Apothos comes from the root of the word "Apathy," due to the fact that Apothos himself was relatively disinterested in most of the process of Creation. He was not inspired by the acts of his fellow deities during their attempts to create value within it, nor was he incensed by the efforts like those who thought it could have been done better. While some acts or others might have been vaguely intriguing to him, in general Apothos remained detached and uncaring. In fact, the only reason why Apothos had ever gotten as involved in the process as he did, was that he truly had nothing else to focus on. For reality and Creation was, for lack of a better analogy, the only thing that was on.
The thing that makes it ironic, then, is the fact that his two contributions to Creation had such tremendous impact upon all of the rest. His first Creation was dragons. And his second, humanity. And both concluded very separate eras in the process of Creation itself.
First came Dragons, and upon nothing more than the simple utterance of "I wonder..." One would potentially wonder, though, what was so significant about Dragons, as opposed to the initial Creation of life itself. Or so many of the other aspects of Creation. The point was that Dragons pushed the limits of every other act of Creation before it. Dragons were just like beasts and birds to the degree that they preyed upon others, they ruled from either above or below, but they stretched the limits of what other creatures could do. Dragons were the first creatures to walk upon Creation with sentience greater than the beasts. They were therefore not only conscious, but SELF-conscious. In addition, they pushed the laws of physics with their ability to fly or burrow with bodies that otherwise would have been difficult to produce such efforts. They were mortal, yes, but their lifespans lasted so long that it was difficult to see how that could possibly make a difference.
Everything about Dragons sent awe through the rest of the deities. Here were creatures that ruled over the rest of Creation as if it had been placed there for their amusement. And yet they lacked any unifying purpose. Most of the deaths of the dragons that occurred had been by the teeth and claws of their own kind. Some of the Dragons became reclusive to themselves and wallowed in whatever holes they could find until they could find their deaths. Others traveled abroad and left paths of destruction everywhere they went. Still others found environments they loved, and protected them and helped them thrive and prosper, even defending them from harm caused by others of their kind. Dragons did as they would without any singular driving force, with a greater variety than even Eleuth had instilled within the world.
Each deity, however, viewed Dragons with a different mindset. Fyrste, quite obviously, saw them as a threat. An act of destruction for which Creation itself would be undone. Which was what prompted him to try to counter Dragons themselves with the Creation of a mortal race. Nasci, as always, saw potential for beauty and harmony even within the most destructive of the Dragons, and thought that they too would find a home within the world in some way. Scieppend saw their potential both to Create and to Destroy, and was puzzled by them, thus attempting to draw her own attention away from the problem of their existence and focusing on other, newer Creations herself. Eleuth was both delighted and frightened by what he saw. He was delighted to consider creatures that could make so many choices and have such infinite variety to them, but also ultimately saw the potential within Dragonkind to even overthrow the very essence of the deity-hood of each of his own kind. Heah found the entire Creation of Dragons entirely distasteful for their boundless variations were so difficult to track and quantify. Weyveren felt embittered that such destructive creatures were not his own idea, and immediately hated them for jealousy that Apothos had come up with the idea first. Malithia saw potential in them to finally unmake what had been made, and start anew. Koshiri, in the meantime, saw that they pushed the limits of all Creation, yet still remained confined within them, and therefore saw them as yet another failure and obstacle to the plan of unmaking Creation.
What also seemed to arise within the birth of Dragons, however, was something else entirely. It was the birth of Magic. Those magics were limited, and seemed trivial compared to the other abilities possessed by Dragonkind at the time, but yet it was still something of wonder to many of the deities. What was this power, and how did it come to pass? How exactly was it that Dragons themselves came to begin to command such a power? And the power itself varied amongst those Dragons who commanded it. Some Dragons utilized their powers over nature and the elements. Others utilized it as a tool of rage and destruction. And still others used Magic to control, manipulate, and order the world around them. The deities made other theories about Magic, as well, and accused Apothos of being the Creator of such a force.
However, that was not the case, though no denials by Apothos himself had ever been able to convince many of the other deities to the contrary. The true, raw essence of Magic was simply the raw concentration of unrealized Possibility. It was the very same power that the deities had utilized to Create the universe themselves, in smaller quantities. What became true, is that those creatures with sentience, in the form of self-consciousness, were granted some portion of the powers of the deities themselves to shape the world around them.
It should be noted, however, that Magic itself is not available for use by just any being or creature with self-consciousness, however. In fact, only a very small minority of any member of each race, including Dragons themselves, have ever been able to develop magical powers at all. Many theorists have spent their lifetimes trying to consider such a reason, as well. Particularly given the fact that each of the first eight mortal races have very particular specializations within Magical power at all, while humans and Dragons both seem to be able to pick up particular pieces of various types of Magic from the other races' specialties. Dragons and Humans, therefore, are considered the "jacks of all trades, masters of none," but even that is misleading. For it is rare for even the most Magically gifted Human or Dragon to utilize more than just one form of Magic. As rare amongst Magicians as Magicians are amongst the rest of the populace.
What is it that brings one into contact with the powers of the divine, then? What is the realm of Magic that proves to be so elusive of most of the population? Magic is the realm of the Dreamers. The Questioners. Those who take their own self-consciousness to another level entirely. Therefore, it is not simply a matter of whether one does or does not have the ability to develop an affinity for Magic, it is that few ever take the time to do so.
Magic is not just for those who ask questions, however. The sad fact is that many devoted scientists have dedicated their lifetimes trying to develop magical talents, continually asking themselves questions time and again. The problem is that these individuals are consistently asking the wrong questions. For they are infinitely interested simply in the question "How?" Where Magic as a power is firmly rooted in the crafting of the question "Why?" As such, it is the philosophers, the dreamers, and those whose questions seem the most firmly impractical who seem most suited to wielding the Arcane Arts. For even beasts are able to experiment, find and utilize tools, and manipulate their environment through use of the question How? It is only those creatures that are self-conscious, that is, conscious of their own consciousness, that even have the ability to delve into the Magics of the world.
And it is that very self-consciousness that composes the fabric of Magic itself. For their is no Possibility without somebody to Dream that Possibility into a Reality. And thus were the deities to find that their mortal Creations even surpassed themselves in overall power, not individually, but wholly, as they conjointly delved into the realms of Possibility to create cultures, societies, and communions with one another in ways that the deities had never before imagined. Creation fell out of the hands of the Deities, and into the hands of mortals.
And thus, with the final Creations of the deities being their own mortal races, it was Apothos who concluded the act of Creation once again, with the Creation of Humanity. Humanity was a race that he Created with the greatest potential for Possibility. They were not bent towards their own destinies, as the Luthans, nor were they Created to celebrate, perpetuate, or defend Creation as the Changelings, Artere, and Bergan were. They were not made to facilitate Destruction as the Algein, Pueri, or Heuvians. And they were not merely tools for the study of Creation as the Makhan. They were, however, still an experiment by Apothos. The key, for Apothos, to answer the questions regarding a Prime Creator, or a sense of whether Creation was or was not worthy of sustenance, would lie within the race that had the greatest sway over Possibility itself. And thus were Humans created to be the bearers of the greatest questions of Creation.
Humans have potential for both Creation and Destruction, they can have extremely law-bound principles that control variances for the purpose of study. They also are boundless in their own variations and desires. Humanity encompasses much of the possibility of every other race and deity, to some degree. And within all of that Possibility, it was Apothos's feeling, that eventually some answers would be forthcoming. And it would happen without him having to intervene in any further way, for the answers would come directly from the actions and choices of the mortals themselves. And thus did Apothos, the most distant of the deities, absolve himself from any further responsibility in the world, and therefore left it to sleep ever after.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
Writing Journal: Deities and Races, Volume VIII; Eleuth and the Luthans
Eleuth comes from the word "Freedom," which is exactly how I conceived of the idea for that deity. The race that he created being named directly after him, the Luthans, are the epitome of a free species.
Eleuth has already been described as having been intrigued more than anything else by the plight that the deities themselves found themselves in. While he seems insistent upon his assertion that there is no Prime Creator, Eleuth's belief is that the rest of existence and reality is of their own makings.
Eleuth watched with mostly amusement and fascination at the works of the other deities in the course of Creation, and only stepped in at what later seemed to be the last moment, when Heah created orderly systems for the universe.
Eleuth's fear in that moment was that all of existence, not only Creation, but the actions of the deities themselves as well, would devolve into mindless, predictable realities, which caused Eleuth to balk and imagine an eternity without any sort of surprise or variation. In effect, Eleuth's greatest fear is of an eternity of boredom.
