"Is it presumptuous of me to observe: the void still feels so empty, despite all the others have done?" Humilis spoke into the void, asking no one and everyone at once.

"It is not, brother. Your words are true. All remains dark. All remains shrouded." Pax spoke behind her brother, affirming his own thoughts.

"Should there not be light?" Humilis asked again.

"There should. But where should the light come from?"

"Stars. Should it not?"

"But what begets the stars, brother?"

Humilis nodded. "Ah. Indeed. There yet remain forces in the void unmade. So let us make them." Having said the words, the godly pair gestured into the darkness, and spoke rules into existence which did not exist prior.

Before the act was done, Pax turned to Cungto and bowed. "Many apologies to you, cousin, if this ACT upsets your beautiful board."

ACT: Humilis and Pax create the force of gravity: a distortion of spacetime tied directly to the relative mass of objects in the void.

Humilis and Pax began to weave their words into reality, their ACT placing the burden of weight and mass upon all things. However, matter yoked and toiled with unbearable heaviness they began to feel. Rocks and drifts of soil rolled down the slopes of the Earthen world, many things began to grow more uniform there and added to the pressures within the world.

 Each of the continental pieces upon the Great Chessboard began to weigh down heavily on the board, the first effects of gravity there. Cracks of stress began to appear along the board's edges but it remained, thus far, relatively intact.

 So it was on the first day, that the Great Chessboard and the Earthen world began to circle one another slowly.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:56, Sun 15 May 2022.

Ayrmith was more a presence than a form or shape. He moved around the ball of rock and earth and then around the chessboard. As gravity held them together he searched for just the right balance of weight and mass before taking action. He brought forth a globe of elemental air into the void that surrounded both the Great Chess Board and the Earthen World and everything in between.

Ayrmith creates a globe of elemental air.

Ayrmith takes to the space between the newly born worlds and across their surfaces. Finding the balance between the two newborn celestial bodies was a simple enough task for the god, and when they found it they swept up to it and blasted forth a wind singularity, which rushed out to encompass the entirety of the gravimetrically entwined duo.

 The effects were immediate and interesting to behold, for now, suddenly things began to move. Winds from the heat of the newly formed planet began to create lazy currents that stretched back and forth across the gap between the worlds. Drifts of sand and grainy bits of rock and earth began to swirl about, further mixing amongst the surfaces of the worlds. Soon a sheen of dust covered the Great Chessboard, and a new material began to filter onto the new world as well caught in these currents at times. In time the material would come to be known as Chessium, the hard rock-like material that the Great Chessboard was composed of...
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:10, Mon 16 May 2022.

Cungto looked upon the Chessboard and thought long and hard, the luck system had yet to be finalized. So his last bit of power should be invested into the chessboard his place of life to keep it going.

The Key, of course, was not that but a means to have various powers and abilities metric'd and told to the most simple of animals and the most complex of sapients. The World would be told. This ability would tell them of their abilities, their strength, and their luck, dex, con, and every other metric in a way personalized to inform them as much as possible that would prove useful to them, and with his plans of giving additional options to them through this system in the future.


Cungto Creates the System.

The System is drawn forth from Cungto's power, whole and complete, a kind of system that had nothing to do with manipulation of reality, yet, but even AO could see where this was headed. So AO watched as things were given attributes by the system, such as the stones and sands. Metaphysical character sheets were created and stats like strength, luck, dex, con, and several other metrics like encumbrance were logged on the metaphysical sheets, which were almost entirely, for now, potential...
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:21, Mon 16 May 2022.

Dawning the façade of a grey rat, Perenna found the planet quite plain. An adjustment needed to be made. Licking her "paw", she let a single drop of saliva fall upon the world, allowing her to create a new element before pausing for rest.

Perenna creates water.

A grey rat scurried about the earthen world, hurriedly she scanned the horizon, so much sameness. There was a long moment then, as she performed her ACT, power to rival even the great God of magic shredded through the fabric of reality. Around the rat, water began to burst forth from the dry dust and soon created a vast lake that stretched across many hundred thousand rat paws across. Within a full turn of the dry world and the water was dried up once again, but now clouds flowed across the skies and along its currents. Then something exciting happened...


 It began to rain. At first in short spurts across the celestial bodies within the Globe of Skies and soon small ponds and tiny rivers began to carry earth into former depressions in the slightly less uniformly shaped world.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:35, Mon 16 May 2022.

Heat was a form of power. Heat was a form of life as well. Not a life form, but a form of life-giving energy that allowed the living to flourish and survive. Thackus believed that Elemental Fire should be the representation of the power that Knowledge itself brings. Therefore, Thackus brought forth the power of Fire, breathing his breath of fire, magically, as an enchantment that would inhabit the inner reaches of the world down below, and be capable of inhabiting the world above ground in a way that could be both subtle, or quite tangible. From henceforth, The Element of Fire could both be a great boon or bane of the mortals that would eventually be created. People would use this to cook, fight, and eventually, harness energy.

Thackus creates The Element Of Fire.

