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Labyrinthe Forum _ Mistbound _ The Pantheon of Seven

Posted by: Christine Jun 19 2017, 11:21 AM

I’m doing a separate note on this so it is one place, and to make it easier as I believe we are sharing information with Princess Cleophas Allockra. Descriptions are my own, based on what we have found out so far. Dusk may be able to add more.

The Pantheon of the Seven, who probably have a proper name which I don’t know, are all still alive apart from Evaristus who was completely consumed by Rachane. Some of them have left remnants of themselves within the Miere anomalies, these appear as ribbons or thread. Their world was destroyed, along with everyone on it, and the small part we found within the first anomaly we investigated was one of the surviving shards, there are others.

They have been described in a fragment of lore recovered by Princess Allockra as follows :-

seven were born then
on the echoes of the word
in destruction's wake


After yesterday, we know the Seven to consist of the following : -

Chibueze - the right to rule. She was an evil deity, her remnants were red threads. She was associated with dominion (evil spirits and bronze magics), but concerned to protect those who she deemed worthy of her protection – in the instance where we encountered one of her remnants, this involved protecting Chisomo from Rachane. There is some suggestion from the way her altar spirit behaved that this was “worthy” in a sense of divinely invested power rather than temporal title or position, but it is not entirely clear.

Chisomo – small good deeds. He was a goodly deity, her remnants were white threads. We have previously encountered an angel of Chisomo, Alinafe, who is now in Port Miere helping the people there. I think it would be a good idea if the remnant of Chisomo could be brought to him, to see if it can somehow strengthen him in what he is doing.

Tinashe. Some of our group spoke with an angel of Tinashe before Rachane arrived, but I don’t know what that conversation involved, or what her purview was as a divinity. Chibueze’s remnant had said that Tinashe did something, she wasn’t sure what, to enable the rest of the pantheon to escape Rachane when their world was destroyed.

Rachane – the Devourer. Rachane is the creature that needs to corrupt to survive, and which has been called upon by Louhi (who is empowered by Certizal / SOFE). His remnants are black ribbons which will try and twist and corrupt anyone touching them. Rachane is, we think, within Port Miere (although was not showing on the Miere map), in his actual manifest form, rather than as a remnant. He has the scent of Chisomo and Chibueze and is trying to track them down and devour them. He has already devoured Evaristus.

Evaristus – luck. Evaristus has been consumed by Rachane and is destroyed, the remnants of his power have been corrupted by Rachane. One such remnant was held by the incredibly annoying fox-creatures, and has now been recovered by us (resolving that anomaly), it was silver in colour.

Kurshid – the Enkindled, the fires of the sun. Kurshid was an evil deity, her purview was the sun in its destructive form, burning heat, the fires of destruction, and so on.

The Watcher of the Ages – the Watcher has been referred to as a manipulator by Chibueze. It can see through small blue gems, which a servant of Louhi (who has some pact with the Watcher) was placing in the anomaly realm. The Watcher makes pacts with people.

As always, comments welcome.

Liara


Posted by: dnsmantra Jun 20 2017, 01:55 PM

I have ensured that the Watcher's 'eyes' are somewhere out of the way and in the dark, and that information has been passed on to Cleophas.

We need to continue formulating what to do about Rachane hunting down the others - we have a fledgling idea, but if others have any thoughts, please do say.

Dusk

Posted by: Christine Jun 20 2017, 02:13 PM

I'm starting to have a bit of a think about that - I won't go into great detail as I'm far from forming a solid plan. A few thoughts, though, in no particular order, just in case they start someone else thinking about something helpful.

In an ideal world I'd like Rachane to weaken Certizal and Salas, and then be destroyed. I doubt it could kill them as they are deities from Primus (although not Primal deities) and thus probably rank a bit higher in whatever passes for the divine order of my-god-is-bigger-than-your-god.

I don't know how Rachane can be destroyed - of those divinities, the only one that has been destroyed has been destroyed by Rachane. But Rachane is a parasite - it can't win completely or it dies - had their plane not been destroyed (the act of its destruction shattering it and allowing the others access to the rest of the exostance), presumably Rachanne would have either been kept at bay by the others, or eventually eaten everything and starved away to nothing. That is now not an option unless we can trap it. Whilst killing gods is a little above our pay grade, trapping one until it starves itself out of existence sounds like a possible avenue to investigate.