As such, his action within Creation was to add variation and diversity to all of existence, such that no two living things will ever be exactly alike. He could not undo Heah's impact by creating rules and laws by which the universe behaved, but within those confines, Eleuth still found ways to create infinite variety within the world.
Later, as the various deities were creating their mortal races, Eleuth again watched in wonder. He found himself feeling something of a mix between horror and fascination as most of the deities Created races that would serve their own ends, but who were otherwise nothing other than tools of their Creators' own desires. Eleuth felt strongly that, although he had his own thoughts regarding his own race's goals, that ultimately, they should be responsible for their own destinies. In fact, his entire goal FOR his race was to show to the rest of the mortal world, and hopefully to the deities themselves, that they ARE responsible for their own destinies.
And thus were the Luthans born. In some ways, they were given the greatest gifts of all of the mortal races from their Creator, though they were also given the greatest of burdens, as well. For each one of them is able to see a short duration of all of the possible futures before them. Thus, every Luthan is burdened with the reality that they are TRULY choosing each of their actions, as they know exactly what the consequences of their acts are, as well as what the consequences would be if they chose a different course. No Luthan can ever plead ignorance or naivete when they take a course of action that another finds unpleasant. They are, at base, ultimately responsible for their own choices.
And thus do most Luthans act in the interest of forcing the rest of Creation to see that they are likewise responsible for their own courses of action. For many Luthans, they see many things like politics and policy to be such a major bungling job for many races, and particularly in interpersonal relationships, Luthans view other races as a curiosity. For their part, they end up believing that most individuals spend more of their lifetimes trying to avoid responsibility or having to actually define themselves than they do actually living their lives. And in some cases, this actually brings about a certain jealousy in many Luthans, who would rather mitigate some of their own responsibilities and accept the comforts of ignorance. After all, every Luthan was given enough freedom from their Creator to choose their own destiny, even if that leads to wishing that they had no control over their own destiny whatsoever...
Another interesting thing to note regarding the Luthan race is that they are a race who do not, for the most part, believe in luck. For when you are merely able to jump aside before lightning strikes, or you recognize that shifting your palm slightly before releasing the dice will have a completely different outcome, you tend to find that what most other races denote as "luck" is simply foreseeing an outcome that has too many variables for you to be able to entirely control or maneuver.
In terms of other races' views and responses to Luthans, the responses tend to be a mixed bag. Luthans have no organized society of their own, but instead mix in with various other races, or tend to live nomadic sorts of lives on their own. And yet, they always seem to be a bit at odds with the rest of the world around them. When people are in bad situations, having somebody tell them that they are in control of their situation and that they are choosing to remain in their unhappy state tend to not be smiled upon. At the same time, though Luthans themselves tend not to believe in such a thing as luck, they always seem by others to be extraordinary benefactors of said resource. If they play at games of chance, they always seem to win. When there is an opportunity for one to stride ahead compared to somebody else, the Luthan always seems to find the way to get the edge. Luthans, therefore, regularly engender bitterness amongst those who do not necessarily control their own destinies. And at the same time, most Luthans actively manipulate many situations in order to prove the need to take responsibility for one's actions, even to the potential detriment of individuals or societies at times. As such, they are not often readily trusted, if not actively chased out or executed.
In the end, however, every Luthan knows that he/she brought him/herself to their own destinies through the choices that they made. And not a single one of them would have made different choices if they knew then what they know now...
Eleuth has already been described as having been intrigued more than anything else by the plight that the deities themselves found themselves in. While he seems insistent upon his assertion that there is no Prime Creator, Eleuth's belief is that the rest of existence and reality is of their own makings.
Eleuth watched with mostly amusement and fascination at the works of the other deities in the course of Creation, and only stepped in at what later seemed to be the last moment, when Heah created orderly systems for the universe.
Eleuth's fear in that moment was that all of existence, not only Creation, but the actions of the deities themselves as well, would devolve into mindless, predictable realities, which caused Eleuth to balk and imagine an eternity without any sort of surprise or variation. In effect, Eleuth's greatest fear is of an eternity of boredom.
As such, his action within Creation was to add variation and diversity to all of existence, such that no two living things will ever be exactly alike. He could not undo Heah's impact by creating rules and laws by which the universe behaved, but within those confines, Eleuth still found ways to create infinite variety within the world.
Later, as the various deities were creating their mortal races, Eleuth again watched in wonder. He found himself feeling something of a mix between horror and fascination as most of the deities Created races that would serve their own ends, but who were otherwise nothing other than tools of their Creators' own desires. Eleuth felt strongly that, although he had his own thoughts regarding his own race's goals, that ultimately, they should be responsible for their own destinies. In fact, his entire goal FOR his race was to show to the rest of the mortal world, and hopefully to the deities themselves, that they ARE responsible for their own destinies.
And thus were the Luthans born. In some ways, they were given the greatest gifts of all of the mortal races from their Creator, though they were also given the greatest of burdens, as well. For each one of them is able to see a short duration of all of the possible futures before them. Thus, every Luthan is burdened with the reality that they are TRULY choosing each of their actions, as they know exactly what the consequences of their acts are, as well as what the consequences would be if they chose a different course. No Luthan can ever plead ignorance or naivete when they take a course of action that another finds unpleasant. They are, at base, ultimately responsible for their own choices.
And thus do most Luthans act in the interest of forcing the rest of Creation to see that they are likewise responsible for their own courses of action. For many Luthans, they see many things like politics and policy to be such a major bungling job for many races, and particularly in interpersonal relationships, Luthans view other races as a curiosity. For their part, they end up believing that most individuals spend more of their lifetimes trying to avoid responsibility or having to actually define themselves than they do actually living their lives. And in some cases, this actually brings about a certain jealousy in many Luthans, who would rather mitigate some of their own responsibilities and accept the comforts of ignorance. After all, every Luthan was given enough freedom from their Creator to choose their own destiny, even if that leads to wishing that they had no control over their own destiny whatsoever...
Another interesting thing to note regarding the Luthan race is that they are a race who do not, for the most part, believe in luck. For when you are merely able to jump aside before lightning strikes, or you recognize that shifting your palm slightly before releasing the dice will have a completely different outcome, you tend to find that what most other races denote as "luck" is simply foreseeing an outcome that has too many variables for you to be able to entirely control or maneuver.
In terms of other races' views and responses to Luthans, the responses tend to be a mixed bag. Luthans have no organized society of their own, but instead mix in with various other races, or tend to live nomadic sorts of lives on their own. And yet, they always seem to be a bit at odds with the rest of the world around them. When people are in bad situations, having somebody tell them that they are in control of their situation and that they are choosing to remain in their unhappy state tend to not be smiled upon. At the same time, though Luthans themselves tend not to believe in such a thing as luck, they always seem by others to be extraordinary benefactors of said resource. If they play at games of chance, they always seem to win. When there is an opportunity for one to stride ahead compared to somebody else, the Luthan always seems to find the way to get the edge. Luthans, therefore, regularly engender bitterness amongst those who do not necessarily control their own destinies. And at the same time, most Luthans actively manipulate many situations in order to prove the need to take responsibility for one's actions, even to the potential detriment of individuals or societies at times. As such, they are not often readily trusted, if not actively chased out or executed.
In the end, however, every Luthan knows that he/she brought him/herself to their own destinies through the choices that they made. And not a single one of them would have made different choices if they knew then what they know now...
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Writing Journal: Deities and Races, Volume VII; Heah and the Makhan
The names for Heah and the Makhan are based upon the fact that my concept for them is very mechanical. They are supposed to be the epitome of order, without any blurring of the lines for good or evil, a desire to preserve creation or destroy it, but simply and purely to obey the rules and laws of the world that they live within. Thus, for that mechanical aspect, I started searching for words similar to construction and building. In the end, Heah means "high" which sounds like a far stretch, but apparently all of the old Latin words for things being built or constructed are based upon the concept of heaping things on top of each other. Which sort of makes sense when you consider that without a great deal of technology, a lot of building started out as exactly that. Makhan, of course, is relatively self-explanatory as a slight variation on the word associated with Making, thus kind of turning them into "The Made."
Heah is the final deity, along with Fyrste and Malithia, who believes that there is a Prime Creator, and who therefore thinks that there is a very particular plan or map for the universe and Creation. However, unlike Fyrste, he does not assume that what has been done necessarily follows along that plan, with the fact that what has been done being unable to be undone not necessarily being evidence that what was done was somehow "right" or following along that plan. However, he is also not in agreement with Malithia that what has been done was wrong, and that it should be destroyed in order to start doing things along the "true" path of the Creator.