The first Fire begins within the world, a place of hot pressures already but now with actual burning fire. For now, it bubbled up to the surface occasionally to spout great gouts of flame from the rare fissures. However, the Element began to warm the already lazily waking world but now accelerated the process. With large amounts of energy and lots of warm surface areas, the winds started to pick up speed and intensity, causing some great storms to appear swirling around the Worlds. These did little but alter the terrain of the place, for now. AO saw the future, though, and hoped that mortal life could be prepared to combat such intensities...
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:48, Mon 16 May 2022.

Stepping forth Jarrok opened his massive stony fist to reveal yet another orb, this time of stone. Three to four times as large as the elemental earth orb, he studied it for a second, turning it around in his hand. Seemingly satisfied he set it in place beside himself and readied his will.
With a series of delicate movements, he drew out a thread of the magic that Bjornrogn had created and some of the whispering incantations of Thackus, and wrapped them around the stone orb, tying them together across its surface, and connecting the orb to each.
Next, he plucked the wrapped orb back down from its place and took careful hold of it with both hands. Preparing himself, he tightened his grip and squeezed, as he had done with the earth orb only more so. Fire, heat, and light burst from between his rocky fists as pressed and crushed.
Finally, he released his hold and opened his hands. Where had once been a plain stone orb, there was now a significantly smaller, glittering crystalline orb. Holding it up, the orb was simple, beautiful, and perfect. Reflecting all possible and impossible colours, Jarrok lowered it back down. Gazing at it closely, he suddenly brought his other hand down on the orb, smashing it into countless shards of various sizes. Unlike the orb, these shards were imperfect, each only reflecting a few of the same colours that their parent had. Where the crystal orb had thrummed with the power of magic and speech, the shards contained but a spark of the same potential. Turning back to the earthen orb, he scattered the shard throughout its interior, bonding it with the stone.
Satisfied with his work Jarrok stepped back into the Void, his glittering eyes still observing the workings of his siblings.

Jarrok creates Stones of Power.

Jarrok emerges from the Eternal Realm to craft yet another earthen globe, but this time the massive power of his ACT added strength to his grasp upon the stone orbs. Transfigured into a new iridescent material, Powerstone, which the god scattered across and through the Earthen world. Some did manage to make it onto the Great Chessboard but for now, it was so little that it hardly mattered, AO foresaw several possibilities with the new material but for now, each grain resonated in time to it's sibling shards, echoing the words of Thackus and the deep energy reserve of Bjornrogn.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:06, Mon 16 May 2022.

Durehan observed also in part the workings of his peers, seeing them shaping great wonders and tying such workings together for the new cosmos that was forming. While much attention was paid to the Elemental Orbs and their combination, a place that might surely be a place of focus in the eons to come, he considered further.

Time. Gravity. Magic. Fire. Water. Earth. Air. Death. Forces of creation that would eventually house and shape the future of the world - or worlds - that would soon be brought to be. All of it would interconnect in short order, but he considered too his kin. They needed a place of grandeur of their own. A place in the cosmos.


So Durehan too worked within the ether to shape the primal forces of creation into a semblance of earth. But rather than create a singular orb to adorn the cosmos, his efforts worked to create something different. Shaped from a central creation, he broke the Earth he called into smaller pieces but still massive in their scales, using the forces of Gravity and Magic gifted to the Cosmos to fix them around the central orb.

Moons. Nine in total, one for each of them. The orbits would settle into a balance around the planet, with the moons being small enough to cause no harm or risk to the larger but each bearing some aspect in its semblance to reflect one of his kin. From these moons and Gravity, the waters of the world below would gain tides and currents. And for him and his brothers and sisters, each would have their own home to call their own. A place of dominance for each to claim and be regarded as tied to their power. A gift.


Durehan creates the Homes of the Gods, the Nine Moons of the World.

Durehan takes on a great task and though it is not against AO, the Alpha and Omega are insulted by it. For AO had wrought a home for the Gods already, called forth by its very hand -- The Realm Eternal. However AO's wrath would not be sated today for Durehan toiled true, accomplishing essentially one thing, thus escaping AO's wrath for now...

 Nine was the number of moons that Durehan brought forth, each was a sacred place reflecting aspects of its patronage. Each displayed an aspect of the gods they represented but only in a minor way. They all did have very peculiar effects upon the world, much as Durehan had foreseen. Tides pulled lightly on the tiny bodies of water that dotted the earthen world and that which collected near the center of the Great Chessboard. In addition, the new moons cast just a bit of their own glow across these worlds circling just outside the atmosphere the Ayrmith had crafted and through the epicenter of the space between worlds in a figure-eight pattern. This had the indirect effect of shedding a bit of the elemental air across these new celestrial creations.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:52, Mon 16 May 2022.

"Are not the basics yet incomplete? Should we say something?" Humilis asked, watching the other gods work.
"Perhaps they have decided to leave the larger tapestry to others?" Pax responded with a question.
"Perhaps. I'm worried that we're doing something wrong, sister." Humilis shuddered, and Pax placed a metaphorical 'hand' on his shoulder.
"That is for Ao to decide. All we need do is act."
"Of course. Of course."