There are two things we know that Rachane wants, we won't use one of them, and to involve Chisomo and Chibueze is a risk to them that they may not be happy taking. Likewise I would be unhappy with a risk to any of our Primal gods, especially if we can come up with a better way that might weaken SOFE / Salas.

The problem with any attempt to get it to go after SOFE / Salas is that Louhi is a servant of SOFE, was working for Salas and has a pact with Rachane and the Watcher. But, looking at it the other way, Louhi has a link to all of those entities. If I am right and he is an angel (lets say, although the precise term is no doubt different) of SOFE, then SOFE has some power invested in him. It will at the least irritate it when Louhi dies. Louhi is also linked to Salas in so far as he is the anchor to the ritual chamber containing the echoes of Salas' power, used to cast the Rite of the Ocean's Claim.

It feels to me that there is something clever to be done to enable us to weaken Salas and SOFE, kill Louhi and then trap Rachane so it starves. A divine Haven could play a role, and we have one, we can move people around (tricky with gods, I know), and there are other resources we have available. We know what Louhi wants - to kill the other 3 and consume their power (and no prizes for guessing where he learned that trick), so we can probably lure him somewhere. To kill Louhi, we'd need to break whatever pact he has with the Watcher (Cleophas refers to her agent having a written pact, so it seems likely there is a physical object involved), and we'd need to know we wouldn't cause chaos by destroying the anchor at the wrong time. On the other hand, maybe Louhi having a pact could help - if we know we can't accidentally kill him, that again give sus options. Its all very complicated and I may be being uncharacteristically optimistic, but a clever use of the map, and a good plan, and I am sure there is something that could be done. I'll have a bit more of a think on it, this is all really writing as I think.

Liara

Posted by: dnsmantra Jun 20 2017, 04:03 PM

So, I have this crazy idea... what if Rachane could be changed, be 'redeemed' in some fashion, so that instead of feeding by corrupting, it feeds by redeeming? It would become the perfect counter to Certizal, literally eating his work apart. I'm not sure if it something immediately practical, but I just wonder if it is possible...

Certainly a bit of a mad idea, but just trying to think a bit differently.

Dusk

Posted by: ethuil Jun 20 2017, 04:51 PM

I have received a reply to the message you asked me to pass on.

In essence, and unsurprisingly, the answer is that their personal involvement is not possible. However they approve of what you are trying to do, and have given me some information to pass on which I think will be very useful to you.

Firstly, regarding your potential plans. They think it is technically possible that the Devourer could consume SoFE and/or Salas. A great deal of emphasis on the 'technically'. Realistically it is unlikely. The two of them are extremely powerful deities, even without having been victorious in Keys and even with the work that has been done to weaken SoFE in the past years. Being from Primus also makes them inherently more powerful, as is the nature of things, though no one is certain of the origins of Salas of the Deep. You could feed the Devourer pieces of them, but first you would need to hunt them down - hunting them down would also be an issue for the Devourer if you wanted Him to consume them Himself.

(Separate to this and as theories of my own - the consumption of a Primal Deity may also have its own issues, or be impossible - would the mantle be consumed, along with the 'being'? Is it possible to destroy a Primal Mantle? Partial consumption is far more possible.)

Regarding the Pantheon as a whole: these seven Gods are genuinely Divine - Divine in the truest sense of the word. But They have no worshippers. This makes as I am sure you are aware very little sense, so there is obviously something we do not know. This also raises the question of how one would influence Them - would you just need to find some worshippers, and that would do it? It is hard to say without knowing Their true natures.

I was also asked to remind you 'not to play with fire bigger than you can handle', though given that is rather what mercenaries are for I fully expect for you to ignore that. I certainly would.

Inquisitor Wilton

Posted by: TheFury Jun 20 2017, 06:05 PM

Afternoon.

So it may be a bit obvious, but I'd hate not to tell everyone just in case. But the final words said to me before I was booted back into the 'nacht and Primus was from my lord saying "Beware the echoes of the Word".

Again may seem an obvious thing to you all but considering the source thought it's a message to pass on.

ps. sorry Liara if my closing message to you was frustrating, I could have been a bit more respectful about people dying.
But I was just a bloke, I'd been dead for a long while. It was only the angels that kept my soul and body intact, and that kind of death is the only chance I get to see my home. So I was a bit excited to get my refrain. All we really have is cycles and refrains.


Lucian

Posted by: Christine Jun 20 2017, 06:53 PM

Hey, Lucian!

