100 souls spent to create 2 more Feast Beasts

It was a game of scales and balance. As the two great feast beasts were slain, as the Aethereal had come to call them, Annastarria drew upon her reserves of power to replenish them. It would not be long before two more would be slain. The numbers of the Aethereal were growing again, now that war was now whittling them down. But the God of Eternity was still working on a long term solution as another iteration of herself traveled beyond Aeon.

Back in Aeternus, the God of Eternity flitted from activity to activity. She had a range of interests and would spend a few days on one then another. Leading a few arcanists one day she would spend time refining the process of writing. On another day she encouraged them to gaze upon the stars and note their progress. Still another day she encouraged them to put aside their weapons and practice the theoretical elements of magic. On another day she introduced the idea of simple mathematical equations.

+5% Writing Advancement
+5% Mathematics Advancement
+5% Astrology Advancement
+5% Astral Magic Advancement

These were peaceful days, idyllic and gentle and full of gentle afternoons beneath moonlight to discuss ideas and higher learning. The Arcanists who joined here on these intellectual pursuits were happy to engage in discussions and debates. It seemed this could go on indefinitely. But all things must end.

In this case one afternoons studies ended with a boom that shook the whole realm. On the mountainside Aetheria let out a displeased shriek and roused herself from where she'd been slumbering. It set off to the north. There, far in the distance the land stretched out much further than it should. Rather then end abruptly at a drop into the void as it had for centuries, now there were steep hills that had been formed due to something massive crashing into the edge of Aeon. Something had crashed into Aeon! Something massive. It stretched on far into the distance. There were wide fields of dead grass, forests of skeletal trees and stagnant lakes of tepid water. Even a foreign sky hung over those strange lands.

Impossibly enough, it appeared another realm had crashed into Aeon!

Idyllic days spent in learning and love of growth with her Children. It was like a beloved and never-ending Autumn night for Harvest was her favourite time of the year. She watched her children grow and rejoiced in their discoveries and spent every eternal night with them to help them grow and learn.

But she learned that the World Tree had yet another surprise for her when her meditations were broken by the terrible thunder and shaking that came with the sight of new lands beyond what had been the borders of Aeon.

"ARCANISTS! Arm yourselves and prepare for battle!" She cried as she leapt from her Temple and changed into her true form mid-fall. Massive wings unfurled as she sped across the landscape behind Aetheria. She gathered her power and made ready to unleash hell on any who would seek to invade.

Taking flight, Annastarria flew after her blazing dragon and towards the northern border of Aeon. It took a few hours to get there from Aeternus. She wondered what she would find when she reached those newly crumpled mountains. Slavering hordes pouring over the border, militant invaders ready to dominate, invasive monsters? With these many thoughts running through her mind was it relief or disappointment that went through Annastarria as she reached the border and found it was quiet. The war she had feared or longed for did not seem to have arrived. It would be two more days before her Arcanists arrived, as they were not gods and did not have the benefit of flight. Some Undarin were closer and reached the impact sight sooner, they were taken aback by the strangeness of this new sight, but in testament to their martial history, they did not balk at the strangeness.

The northern edge of Aeon had been crumpled like a leaf in a fist. The previously smooth plains were now folded and mashed into rugged hills. On the far side of those hills was the cause. Another realm was smashed up against the previous border and had done equal harm to that realms border. Dead grass and rock were piled into raw mountains there. Beyond those newly formed mountains lay a field of dead dry grass, and past that were trees devoid of leaves of greeny, they stretched toward the sky like skeletal fingers. Stepping across the border onto this other realm Annastarria felt her connection to the land cease. Despite the two realms butting up against one another this was clearly not Aeon.

And this new realm seemed to be uninhabited. At least no one had rushed to investigate the collision of divine spaces. There was a dry, dusty, quiet quality to this place. The sensation of it was akin to a great cemetery. Every bit of evidence that Annastarria saw pointed to this being some sort of cosmic accident. A realm adrift in a cosmic sea that had simply run aground on Aeon by chance. But gods were cunning creatures and their tools were limited more by imagination than anything else. There could be hidden danger here.

The Prince of Blossoms appeared in the Realm, and using his divine senses he "scanned" for Annastarria's location assuming he didn't appear near to her location as finding her was his intention.

An unnaturally large mass/volume of Sakura petals suddenly appeared, swirling outward from the god's divine aura until it was a writhing, pulsating cloud of petals. They floated in the air swiftly, defying physics. Equally physics-defying was when the Prince simply leaped up onto some of the lowest petals to the ground, and tread upon them like they were a solid cloud. The mass of petals lifted him into the air over the tree line as he soared swiftly through the air toward his sister goddess' location.