... and so the twin entities did just that: continuing with their experiment to generate light in the void by seeding the universe with the components necessary for gravity to take hold and hopefully generate stars.

ACT: Humilis and Pax seed the deep void with nearly infinite clouds of gas and dust.

Pax and Humulis then undertake a monumental endeavor, to seed the cosmos. They spread stardust across the Void, and some relatively large pockets of colorful gases quickly begin to form. Trillions of them, spread unto infinity. However, the anticipated moment did eventually come as a large and relatively close pocket of gas began to collapse upon itself, such vast amounts of material began to pulverize itself until finally, brilliantly, ignition!

 The Sunstar is born and it shone its bright and warm light upon the dancing pair of worlds, who slowly began to fall into line with the new light source...

 Across the newborn cosmos similar events began to occur, while some clouds of material remained large and nebulous to hang as a backdrop to eternity.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:54, Mon 16 May 2022.

As Bjornrogn gazes with eyes full of Knowledge upon their Creation, he thinks long upon what has been wrought.  Insufficient was his first ACT, but for being a foundation.  Drawing forth from himself again, he reaches into his body, pulling nets of essence from it.  He cast these around the earthen orb, and the moons.  The pulls like countless blinding suns as the encircle each thing around the X, Y, and Z axises.  Crossing in six equidistant places, which pulse brighter still.  Then fade from sight, with a sparkling of infinite hued light.  Magic along these lines would be doubled in strength, and where the lines crossed, the power of magic was quadrupled.

Bjornrogn creates Ley Lines.

Bjornrogn etched these Ley Lines into a network of magic that flowed around the celestial orbs. Magic itself was unaffected except for its torrent of power, which now raged across these predetermined lines and meeting points much like the currents of air surged through the system. For now, there were no uses for magic itself, but a great foundation had been lain down before creation, one which would see much use in the future of the Void, though AO saw the potential for unlimited power to run awry in the hand and mouths of mortal beings. The directed power seemed more than sufficient and so extremely powerful, that it immediately began to physically carve itself into the world's terrain as well, wherein one would find water collecting especially near the new ley line conjunctions.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:07, Mon 16 May 2022.

Seeing what he had done, he observes it for a long time.  Considering the earthen globe as it rests within the encompassing Void.  Finally, he reaches out a single massive hand-like paw, and extending one claw, he pierces the earth at each point the Ley-Lines cross.  And with each puncture, he pulls forth an unbreakable black stone obelisk, rising from the deepest stone of the earthen globe.  Each connected through the center of the globe to each other.  The obelisks stand a hundred feet tall, and twenty feet broad at the base where they touch the ground.  Glossy black, peaked at the top ten feet of their gradual incline in a sharply pointed pyramid.

Act: Creating the Indestructible Obsidian Obelisks.

AO watched as huge Obsidian Obelisks spiked through the Earthen world like a set of posts, as the great bear-god ACTed. Each of them pierced through the Ley Line conjunctions the Great Bear had begotten earlier and emerged at an opposing one on the other side of the new planet. They crackle with magical energies as the invisible magical forces continued through the torrential network, though now the Obelisks diverted a bit of it through the world's core as well. They were very tough but not indestructible, as ALL things in creation could break down eventually, the only exception being the Objects of Power, which could never be destroyed even by godly desire...For now the obelisks simply conducted the magic but there would eventually be degradation unless something else was done.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:45, Wed 18 May 2022.

Sculping her body into this shape, the self-proclaimed goddess of change saw still too little color. Thrusting a fan into the Void, it eventually landed on the planet, slowly solidifying and breaking apart into smaller bits of varying colors.

Perenna creates gemstones.

Ao saw Perenna's works and smiled thoughtfully. Such colors were all new in this void, a rainbow of colors that had never been explored. Red, blue, white, black, yellow, orange, purple, and every variation between seemed to crash across the world and as precious things go, they were more rare than many other materials. So it was on the Earthen world, that these new gemstones came to be, bright and shiny. Many lay upon the surface of the world now, but over time many would be covered by dust and mud or washed into a cavern in the myriad flash floods that sprang up occasionally. In the fullness of time, they would be rare upon the surface of the world and many would be found deep within.

 Such beauty was not alone however for the gemstones could be counted among the other powerstones of the world, and often confused for one of them but for the colors, and their brilliant beauty could set them apart upon closer inspection.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:01, Wed 18 May 2022.

Cungto Decides to Save Through the Chessboard through the inspiration of Magic, guiding a bit of it along with the ways of Gravity. On The Chessboard, it would apply a universal Downward force, instead of the current gravity currently used, on everything on top of the board while reinforcing the Board with a gentle upward momentum and stopping the mass of the board from its Decay.


It infused the Board, and the pieces, every piece holding the gravitational alterations to allow the Board to remain in its current state. Its effects were intrinsic in the material of Chessium itself, related to where on the board it wanted to be; it wasn't harsh enough to destroy and turn the other parts of the board into dust by its nearby contact.