I'm glad you're back, and don't worry about being disrespectful. Its your own death, not like you were making light of anyone else's, and our deaths are one of those few things we get that are absolutely ours. If you ever want to talk about the cycles and refrains, I'd be happy to listen, although there'd probably need to be beer involved.

I'll listen to guidance from Talthar, he's saved my life on at least one occasion, so that's fair enough. Echoes of the Word could mean a lot of things. Certizal is supposed to be the Shadow of the First Evil, which is Corruption - I think that's part of the Creator / Destroyer mythos, but I'm not an expert on such things. They use Words a lot, I think Destruction is one of the Words of Creation, or something like that. But you'd probably want to ask one of the more sensible Michaeleans to be certain. But I don't think its that, because they are specifically referenced in information we have.

The Echoes of the Word are described in the words that Cleophas discovered, which I think were imparted to some Amlasian individual, if I'm reading the name right, by the Twins, which again I think are Amlasian but I know very little about their traditions apart from how to write a haiku (which I notice now that this is, which pleases me).

seven were born then
on the echoes of the word
in destruction's wake

That talks about the Echoes of the Word being what birthed the Seven. We ideally need to know more about what happened to their world - that suggests they were born out of destruction. That might also give us a clue as to how they can be gods without worshippers, although they do still have angels and the like. They're getting power from somewhere, after all.

On that note, Inquisitor Wilton talks about trying to kill Primal Deities. This confuses me, because I'm fairly certain that Certizal (as mentioned above) is part of the whole Creation / Destruction thing, not a Primal God. Salas I'm not certain because he is supposed to have stolen the Spiter's power, and the Spiter was the opposite of the Empress in divine terms. My knowledge of what Salas is actually all about is limited to making a close study of his avatar for the half an hour it spent killing me over the Dawn. His purview was "the Deep" and the oceans, and he was envious of and attempted to steal the power of the Green Dragon, but that's all I know. Theo would know, I imagine, or I could probably find out more with a little bit of study.

Liara

Posted by: ethuil Jun 20 2017, 07:07 PM

My apologies, that is my unhelpful wording. I was theorising about Primal Deities being consumed by the Devourer but placing this in the middle of my thoughts about Salas and SoFE made it appear that I was referring to to them. I have corrected the information so that it is clear that I am not.

Whilst no one is entirely certain what Salas of the Deep is precisely (beyond Divine), it is known that his power crosses worlds - or believed that it does, certainly. This would make him quite unlikely to be a Primal Deity.

Inquisitor Wilton

Posted by: TheFury Jun 20 2017, 07:30 PM

Sorry I must have missed the Amlasian part. If you mean the two that created (ish) Amlas, I met them and was a champion of one of them, then I could ask some people I met there who might know more specifics of the creation.


Lucian

Posted by: Christine Jun 20 2017, 07:35 PM

Sounds good to me. The haiku that refers to the Echoes of the Word was accompanied by a note reading "Words granted to Bayushi Ayumu by the Twins". Cleophas Allockra, who tracked down the fragment, referred to it as prophecy, which given that this has just happened now and hadn't then makes sense.

Liara

Posted by: Christine Jun 21 2017, 01:11 PM

Is anyone able to scry about what the Echoes of the Word are, and what the Word was (might want to scry for general description not an exact answer on that one)? The Seven were born "On the echoes of the word / in destruction's wake" - did the Word cause the destruction?

I'm a little uneasy about this idea of gods existing without worshippers, because that is not the way the world works here; gods without worshippers become weak and forgotten, or decide to travel back in time to consume their former selves, but either way having no worshippers is bad news for gods. I'd want to know firstly if the Seven are indeed without worshippers, secondly if so how they are able to survive, and third if their presence within Primus is harmful because of that or anything else. I could see us running around rescuing these gods because on the face of it that feels like a good thing to do, and inadvertently causing problems. So if anyone can scry and is having a bored afternoon...

Liara

Posted by: dnsmantra Jun 21 2017, 03:11 PM

Much about the Word, as I suspected is shielded.

The Word itself did not cause the destruction of the shattered world, though it was destroyed, and the Seven born, at the moment the Word was spoken.

Dusk

Posted by: dnsmantra Jun 21 2017, 05:26 PM

I have arranged to take a look at the tome of words of power (recovered at the dawn) in a few weeks or so's time. I suspect it will take a bit of digging, perhaps more than I can manage (others are very welcome to help), in an effort to try and track down the word that caused it, if it is within the pages of that tome.