Instead, Heah is the eternal scientist. While Koshiri is also methodical in her own path, Koshiri still acts upon her own emotions and feelings, with a certain compulsion towards her sense that Creation is wrong somehow. Heah, in the meantime, does not act towards the pursuit of either the preservation OR the destruction of Creation at all. Instead, Heah has acted towards nothing but the attempt to determine through facts what may or may not have fallen into the plan of the Prime Creator.
The ironic thing here is that Heah *has* acted upon an initial assumption that there IS a Prime Creator in the first place, but given that initial assumption, Heah has not made any further major assumptions about Creation. As such, Heah did very little in the acts of Creation, as he was attempting to formulate a judgement regarding Creation itself.
However, once Koshiri created the inevitability of Death, Heah recognized that the constant feuding between those deities who wanted to preserve and destroy Creation would not end soon. He also recognized that their actions upon Creation were being done reflexively against one another, and happening too fast to study properly. And so Heah's primary action within Creation was to put order and systems to the universe. Suddenly, creatures would still eventually die, but they would go through a particular course of aging and development first. Certain physical properties and laws persisted from one creature or object to another. There was a certain consistency and predictability to Creation as a whole. This made it easier in Heah's mind to study and test certain aspects of Creation in order to make a final judgment regarding the need to Preserve or Destroy it.
By the time the deities began to Create their mortal races, it had become clear that they would have very little to do with direct impact upon Creation itself. For one thing about the inability of the deities to undo what had been done, was that every act that they had taken reduced the possibility for certain other acts. For example, as much as Nasci had attempted to touch Creation to find a way around that inevitability of death, what Koshiri had done could not be undone. There was therefore no way around that aspect of Creation. Just as the initial acts of Creation itself could not be undone. What the gods found, therefore, was that they were actually losing power. Not in a sense of being somehow drained, but because they began with limitless potential before any of that possibility was actualized, but once actualization of Creation began, there were less alternative possibilities that could be enacted. It was almost as if the deities had Created a box for themselves in action.
As such, it was extremely important for each of the deities, in Creating their mortal races, that they Create the race in a way that would allow them to best achieve their individual goals with regard to Creation. Thus, the Makhan were not Created as a tool for the implementation of an overall preservation or destruction of Creation, but instead as a tool to implement Heah's desire to study and categorize Creation. As a means of determining whether Creation was worthy of protection or destruction in the first place.
The Makhan are quite literally a mechanical race. For those with longer backgrounds in mythology or fantasy, they are most closely resembling golems than anything else. However, they are sentient and intelligent. Their society is one of absolute law, of which no Makhan ever disobeys, which helps them to operate and function without need of a disciplinary system.
However, in their interactions with other races, they are not naive to the fact that laws don't mean nearly as much to those other races, nor to the fact that those races do not necessarily recognize the laws of the Makhan. While this does allow them to be relatively forgiving of slight transgressions, they do not hesitate to exact justice upon major violations, in particular in cases of breaches of contracts and agreements. In fact, many races view their system of law to be confusing and foreign because it does not seem intuitive to many, but that system of law is logical and based upon very strict systems. The Makhan revere predictability, and anything that threatens such predictability threatens the basis for their scientific inquiries, muddies the waters, and makes their conclusions inexact. Without predictability, their system would fall apart, and therefore they exact justice against transgressions to such predictability with extreme prejudice.
As such, and as one would predict, this places Heah and the Makhan greatly at odds with Eleuth above all. Even the act of Eleuth upon the world in creating diversity was a source of frustration for Heah's desire to have order and control over his ability to study Creation. And with the Luthans' preoccupation with promoting, and in some cases some may argue forcing, individual choice, Heah and the Makhan cannot quantify specific, observable trends and patterns. For when everything falls to individual will, then there is too much room for variation and inconclusiveness. And these are the greatest threats to Heah's ultimate goals.
The magic of the Makhan is a magic of order and alignment. It is heavily focused upon artifice, granting power to objects and tools than being centered upon individuals. Electricity is another heavy theme for Makhan magics. In fact, heortstaal, or "heartsteel" is one of the primary sources of magic for the Makhan. It is a metal that is both highly electrically conductive, but also acts strongly as a conduit for magical energy, as well. It is at the core of every Makhan, serving as a source for life and power, and has in some rare cases (where a Makhan has been known to intervene in the affairs of another mortal race) been linked with certain healing and life-giving practices amongst other races, as well. However, that is not to say that there are not also many very destructive properties of the magics of the Makhan, as one can no doubt guess by the effects of lightning strikes and the like in general.
Overall, the Makhan are a race that is slow to act, but once motivated to take action for a particular goal, they act decisively and see their actions through to the end. They are therefore capable of being stalwart allies or fearsome opponents, depending upon which side of their inquiries one lies. That is, of course, if one could manage to get any of the Makhan to care enough regarding their existence either way...
Heah is the final deity, along with Fyrste and Malithia, who believes that there is a Prime Creator, and who therefore thinks that there is a very particular plan or map for the universe and Creation. However, unlike Fyrste, he does not assume that what has been done necessarily follows along that plan, with the fact that what has been done being unable to be undone not necessarily being evidence that what was done was somehow "right" or following along that plan. However, he is also not in agreement with Malithia that what has been done was wrong, and that it should be destroyed in order to start doing things along the "true" path of the Creator.
Instead, Heah is the eternal scientist. While Koshiri is also methodical in her own path, Koshiri still acts upon her own emotions and feelings, with a certain compulsion towards her sense that Creation is wrong somehow. Heah, in the meantime, does not act towards the pursuit of either the preservation OR the destruction of Creation at all. Instead, Heah has acted towards nothing but the attempt to determine through facts what may or may not have fallen into the plan of the Prime Creator.
The ironic thing here is that Heah *has* acted upon an initial assumption that there IS a Prime Creator in the first place, but given that initial assumption, Heah has not made any further major assumptions about Creation. As such, Heah did very little in the acts of Creation, as he was attempting to formulate a judgement regarding Creation itself.
However, once Koshiri created the inevitability of Death, Heah recognized that the constant feuding between those deities who wanted to preserve and destroy Creation would not end soon. He also recognized that their actions upon Creation were being done reflexively against one another, and happening too fast to study properly. And so Heah's primary action within Creation was to put order and systems to the universe. Suddenly, creatures would still eventually die, but they would go through a particular course of aging and development first. Certain physical properties and laws persisted from one creature or object to another. There was a certain consistency and predictability to Creation as a whole. This made it easier in Heah's mind to study and test certain aspects of Creation in order to make a final judgment regarding the need to Preserve or Destroy it.
By the time the deities began to Create their mortal races, it had become clear that they would have very little to do with direct impact upon Creation itself. For one thing about the inability of the deities to undo what had been done, was that every act that they had taken reduced the possibility for certain other acts. For example, as much as Nasci had attempted to touch Creation to find a way around that inevitability of death, what Koshiri had done could not be undone. There was therefore no way around that aspect of Creation. Just as the initial acts of Creation itself could not be undone. What the gods found, therefore, was that they were actually losing power. Not in a sense of being somehow drained, but because they began with limitless potential before any of that possibility was actualized, but once actualization of Creation began, there were less alternative possibilities that could be enacted. It was almost as if the deities had Created a box for themselves in action.
As such, it was extremely important for each of the deities, in Creating their mortal races, that they Create the race in a way that would allow them to best achieve their individual goals with regard to Creation. Thus, the Makhan were not Created as a tool for the implementation of an overall preservation or destruction of Creation, but instead as a tool to implement Heah's desire to study and categorize Creation. As a means of determining whether Creation was worthy of protection or destruction in the first place.
The Makhan are quite literally a mechanical race. For those with longer backgrounds in mythology or fantasy, they are most closely resembling golems than anything else. However, they are sentient and intelligent. Their society is one of absolute law, of which no Makhan ever disobeys, which helps them to operate and function without need of a disciplinary system.
However, in their interactions with other races, they are not naive to the fact that laws don't mean nearly as much to those other races, nor to the fact that those races do not necessarily recognize the laws of the Makhan. While this does allow them to be relatively forgiving of slight transgressions, they do not hesitate to exact justice upon major violations, in particular in cases of breaches of contracts and agreements. In fact, many races view their system of law to be confusing and foreign because it does not seem intuitive to many, but that system of law is logical and based upon very strict systems. The Makhan revere predictability, and anything that threatens such predictability threatens the basis for their scientific inquiries, muddies the waters, and makes their conclusions inexact. Without predictability, their system would fall apart, and therefore they exact justice against transgressions to such predictability with extreme prejudice.