This he saw, and he saw the prospects Chessium, turning into valuable material for flight and propulsion of various sorts. It wasn't gamey enough for him, but try as he might, he couldn't think of a gamey variation to this. He linked it to the System, life could use their system to alter the gravitational constants and direction of the gravitational flow on the parts of the board they had in their possession. This would cost some good luck to do so, however.


Cungto Creates Gravity Magic, to stop The Chessboard's Decay.

  A special case force is then created upon the surfaces of the Chessboard, such forces were rare but useful to make complex creations. Thus enacted, the force began to bind the chesspiece continents to the grand board. The Great Chessboard being roughly equal in size to the Earthen world and the way the moons traced a figure-eight pattern around and between the two developing worlds created a problematic issue however. For as they became enacted, one side of the Chessboard created a downforce, while on the other created another force, but they were not evenly distributed forces as with a spherical world. Thus with each pass, the Nine Moons began to dip a bit closer to the surface of the Great Chessboard, only their great momentum hurled them through the skies "above" the chessboard, on both sides. So their orbits began to decay and stray in their settled paths...

 Meanwhile, across the surface of the Chessboard, waters began to pile and collect around the edges of the board where they began to settle into icy glaciers that formed a slowly growing ring as it was the coldest place upon both worlds currently. An equilibrium between the forces of up and down had developed there.

 Chessium became slightly more useful and valuable then as well as the target of Cungto's ACT.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:25, Wed 18 May 2022.

The dust was flowing to and fro with these new winds. rain too was causing the dirt to be shifted, often buried under the water. The world needed something to hold it down and replenish it. Something small enough to avoid the worst of the winds itself, capable of keeping the water from overwhelming the Earth, and strong enough to hold it down.

It seemed the time had come for plant life. Paper bills of indeterminate value fell from Plutocrus onto the world and were shredded in the wind. With a bit of his power, they turned into seeds blown to the far reaches of the world to grow into the basic grasses.

ACT: Plutocrus makes grass and spreads it across the planet.

Simple grass life began to sprout here and there across the worlds and even some of the moons that managed to catch a face full of the grass seed that fell upon it, in a new and wondrous Second Genesis of Life. This had an immediate and quantifiable effect, for soon the soils became thicker and held tight to the soil beneath it with long stringy roots. Around the system, there also came the unmistakable green hue that marked out huge patches of the plant life that spread and grew upon the protected slopes majoritively. However scrub grasses grew anywhere there was enough soil, this included certain areas of the Chessboard where light could reach down to coax it into existence.

 The result was much less of the blowing dirt and dust, but there would always be an exchange on some levels, so long as the two were connected.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:52, Wed 18 May 2022.

With the Sunstar illuminating and providing current and future warmth to the fledgling planet below, along with the warmth and burning sources of Fire that had been gifted to the planet, Durehan moved to act once more to bring his power to be. Protecting this world from the extremes would be needed, a safe haven for future growth and prosperity. A canvas for them to work on.


So within the molten core that had been gifted to the world already, he introduced new properties to create a force exerted outwards. A magnetic force that would create a shield around the world and the moons orbiting it. Strong enough and large enough to block out the most harmful effects from the Sunstar, but not so strong as to hinder the development of the world itself.


ACT: Durehan creates a magnetic field to protect the planet from the most harmful of cosmic influences.

Durehan crafts a new thing of strange energies that would affect metals and other mineral matter but also formed fields to protect the region where the Earthen world and its moons lay, including a portion of the Great Chessboard. The harsh and hard rays of energy from the newborn star began to dissipate from the surface of the Earthen world. The struggling grasses began to thrive more after the appearance of the field and soon after, life of every variety.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:50, Wed 18 May 2022.

As Cungto saw the Worlds, he noticed life was struggling. He wouldn't save them. No, that was far too biased in life's Favor. They should work, as Bad luck and misfortune are a part of luck. However, fortune could be given to the struggling plants and single-cellular life, along with other life in time. The Key was how to do so, and the Answer, Was Mutation, changing randomly. Of course, he'd give them a slight bonus and minus depending on if those mutations would either hinder or negatively impact that spawn of life, in the form of a positive or negative luck deficit. It would be integrated into the System, after all. This could give a myriad of evolutionary edges instantaneously whenever the mutation button, for lack of a better word, was pressed. Whenever the single-cell activated its mutations, something about its form would change. Perhaps its desire for water would change for the Taste of Gems, a rarer substance in the World, albeit less fickle, giving them a slight luck bump. Perhaps it gained a significant vulnerability to the heat of various forms. Any Aspect of its life, be it magical or mundane could change. Mutations are sudden and irreversible in its inception.

The abilities it could gain were just as numerous as the boundlessness of imagination. Men could gain wings, Birds could gain a bone in the middle of their throat muscles, and Grass could shrink or double in Size. But unfortunately, only those fortunate enough to survive would be able to bring these new mutations they learned to deal with to the next generation. And This would be a part of the System Cungto was Making, a cornerstone, even if more sentient races wouldn't be likely to appreciate the fickleness of these mutations, for it wasn't made for those comfortable with their lot. Still, the species and creatures that needed new or different abilities than those used to survive in the world they now found themselves in. A Single-celled organism that would die due to the fickleness of water, the grass for the same. A Bird Species destined to soon die at the hands of men, a tool for the desperate and the foolish. This was the purpose of the Mutation System. Though that didn't mean a man couldn't do the Same, a Man against a Powerful Foe, seeking even the slightest chance of survival or to save his family. The System is applied to the individual level and could be used there, just as much as it could save a species through the luck of those same individuals.

