The tea began to take effect on Azraile's perception of reality. The nutrients in the tea and the blessing that was placed over it caused Azraile to feel deeper empathy for others, and gave hir the ability to see layers of reality overlapping each other. Shi could see into the Spirit-Realm, and it was a lot like the beginning of the vision shi had earlier. It seemed like everything shi heard was playing out in one of the layers, yet none of this was distracting or debilitating in any way.

"You have hit the nail on the head, so to speak. Nothing anyone says about the creation of any universe or the multiverse can truly match the truth with completion, since the event must be infinitely beyond our scope of imagination to even be possible.

"We are tiny coagulations of a seemingly random assortment of atoms - a spec on our planet which is a spec in the vast intersteller vacuum, a spec in our galaxy, which is a spec in the local cluster, a spec in the visible universe, a spec in our total oner, a spec among a multitude of near-related oners, a spec among close related, a spec among distantly related, a spec among unrelated oners, a spec in the spec of the space between the All-Child's tiniest fold of Hir fingerprint.

"We have no capacity to even remotely comprehend the full truth. But we have metaphors which have been revealed to us by All-Heart. We know that All-Parent loved All-Child with everything in Hir, through All-Heart. All-Parent infinitely and eternally gives Life to All-Child who infinitely and eternally receives that Life, and passes it on to anyone who wants that Life. Life is only possible in and through All-Heart, and relationship is the fundamental reality of all existence. Void is the eternal destruction of all relationship - though it is a purgative burning process.

"Before the creation of an Oner, All-Spirit, All-Parent and All-Child are perfectly content and without any need, filled with satisfaction and love for one another. The All wants to share that relationship of love, and so creates people capable of having a relationship with the transcendent All and for that purpose as well.

"Sometimes the All-Child confronts the Void building inside the heart of one of Hir meta-creatures who live outside of Oners, in the Beyond. This is almost always the void created by pride. Pride causes you to believe that you deserve anything. Usually that you deserve what you have, or what you should have (whether that is more or less). When anything threatens what you believe you should have, you become destructively protective. This causes death and void when it is aimed against Life - the All.

"The All creates a creature to have relationship with, and gives that creature the mantle of power and authority over even the meta-creatures. The one who has the most pride-void in their heart is the first to rebel (out of anger for being placed under the authority of a lesser being), and strikes out in an attempt to kill or maim the All-Parent. The blood of that wound was planned to be shed by the All. The All-Parent knew what would happen, and allowed it to happen. By mixing Life of All with Void, an Oner can be created.

"Our Oner was created when our oldest ancestors decided to choose their own destiny rather than accept the destiny they were given. Out Oner was created by the Spirit of Life hovering over the Void. When a being develops a relationship with the All, Life flows into their being, from All-Parent, through All-Child by way of All-Heart.

"But because our ancestor betrayed Life, our deaths became sure by our instinct to love ourselves and reject the All. We must die due to our nature. Even the 6 High Wizards will all die before the End. But this was unacceptable to the All who loved Hir creation infinitely and unconditionally. To save them from Void, All-Child became one of us, and told us the whole truth in metaphor and stories. The greatest metaphor is Hir life itself."

During that long lecture, Azraile and Reuel climbed further up the narrow path, and they approached a gateway.

Don't seam to suprized by the spirit world, becoming vissable... is cappable of going there, just not at all exsperianced in it, still knows about spirits and the like.

"Sounds familiar... one of my teaches went on about saying something along the lines that the waters of creation fell into the void and where the two touched a great tree grew, and the waters helped that tree grow, and grow and grow. One day that tree will crumble and fall, or may rot away from the inside, or may just burn up... but what ever happens the remains of the tree when it is dead will slowly rot away until the void lays bare again and the waters fall into the void once more and a new tree will grow in it's place identical to the last." Shi happens to roll hir eyes a little "Though the last part seams a little off to me as the implication being time is circular or things just keep repeating themselves, and that seams kinda pointless to me." Shivers some "least that idea isn't as bad as the white-void."  (my wording for the other end of entropy where everything is forced to maintain order to such a degree there is no change)

"I can't speak for other Oners, but that doesn't sound right to me either.