As such, and as one would predict, this places Heah and the Makhan greatly at odds with Eleuth above all. Even the act of Eleuth upon the world in creating diversity was a source of frustration for Heah's desire to have order and control over his ability to study Creation. And with the Luthans' preoccupation with promoting, and in some cases some may argue forcing, individual choice, Heah and the Makhan cannot quantify specific, observable trends and patterns. For when everything falls to individual will, then there is too much room for variation and inconclusiveness. And these are the greatest threats to Heah's ultimate goals.
The magic of the Makhan is a magic of order and alignment. It is heavily focused upon artifice, granting power to objects and tools than being centered upon individuals. Electricity is another heavy theme for Makhan magics. In fact, heortstaal, or "heartsteel" is one of the primary sources of magic for the Makhan. It is a metal that is both highly electrically conductive, but also acts strongly as a conduit for magical energy, as well. It is at the core of every Makhan, serving as a source for life and power, and has in some rare cases (where a Makhan has been known to intervene in the affairs of another mortal race) been linked with certain healing and life-giving practices amongst other races, as well. However, that is not to say that there are not also many very destructive properties of the magics of the Makhan, as one can no doubt guess by the effects of lightning strikes and the like in general.
Overall, the Makhan are a race that is slow to act, but once motivated to take action for a particular goal, they act decisively and see their actions through to the end. They are therefore capable of being stalwart allies or fearsome opponents, depending upon which side of their inquiries one lies. That is, of course, if one could manage to get any of the Makhan to care enough regarding their existence either way...
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Writing Journal: Deities and Races, Volume VI; Koshiri and the Pueri
I got the name Koshiri as a combination of the terms Kosmos (universe) and Hostis (enemy). Pueri comes from the term for children, in this case being children of the enemy.
Koshiri is one of the deities who was undecided regarding whether there was some sort of master plan for the universe, and because of that indecision, was incensed that Fyrste would go about the business of enacting Creation in the way that he did. Koshiri, like Malithia, had believed in the idea of coming to consensus before action was taken.
As soon as Fyrste acted, however, Koshiri's first response was to undo what was done and to attempt to unmake it. She found that she could not, of course. When Malithia convinced Fyrste to attempt to unmake his own Creation, it seemed as though the answer was clear: what has been done cannot be undone. The fact became a bitter debate. However, Koshiri still maintained a thoughtful dedication towards her desire to see Creation begin from a better point of origin. Koshiri believed that there were still many points that had to be tested, and many questions answered. Like perhaps Fyrste's Creation could not be undone because Nasci and Scieppend had already acted upon it? What if they could be convinced to undo their own acts of Creation one at a time, backwards from the order that they were completed?
By this point, however, it seemed like a hopeless task to unravel all of the doings that had been done before. Malithia and Weyveren had already acted, and Nasci had acted upon those creations, as well. Koshiri then decided to act in a very small way, creating creatures that flew through the air, to lord over the rest of Creation from above. It was a move not so much to attempt to destroy Creation as it was to insult it a bit by placing it below Koshiri's small contribution to Creation, and to give Koshiri a point to work from. For as soon as she created them, she attempted to unmake them, as well.
It was then that Koshiri felt certain that what was made could not be unmade. And the fact disturbs and frightens her far more than the other deities. In fact, the expressions by Eleuth of wonder and promise given from this fact have incensed Koshiri to such a degree that she and her followers will attempt to bring down the followers of Eleuth wherever they may find them.
It was then that Koshiri came to act once more upon Creation by creating Death. Certainly, death existed to some degree from the creatures that Malithia and Weyveren had Created already, but those were deaths that could be considered to be preventable or deterred by the individual acts of the creatures themselves. What Koshiri created here was the inevitability of death for all creatures, great and small, animal or plant.
This act itself sent a chill through all but one of the deities. And while Nasci still found a means of weaving life cycles in a way that was beautiful and harmonious, even she had to pause and shiver at the totality that was offered by Koshiri's primary act of Creation. In what had been a flurry of activity moving back and forth between Fyrste, Scieppend, and Nasci, and their rivals Malithia and Weyveren, now there was very little, but carefully articulated action going on.
In fact, once Nasci touched that inevitable Death and wove it into the harmony of life cycles in the world, none of the other gods acted for quite some time, with the exceptions of Heah and Eleuth, who put in their own contributions before the rest of the deities stopped and considered all of Creation as a whole. At least, up until Apothos created dragons, which sparked an entirely new set of Creations in the mortal races.
In fact, it was Koshiri's careful dedication, and her desire to attempt to unravel Creation in a backwards sort of spin, that caused her to consider opting out of Creating a mortal race in the first place. Hers was the second to the last race to be born. However, create a race she did. And the Pueri are unlike what any of the other deities suspected.
While the races of the Algein and the Heuvians are monstrous and fearsome in appearance, the Pueri rival even the Artere in beauty and grace. They are of the highest intelligence, and are relatively unfettered by communal needs or by constant agony. They are a people Created solely for the purpose of enacting Koshiri's desire to unmake Creation.
In so doing, however, they are still unlike Weyveren's Algein in terms of attempting direct assault in most cases against many of the powers associated with Creation. They have developed armies and enacted such aggression at times, of course, but such direct aggression was never Koshiri's style. Her desire to unmake Creation is not borne out of sheer hatred and anger, as Weyveren and Malithia have. And in fact, Koshiri bears no particular ill will towards specific aspects of Creation itself. It is simply this: she is focused specifically and solely upon the goal of unmaking Creation for the purpose of starting over.
As such, her people do not enact cruelty for its own sake. However, when their needs serve, they make for the greatest implementers of torture due specifically to their desire to be the most efficient and productive in the method, so as to reach their goal. The Pueri are the undoubted greatest chroniclers of history in the world. Their purpose, of course, is to document every event that ever happened in Creation so as to be able to undo those acts. However, that does not mean that they have not developed vast historical resources and archives.
The primary acts of the Pueri, however, are usually acts of subtlety, subterfuge, and manipulation. Their ultimate goals are to bring the high to the level of the lowly, and to undermine even the greatest within the world. Thus, the Pueri delight in managing to cause a Bergan to bring about destruction, to wither an Artere's sense of artistic wonder and creative impulse, or to devolve Changelings into bestial predation. The Pueri seek out Makhan to attempt to manipulate them into breaking laws and systems, or to break the will of Luthans to make them bend to another's will and judgment. When they kill, they utilize grace and care. The greatest assassins in the world are Pueri. Poison is one of the common tools of the people of a deity who wishes to unmake Creation from within itself.
The magics of the Pueri are subtle. And yet they are extremely powerful. Pueri magics are those that intrude upon the will of others and weaken their resolve. But they also are magics that erode away at the earth, suffocate fires, or pollute the air or water. Koshiri's magics have a deadening and stilling effect upon their targets, and nearly all of the magics of the Pueri are offensive in some way. The only exceptions are those magics that the Pueri use to garner knowledge of history and Creation. For they must get to know and learn their enemies before they can strike definitively against them.
Koshiri is one of the deities who was undecided regarding whether there was some sort of master plan for the universe, and because of that indecision, was incensed that Fyrste would go about the business of enacting Creation in the way that he did. Koshiri, like Malithia, had believed in the idea of coming to consensus before action was taken.
As soon as Fyrste acted, however, Koshiri's first response was to undo what was done and to attempt to unmake it. She found that she could not, of course. When Malithia convinced Fyrste to attempt to unmake his own Creation, it seemed as though the answer was clear: what has been done cannot be undone. The fact became a bitter debate. However, Koshiri still maintained a thoughtful dedication towards her desire to see Creation begin from a better point of origin. Koshiri believed that there were still many points that had to be tested, and many questions answered. Like perhaps Fyrste's Creation could not be undone because Nasci and Scieppend had already acted upon it? What if they could be convinced to undo their own acts of Creation one at a time, backwards from the order that they were completed?
By this point, however, it seemed like a hopeless task to unravel all of the doings that had been done before. Malithia and Weyveren had already acted, and Nasci had acted upon those creations, as well. Koshiri then decided to act in a very small way, creating creatures that flew through the air, to lord over the rest of Creation from above. It was a move not so much to attempt to destroy Creation as it was to insult it a bit by placing it below Koshiri's small contribution to Creation, and to give Koshiri a point to work from. For as soon as she created them, she attempted to unmake them, as well.
It was then that Koshiri felt certain that what was made could not be unmade. And the fact disturbs and frightens her far more than the other deities. In fact, the expressions by Eleuth of wonder and promise given from this fact have incensed Koshiri to such a degree that she and her followers will attempt to bring down the followers of Eleuth wherever they may find them.
