raanward, I ruled that they didn't encounter your people as your tribesmen were busy building your dock temple. They didn't enter the temple of health (Hospital) either, so your medics didn't run into them either. None of you have as of yet put forth a leader to the pantheon or decided on where all of you meet to take care of pantheon business, so I ruled (again) that you were unaware of the actions of the other gods as their people began interacting with the newcomers. We will have to talk sometime regarding your start of season two actions of which the other gods are not aware.

So that you don't fall behind on the action, I have a blow by blow for you.

Season One:
Enter two new gods - The God of Mankind and the God of the Hunt.

God of Mankind spends 1 belief and manifests before his people promising to lead them to the "promised land." ("Promised land," only because he's promised it to them.) They gather grains and sheep to take with them and leave their homes for untold prosperity.

God of the Hunt appears for free as an illusion to his people in order to instruct them to train horses to carry their weight and lead them to better hunting grounds. Both tribes succeed moderately at corralling sheep and horses respectively, and training the horses to be ridden.

Season two:
Lightning Mind sends some of his people to locate an existing cave system with a river to use as a sewer for the village. He finds it runs to your harbor and decides against making it a sewer. (No conflicts, I didn't feel it was appropriate to start slaughtering tribesmen this early in the game.)

He convinces Nightlord to dig a well using his Oblivion domain to literally "Obliviate" a column of earth in town where water can be drawn. The town gained a well, and on Eternal Midiwfe's request, Lightning Mind sent his people to build a mud-brick wall up around the well to prevent people falling in and dying.

The two new gods come to town from toward the lakes and encounter the edge of your pantheon's lands and are greeted/challenged by Lightning-mind, Nightlord, and Eternal Midwife (she loves that name by the way).

God of the Hunt stays, God of mankind moves a mile away and makes a home nearby.

Exploring the area, his people find several edible foods, several dangerous monsters (avoiding them thankfully) several herd animals and a stream flowing into a cavern.

Bed-Athlete decides he's going to spend his time considering what to do about making himself a hero.

God of the Hunt and Nightlord send out scouting parties together, and find the same things God of Mankind found, as well as a household scale group of unaligned barbarian trappers checking their traps. They followed the party of trappers for five days until the unaligned barbarians encountered three large monsters (I said Giant Lizards, but I think mine had different stats than from the book. God of the Hunt shrank the Lizards down to the size of iguanas, and the barbarians made the kill.

He and Nightlord both manifested physically before the barbarians, and God of the Hunt immediately tried to convince them to follow him.

God of the Hunt gained 10 Mind d8 Trappers.

God of Mankind (sub-domains of animal, agriculture, and ??? I forget.) Uses a miracle to turn his sheep into BATTLE SHEEP! (Body d10, Mind d4, Spirit d4, 1 sheep is Household scale) using permanent miracles, hoping to breed more Battle Sheep.

We called things there so you could get back in next week without incident. God of the Hunt will not be present next week, and God of Mankind isn't sure he wants to play a roleplaying game every week.

I've just realized what it is about pantheons that has me on edge. There are all these insane deities, and they're always near my worshippers, all the time. It might be some kind of snake territoriality, but then why do serpents form nests? Maybe I'd be more comfortable if they were all snakes. No, no, I'd feel worse; they'd make poor snakes.

One season paying attention to the world, one season visiting the heavens. That was the plan, anyway. What did my worshippers do while I was away? They continued working on boats, of course. Some of my worshippers wonder why they are working on a dock rather than house-boats. Mind you, I'd enjoy house-boats, but was unable to contact either undine deity to see how they feel about it. I suppose I'd actually need a favor from Overmind to provide my worshippers with those, but it would be a favor well spent.

