In reply to Narrator (msg # 366):

Added +4% to Sanuzi's Spirit Travel.

What other updates need doing?

I'll have to show you my Biosafety reading list.

As a reminder, you can always ask about the stories being told.

Oligur clears his throat and straightens his white and red dress tunic.
"I don't think I remember hearing that story of the Moonson wishing to ban the worship of his mother. Hmm. Lord Idovanus, why do you suppose he would do such a thing?"

Scarlet Verithurusa kept wandering about the Sky, and there She took as lover the god Shargash, who hated Her afterwards; Asyrex, who was the father of Gem; Orbryix, who slew himself when She left him; Urnion, who was turned into a star; Zedada, later a great warrior; and Mur, whose daughter and son were healers. At last, weary of the world, She returned to Her own father’s palace. Instead of finding welcome and affection from Yelm, She was rebuked and scolded, then cast from the palace forever. Grieving, She left, but a shadow remained behind, fluttering about in the Palace of Light on dark wings. They were not Her wings, and Yelm did not claim them, but they flapped around like a bat caught in the daytime. Those wings dimmed the eternal light of Yelm, so he did not see so clearly anymore and allowed his foes to enter and come close. Much later, he was killed, and afterwards his wife and his courtiers said it was the wings of Verithurusa that had caused his death. So ended the Creation Age, and so began the Storm Age.

Verithurusa cast off Her joyous red dress and donned one of blue. She found solace in the arms of Asyrex, a kind and loving god who was Her husband and the father of the Mernitan peoples. Their children took wives and husbands from among gods, spirits, mortals, and essences. Their land was Dosvolos. The Mernitans raised a great city, and to protect them, their divine Mother stood overhead, a radiant topaz blue. She was called Lesilla, Protecting Mother. Her brightest and wisest daughter was the Great Queen, Cerrulia. When the Emperor of the Center organized the world of mortals, Dosvolos was among those lands under his sway. They sent to him the High Crown of Mernita. When the Great Flood drowned the world Lesilla used Her powers of attraction and drew all of Dosvolos upward above the crashing waves. Her people were saved. Yet, for that sacrifice, She used so much of Her power that She was weakened and sank lower in the center of Her Sky.

Lesilla always shard her power into the many bodies of with Her descendants. Whichever of them was strongest was Cerrulia, and many others had specific titles as well. One of them was Demiska, the Contrary, and whichever one she inhabited most weakly was called Demiska. Demiska was given the wonderful Bow of Lesilla to compensate for her weakness.

After the Flood, the Emperor of the World took Demiska into his palace, because he wanted her bow. Of course, she gave it to him, and she became his wife. Alas, he kept it, and the Mernitans were angry. They asked for the High Crown back, but instead the Emperor bent the magical bow and with it drove an immortal arrow through the heart of Lesilla, their Mother in the Sky. The Goddess, weak and old, stumbled and fell from the Sky. A part of Her is still visible as the Blue Moon Plateau, haunted and devastated, inhabited only by ghosts, demons, and trolls. The armies of the Emperor then conquered Mernita and put its people into slavery.

When the Emperor died, his wife mourned him, despite the mistreatment She had received and the evils he had done. She took the name Sorrow, or Gerra, and went into mourning. She put away her beautiful clothing and jewels, and donned the black dress of mourning. Over the generations, Her power waned, both from Her unending sadness and because She was further stripped of power. The world continued to grow dark, miserable, and terrifying. The Storm Age ended, and the Darkness began.