SLNES II: Descendants of Aadora

[Polish Ghetto]

Veldri crept into the tunnels of his jungle and began to dig northwards. It was day time but his desire to bend more land to his will was too great to be contained. He connected the tunnel network of the jungle a new series of subterranean caverns on the isthmus. He was so caught up his work in creating massive rooms filled with phosphorescent rocks and obsidian that he was lost to the world above for a week. However, Aadora was well aware of the Veldri’s attempts to bring more land under the sway of the darkness and lay in wait. When Veldri finally emerged from the soil, creating a large hill in the process, Aadora manipulated time and caused the sun to rise. As the sun’s rays stretched across the barren land, Veldri burned for he had not brought his cloak of pine needles to protect himself. Aadora began to channel itself into the sun and the rays of light scared the land and drove away all the life. Veldri dissolved into small tendrils of night, unable to maintain his form under the withering glare of the sun. The tendrils scurried into any cracks or under any rocks nearby and waited for the sun’s retreat. For a week, Aadora kept the sun trained upon the isthmus until he was forced to return time to its normal flow. For in the sun’s absence, darkness reigned over the rest of Sunfane and had imbued pockets of the land with its essence. Someday these pockets could inhabit creatures or cause violent landscaping changes and Aadora set the sun in its normal path to prevent more.

OOC: Territory 10 is now a giant desert with absolutely no life or water above the surface. There is a series of tunnels and caverns that connect to jungle in the south. The caverns are filled with phosphorescent rocks and obsidian.

 

[LDiCesare]

Rainbow Island (Dinaus)
Background: Flattened by Dinaus and planted with seeds, then a rainbow pinned there.
Visual: A vast, flat island with many high herbs, wheat and flowers. Somewhere in a perpetual mist of fine drops are two big rocks from which rises a rainbow into the clouds and towards the south.
Features: Lots of wheat, cereals, food for farming. Very fertile soil. Many flowers, probably good for medicine. Some gold and mithril (very light, strong metal) ores near the rainbow.
Magical rainbow which can be used as a bridge to the continent, although the destination on the continent varies with weather and can't be guessed at all by the traveler.

High Wood (Dinaus)
Background: The first land shaped by Dinaus, it was created with cliffs on the sea and lakes, and many plants plus rivers flowing from the hills in the east.
Visual: A plateau that rises into hills in the east, with many small rivers flowing through it. The coasts on the sea and lakes are mostly cliffs of white clay, with a few beaches and creeks. The land is covered with forests, mostly dedicuous, and provides a beautiful, varied landscape.
Features: Forests, many different plants. Likely a little coal, tin, silver in the hills east and west.

The Upper Marches (Dinaus)
Background: The upper plateaux built when Dinaus divided a vast area south of the High Wood.
Visual: Two plateaux separated from each other and the southern lands by a steep ridge which can be crossed in several places but can still easily be controlled. The land is full of life, mostly forests.
Features: Forests. Copper. Tin. Lead. Iron

The Lower Marches (Dinaus)
Background: The lower plateaux built when Dinaus divided a vast area south of the High Wood.
Visual: Three plateaux separated from each other and the southern lands by a steep ridge which can be crossed in several places but can still easily be controlled. Woods are quite common in the north, but in the south they become scarce, and so does everything, including water. It's more plains and savannah in the south.
Features: Some copper, tin, lead, iron, but much sparser than in the upper marches

The Cloud March (Dinaus)
Background: When Dinaus built the Marches, he finished by putting a cloud on top of the highest march.
Visual: A cloud towering over the Upper Marches, from which a river falls to the land. It's a solid cloud landscape floating over the land.
Features: Not much arable soil but lots of water, lichens, cristals and diamonds. Very hard to reach in the first place unless you can fly or swim upward in a waterfall.

The Thirsty Desert (Dinaus)
Background: Created by Dinaus by stealing humidity from the land, heating it and then cursing all water to be attracted eastwards in this region.
Visual: A desert with hills in the west where rivers flow upwards from the lake. The rivers then lose themselves into ever moving dunes of sand and all dry before they can reach the sea.
Features: Hills. Sand. Curse : All water here tends to go eastwards. It also affects people and animals drinking water, water jars etc. (the water does flow upwards, so the magic is quite potent).

 

[merciary]

I'm honestly wishing there were more stories that at least somewhat resembled mythological lore. Do kids these days not read the classics like we used to? Probably not as fun as xbox or twitter.

Nah that's just Seon being Seon. I loved reading mythology of all types. I mean I even own Snorri's Edda.

 

[Angst]

I don't have time to elaborate much on this, and I hope to get more notes in before next update - these are coming really fast! I promise you that I'll get things done eventually, but I'll throw in what I have for now. I'm sorry I'm this unorthodox, I just have a little bit to do these days.

Story on territory 22:

The River of Rot


Ah, the purposelessness of infancy; so misunderstood. The emotions of my state before life’s beginning usually circled in misty uncertainty, doubt of what was around me, curiousity on what would become of everything. I recall the savoring of my first drink of water. The piddling sensation of fresh, light thrills rolling down my dry, sandy throat. Swallowing the cold liquid curled my back and stretched out my arms. I lied down for a while, breathing heavily while looking at the starless sky. The fumes of the land blocked out anything above. I closed my hand and grabbed a few rocks tightly. Sitting up again, I examined the tenderly placed carvings, the patterns and colors of the rocks. Throwing them away, they disappeared in the fog. I rose and looked at the area around me.