It was then that Koshiri came to act once more upon Creation by creating Death. Certainly, death existed to some degree from the creatures that Malithia and Weyveren had Created already, but those were deaths that could be considered to be preventable or deterred by the individual acts of the creatures themselves. What Koshiri created here was the inevitability of death for all creatures, great and small, animal or plant.
This act itself sent a chill through all but one of the deities. And while Nasci still found a means of weaving life cycles in a way that was beautiful and harmonious, even she had to pause and shiver at the totality that was offered by Koshiri's primary act of Creation. In what had been a flurry of activity moving back and forth between Fyrste, Scieppend, and Nasci, and their rivals Malithia and Weyveren, now there was very little, but carefully articulated action going on.
In fact, once Nasci touched that inevitable Death and wove it into the harmony of life cycles in the world, none of the other gods acted for quite some time, with the exceptions of Heah and Eleuth, who put in their own contributions before the rest of the deities stopped and considered all of Creation as a whole. At least, up until Apothos created dragons, which sparked an entirely new set of Creations in the mortal races.
In fact, it was Koshiri's careful dedication, and her desire to attempt to unravel Creation in a backwards sort of spin, that caused her to consider opting out of Creating a mortal race in the first place. Hers was the second to the last race to be born. However, create a race she did. And the Pueri are unlike what any of the other deities suspected.
While the races of the Algein and the Heuvians are monstrous and fearsome in appearance, the Pueri rival even the Artere in beauty and grace. They are of the highest intelligence, and are relatively unfettered by communal needs or by constant agony. They are a people Created solely for the purpose of enacting Koshiri's desire to unmake Creation.
In so doing, however, they are still unlike Weyveren's Algein in terms of attempting direct assault in most cases against many of the powers associated with Creation. They have developed armies and enacted such aggression at times, of course, but such direct aggression was never Koshiri's style. Her desire to unmake Creation is not borne out of sheer hatred and anger, as Weyveren and Malithia have. And in fact, Koshiri bears no particular ill will towards specific aspects of Creation itself. It is simply this: she is focused specifically and solely upon the goal of unmaking Creation for the purpose of starting over.
As such, her people do not enact cruelty for its own sake. However, when their needs serve, they make for the greatest implementers of torture due specifically to their desire to be the most efficient and productive in the method, so as to reach their goal. The Pueri are the undoubted greatest chroniclers of history in the world. Their purpose, of course, is to document every event that ever happened in Creation so as to be able to undo those acts. However, that does not mean that they have not developed vast historical resources and archives.
The primary acts of the Pueri, however, are usually acts of subtlety, subterfuge, and manipulation. Their ultimate goals are to bring the high to the level of the lowly, and to undermine even the greatest within the world. Thus, the Pueri delight in managing to cause a Bergan to bring about destruction, to wither an Artere's sense of artistic wonder and creative impulse, or to devolve Changelings into bestial predation. The Pueri seek out Makhan to attempt to manipulate them into breaking laws and systems, or to break the will of Luthans to make them bend to another's will and judgment. When they kill, they utilize grace and care. The greatest assassins in the world are Pueri. Poison is one of the common tools of the people of a deity who wishes to unmake Creation from within itself.
The magics of the Pueri are subtle. And yet they are extremely powerful. Pueri magics are those that intrude upon the will of others and weaken their resolve. But they also are magics that erode away at the earth, suffocate fires, or pollute the air or water. Koshiri's magics have a deadening and stilling effect upon their targets, and nearly all of the magics of the Pueri are offensive in some way. The only exceptions are those magics that the Pueri use to garner knowledge of history and Creation. For they must get to know and learn their enemies before they can strike definitively against them.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Writing Journal: Deities and Races, Volume V; Weyveren and the Algein
I've taken the name for Weyveren from the root of indecision. My concept for Weyveren is of one who was not quite the brightest deity. Uncertain as to what to do or how to act, Creation was well underway before he had a chance to form an opinion of what he actually wanted. As such, he was extremely frustrated and angry at his fellow deities. And although Malithia had used him as an example in her arguments to Fyrste to attempt to undo his first act of Creation, Weyveren didn't feel the same compulsion to be as merciful of Malithia's acts in return.
Effectively, I do kind of see Weyveren as the individual who is a petulant child that wants to pack up their marbles and go home. Except that they're kind of stuck dealing with everyone else. Thus, when Malithia stepped forward to create creatures that would work towards the destruction of Creation, Weyveren followed suit, but made certain to create other creatures that preyed upon even those first creatures. He did manage some creativity with the concepts of parasites and diseases.
However, Weyveren's distaste for Creation is complete. Rather than having mere philosophical differences between the way that he believes it should have been done and what was actually done, and believing in the idea of scrapping it and starting fresh, Weyveren is more like a suicidal depressive cursed with immortality. He feels threatened and embittered towards his fellow deities, who he believes are condescending and sniping, and in turn he wins no awards for maintaining relationships with any of his fellow beings.
Weyveren is a joyless deity who takes delight in absolutely nothing. He is so immersed in his own insecurities that he can see no good or beauty in anyone or anything else, leastwise in the acts of Creation.
At the same time, Weyveren is so afraid of being "left out" that he still impacts himself upon Creation, rather than leaving well enough alone. Thus, while the rest of the deities began to create their mortal races, Weyveren openly stated that it was clearly another failure of an idea, he still took part in the creation of his own.
The word "Algein" translates literally to "to feel pain." And this is truly the result of Weyveren's creation. While Malithia created a race designed to destroy and found within it a thing to love within Creation, Weyveren still took no pleasure in the Creation of his race. In fact, the race itself bears the brunt of Weyveren's disdain for it in its inception.
The Algein are aberrations, one and all. They take a variety of shapes and sizes, reproduce in various ways, and there is very little continuity in their existences. While all are sentient creatures, their intelligences are varied, as well. The only things that are common to all Algein are suffering and hunger. For to be an Algein at all means that one is in constant agony, just in their very existences. Some Algein lack certain bone or muscular structures that cause their bodies to be unable to properly support themselves. Some have extraneous bones that extrude from their flesh and constantly tear at it as they move. Still others are host to a horde of smaller creatures residing within them, threatening to eat away at them from the inside.
Whatever the cause or means may be, Weyveren's utter hatred for his own Creation is apparent within their being. These creatures, though sentient, are full of rage, hunger, and resentment. It is only in the process of feeding that they feel any sort of relief from their pain, and thus do many Algein attempt to feed constantly. Thus is it that the Algein also then act as the means towards Weyveren's plans for the destruction of Creation.
What Weyveren did not account for, and yet actually acts as his own proof that Creation never does what the Creators have expected them to, is that some particularly strong-willed, intelligent, or otherwise persistent Algein have actually found some beauty or pleasure in their own existences. Some of the most philosophical of these creatures feel as if finding a way to find meaning within their pain and backwards purpose gives them a greater sense of their own destinies. Weyveren, in the meanwhile, blames such propensity on Eleuth for touching his creations with his penchance for logical puzzles or other such weirdness.
For the Algein, magic does not come frequently, but it is a blessing for some few of them. The magic of the Algein comes directly from raw emotion. Most prominently amongst these are rage, hatred, and misery, but rarely do some of those particularly philosophical Algein find a means to magical power based upon pity or remorse. Always, however, these magics are impulsive, difficult to control, and are never delicate or subtle. Those Algein who are able to wield magics always bear the potential for a great deal of destruction, but they rarely if ever form into any sort of community with others, for if they did, their emotional states would likely tear their fellows apart, thus renewing their isolation again.
Then again, that sort of continually-renewing isolation is just the sort of ongoing misery that Weyveren designed for his Creation. And if he hadn't long ago cast aside the hope or belief that he could find joy in anything, would have been quite the type of thing that he would relish.
Effectively, I do kind of see Weyveren as the individual who is a petulant child that wants to pack up their marbles and go home. Except that they're kind of stuck dealing with everyone else. Thus, when Malithia stepped forward to create creatures that would work towards the destruction of Creation, Weyveren followed suit, but made certain to create other creatures that preyed upon even those first creatures. He did manage some creativity with the concepts of parasites and diseases.
However, Weyveren's distaste for Creation is complete. Rather than having mere philosophical differences between the way that he believes it should have been done and what was actually done, and believing in the idea of scrapping it and starting fresh, Weyveren is more like a suicidal depressive cursed with immortality. He feels threatened and embittered towards his fellow deities, who he believes are condescending and sniping, and in turn he wins no awards for maintaining relationships with any of his fellow beings.