"If I was using that metaphor to describe this Oner, I'd say that the tree is sentient life, and every cell is an individual. Most cells try to take nutrients from their neighbours, but some cells take everything they need from sunlight, air and water. At some point in history, the sun will consume the tree. Cells that were feeding off of others will burn to ashes, while those that ate sunlight will become one with the sun without losing their structure.

"New trees may rise up, but the cycle isn't perfectly repititious. The whole world isn't filled with one variety of tree, and every oak doesn't grow the same way. Even a sapling split in two will create two different trees.

"I spoke in heavy metaphor, but do you understand what I meant? If so, please explain it, because I'm not sure even I know what I meant."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:33, Mon 20 Jan 2020.

"Yah, don't be a selfish ass, it's bad for your soul.... can't argue with that."

"Not exactly. That's all true, but it doesn't get to the core of the issue. Let me try something else."

Reuel stops and sits by the side of the path on a stone, grabbing a short stick and using it to draw in the dust in a flat open area. He draws a circle, and says, "The area within this circle is a microcosm of my mind." Suddenly, the dirt in the circle changes - it becomes simpler and less detailed in some ways, even less real.

He places a twig in the center and says, "This twig provides the user with the ability to choose what it loves."

He forms a lump of dirt in the circle into a mound and spits on it to make mud. He says, "This lump of mud is shaped like a homunculus." And suddenly the lump of mud forms itself into the shape of a homunculus, complete with tiny bones, sinews, muscles and finally skin.

He says, "The purpose of this homunculus will be to love me and be my representative within the circle. It will only see me if I stick my head within the borders of this circle. If it fulfills this purpose after 10 minutes, it will live as long as I live. But if it fails to fulfil its purpose, I will allow it to do as it pleases. However, it will only be able to exist within this circle."

He picks up the lifeless form, and breathes on it. It comes to life, and says, "Hello daddy!".

"Hello, Dirtclod. You are my representative, and I love you. I'd like you to form lumps of dirt. I only ask that you don't take that twig, because if you take it, I can't sustain your life."

"I can't wait to do what you want me to do!" the little homunculus replies.

After it forms one lump, Reuel spits on that lump and says, "This is nutrition for Dirtclod." And suddenly the pile of dirt looks like a berry bush filled with fruit.

On the second lump, Reuel uses his stick to create a depression in the middle and then says, "This is a golem for the Spirit of Accusation. I permit Void to enter into this lump." Suddenly Void enters the lump, and the lump forms a tiny golem, but it has black eyes.

The golem walks over to Dirtclod and says, "You know, your creator lied to you. Your life won't end when you take that twig. That twig has the power to make you like your creator and chose your own destiny."

Dirtclod replies, "Well I certainly like the sound of choosing my own destiny." Dirtclod looked at the twig and imagined what it would be like to choose his own destiny. He took the twig in his hand, and suddenly realized that he didn't have to love his creator, but could choose to love himself instead.

Reuel stuck his head back in the circle, "What have you done?"

Dirtclod shouted in fear, "NOTHING! That golem you put in here tricked me into disobeying you.

"You didn't fulfill your purpose. I made you, so you are mine. You listened to someone who hates all life, and disobeyed me. You will live for the remainder of the time I gave you originally, but I can't sustain you beyond that. But I still love you"

The Golem ran to the edge of the circle and stepped over the edge, falling and becoming a pile of mud.

Reuel backed out of the circle. Dirtclod discovered that he could take off a piece of himself and plant it in a pile of dirt . Doing this caused the pile to turn into another homunculus. Reul took the new tiny homunculus out and said, "I am this homunculus," and then breathed on it and placed it back in the circle. It stood up and said, "Dirtclod, your creator loves you. What you did was wrong, but you are loved. Please just be sorry so I can forgive you and you can love your creator again."

Dirclod said, "I did what he wanted me to do! I made a dirtpile, and you try to tell me I'm not good enough!? Also, I made you, and yet you claim to be my creator by telling me you can forgive me. Screw you!" Dirtclod pushed Mini-Reuel out of the circle, causing him to fall and become a pile of mud.