Dusk

Posted by: Christine Jun 21 2017, 06:26 PM

My word (pun intended), I didn't imagine that ever seeing the light of day again. Did you have to kill anyone? I suppose at least you're in the right place already if so. I'd very much like to see it.

I suspect your inquiries will be more productive than mine - as the Word was spoken at the moment the world was destroyed, I conducted an experiment involving asking people around me what the first word they would say was, were the world to be being destroyed around them. The results were unanimous, but probably less than helpful.

Liara

Posted by: TheFury Jul 2 2017, 09:27 PM

So Riki rather kindly lent me his notes on a lot of the history of Amlas. If you want to read through it just let me know and il bring it to you. It's a good read regardless.

Lucian

(It's a document so if you want it feel free to message me an email address)

Posted by: Christine Jul 3 2017, 10:54 AM

Cheers Lucian, would be interesting to have a look. You know, in all that copious free time they let me have....

Liara

Posted by: Christine Jul 3 2017, 12:35 PM

Thanks for sending that over Lucian, I'll have a closer look later but nothing immediately jumped out at me (other than the observation that there was a lot of looking upon things and weeping). But now I do finally understand why they all keep going on about stabbing themselves, so I've learnt something at any rate.

Liara

Posted by: giles Jul 3 2017, 05:06 PM

Dusk, when you get a chance to look at the Tome, perhaps see if Destruction is one of the words and look at the page after? I wondered if its possible that 'in Destruction's wake' might be rather more literal?
May be nothing, but won't hurt as a start point.
Morgan

Posted by: dnsmantra Jul 3 2017, 05:15 PM

As soon as I get a hold of it I will do so. I suspect it will be a few weeks still.

Dusk

Posted by: Christine Jul 4 2017, 09:48 AM

Morgan, its an interesting point - I might ask the Church of St Michael which Word follows Destruction in their theology. And Dusk, a beer says you will never get your hands on it before we are done with any need for it.

Liara

Posted by: Christine Jul 4 2017, 12:24 PM

Not sure if its relevant, but Reason of Shaehan passed me some paperwork on something called the Shattered God which is related to Eruldine. The names of the Seven don't feature and I suspect its not the same as they are proper divinities from elsewhere, but its interesting stuff for those that like history.

I've quoted the paragraph below which confirms what I'd thought about the First and Second Words of Creation, I've sent a note to the Church of St Michael to see if they can tell me what the Third, Fourth etc are, although that may be more the beliefs of the Church of the Creator, I'm not quite sure of the point of religious difference between the two.

When the second word of creation was spoken and that which was destruction came into being, it was not just the force that came, but a manifestation also. That manifestation would become known as The Shattered God. Legend tells that the first word that the god spoke shattered its very being into a thousand pieces. Nothing that it could ever be, or ever bring to the world could create, only destroy, and thus in speaking, its very words destroyed itself.

Liara


(OOC Obviously HuwPlot ™ but I was passed it IC and its interesting anyway, its on the Wiki at http://www.labywiki.co.uk/wiki/The_Shattered_God)

Posted by: Christine Jul 4 2017, 01:57 PM

I've had a helpful reply from Tristan Te'Kale, whom I believe is the High Priest of the Church of the Creator, who were at one time part of the Church of St Michael.

According to Gaxx of St Michael that Church does not believe Destruction to be part of Creation, and there is some disagreement between the churches on this point; which I mention just so that there isn't any confusion and I don't express their beliefs wrong - its proper annoying when someone gets something wrong about your faith because they think its really obvious and actually its a bit more complicated but they're not meaning to be rude.

Anyway, Tristan says -

"The colloquial names of the first four Words of Creation are:
The Mother, the source of our own infinite creation, perfect in her imperfection
The Destroyer, the source of destruction
Beneficence, the expression of the Creator's goodwill to those within His work
Understanding, guidance for those who seek it.

There are hundreds of further Words, and others spoken by the Words themselves. The first two have a degree of primacy, between them establishing an existence with meaning, the Third belies the Creator's intent for his creation and the Fourth his goal for them."


I don't think this is relevant to our Echoes of the Word, but its always good to learn new things, at least we've explored the idea, and I've managed to spend the morning avoiding whatever I should have been doing.

Liara

Posted by: dnsmantra Jul 4 2017, 02:41 PM

So I noticed. I barely escaped getting an earful over it.