Weyveren is a joyless deity who takes delight in absolutely nothing. He is so immersed in his own insecurities that he can see no good or beauty in anyone or anything else, leastwise in the acts of Creation.
At the same time, Weyveren is so afraid of being "left out" that he still impacts himself upon Creation, rather than leaving well enough alone. Thus, while the rest of the deities began to create their mortal races, Weyveren openly stated that it was clearly another failure of an idea, he still took part in the creation of his own.
The word "Algein" translates literally to "to feel pain." And this is truly the result of Weyveren's creation. While Malithia created a race designed to destroy and found within it a thing to love within Creation, Weyveren still took no pleasure in the Creation of his race. In fact, the race itself bears the brunt of Weyveren's disdain for it in its inception.
The Algein are aberrations, one and all. They take a variety of shapes and sizes, reproduce in various ways, and there is very little continuity in their existences. While all are sentient creatures, their intelligences are varied, as well. The only things that are common to all Algein are suffering and hunger. For to be an Algein at all means that one is in constant agony, just in their very existences. Some Algein lack certain bone or muscular structures that cause their bodies to be unable to properly support themselves. Some have extraneous bones that extrude from their flesh and constantly tear at it as they move. Still others are host to a horde of smaller creatures residing within them, threatening to eat away at them from the inside.
Whatever the cause or means may be, Weyveren's utter hatred for his own Creation is apparent within their being. These creatures, though sentient, are full of rage, hunger, and resentment. It is only in the process of feeding that they feel any sort of relief from their pain, and thus do many Algein attempt to feed constantly. Thus is it that the Algein also then act as the means towards Weyveren's plans for the destruction of Creation.
What Weyveren did not account for, and yet actually acts as his own proof that Creation never does what the Creators have expected them to, is that some particularly strong-willed, intelligent, or otherwise persistent Algein have actually found some beauty or pleasure in their own existences. Some of the most philosophical of these creatures feel as if finding a way to find meaning within their pain and backwards purpose gives them a greater sense of their own destinies. Weyveren, in the meanwhile, blames such propensity on Eleuth for touching his creations with his penchance for logical puzzles or other such weirdness.
For the Algein, magic does not come frequently, but it is a blessing for some few of them. The magic of the Algein comes directly from raw emotion. Most prominently amongst these are rage, hatred, and misery, but rarely do some of those particularly philosophical Algein find a means to magical power based upon pity or remorse. Always, however, these magics are impulsive, difficult to control, and are never delicate or subtle. Those Algein who are able to wield magics always bear the potential for a great deal of destruction, but they rarely if ever form into any sort of community with others, for if they did, their emotional states would likely tear their fellows apart, thus renewing their isolation again.
Then again, that sort of continually-renewing isolation is just the sort of ongoing misery that Weyveren designed for his Creation. And if he hadn't long ago cast aside the hope or belief that he could find joy in anything, would have been quite the type of thing that he would relish.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Writing Journal: Deities and Races, Volume IV; Malithia and the Hive
When Fyrste first created the world, Malithia was incensed. She had been entirely in agreement with Fyrste in their initial bearings on the existence of a first Creator and a definitive plan. Then, when his first act of Creation was so at odds with what she had envisioned, and knowing that he had done so without seeking consensus from the rest of Fyrste's peers, she could not fathom what to do.
While it was Koshiri who first attempted to undo the first act of Creation by Fyrste, and therefore discovered that, once something has been done, it could not therefore be undone, Malithia did not believe it until she tried it herself. Of course, the same was true of Weyveren, as well. In fact, Malithia considered that perhaps it had to be the one who had performed the Doing who could be the only one to Undo it, and tried to convince Fyrste to unmake his Creation.
When Fyrste himself stated that he could not, Malithia had to test this out for herself. She had therefore become the first of the deities who were revolted by the very act of Creation itself to take a hand in the making of it at all.
By the time she had the ability to act, Nasci and Scieppend had already taken their own hands to developing Creation. While Malithia hadn't really taken much notice to what was done, since she was so incensed and focused upon the initial act and what seemed to be so wrong with it, she simply looked to destroy it all. When she contemplated a thing to Create, she thought she would gain some satisfaction by creating something that would work towards the destruction of the previous acts of Creation themselves.
Malithia therefore created creatures in a multitude of shapes and sizes. From small to large, they trampled grasses, knocked over trees, consumed the very plant life that Scieppend had created, used claws to mar the ground and burrow holes through it, who drank of and also polluted the waters of the world. Her Creation was terrible to behold for both Fyrste and Scieppend, who were incensed by the audacity of Malithia to act in such a manner to affront what they had put so much work and effort into. Scieppend felt alienated from her own Creation, and pondered the implications of the imperfection of it. Fyrste, in the meantime, vowed to take a hand against Malithia and her Creations.
Malithia took great pleasure in this response, for she cared not for the creatures themselves, despite having delighted in their ability to have such a destructive impact upon the world around them, and to create such a sense of horror in her two fellow deity-beings, thinking that perhaps now they understood how she and the others had felt at witnessing Fyrste's first act, which had taken place without a proper set of consensus amongst the group. She then agreed to undo the Creation of the beasts, and found that Fyrste had not been lying. She could not undo that which she had done.
This was the moment of positive recognition for all of the deities that there was a limit to their own abilities, and that was the fact that whatever choices they might make, there was no way to undo them. This became something that disturbed many of the deities, though others, such as Eleuth, were delighted by the possibility inherent in such a premise.
At this point, argument raged even further amongst the deities regarding the nature of such a limitation, and whether such a fact was proof or disproof of the existence of a First Creator. Those who believed such a higher being might exist, such as Malithia herself, asserted that such a definitive rule could not exist if it were not made as a definite limitation upon their being. Others, however, were not necessarily convinced. Eleuth, particularly, waxed philosophical about it, and stated that were their acts able to be undone, so would their memories, which would mean that they would fall into infinite loops of doing and undoing the same things, since their undoing would therefore cause them to forget having done the doing in the first place.
Such talk only made the rest of the deities angry and dismissive of Eleuth. It seemed too abstract a concept, and too complex for some of them to understand entirely. While Nasci seemed to be the only one moved by the passion with which he spoke, Eleuth became a bit of a pariah amongst the rest of the deities.
Weyveren and Koshiri had taken their own hands in Creation by this point, as well, figuring that they would take their own parts in attempting to destroy that which was Created through their own interventions. Weyveren went a step farther by creating predators, diseases, and parasites, while Koshiri created creatures that took to the air and ruled over all with dominion.
Creation took hold, with Nasci taking on the adoption of life and nature, and the other gods warring with one another, taking their hands affecting bits and pieces of Creation itself. Nasci created harmony amongst the various types of life, while Koshiri cursed all life with inevitable mortality. Heah finally stepped into the process by constructing laws and rules by which all existence would interact over time, creating life cycles, and laws relating to matter and energy. Eleuth in the meantime touched all of Creation with variation and diversity, such that no two entities would ever be exactly the same.
Finally, when Apothos, who had stood apart from most of the debate and the acts of Creation, stepped forward to create Dragons, the bid for the mortal races of Creation began.
It was already stated that Fyrste was again the first to create his own mortal race in the Bergan. But Malithia was the second. She saw the untapped potential that existed within these mortal, sentient beings who could think and act for themselves, utilize tools and manufacture and construct mundane creations of their own, and knew that she could continue to serve her purpose of destroying all Creation with something of her own. And thus, Malithia crafted The Hive, otherwise known as the Heuvians.
Heuvians resemble various insectoid creatures in humanoid form. They are able to manipulate tools and bore sentience of their own. However, their sentience was not solitary like the Bergan or the dragons' were. Instead, each colony of Heuvians shares a singular shared consciousness. Each individual Heuvian lives for the sake of the rest of their colony, with the prime importance of the Queen being the most important.
The reproduction of the Heuvians requires living victims, as Malithia borrowed her brother Weyveren's concept of the parasite in contemplating the development of the Heuvian race. Thus do the Heuvians constantly seek out new victims and new conquests in order to maintain their own existences. And similarly are the Heuvians offended by the concept of individual thought and consciousness. The first blow to Malithia's pride came from the lack of unified purpose in Fyrste's initial act of Creation, and so she imparted her own bruised ego into her mortal race's consciousness.
The irony herein, is that Malithia, in developing a race bent upon the destruction of Creation, actually constructed something that she loved that exists within the realm of Creation. While it is not something that she relishes the thought of, for to realize her eventual plan, she would then have to witness the end of the race whose Creation she has come to love, she frequently does intervene in the interests of her peoples.