Reuel put the pile back in the circle and said, "I live again." Suddenly the pile reformed into Mini-Reuel and said, "Dirtclod, I still love you. If you apologize and love me, I will forgive you and you will live as part of me."

Reuel said, "Mini-Me is now in my mind again." Suddenly Mini-Reuel disappeared from sight.

Dirtclod fell to the ground and said, "I wish I hadn't pushed my creator out of the circle, or taken that twig to begin with."

10 minutes was up. Dirtclod became a pile of mud. Reuel said, "The area within this circle is no longer a microcosm of my mind."

And the area returned to normal.

Reuel said, "Dirtclod lives on in my memory and in my mind as a subset within my mind. Fortunately he takes up very little space up there. Does that help you understand?"

"I do not think thats how things work, because that implies what ever created everything is rather quite selfish and don't really love us. Just because something don't do what you want it to don't mean you abandon it if you love it, same for if they don't love you back. That's not love. Love is unconditional. "

"I'm not being clear. Let me say it plainly. We are panentheistic. This means that everything that exists, exists within All-Parent and is sustained in its existence by its presence in All-Parent. Yet everything that exists is only an infinitesimally small part of the All. Void is the state of being outside of the All. Since everything that exists is is only within the All, anything outside of the All doesn't exist. It may have shape and definition, but it is only a shadow - a void. We are beings of love. We were created to love, and to be capable of a relationship with All. Fulfilling our full purpose would give us immense and ultimately infinite joy, yet we rejected our purpose and decided what we would prefer to love. By deciding to love things other than the All, we have declared ourselves self-sufficient. We have effectively severed our relationship with the All, and therefore committed existence suicide. Yet as beings of love, we cannot completely get rid of all of our loves. When a sentient being refuses to fulfill its purpose and love the All, it can only do so by eliminating a love. When you truly love the All, you love all. You even love the ones who refuse to love anything but themselves. Yet you cannot prevent them from fulfilling their desires. So if they desire to love no one, then they desire the Void, and they will receive the Void. There are only two directions on the scale of love. Void and All."

"Ah I usually love everything and stuff.... just was a while I had problems with it.... and it's not always to love some people.." shrugs "Considering I've hurd of void beings react to energies and become a part of reality, being 'created' and there essence just kinda scattering across reality....."  not a lie, but not honest, she hurd hirself talking about the hir using Echo of the First Word to do it with high level protect and heal. "I have a theory: this being was lonely so it gave it's love to all the beings of the void and the void it affected became reality and the beings became the souls in it.... with out the love they just go back to being the void beings the use to be, and some one who can love even something that don't exsist but as for something that hates all love and life can bring them back."

"It is a common theory that people start out with, but it misses a fundamental aspect of the All. All is All-Parent, All-Child, and All-Heart. All loves All completely and infinitely. All didn't create out of loneliness - a lack of love. All created out of an over-abundance of love. When you multiply infinity by zero, you get any finite number. We are finite numbers, but the void creates nothing. Void has no shape, no size, no personhood, no life. Void is also the state of the absence of Life and love. When something appears to come out of void, it is in fact a void moving through reality like a wave moves through the ocean. Its presence creates refraction of Light. It is the cracks through which the Light gets in. Therefore void commits suicide by every action."

"So what do you think happens to the void when it's loved by the all through us and becomes a part of reality?"

"Exactly what happened to my homunculus. It lives the life it was created to live, and that reason is given by the All and benefits the plan of the All."

Shrugs and stretches hir wings and back some. "Well I'm not going to love something because it tells me to and says I have to.... but I already kinda love everything so" shi shurgs and myawns some, it's been a long day.

"I can certainly understand that. You are getting tired, and we have two choices. We can camp here for the night and ascend higher tomorrow, or we can return to camp. Either way, your destiny will be fulfilled, whatever that destiny may be. There is no wrong choice in this matter, only the truth of what you would prefer. If you go up the mountain, our journey will be similar to what it has been for a little while longer, but if we go down the mountain, you will soon return to the ship you've been journeying on."

"I can continue on, or we can set up camp, no point in going back unless it's not safe to camp here"

OOC: Feel free to interject with your responses anywhere along the way, I'll retcon any conversation to fill in gaps.