Anyway, I gained two neighbors. One is another self-styled god of mankind; have to watch him for attempts to slaughter my worshippers in order to purify humanity. He's already attempting to breed carnivorous sheep, but it may be that he's just leery of being near so many other peoples. Or maybe he thinks he can get worship from the sheep and feed them the souls of his current worshippers. Hmm. Nah, too fluffy for me, and my worshippers are shunned enough as it is.

The other is Huntsman, who seems too busy hunting beasts to hunt my worshippers. He has converted a number of barbarians, though. Building his income already - I'll need to watch him closely. What's taking those dang mortals so long? I need to find a deity of the earth and get them better stones to work with. Or a nature deity, to breed some manner of kelp that grows boats. Or something. I know mortals have limits, but why do mine seem more limited than most?

Everthoughts and Destroyer got together and made a well. I suppose the people need that, since so many of my worshippers were upset about that. They've assembled some nice prayers on the issue of water; I think I'll take them to heart. Not the 'give us gills that we can breathe the sea', but the ones that provide them drinkable water. Or maybe allow them to drink sea water. But with the proposed sewer opening right by my holy docks? I think I'll keep to the original plan.

Anyway, Oghmi the Lesser was in one of his fugue states. I stayed there and tried to be comforting (and to stay out of his not-sunlight, he hates it when my shadow touches him). I really feel for him, and not just because he's the first soul I ever met. I have dreams, sometimes, of stealing him away from the Gardens, having Fertility Lord and Birth Mother work miracles, and having him born and living a life by the time the entire force of grapplers drags me screaming to Fate to answer for my crime. But I didn't get a chance to ask Oghmi if he wanted to live again.

I suppose it put me off. I tried walking the circumference of the Infinite Maze, but it just got - boring. Oh, and the Demigoddess of Blood Blossoms thinks I'm a simpleton for attempting it. Fortunately, she and her cadre of man-killing archers are on a different island entirely. And she's convinced that my followers would die out before she could get to them. I suppose it was that, more than anything, that brought my attentions back to the mortal realm before summer had ended.

Oh, next season is the reaping of faith for me! I'm so excited, my first harvest of tasty belief. Not that I'm expecting a lot of faith from Bengor and his family; theirs is like pickled brine. I don't really like their sour and sarcastic method of prayer, but the truth is that their vitriolic worship makes me appreciate the gems among my followers. Besides, their self-centered prayers would be the first place I'd hear about anything my followers needed.

Sadly, I don't control the sun or the rains or the smells coming from the hospital. If I do grant miracles to my followers, I should give them something - they'd actually use it. And use it and use it, until my Faith Pool was drained. (sigh) I suppose I should be happy they exist, and choose to follow me, even if they never seem thankful for it. I don't understand; they pray of hate and neglect, yet put in their hours making the dock and remain stalwart worshippers, with as much belief as any other followers.

Mortals = Wierd. It's just part of their condition, I suppose.

Oh, and one thought before I finish this stela. I had thought last time that I should speak to the first stela when it appeared. This one actually showed up when I was feeling talkative. What if the stelae appear not because of some natural phenomena of the Burning Emerald Valley, but just because I want to talk? I'm going to be so embarassed if that's the case. I mean, who talks to a bunch of rocks?

Well, obviously I do.

OMG LMAO! "who talks to rocks?"

I believe we have a new Guidl Motto...

LMAO

Varchild_Marquee wrote:

The two new gods come to town from toward the lakes and encounter the edge of your pantheon's lands and are greeted/challenged by Lightning-mind, Nightlord, and Eternal Midwife (she loves that name by the way).

You would like to think that wouldn't you?

Warrah the Healer

Obviously I need a SARCASM sign...

Of all the problems I expected from my fellow deities, I forgot to count my own self into the mix. I will never, never, ne-ver send out lone shamans to scout again. At least no more than I am willing to miracle out of danger. At least one of them ended up marrying into a tribe of the godless. As for the rest, this area is swarming with large beasts.