The magics of the Heuvians are based upon concentrated action. It usually takes several Heuvians to act in concert to enact any magic, and even then, the results are often not particularly dramatic. The basis of this magic is the identical "chattering" of several Heuvians at once. The first effect of this, is that the ritualistic chanting therefore has a mesmerizing effect upon those who hear it. The magical effects are often things that deal with the mind, and are focused upon enslaving, dominating, and subverting the thoughts of others. The power of such magics are also relative to the number of Heuvians acting in concert to perform these ritualistic chants.
The Hives of the Heuvians bore deeply into some of the largest trees, hills, and often deep into the earth. While they require water, the hives themselves are often dry. The fact that each colony of Heuvians share a hive-mind, it is nearly impossible to surprise them or catch them unawares, and they are frequently willing to sacrifice a few of their members for the larger goal before them. As such, they were created as a definite foil to the Bergan, whose military organization pales by comparison to the complete tuned-in sharing of thoughts that The Hive possess. Usually, Bergan victories over The Hive have been the results of superior numbers, or of devastating strategies by particularly gifted Bergan generals. Otherwise, the Hive are a constantly fearsome threat for the civilized peoples of the world.
It is the Changelings that often provide the greatest threats to the seditious interests of The Hive, for their individualism and disorganization provides little for the Hive to strike out at, while the power and effectiveness of even a singular Changeling can take down Heuvians in far greater numbers, a sacrifice that many Hives are unable or unwilling to make.
While it was Koshiri who first attempted to undo the first act of Creation by Fyrste, and therefore discovered that, once something has been done, it could not therefore be undone, Malithia did not believe it until she tried it herself. Of course, the same was true of Weyveren, as well. In fact, Malithia considered that perhaps it had to be the one who had performed the Doing who could be the only one to Undo it, and tried to convince Fyrste to unmake his Creation.
When Fyrste himself stated that he could not, Malithia had to test this out for herself. She had therefore become the first of the deities who were revolted by the very act of Creation itself to take a hand in the making of it at all.
By the time she had the ability to act, Nasci and Scieppend had already taken their own hands to developing Creation. While Malithia hadn't really taken much notice to what was done, since she was so incensed and focused upon the initial act and what seemed to be so wrong with it, she simply looked to destroy it all. When she contemplated a thing to Create, she thought she would gain some satisfaction by creating something that would work towards the destruction of the previous acts of Creation themselves.
Malithia therefore created creatures in a multitude of shapes and sizes. From small to large, they trampled grasses, knocked over trees, consumed the very plant life that Scieppend had created, used claws to mar the ground and burrow holes through it, who drank of and also polluted the waters of the world. Her Creation was terrible to behold for both Fyrste and Scieppend, who were incensed by the audacity of Malithia to act in such a manner to affront what they had put so much work and effort into. Scieppend felt alienated from her own Creation, and pondered the implications of the imperfection of it. Fyrste, in the meantime, vowed to take a hand against Malithia and her Creations.
Malithia took great pleasure in this response, for she cared not for the creatures themselves, despite having delighted in their ability to have such a destructive impact upon the world around them, and to create such a sense of horror in her two fellow deity-beings, thinking that perhaps now they understood how she and the others had felt at witnessing Fyrste's first act, which had taken place without a proper set of consensus amongst the group. She then agreed to undo the Creation of the beasts, and found that Fyrste had not been lying. She could not undo that which she had done.
This was the moment of positive recognition for all of the deities that there was a limit to their own abilities, and that was the fact that whatever choices they might make, there was no way to undo them. This became something that disturbed many of the deities, though others, such as Eleuth, were delighted by the possibility inherent in such a premise.
At this point, argument raged even further amongst the deities regarding the nature of such a limitation, and whether such a fact was proof or disproof of the existence of a First Creator. Those who believed such a higher being might exist, such as Malithia herself, asserted that such a definitive rule could not exist if it were not made as a definite limitation upon their being. Others, however, were not necessarily convinced. Eleuth, particularly, waxed philosophical about it, and stated that were their acts able to be undone, so would their memories, which would mean that they would fall into infinite loops of doing and undoing the same things, since their undoing would therefore cause them to forget having done the doing in the first place.
Such talk only made the rest of the deities angry and dismissive of Eleuth. It seemed too abstract a concept, and too complex for some of them to understand entirely. While Nasci seemed to be the only one moved by the passion with which he spoke, Eleuth became a bit of a pariah amongst the rest of the deities.
Weyveren and Koshiri had taken their own hands in Creation by this point, as well, figuring that they would take their own parts in attempting to destroy that which was Created through their own interventions. Weyveren went a step farther by creating predators, diseases, and parasites, while Koshiri created creatures that took to the air and ruled over all with dominion.
Creation took hold, with Nasci taking on the adoption of life and nature, and the other gods warring with one another, taking their hands affecting bits and pieces of Creation itself. Nasci created harmony amongst the various types of life, while Koshiri cursed all life with inevitable mortality. Heah finally stepped into the process by constructing laws and rules by which all existence would interact over time, creating life cycles, and laws relating to matter and energy. Eleuth in the meantime touched all of Creation with variation and diversity, such that no two entities would ever be exactly the same.
Finally, when Apothos, who had stood apart from most of the debate and the acts of Creation, stepped forward to create Dragons, the bid for the mortal races of Creation began.
It was already stated that Fyrste was again the first to create his own mortal race in the Bergan. But Malithia was the second. She saw the untapped potential that existed within these mortal, sentient beings who could think and act for themselves, utilize tools and manufacture and construct mundane creations of their own, and knew that she could continue to serve her purpose of destroying all Creation with something of her own. And thus, Malithia crafted The Hive, otherwise known as the Heuvians.
Heuvians resemble various insectoid creatures in humanoid form. They are able to manipulate tools and bore sentience of their own. However, their sentience was not solitary like the Bergan or the dragons' were. Instead, each colony of Heuvians shares a singular shared consciousness. Each individual Heuvian lives for the sake of the rest of their colony, with the prime importance of the Queen being the most important.
The reproduction of the Heuvians requires living victims, as Malithia borrowed her brother Weyveren's concept of the parasite in contemplating the development of the Heuvian race. Thus do the Heuvians constantly seek out new victims and new conquests in order to maintain their own existences. And similarly are the Heuvians offended by the concept of individual thought and consciousness. The first blow to Malithia's pride came from the lack of unified purpose in Fyrste's initial act of Creation, and so she imparted her own bruised ego into her mortal race's consciousness.
The irony herein, is that Malithia, in developing a race bent upon the destruction of Creation, actually constructed something that she loved that exists within the realm of Creation. While it is not something that she relishes the thought of, for to realize her eventual plan, she would then have to witness the end of the race whose Creation she has come to love, she frequently does intervene in the interests of her peoples.
The magics of the Heuvians are based upon concentrated action. It usually takes several Heuvians to act in concert to enact any magic, and even then, the results are often not particularly dramatic. The basis of this magic is the identical "chattering" of several Heuvians at once. The first effect of this, is that the ritualistic chanting therefore has a mesmerizing effect upon those who hear it. The magical effects are often things that deal with the mind, and are focused upon enslaving, dominating, and subverting the thoughts of others. The power of such magics are also relative to the number of Heuvians acting in concert to perform these ritualistic chants.
The Hives of the Heuvians bore deeply into some of the largest trees, hills, and often deep into the earth. While they require water, the hives themselves are often dry. The fact that each colony of Heuvians share a hive-mind, it is nearly impossible to surprise them or catch them unawares, and they are frequently willing to sacrifice a few of their members for the larger goal before them. As such, they were created as a definite foil to the Bergan, whose military organization pales by comparison to the complete tuned-in sharing of thoughts that The Hive possess. Usually, Bergan victories over The Hive have been the results of superior numbers, or of devastating strategies by particularly gifted Bergan generals. Otherwise, the Hive are a constantly fearsome threat for the civilized peoples of the world.
It is the Changelings that often provide the greatest threats to the seditious interests of The Hive, for their individualism and disorganization provides little for the Hive to strike out at, while the power and effectiveness of even a singular Changeling can take down Heuvians in far greater numbers, a sacrifice that many Hives are unable or unwilling to make.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Writing Journal: Deities and Races, Volume III; Scieppend and the Artere
Just as Fyrste began the act of Creation, and Nasci continued it, Scieppend had been the third to act. I've already stated that Scieppend was relatively unimpressed with the initial act of Creation performed by Fyrste. However, somehow Nasci's impact upon that act was what gave Scieppend her own inspiration for the creation of life itself.