IC:
Reuel waved his hands in a beautiful pattern, and turning a bend in the snow covered path, they stumbled across a well placed stone shelter in the rocks. Reuel spoke these untranslatable words, "Le'ikhothro ho'oh e' jinibani. Ki li'uth ruhoa jibani," and a small tree sprouted and grew a few branches before catching fire. The tree burned in every colour of the rainbow, and warmed the stone shelter with heat and peace, but not too much light to sleep with.

In the morning, Reuel was already preparing breakfast. He had picked a fruit that grew on the evergreens nearby, sliced it open and extracted a giant pine-nut with a fruity substance. The fruity part tasted like pine, eucalyptus and mint. It cleared out the sinuses and made the air seem colder but fresher and somehow more bearable. The nut tasted like a very nutritious enhanced pine-nut.

Reuel said, "Let's start the day with a meditation we do to make ourselves aware of All-Heart. All-Heart is also All-Breath. We breath in the Breath of All. All-Breath gives us life. All-Breath is the life in me. My life is All-Breath even though I have mistreated the Breath in others and myself, All-Breath loves me and remains with me."

After remaining quiet for about half an hour, Reuel began to hum a song. After half an hour of songs and tunes, he lead the way along the path. A minute into their journey, they heard a rumbling noise, but it seemed distant.

(will note I've not had a problems with religious types, just has come up a lot in RP with az)

Shi can't help but sigh a little at the wording as shi's had lots of problems with religious types and gods so stuff like this but tries to hide any disagreement because shi is interested it just sounds so bad to hir, but dose meditate and relax to the singing.

When shi hears the rumble shi tries to listen, twisting hir ears about, trying to tell where it's coming from.

Reuel is sensitive to Azraile's aversion, so after remaining fairly quiet on the journey for awhile, and passing a section where rocks from above recently fell down the mountain and would've hit them if they had left any earlier (the sound of the rumbling from earlier), Reuel asks, "Azraile, I noticed that you felt a little discomfort when I recited the Breath meditation. I wonder what sort of experiences you've had with other people's faiths, and if you have any of your own. Would you mind talking to me about those things?"

If Az is uninterested in discussing those things, he says, "Not to worry, I myself have had some difficulties with religious types, so I can understand why you might be hesitant." And he continues on the path up the mountain.

"It's complicated.... I would rather not talk about it."



"Lets just say I came from a world with a real problem with dogma, and as i came in contact with gods they where not good encounters..... and I had a hard time trying to convince people I wasn't there god."

"That sounds like an aweful experience. I'd love to hear your story in more detail."

Shi sighs. "I sorta seeded life on a planet that whent through some serious time dilation... they saw me as the bide of there goddess and the father of there civilization and threated me as a god(dess) of love and firtility...  not only did everyone there worship me it all involved all the females, hermaphrodites, and even a few males.... stripping themselves and prostrating begging to be impregnated so they could know my love... trying to tell them other wise was near imposable and saying no was well about the same response you I would imagine if the all-child told you that you where the only living thing it didnt love...... it was not a fun time.....thankfully they where a rather advanced civilization and mass global complication was a thing and I set down and had a very long talk..... still think I put millions in therapy though"
This message was last edited by the player at 16:30, Tue 11 Feb 2020.

"Wow! That reminds me of the Whale god of the Nymph-folk. Whales are wonderful people, but before they knew how to talk to them, the Nymph-folk of New Ermulja began worshipping them. They had a ritual where the mothers threw their first daughter into the ocean when the whales migrated by their village, believing that the child would turn into a whale after she drowned, and that the whales would then love them and bless the village with fertility. When the tribe was introduced to a whale talker, the tribe of whales and the Nymph-folk both had to go through years of therapy. Religion is dangerous."
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:49, Thu 13 Feb 2020.

Shi sighs and shakes hir head. "Not like I could ever live up to there image of a god(dess) anyway even if I was the kind of person to take advantage of people like that."

"I've encountered a number of gods in my time. What were the gods you've met like?"

"Like people given to much power than they know what to do with it, mostly."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:35, Tue 18 Feb 2020.

"The gods in this world are more like power given personhood than people given power."

OOC: I'll add more later if you'd rather wait on that than respond to this, but your choice.