The sharks, them I brought to the reef. One giant eel. It was supposed to be so simple. The warriors go in, they kill it with a little miraculous help, and the reef with its fish belongs to my people. Enter the sharks, drawn by blood. Lots of sharks, and not just the little ones. I'm new to this world, but even I had envisioned sharks that could devour a village and still be hungry. Leaving a blood trail got rid of the large ones - for now - but I sense they'll be back.

Pthunlos. Funless. Anyone else find it just odd that the two sound similar?

Actually, the most valuable of my followers this season turned out to be the merchants. Think of a giant C shape around the bay. At one end, the new arrival, Tree of Plenty and her brother Voidmaster. More on them later. From there, the trade route extends into my village, then to Wannah's, and then to Warbreeder's. The far end of the route is with Cookmaster. The deity wanted to export cooking, and is too interested in the locations of his fellow deities. Whatever, Warmaster is between his people and mine.

I am fairly non-human, yet I treat my people humanely. Plenty-Bringer and Oblivion-Bearer are both spawned of demons, yet their people are well tended. So nearly as I can tell, the most abused people are those whose deities actually come from humans. War-Starter is having his people beat each other with clubs to determine his hero. Forgive me if I prefer my hero be able to think, something that being hit multiple times with a club on the head doesn't enhance.

I know that sooner or later there will be trouble, I'm just hoping on later. I don't have Nightlord's knack at this. Some of my miracles are costly, more so than the surge of Belief that returns from victory. And Nightlord also boasts his first victory over a Leviathan; I'm not sure his putting its soul on display is exactly in harmony with Fate's wishes, but for the moment, she's been silent about the matter.

And the need of my neighbors for poisons from the sea rather than fish bothers me. They are easy enough for my followers to gather, and each connected party both desires and supplies something. So the trade route will continue, if not prosper. But then, how much prosperity do my people need? I worry that they might become jealous of the Tree of Bounty. Whatever, I have done the best for my people that I know how without exhausting myself. Somehow, I know this would lead to disaster for my people.

It is like that feeling of 'clean air' before a lightning strike. Now if only I weren't sure that one of my gods that flings it.

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The far end of the route is with Cookmaster. The deity wanted to export cooking, and is too interested in the locations of his fellow deities.

It's a "human thing". They not only need to eat (and sleep and all those other inconvenient time-wasters), they need to eat a great many *different sorts* of things. Or else they stop moving and rot. Which really screws up the Belief-generation, let me tell you.

So the mortals really do need to be trading their foods back and forth. (Let them eat their vegetables, it's good for YOU.)

Trust me on this. I used to be one myself. (And this whole Omnipotent Deity gig? Much much better than mortality. You can trust me on that, too.)

Oddly, I'm also noticing that the deities who used to be mortal all seem to be insane. Except me, of course!

tygerr wrote:

Oddly, I'm also noticing that the deities who used to be mortal all seem to be insane. Except me, of course!

I offer you medics to go along w/ your hunting parties for a portion of the kill and you say I'm insane I thought that was quite reasonable.

Warrah the Healer

Oh you poor helpless animals. Let's heal you up so you can fight those hunters again. Oh, dead now? Awwwww... Hey, I deserve a portion of that kill! Your sanity is a different kind than mine.

Oopsie. ...except me and Warrah, it seems. (I didn't know her origins. I was in particular thinking of The Thrower Of Chairs and the Sheeplord.)

(Note to self--even as an All-Powerful God, it's best to stay on good terms withe the Healer!)

Rhishisikk wrote:

Oh you poor helpless animals. Let's heal you up so you can fight those hunters again. Oh, dead now? Awwwww... Hey, I deserve a portion of that kill! Your sanity is a different kind than mine.

And they say I'm insane! If you want to heal them before you kill them Typhoon, that's your business. I just send someone w/ the hunting party w/ medical supplies ready, & if one of the hunters gets hurt, the medic heals them. Medic gets a meal or two out of it. I don't know where Typhoon gets these weird ideas from.