The Prince of Blossoms arrived in a grassy field. Portaling to another realm was an imprecise affair without an established gate or receiving point on the other end. Still, he was quick. It would only take him a few short hours to reach the northern border of Aeon. There he found Annastarria and a congregation of her Aethereals. They were standing warily at the new seam created between Aeon and this other realm which had crashed up against its borders.

There was surprise amongst the Aethereal, only the High Arcanist had lived centuries ago. For them the arrival of another god was a momentous occasion. The blazing blue-purple dragon Aetheria gave a snort of fire, recognizing the Prince of Blossoms the protective guardian returned its watchful eyes to the strange deadlands beyond.

Feared and anticipated, yes. Craved? Not at all. She knew there would be an invasion at some point but thought she would have more time to be ready for it. This was something wholly unexpected. She was in her true form and gazing across Aeon at the new land beyond when the Prince of Blossoms appeared.

She had sent some of her children forward to scout and had gone herself but not very far. She wanted her children to see her and for her to see them and would begin to explore carefully.

"This land appears to be dead," she was saying when the Prince of Blossoms appeared. She nodded her great head and turned her attention back to the land that now seemed part of her own Realm.

"This Realm appears to have...drifted and crashed into Aeon but so far I sense no life. Everything is dead and withered. If we can bring life to this place it would solve many problems but this worries me. Why did this happen and who did this Realm belong to? Where are they now?"

The Prince Descended to the ground, although swarms of sakura petals floated slowly and wistfully on the breeze in the air, while others fell to the ground. They would provide a quick support if something threatened The Prince and his sister.

"Greetings Sister, and hello to you one again Aetheria." he said to the goddess and her dragon.

"This land...it is clearly a foreign realm that crashed into yours. But how is this possible? I had no idea!" he replied.

He considered.

"Well...there is no use in asking speculative questions. We will have to explore and see what this is about. If it is a truly empty land then you may have gotten lucky and gotten an expansion to your realm without needing essence or something like primordial energy. But it will take time for it to interface with Aeon and become truly yours." he continued.

"I think you and I should at the very least should go explore it and seek out its center. We may be able to sense something there. If there is a hostile threat we will bring them to heel and if not...maybe we can find a way to jump start the land, especially with my particular domain of powers." he said.

"You honour me brother. Would you care to fly in an entirely different fashion to look over this new land?"

The Goddess of Eternity crouched down some to make it easier to find a place of comfort on her back. "I would be proud to fly along with you in this exploration and, should we find a way to make this land mine I believe the first structure to grace it will be a Tea House in honour of you."

She turned to look at her children and Aetheria. "Mind the borders and be ready for anything. Aetheria you watch from the sky and keep an eye on us as we begin our flight."

The Prince of Blossoms nodded, and smiled at her approvingly. Annastaria was doing a perfect job of balancing her role as host of the realm, but also as a gracious sister receiving help. The laws of hospitality at their finest.

"That would make me very happy indeed, sister. This would be the start of an inter-realm Teahouse chain whose Headquarters I intend to one day house in the Divine City, ages from now once it is completed." he replied as he gracefully walked up? around? Across? her draconic body to stand somewhere atop. The God practically danced his way up onto her, such was his inhuman gracefulness.

"You honor me with the grandest mode of transportation one could imagine. But yes let us explore together, and I will do my utmost to help you secure this invading realm in hopes that this disruption can one day be turned into a serendipitous opportunity for Aeon to expand." he added.

Joined together, the two gods set themselves to setting out and unraveling the mystery of this strange dead realm. Climbing atop Annastarria's back, the Prince of Blossoms rode the dragon god and in this way they set out.

From high overheard this new realm was all shades of ashen gray, sickly yellow and festering black. The scope of the devastation became all the more impressive when you could see miles upon miles at a time. Something was deeply wrong with this place. That became more and more apparent, both from the sights unfolding below as well as what their divine intuitions told the two gods.

Below they spotted the first signs of inhabitation. A small village of wooden huts and a few humble fields of crops that were all now wasted away. They may have gone lower to investigate, but up ahead a much greater feature of the landscape caught their eye. A great ragged hole had been punched through the world. This massive wound to realm was great enough that an entire sprawling city would have fallen clean through without touching the borders. Below, through miles of earth, one could see the constellations of Aeons sky.

This certainly warranted a closer look, however there was an obstacle. All along the border mortals were gathered. Some were on their knees worshipping at the edge of the hole, some danced wild dances, others were throwing things through the hole in what looked like a maddened attempt to fill it. These mortals were emaciated and their eyes were sunken and possessed a wild gleam of insanity. Reaching the border and doing any meaningful investigation of this place meant getting through them.