Cungto Created the Mutation System.

The Mutation System quickly gained steam as more than one errant blade of grass wished to be something different, and thus several new species were born but only a handful survived those initial days as they quickly outgrew one another. Among the new plants that grew numerous after that day were some primitive tree-like plants, as well as some fern-like ones and vines. Moss was a popular choice around the hard surfaces within the entire Aerosphere actually, of varying types, however, for none could communicate with the others. Finding partners to pollinate them was among the first issues with the new types of sexually reproductive currency-based life. Though many had ways of reproducing via root shoots or leaf starts.

 The Single-celled creatures also experienced random mutations and it allowed for some new cell shapes to be crafted and new features as well. Since many were asexually reproductive, they had little issues so long as this point never changed. Soon many millions of varieties of single-celled life began to diverge.

 AO foresaw many new things to derive from the two current branches of life, the Single-cellular and Currency-based life respectively, each with completely different genesis and so perhaps entirely incompatible for now.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:29, Thu 19 May 2022.

The mortals below would need something both subjective AND objectively real, for life to have meaning. The various citizens, the throngs of people and the individual would need to explore spirituality, especially in the ancient days, through not just the lense of their physical senses, but through the power of intuition, empathy, and other components of what makes a Human being. Morality, ethics, arguably philosophy, all of these things need what Thackus would now create.

The soul. Through the Archive Of Thackus, a magical construction would be created somewhere in the Void. This magically self-sustaining extra planar pocket dimension would have the lives of all mortals born on the world down below contained within it.

First, this Archive of Souls, pre-records the names, and possible futures of all mortal lives. Their feelings, their prosperity, peace, etcetera. This Book represents the full potential of the soul, and could be argued is their soul before their birth. There is a truly vast number of pre-recorded souls in the Archive.

On their birth, the book would be opened. With each passing moment of their lives, a new page, letter, sentence or phrasing would be printed with the power of Thackus, eternally preserving the records of their actions, feelings, experiences and even thoughts. When these people finally give their last breath, and enter into eternity, their book closes. These indestructible tomes may prove invaluable in passing reward and/or judgement on these mortals, and are the very representation of their souls. In some ways, some could argue these books ARE their souls.

The souls are the very essence of the mortals from the world down below. They are the minds, wills, and emotions, their very identity, and the capacity to exist, live and thrive eternally, outside of their natural lives, forever.

On the world down below, their souls are bonded to their Soul Tomes and are represented by a force of energy.

Thackus creates The Archive Of Thackus/Archive Of Souls, which have two books for every mortal each, representing their souls.

And so it was with a heavy heart and hand that AO saw that among his most interesting and active gods sought to overreach his power, stealing a considerable amount of power even from the future. Thackus sought to do many ACTs under one very large umbrella and this could not stand with so little foundation, AO saw he attempted to create Souls, a magical pocket dimension, indestructible tomes, and a system to produce those same souls and tomes inside it...Such overreach was beyond incomprehensible and must be broken by WRATH...and HOW!

 AO's gorge rose with great angst and anger, vomiting forth words of unmaking as the ARCHIVE OF SOULS half manifested...therein was no real books, no...souls. It was empty, save for what seemed a horde of hungry misbegotten creatures, which must never be born, with books attached to where their craniums would sit. Tortured spirits from ill-conceived future reality, the disgusting creatures breathed only old paper dust and breathed out a foul stench that nauseated anyone who might sniff it. These evil spirit creatures would be called The Tomeborne.They wandered those cursed halls trying to read the future of the Void etching itself into the walls, which became a reflection of the Creation Scroll... This place would be cursed for all time as an evil place of hungry greed for power.

 As WRATH had disrupted the ACT, it took its decrepit shape overlooking the Sunstar, from above the plane of the ecliptic, there it seemed to watch the developing worlds...

 AO rejects the ACT in great measure but will allow Thackus a refund of his ACT.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:48, Thu 19 May 2022.

Not yet satisfied, Bjornrogn considered long his next ACT.  Then, drawing from his essence, he empowers the obelisk.  Granting them the ability to transport any being that used Magic in the right way to any other Obelisk in the world.  And, with lesser Magic, they could transport a being to any Obelisk they had previously touched.

ACT: Enhancing the Obelisks to be an Item of power, invested with the ability to transport beings between them instantaneously.

The Obsidian Obelisks are then anointed true Divine power then, creating the First ITEM OF POWER! Joined at the center of the earthen world the Obelisks were actually one and fused at their creation as they pierced the world and the fiery heart of the world to make a six-pointed star shape. Such was the power of an Item of Power that it literally became indestructible and undiminishing. It had been granted the power to convey any being able to use the correct magic, this part still lay undefined, to any other obelisk along the six points of the star of the Obelisk. Six locations across the stormy and dusty world...For now, the Obsidian Obelisk awaited its first users.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:30, Thu 19 May 2022.