Also already discussed was how several of the various gods acted out in Creation to try to destroy it, which caused Nasci to become the adopted mother of the creatures of the natural world. However, what has NOT yet been discussed, is why Nasci should be considered to be an adoptive mother over even the plants within the world, when Scieppend was clearly not intending their existence to be any sort of attack upon what had already been created.
After all, the beasts were never intended to have any beauty or good associated with them, so for Nasci to find beauty and harmony in their existence and take them unto her own seems reasonable. But surely, Scieppend, who is the third and final god of the prime Creators, would have maintained domain over her own initial creations, wouldn't she?
This was not actually the case. Like a great many of the gods, Scieppend became disillusioned with her own Creation shortly after it was made. This is, in fact, part of the entirety of what the conflict between good and evil has been made about, after all. The gods of evil believe that Creation was an utter failure, and should be scrapped in favor of the option of trying to start over again, this time getting the job done better. The gods of good, in the meantime, defend Creation as a benefit and a boon in some way.
While Nasci clearly bore the gift of seeing beauty and harmony in everything that she saw was Created by others, Scieppend's visions have always been more fleeting. For Scieppend, the initial act of Creation was a bore. It was formless and monotonous. The second act, however, brought interest and possibility to Creation. And while life itself was a complex and wondrous thing, Scieppend felt that the Creation of the evil gods following her own Creation was thus simultaneously proven to be uninspired and fallible. She therefore lost interest in them almost right away.
The gifts and continuous interventions of Nasci later provided little comfort for Scieppend, for she believed that her interventions were making imperfect things better, but yet still imperfect. And yet, Scieppend shared a bit of the sense of Malitia that it all could have been done better, and more perfectly.
What beliefs about Creation that Scieppend maintains apart from Malitia is a sense that, however flawed Creation itself may be, it still maintains a certain right to its own imperfection. And that the dissonance and imperfections inherent within Creation are in their own way somewhat beautiful.
What therefore began to draw Scieppend's attention, and that which continues to keep Scieppend continuously drawn into investment within Creation, were art and culture. Once sentient life began to move upon the world, its culture and its artistic perspective on the world instantly intrigued Scieppend. And thus was she inspired to create her own mortal race, the Artere.
The Artere are a race of beauty. They are a race of boundless creativity, culture, ingenuity, and invention. Some Artere are jacks of all trades in manners of expounding upon their creative endeavors. Others focus upon a singular form of artistic expression, and pursue it to utter perfection. The magic of the Artere is found within inspiration. Verse, prose, sculpture, and movement. These are the invocations to unlock the infinite mysteries of magical power for the Artere.
The Artere are the creators of the most wondrous and beautiful cities that the world has ever seen. The Artere, however, have also seen more of these cities laid to ruin and waste due to a lack of drive to defend and protect their own creations. Just like art and inspiration themselves are fleeting, with only hints and remnants of the initial inspiration echoing through time following their creation, thus are many of the histories of the Artere's most wondrous cultural creations.
It is just as Scieppend revels in each individual act of inspiration and creation, but then as quickly becomes bored of it and finds interest in another, fresher scene of inspiration that the Artere seem to be lost within their own boundless, and yet seemingly pointless, acts of creation.
While the Bergan are militant defenders of Creation against those forces that would threaten it, and the Changelings are fierce defenders of Nature, the Artere, being so bound to only follow the most fleeting glimpses of inspiration, do little to follow up to preserve and protect their own creations, or even themselves. Certainly, there are some Artere who follow the art of War, or who take up the sport of fencing, or the art of the melee, and these individual Artere are as much a terror to their foes as they are a wonder to witness on the battlefield, they are but that. Individuals. Artists. They lack the organization of the Bergan to maintain discipline and structure within military endeavors. And they also lack the force of individual conviction that the Changelings maintain to be able to ensure that their acts in lesser numbers matter for nearly enough.
Thus has Scieppend become the goddess of art, culture, and inspiration. She is a goddess of whimsy and beauty, but lacking in motivation or conviction. Her people are responsible for the most wondrous creations in existence, and yet they find themselves and their creations continually falling short on expectation, and declining into ruin. Often, quite literally. One frustrated Bergan scholar once noted, "The Artere are the makers of the finest ruins in all of Creation." Thus seems to be their lot. And yet, their magics are powerful, and they never seem to run out of their boundless quest for more and greater creations and innovations throughout the world.
Also already discussed was how several of the various gods acted out in Creation to try to destroy it, which caused Nasci to become the adopted mother of the creatures of the natural world. However, what has NOT yet been discussed, is why Nasci should be considered to be an adoptive mother over even the plants within the world, when Scieppend was clearly not intending their existence to be any sort of attack upon what had already been created.
After all, the beasts were never intended to have any beauty or good associated with them, so for Nasci to find beauty and harmony in their existence and take them unto her own seems reasonable. But surely, Scieppend, who is the third and final god of the prime Creators, would have maintained domain over her own initial creations, wouldn't she?
This was not actually the case. Like a great many of the gods, Scieppend became disillusioned with her own Creation shortly after it was made. This is, in fact, part of the entirety of what the conflict between good and evil has been made about, after all. The gods of evil believe that Creation was an utter failure, and should be scrapped in favor of the option of trying to start over again, this time getting the job done better. The gods of good, in the meantime, defend Creation as a benefit and a boon in some way.
While Nasci clearly bore the gift of seeing beauty and harmony in everything that she saw was Created by others, Scieppend's visions have always been more fleeting. For Scieppend, the initial act of Creation was a bore. It was formless and monotonous. The second act, however, brought interest and possibility to Creation. And while life itself was a complex and wondrous thing, Scieppend felt that the Creation of the evil gods following her own Creation was thus simultaneously proven to be uninspired and fallible. She therefore lost interest in them almost right away.
The gifts and continuous interventions of Nasci later provided little comfort for Scieppend, for she believed that her interventions were making imperfect things better, but yet still imperfect. And yet, Scieppend shared a bit of the sense of Malitia that it all could have been done better, and more perfectly.
What beliefs about Creation that Scieppend maintains apart from Malitia is a sense that, however flawed Creation itself may be, it still maintains a certain right to its own imperfection. And that the dissonance and imperfections inherent within Creation are in their own way somewhat beautiful.
What therefore began to draw Scieppend's attention, and that which continues to keep Scieppend continuously drawn into investment within Creation, were art and culture. Once sentient life began to move upon the world, its culture and its artistic perspective on the world instantly intrigued Scieppend. And thus was she inspired to create her own mortal race, the Artere.
The Artere are a race of beauty. They are a race of boundless creativity, culture, ingenuity, and invention. Some Artere are jacks of all trades in manners of expounding upon their creative endeavors. Others focus upon a singular form of artistic expression, and pursue it to utter perfection. The magic of the Artere is found within inspiration. Verse, prose, sculpture, and movement. These are the invocations to unlock the infinite mysteries of magical power for the Artere.
The Artere are the creators of the most wondrous and beautiful cities that the world has ever seen. The Artere, however, have also seen more of these cities laid to ruin and waste due to a lack of drive to defend and protect their own creations. Just like art and inspiration themselves are fleeting, with only hints and remnants of the initial inspiration echoing through time following their creation, thus are many of the histories of the Artere's most wondrous cultural creations.
It is just as Scieppend revels in each individual act of inspiration and creation, but then as quickly becomes bored of it and finds interest in another, fresher scene of inspiration that the Artere seem to be lost within their own boundless, and yet seemingly pointless, acts of creation.
While the Bergan are militant defenders of Creation against those forces that would threaten it, and the Changelings are fierce defenders of Nature, the Artere, being so bound to only follow the most fleeting glimpses of inspiration, do little to follow up to preserve and protect their own creations, or even themselves. Certainly, there are some Artere who follow the art of War, or who take up the sport of fencing, or the art of the melee, and these individual Artere are as much a terror to their foes as they are a wonder to witness on the battlefield, they are but that. Individuals. Artists. They lack the organization of the Bergan to maintain discipline and structure within military endeavors. And they also lack the force of individual conviction that the Changelings maintain to be able to ensure that their acts in lesser numbers matter for nearly enough.
Thus has Scieppend become the goddess of art, culture, and inspiration. She is a goddess of whimsy and beauty, but lacking in motivation or conviction. Her people are responsible for the most wondrous creations in existence, and yet they find themselves and their creations continually falling short on expectation, and declining into ruin. Often, quite literally. One frustrated Bergan scholar once noted, "The Artere are the makers of the finest ruins in all of Creation." Thus seems to be their lot. And yet, their magics are powerful, and they never seem to run out of their boundless quest for more and greater creations and innovations throughout the world.
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