OOC: These mortals are thoroughly insane and will attack the gods at the first opportunity, talking with them will be ineffective. They don't offer any real threat to gods though, you can write up how you dispatch them.

Annastarria had an idea what happened on this world and the thought sickened her. She needed to confirm what she suspected before saying anything so she cast out her senses and tried to feel any divine energies on the entire expanse of Realm that had crashed into Aeon.

Annastarria circled over the hole a few times as she peered down intently.

"I sense no divine presence here, brother. I believe that hole represents the place where they died and, with their death, this Realm has been brought to ruin. I shall take us down for a closer look. The mortals will attack us but they can do us no harm."

Annastarria circled once before coming in to land so as to walk to the hole and gaze within.

The Prince nodded.

"I myself was thinking something damaged or stole the primordial core of the realm, and that is why it's sick, but that would be no easy feat even for a god. Although your idea that this may be the realm of a truly dead god and this is the result is also viable." he said.

"Maybe it is Laertes or whatever her name was...the other war god Graug amaranthed. If your theory is true, then there might be remnants of an essence core someone in this realm near the hole. But while taking it for ourselves would be tempting, I'd like to suggest that if such is the case we work together for the greater good and instead see if we can use any essence bits we can find here to patch up and even heal the realm instead, and graft it onto Aeon." he continued.

"As this is in your realm, I cede the final decision to you but if you're willing I'd like to explore the hole with you and try and see if there's essence or at least some sort of primordial power residue we can work with, and see if we can do a graft onto Aeon and make it a true second province for you. I have the power to instill vitality as well as life and flora into the land but it won't last unless we address the sickness of the land first."

Landing near the hole, the two gods were swarmed by mad mortals. Slathering raving and violent, the mortals posed no threat to the gods, but there wouldn't be a chance to focus and investigate with the horde surrounding them.

OOC: Describe how you dispatch or drive back the attacking mortals.

With the mortals dealt with, the gods approached the edge of the chasm. Here they let the quiet wash over them and extended their divine senses. It was Annastarria, with her keen eye, that came to the conclusion. Something had punched through this world and tore out the heart. They could feel the lingering traces of power from its passing.


There was a rumble underfoot and the hole widened as more dirt cascaded down into the void. The damage done to this realm had undermined its overall integrity. The whole place was collapsing. It wouldn't be long before the realm broke free from Aeon and continued to fall through the world on its death march. However, the trip to explore this realm was not wasted.

But there was power that could be harvested here at this site of destruction. Humble power, but power nonetheless.

OOC: You can choose one of the following rewards to claim.

Hot on the Trail: Examining the energies that had been released here, they provided a distinct trail, one that could be pursued. Following the path might reveal what had killed this divine realm.
Adventure Hook: Start an adventure to discover what gutted this realm. The instigator of this adventure will ultimately receive Essence as their final reward.

The Mad Host: Abandoned on this dying realm, the mortals here were quite irretrievably mad. But that didn't mean they couldn't be collected. Gathering them up, their madness could be transformed into crazed devotion. They would likely not get along well with other mortals, nor would they be much use for higher learning or advancement. But there were quite a number of them and they were wildly fearless.
New Mortals: Gather new mortals for your realm. On the one hand, they're violent and insane. On the other they'll be devoted.

Void Front Property: While this realm was crumbling away and dying, a small sliver of it could be salvaged. Not enough to be a province proper, it would still be something to add to a realm. Sickly grasslands and decrepit forests which could be leveled and built upon.
Expanded Realm: Add an additional Benefit slot to your heartland. The land isn't much good for anything besides building upon.

Unspent Potential: A few souls still linger upon this realm. They could be gathered up and the power imbued into another gods divine realm. This would provide a sliver of additional power to be gathered.
Souls Expansion: Gain an additional +50 souls per week and raise your soul cap by 100.

"Exactly my thinking brother. Between us we can join this Realm to Aeon and make it mine then use our combined energy to bring verdant life here and raise the first Tea House on Aeon. It would be my honour to host you there for tea and for that to be the first official embassy between our worlds. Hang on, I'm going in to land."

Annastarria circled back and landed outside the ring of mortals before drawing in a deep breath and roaring. It was a deep, vicious, terrifying sound that came with gouts of purple flame. She sent it streaming over the heads of the maddened mortals and kept at it until they were gone.

She waited for the Prince to dismount before changing back to her two-legged form and began examining the crater that had been left behind. Her eyes shaded slowly from black starry skies to angry blue as she figured out what had happened.