 Taking this shape, Perenna brandished her two swords wildly. It was unclear was she was doing at first, until red rips in the air formed in the sky bearing the planet's new name: Lerret.

Perenna names the planet Lerret.

And so it was that the divine and true name of the Earthen world became: Lerret.
 This could have a variety of uses later in the Void but for now, Perenna could feel the name attached itself on the primal level, for even the world now knew its own name, and names mattered to the sacred Great Void.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:31, Thu 19 May 2022.

As Humilis and Pax observe the void, they take note of the triumphs and the failures; but they took particular interest in Cungto's recent acts and developments.
"This Mutation System is certainly in-line with their personality." Humilis observed, watching plants and single-celled organisms diverge from each other at alarming rates. It was a system where anything could roll the dice.
"It is. But it also feels... more chaotic than usual. I see great potential; but also great risk." Pax replied, shaking her head.
"Oh? Do tell. What do you see?"
"I see a never-ending cycle of violence and destruction perpetrated by the insane and the malcontented. A future dominated by the fear that a single individual could simply choose to change their nature the moment they feel slighted by society, no matter how just or unjust the feeling. A world where people are encouraged to constantly gamble for power, rather than endure or strive to change their condition." Pax's eyes narrowed, searching through the probabilities as she spoke. "A world where nothing can ever just be."
"Are you sure you're not overstating the risk, sister? You might offend or peer. Surely they didn't mean for this to be the case? And what of the weak and powerless? Should they not have a means to change their condition in the face of injustice, or when all hope feels lost?"
Pax considers Humilis's words for what seems like centuries.
"This is true. Perhaps... we could act in compromise? We could modify and guide this system?"
Humilis nods, appearing both concerned and excited.
"Perhaps."

ACT: Humilis and Pax create the Mutation-Ordering system: not as a direct counter to Cungto's mutation system, but as a means to bias and stabilize it under certain conditions.

Clarification of Intent:

- Sentient faith can bias or vastly reduce the outcomes of mutations in an area around the faithful based on the god or gods the sentient follows. How this bias manifests is up to the gods being worshiped to decide, but by default it would mean that mutations bias toward themes that match the gods own. Mutations that don't match those themes, or that threaten the faithful, have a reduced impact.

- A critical mass of such faith in enough individuals concentrated in an area can 'stabilize' that region, including for non-sentient life.

- In addition to faith being a trigger, a critical mass of general 'happiness' can also stabilize a region. This happiness must be genuine, and not the result of manipulation from outside forces.

- Non-sentient life can diminish mutations and mutation rates by simply thriving on a massive scale. The more 'life' exists and thrives in an area, in quantity and variety, the more stable and less extreme mutation outcomes become. This applies to sentients in those regions as well. So the more verdant the region or world, the less extreme mutations are, and the less often they occur.

- None of these factors completely eliminate the chance of mutations; just reduce their chances and bias their outcomes.

 So it was, the Twin Gods stepped in to lay another layer upon the mechanism of mutation, this had several effects and was immediately felt in many of the places where life resided. The Mutation-Ordering principle.

          In the world of Lerret, some of the grasses began to develop in a more stabilized fashion, first came the cacti-grass, as you can imagine it was plump with whatever water its deep roots could retrieve, filling its blades. Their spines had only just begun to emerge as a feature. This emergent property began to slow its development as small and sharp spines seemed better able to fend off the newly ascendant slimes(about the size of a fist), which had learned to burrow within some of the plant life for water.

          It was also here that life took a new turn towards multicellular cooperation, as life had found many variations in form needed only a little commonality in order to work together. Colonial life began to make an appearance, and lichen as well as the simplest of worms to till the soil or deep mud and swim the few waters that continued the shade of mountain ridges.

          On the 9 Moons, Mosses were able to acclimate to the colder temperatures better than those of Lerret. Grasses continued unabated in all the worlds, but here they had slowed their spread and in many places, divergences were occurring, like the moon gifted to Ayrmith, which seemed to favor pollination by the wind. Upon Perenna's moon, where springs emerged to create the Grasses of the Great Marsh. Wood first occurs upon Plutocrus's world as the first woody blades of grass reach for the sky.

          The open areas of the Great Chessboard and the adjoining chesspiece spires had enough dirt and dust that it could support some rare forms of the currency-based plantlife. It is here that things seem most interesting as some of the hardier moss spores eventually make it to the Chessboard. It is here faced with high adversity in life that mutation begins to be felt in earnest. Crawling roots and retracting filter feeders that acted like barnacles for dusty nutrients, are among the most notable of these newly thriving forms of life, where the struggle was hardest. The green-hued Bearded Chessium Moss was by far the most interesting, however, with its weightlessness. Naturally, the Chessboard would come to host some of the most extreme cases of mutation because of the close proximity to the White King of Luck...