Luckily I too managed to find other duties and leave it for some other sucker; my colour-sergeant in fairness and he loves a good row with the seniors. I think he considers it some sort of game or competition. Dangerous one if you ask me, but each to their own. He's tough as nails though and is about the best person I know at keeping the regulars in line, so I suspect he gets more slack than most.

Back on track though, I think this is all good things to know and rule out. I'm still hopeful I'll be able to get hold of the book sooner rather than later and that it might shed some light.

Dusk

Posted by: Christine Jul 4 2017, 03:43 PM

Well, that'd be your prerogatives of rank there, with which I am refreshingly unencumbered.

On a more serious note, could you let me have the notes you made about the new settings for the map dials? I'm trying to come up with a plan and the map is involved, but I want to check what we can do. I've set out the three that were in one of my earlier notes so we can make a complete list. There's something to move a person out of Miere, with limits, which we've used to bring people out to safety, but I can't recall the others off the top of my head.

Liara


“myron forces peace” – 811 – this will produce an effect similar to a Haven spell, but divine in nature, at the site of one of the anomalies. The number on the 4th dial corresponding to Myron would need to be used. We have not yet used this setting.

the feral plague” – 427 – this offers a degree of respite to the inhabitants of Port Miere from the encroaching madness caused by continued exposure to the ‘Nacht. The number 5 of the 4th dial, corresponding to Empire Central, would need to be used – in general when a historical event covered multiple locations, the main location is used. We have used this setting and hopefully this will assist those in the city.

“reuniting of the shattered isles” 1011 – this setting will manipulate the anomalies, reducing the severity of one (for our purposes, making it less dangerous to resolve), and increasing the threat of another. The number on the 4th dial corresponding to the Shattered Isles would need to be used. We are way of using this setting save when there is no other sensible option, because of the consequences to those near the anomaly made more severe.

Posted by: ethuil Jul 4 2017, 05:00 PM

My thanks for your comprehensive, intriguing, and disconcerting information.

The parallels between the Shattered World and the Shattered God had struck me also. Nothing that I have found suggests them to be related, though the tendrils of Eruldine are certainly pervasive. I would conjecture that they are similar in some way, named for that reflection, rather than because they are in some way linked together. How this is I do not know.

More importantly, I am greatly troubled by the notion that the Word did not destroy the Shattered World. If it did not, what did? It is no simple act to destroy a city, let alone an entire plane. The amount of power that would be required to do so is astronomical. Not to mention that if it all happened at once, how did it happen? I had been attempting to understand the prophecy as a chain of events - this is perhaps not the path to comprehension.

Since the sticking point in finding some sort of understanding appears to be the Word that was spoken, I have devoted my research to Words of Power and their nature. Most usefully I have come across the transcript of a speech by Josephine Oriana regarding linguistic archaeology. It is not a widely available text; my understanding is that the copy was stolen from a private club in Halgar - I am uncertain which.

To summarise, the speech covers her discovery of two ancient tablets - one from the Far North and another from Ishma. These two tablets, the former of which was in an old cuniform variant and the latter of which was in very early scratching tongue, were entirely identical in translation. They bore but a single word: cathexis. She even highlights commonalities in the scripts that would have otherwise gone unnoticed (those two languages being so widely separate as they are).

The script deviates from there, as it seems her work was not well received by her audience, who refused to believe that two so far removed locations could be thus linked.

Doubtless by this point you are thinking that this information is interesting but ultimately irrelevant to the Pantheon of Seven. If you will bear with me several moments longer, I will explain the link between the two - regrettably it requires a little exposition in order to make sense.

I am in possession of a large number of memories that are not my own. I do not have full access to them, nor do I wish to, given their nature and their origin. However they have a habit of making themselves known - and the night after I read Oriana's treatise, I found one particular memory returning strongly.

I remember speaking the word cathexis - or, I should say, the Word. I used it on someone who had displeased me and it caused them to die a slow, painful death. This was in the time before the discovery of Bronze or Onyx magics, but I would best describe it as a combination of the two. What struck me most about the memory was that it pulled something from me to say it. It was not just a case of having intent, or being exhausted thereafter. I was beyond drained. It weakened me considerably and I was forced to retreat to safety for some time.

I trust these memories about as much as I trust the Illusive Library - not in the slightest. But there is something in this that is vitally relevant; something in that draw of power. Perhaps you can make more sense of it than I.

C.A.

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