"Someone ripped the Essence clean and, in so doing, destroyed this Realm. It will not survive. The mortals are bereft of guidance and divinity and though it saddens me to leave them to this fate, I have no choice. I haven't enough for my children so taking on more cannot happen. But I can avenge them. I have found the trail of the thief and shall find and destroy them for what they have done!"

Hot on the Trail claimed.

The Prince of Blossoms nodded.

"That the first of my inter-dimensional tea houses is Created here would bring me much honor, and is something I eagerly look forward to Sister." he replied cordially.

"I also think that most of the mortals and such here are beyond helping, and not worth either of us straining ourselves for now. But I support you following the trail of who did this and I will come along and support you. If we're lucky, we can find the essence that was stolen still before it is consumed or expended and use it to breath life back into this sickened province, and make it a true expansion of Aeon." he continued.

He held his hand outward, and flicked it with a casual disdain. "Petty annoyances. Be gone now, and trouble my sister no longer!"

As he did so, suddenly sickly grasses and roots began to burst forth from the ground rapidly and violently. With a snap of his fingers, those sickly plants suddenly regained their natural vitality and coloration as they were currently being sustained by the Prince's manifest power. They continued growing and expanding to the point that the hordes of maddened mortals began to swiftly and helplessly get entangled! At which point, the large cloud of flower petals that had followed the Prince through the air suddenly began spinning swiftly as they slammed into the hordes of mortals, slicking and decimating them in defiance of physics far faster than being cut down by any mere sword or dagger. The Prince choose to grant them a violent death for them daring to raise a hand against he and his sister, although a mercifully swift death as well due to the tragic circumstances that had led them to their madness. He would not let them suffer for longer than a mere moment - it was the least he could do to put them out of their misery.

Once he was done, the plants drank deep of the blood of the fallen while the roots dragged the corpses back down into the earth. In this way, they could hopefully become fertilizer for his sister's potentially new province and a fertile ground where new life would one day grow.

"Behold, ye wayward souls! I shall grant my sister any rights I have to the essence as brotherly tribute, once we track down the perpetrator and work to restore what was lost and let it bloom anew in the domain of eternity. But as your judge, jury, and executioner I shall not consign your souls to the void but instead take them under my patronage. One day, you will be reborn as Kistune or other wonders and will live on despite the tragedy that has happened today." he said, as he gathered forth the Unspent Potential of the souls that were swirling around now after the mercy-killing and were quite visible to his divine sight. He drew this large mass of spiritual energy into his divine aura, where it was subsumed his his blossoming divinity.

Unspent Potential claimed.

Getting a sense of the energies around the massive wound at the realms core, Annastarria could follow that energy now. Normally a god was required to have visited a realm before they could go other. The power around this crater acted similarly enough, she could move herself to follow.

Underfoot the ground rumbled and trembled. In the distance you could hear rocks fall. This realm was crumbling away, it was not a matter of years or months, but rather weeks and days. It would likely be only a few short hours before it broke away from where it had crashed into Aeon, then it would continue its voyage of plummeting through the World Tree. There was nothing else of value to be found in this place. The mortal would that had gutted this realm had sapped it of anything else of value aside from those lingering traces of power that the two gods had salvaged.

"Sister...there is power near the center of the Realm, where it the wound went straight through. I think you are right that we are Hot on the Trail of the culprit. And the energies seem similar to a portal. Let's attune to it and follow after, lest we lost the trail. Let us go and hunt them, Sister, and if we are lucky the stolen essence will still be intact and we ran retrieve it for Aeon." he said as he pointed out the energies in the crater to make sure his draconic sister noticed.

"Shall we go on a hunt that shall put Serek and Graug to shame?" he added with a smirk.

Annastarria laughed, threw back her head and roared her challenge to the sky. "Let us do that, brother! We shall get to the heart of this mystery and right the wrong that has been done to this Realm. Thank you for coming with me on this adventure."

She took to the air with one flap of her wings and began to pursue the trail of power she sensed.

In one mind, the two gods set themselves after the trail they'd uncovered. Opening a portal, Annastarria led them to places unknown.

Moving the Prince and Annastarria to another thread.

The Goddess of Eternity stepped through the portal and appeared on her mountain in the fullness of her form and practically glowing with energy from the recovered Essence they had taken from the vicious sibling who had ravaged Realms.

She cast her mind across Aeon as one of the bright stars of energy began to glow even brighter as she bent her divine will towards using it to expand her home. There was a great rumbling through Aeon as the Essence suddenly flared to brilliant life as she guided it into the crafting of new lands for her children to explore and claim, new life for them to meet and hunt for food and other needs, and new waters to swim, explore, and drink. The other star shined brightly at her feet whilst she continued working with the one that would be fully claimed in the growth of Aeon.