This message was last edited by the GM at 11:54, Thu 19 May 2022.

Now with the Mutation system in full effect thigs were changing, quite rapidly from Plutocrus's perspective. If more life was to emerge, It would need only a little bit of help to become truly many things.


With this he gathered some of the wooden grass from his moon, and brought them together. gold flowed from his hands, forming fruit and merging the wood into a tree. A wooden tree with fruit of gold. Not literal gold of course. HE changed THAT. It wouldn't do to have fruit that life couldn't eat and couldn't spread seeds.


He would plant it, and spread it, and this would be the Platonic Ideal of fruit trees, from which all other fruit trees would mutate.  And so he did spreading the Fruit trees across the world of Lerret.


ACT: Plutocrus creates and plants the first Fruit Trees.

 Plutocrus ACTs once more and the Void comes alive as he draws near...

  The Fruit Tree grew strong and tall compared to everything that had come before, its wood thick and darkly colored with broadly spreading branches of lighter colors to better highlight their colorful yellow fruit, which weighed heavily on the green tufted branches at first. However, soon slimes learned to climb the trees, having been stopped from burrowing by the thicker bark of the fruit tree, and gorge on the golden-colored fruits for their luscious hydrating juices. IN this way, the first fruit trees began to spread, each slime dropped five or six of the tough brown seeds having little use for their husky covering. Some were caught by a stream or wind and around Lerret. These trees often grew best in warm dry climates and so were at home.

  There were few creatures yet which could interact with the fruit trees, but there would be soon enough.

  Here and there, the Fruit Trees did wish to be slightly different, but essentially the same, so clade drift was happening. Thus new fruits were soon to grace the world as well, it was only a matter of time.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:25, Fri 20 May 2022.

Disappointed with his failure to create the foundation of souls that mortals could use, Thackus moves on. He notices that despite the world down below having the Four Elements and some Fundamental principles of science, the vast majority of scientific principles were not in vogue yet as a way to preserve and get work done in the universe. Thus, Thackus creates the energy of electricity. Electricity would be in vogue for energy use, centuries down the line, Thackus thought that perhaps, this ACT, if successful was adequate, even if nowhere near as grand as the Archive of Souls. How he created the energy of electricity was simple. . . sort of.

Quickly, with the rapid friction of rubbing his hands together, he unleashed a silent spell into the Void and thus, the world down below.

ACT: Thackus Creates the energy of Electricity.

Thackus then spreads his hands forth delivering electrification unto the cosmos, caused by great friction, such as that of the skies of the Aerosphere. A litany of thunder crashes reverberates across the night skies of Lerret. Thunderstorms, flash smears of strobing purple illumination as the first true weather event takes place and a vicious thunderstorm rages across the planet's surface for a time. Electrical Energy had come to the Void.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:36, Fri 20 May 2022.

Seeing the spreading of life across the world already, Durehan viewed some of the works of the other gods and nodded his own approval, seeing their efforts in line with his own thoughts and plans. Reaching out, he acted to enhance their own efforts and cause such to become accelerated. Greater in scope and wider in the spread. The trees that were beginning to take shape, primitive ones and those of fruit, were encouraged to grow and spread wider. Thicker. While not all-consuming, they would grow and spread throughout the world to create thick forests that could benefit from the mutation changes that had graced the world, creating more diversity in the process.


ACT: Durehan speeds up the spread of the trees to create widespread (but not all-consuming) Forests.

  Sprouting groves of trees seemed to launch several stories into the air with several around the cosmos beginning to thrust their branches high into the skies. Soon Lerret had several forests and grew to encompass rather vast swaths of land. Some are as large as one of the continental chesspieces in surface area.

   This quickly grows to affect the water issue as the new forests began sequestering water both for themselves by providing shade, but also by supporting the planetary ecosystems by cooling the atmosphere around Lerret and catching more of its blown dust and dirt. As well as further protection from erosion as grasses had begun the effort.

   Forests soon grew to breathe new life into the world, as the forests and currency-based plantlife breathed in many of the wind contaminants left from the early days of the world's formation. They also served to breathe out the breath of life as higher concentrations of life-giving air surrounded the Aerosphere in an interplanetary-air recycling system that seemed to emerge from the natural course. Though somewhere in the bleachers one could hear moss scream out that they had done their part too.

 And they had, of course.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:08, Sat 21 May 2022.

"The foundation of reality is coming together nicely, I feel."
"Agreed, sister." Humilis watched the void, somewhat concerned about the recent wrath that had scarred a tiny part of the gods collective creation. He felt great empathy for Thackus and The Tomeborne. But such was Ao's will.
"Best not to linger on the details, brother. These evil things may not be ideal, but they are part of the fabric of this reality nonetheless. Better that we focus on improving the foundation already set in place." Pax continued, observing her brothers worry. "With the help of our peers, life is flourishing, yet the void still lacks a certain variety."
Humilis tore his attention aware from the Tomebrone and nodded.
"Agreed. The soil of these worlds will need species to turn and tend it. Organisms that will function alongside plants to develop and enhance their prosperity."
"You speak of Fungus?"
"I do indeed." It was so much like Humilis to concern himself with the smallest and most hidden functions of life. Fungus was an important part of any healthy biosphere, and yet its contribution was often hidden from view.
Pax smiled. "Well, while you work on that. I think the worlds of the void could use some added variety in their rocks. I speak of metals. Whatever sentient beings wander these worlds in the future will need something to work and to mine, in addition to gemstones. Not to mention their importance in other fundamental functions of reality."
"Of course, sister. Let us begin."

ACT 1: Humilis introduces a new branch of life by guiding and accelerating the mutations of various single-celled creatures across the void until they become various forms of simple and advanced Fungus.

    As if drawing a line along the water's edge, Humulis points at a simple viny shape that takes root and pulls itself up to the water's edge, still wet while transforming and moving according to Humilis's design. The Deity traces its motion until at last, it sits as large as a sampling, a nearly two-meter cap on the top. The first majestic mushroom took shape, followed closely by dozens of other creations, each exploring an avenue for a fungal-based lifeform. Their purpose was crafted into them, they soon tilled the soil and provided a network of nutrients that could be shifted about the forests. Since the trees came first it was easy for these new funguses to find niches to fill around the larger light-drinkers.

ACT 2: Pax reaches across the void and alters some of the rock and minerals found there, generating veins of metals with various properties; some conduct electricity, some conduct magic, some are soft, some are ultralight, some require great effort to shape and melt, some are rare, and some combine aspects of all of the above.

          Pax wills change to descend upon the rocks and minerals as large veins of metals seem to worm into the rocks themselves, sliding through the crust of the planet and moons. The Chessboard was unaffected for none of it was composed of stone or rock. The veins of metal seem to have varying power to descend into the rocks based in part on what they were composed of, some drove themselves down hundreds of meters and far fewer went deep but those were the rarer types of metals. Notable metals were iron, brass(special fantasy ore), zinc, tin, copper, osmium, and lithium.

          Across the 9 Moons had veins of metal spiral into the rocks almost ethereally. Once all the veins had reached their maximum depth they settled into their new rocky homes and incorporated themselves into the geology in this fashion.

This message was last edited by the GM at 22:06, Sat 21 May 2022.

Cungto looked upon the World and saw the moons and Chessboard would soon crash relative to his personal time. Thus, he thought much like The Chessboard's gravity magic. He could make a magic special to all the moons. Implemented into the system,  If the Moons got into X Range of Chessium they'd create a force field of variable size. In the case he'd wanted to use them in was to create a force field to guide the moons away from crashing into the Chessboard, but much like gravity magic. This was a system that was going to be given to the masses where they'd be able to manipulate moon rocks force field properties, shape, where the force field manifests, strength, and range of activation in comparison to chessium if it needs it at all. Like all aspects of the system thus far it cost personal luck to manage proportional to the amount they changed and the complexity of the change.

This Cungto foresaw would be another useful resource for the Mortals below, one requiring luck to tweak much like the gravity but allowing for lasting construction reliable on The Resources in the skies of Lerret. Close by to potentially reach.


Cungto Creates Forcefield Magic to Fix the Moon's Orbit.

      Upon the moons the only foretelling of this ACT was the sudden propelling of several tons of dust Chessium being catapulted into orbit from the surfaces of the moons. That which had been lain upon their surfaces. Whence the first of the Moons passed into the distances relative to it seemed to visibly bob up so as to keep it's clever motion and distance relative to the Chessboard's surface chessium.

          Much like the properties of chessium, the newly imbued substances upon the moons, hereafter called moondust, would have a bubble of force that surrounds it in relation to it's size, thus a few grains of the moondust could in fact repell chessium at around a meter, or vice versa depending highly on which of the substances was the greater mass.

          Each of the moons soon found their orbits improved by the addition, each getting an orbit boost when they came closer to chessium, thereby self-correcting such issues.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:51, Sat 21 May 2022.

Jarrok's image becomes hazy, a vague outline of itself forming in the ether of the void. The god's shape flickers, and depending on the angle it could appear as a guttering flame or a spark.

Without warning the figure of the earthen god begins to collapse in on itself, folding inward again and again in a dizzying geometric pattern. For a moment there was perfect silence in the void, followed by a reality-shattering explosion.

Where Jarrok's existence once appeared was now a figure composed of the same essence, yet entirely different. A towering pillar of fire, each end stretching out into infinity appeared, and in orbit around it was a smaller flame, though small only in relation to its partner.

"Rebirth." the reborn god intoned.

His birth was not without consequences.

Act: Jarrok's explosive rebirth as Dadacar rips a hole in reality, creating swirling darkness known as the Gateway to the Unknown

         Suddenly the energy of transformation heralded the shift in Jarrok, Dadacar was emerging reforged as a pillar of fire...

         The fabric of reality seemed to stretch and burst through the threads like string cheese, a wide black hole appeared at the edges of the solar system. The Gateway to the Unknown had been wrought, but as of yet, it lead to nowhere. Dadacar had arrived!
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:15, Sat 21 May 2022.