Upon her return Annastarria found the dying realm that had crashed into Aeon had crumbled away and continued its long plummet through the branches of the World Tree. The folded hills formed by the collision were all that remained on the northern border of Aeon to reflect the accident. That and the Essence that Annastarria now possessed after the hunt that had been set into motion.

Note: The Folded Hills have been added to Places of Interest under Realm Info.

OOC: I'm running on the assumption that you're spending 1 Essence here. If you decide to spend the other to also expand your realm let me know.

Aeon trembled. As it had in a past age, the sweeping moonlit plains trembled and shook. Along the southern border new lands unfolded and expanded. Wild and untamed, they were not truly part of Aeon, not yet, just as the Argent Sands had once been separate. But this new vista was quite different. Where the silver deserts of the west had been harsh and unaccommodating, the new lands to the south were quite different. Lower than the plains, waters from the springs and rivers drained into this new province leaving the place drowned. The ground underfoot was treacherous, the tall grasses that grew up from the water made it hard to discern if the water was only ankle deep or could swallow up an entire Aethereal.

This newly formed bog had forests of twisting and interlocking trees and scrub brush. The dark waters of the starlit bogs hid a number of small fish and edible creature of the mud and muck. This new province was damp, musty and not welcoming to those who didn't carefully look where they stepped, but it was rich with sources of food once the aethereal learned to properly utilize them.

It was fortunate as well, over the months that Annastarria had been hunting the tribes of the plains had consumed four more of the feast beasts. Their great skeletons lay outside the three villages as testament to both what a unified tribe could accomplish as well as what mortal appetites.

The work was done just in time. Annastarria had been busy and she could feel the fugue of sleep settling upon her. This left only the matter of direction to provide the aethereal during her absence. The goals for Aeon were much the same as they had been when the god of eternity last slept.

Focus on Magic: The study of purely academic magic had fallen out of favor in this Aeon. The Astral Academy had dedicated itself to magic only so far as it could be used in violence. Annastarria could redirect her people back to magical research for its own sake.

Focus on War: There were other worlds and other gods with their own motivations. That danger still loomed and if anything was brought into sharper focus after encountering the god who had been harvesting whole worlds. While scarcity in the prior age had meant the focus of war had resulted in the aethereal turning on one another, that shouldn't be a concern given the new province.

Focus on Infrastructure: Or the aethereal could be directed to focus on logistics. The famine and scarcity of the last age showed what happened without proper planning. The mortals could be instructed to focus their skills on more efficiently using their resources to ensure that future calamities like famine or plague could be better managed. It didn't mean they wouldn't happen, but would allow for more time to respond. It was perhaps less exciting than other paths, but certainly useful.

Annastarria summoned Xeves to her side after the new Realm was finished. "High Arcanist, attend me now. The time has come for me to sleep once more so you are, as always, charged with keeping the Realm as I slumber. I have expanded our borders once more. A verdant swampland awaits exploration to the south. It teems with life and food for all of my children but they must be careful whilst claiming it for it is wild as the desert was before they tamed it. Let my children name it as they will."

She raised her hands and pointed to the great plains and poured energy into the creation of four more feast beasts. "Breed these as well and see they multiply for they have a myriad of uses and I would see them spread so my children are fed and clothed from the great hides."

She held her hand out and showed her the great star she held - the remaining Essence she had recovered from the deity that had so victimised other Realms. "I take this with me into my sleep and shall save it for a time I have need of it. In the time I am gone I would like you to work with my Aethereal and aid them in building the infrastructure Aeon needs to weather times of famine or disease. Improve the city and library, continue to develop new ways of writing and storing language for wisdom must continue to flow to future generations. I leave you to Focus on Infrastructure whilst I dream the dream of Eternity. I look forward to watching your progress and seeing it upon my awakening, my Heir. Continue to make me proud, High Arcanist. Defend the Realm against any who trespass save those who might come from Aegos, Irani, or Shezmu. The children of my closest siblings are welcome should they come in peace."

She turned her star-filled gaze to the new province and smiled. "And I owe my brother a Tea House once I awaken. It would be my honour to host the first embassy from Irani once the new province is claimed. I plan on strengthening relations between Realms in the Age to come so this will be a good start."

She looked back and rested a hand on her Heir's head. "Until I awaken, my beloved Xeves. Mind Aeon and my children."

The Goddess smiled and turned to settle into her temple to sleep and dream the new age to come.

And so Annastarria slept in Aeon. During her time of inactivity here her other selves could continue to busy themselves in other realms. But in Aeon she slept.