The harsh collision with water that long time ago had shocked and disturbed me. I recognized that it was not to be breathed in. But I followed the rivers and ponds. One body in particular intrigued me. It was a great flow of rotwater, carrying twigs and leaves from the marshes to meet their demise in its end. And I wished to know where the stream carried the remains. I wandered the river bank for a long time. It curled downwards between hills, gathered more streams. There were a few trees dotting the landscape, the farther I walked, the more grass grew in a thin, green carpet. I didn’t know whether it was due to a simple change of scenery - or the time that passed as I walked.

But the rotting river smelled horribly. It oozed of dead vegetation, leftovers from the marshland, fumes rolled out from it, covering my vision of my feet. I kneeled down beside it and looked into the dark waves. It was nauseating and boggling to let one’s senses wander over the black water. I felt like a morbid plume dying in a bitter haze of poison. Yet, I recall that moment with great happiness. The aroma was not only horrible and icky; it was intriguing and terrifying. I had never imagined that something could exist which were only limited to decay. I looked ahead, at the other side of the river. Small flowers sprouted happily on the other bank. Was Aadora’s hand really such a cruel fate that creatures were bred only to live in a dying state? Was life compelling, yet unimportant? Was Aadora this inconsiderate? Was I? I looked down the river. I decided that these questions could not go unanswered before I reached the end of these waters. I needed to know where this rot collected - and if anything grew there.

(...)

It was only bog and fumes. Thick shades of mist clouding the area around me, hanging heavily over the hills and the moist earth, they sew together the tills of the tall, soft grass and the knolls and vines sometimes intervening and intercrossing the mud like cloth. Often I would have to walk across flat, wooden sculptures binding together the landscape in paths. There was no longer any distinction between water and ground. I could note how the puddles and the whispering splashes intrigued and scared me, how I frightened myself by not looking back in this thick mist, how I was sure I saw eyes some time before, but my curiousity and desperation lead me to one hopeful goal only: I wanted to see the sky once again, I wanted to crawl some shrub or tree to breathe in clean air once again. Looking around in desperation I could, however, only see the dead vegetation scattered below, the mist shrouded everything above, below, beside me. If only the water was visible, but it was another world down there, a place where I could neither swim or walk, only be pulled down by those things I feared without being able to climb through a void of blackness. Moss covered the surface, making me afraid of what was below the thin crust. I didn’t know, I wouldn’t know. I remember that as soon as I noted a rootlog twined and thick enough, I climbed it and worked my way up its branches. It was tall, leaning in seemingly different directions as I climbed its log. But the mist thinned. And that was when I first saw a view of beauty in this world.

What the mist hid was a carpet clouded sky with patterns and circling spinning heavens, the sun clearly burning with heat and passion over the mist. It was like the ground was boiling, being purified and cleansed in this weather. I sat on top of the tree, its thick, mushroom-like crown supporting me gently. I could see a vast waste of mist, small trees topping over it like sprouts in the winter snow. It was beautiful.




Composition of region 22: A long river of "old water" creating mist runs from territory 14 through the south center of territory 22 and ends in a couple of lakes in the east. The soil of region 22 is a layer of moss and dirt of varying thickness; the actual compositions of the underground is unknown. But it's made of decaying water rich with nutrients. This moist ground of compost creates a constant fume of mist and steam, covering the width of region 22 with a thick mist. Single trees grow the places where soil is proper for them and create tadpole-like growths that sprout out of the upper mist layer. Much of the ground can't be decided whether it's water, mud or earth. The depth is immeasurable and there is no visibility through the water. You can't see far in the mist either.

Spoiler EDIT: Improper OOC things are now spoilered. :

I have an idea for two creatures, the 'boggart' (name to be decided), concept image here:

Spoiler :

Source here.

Don't think of them as goblins! I will redraw them myself with inspiration from Shadowmoor and my own mind - the boggarts there also being a goblin specimen - but I promise you I'll invest creativity into it. I don't want you to think I'm copying here. But I think inspiration is important. Also, they'll be more bestial than humanoid, fitting this era rather than the next.

And some kind of leechy swamp strangler, name to come as well:

Spoiler :

Drew it myself.

Things will be edited into this post or possibly remaining posts. I will try to keep the thread as clear as possible and/or clean up several ramblings I'm currently doing as I work with this NES.

I'm honestly wishing there were more stories that at least somewhat resembled mythological lore. Do kids these days not read the classics like we used to?

Am I disappointing you? The whole concept and fundament of my deity is character development, not mythology per se. I guess I have to change that..?

 

[badunoff]

I'm sorry, I'm dropping out.

 

[Starlife]

OOC: Good, I can change the name "Larry".

No, lord_joakim, no one is disappointing me. I am all for individual styles. I wasn't saying anyone's style disappointed me, but rather that I enjoy reading mythology. I was half-serious. Looks good! Please put your creature posts in a separate post, when you get the ideas.

Can we please make the regions, creature and geomancy posts clearly separate? It's too hard to read and guess otherwise, as having to finnd out which regions numbers are available when the info is lots in between region naming and creatures is going to be a major pain.

This is an excellent idea and I hope everyone will follow this in the future. The way I am going to write regions in on the main rules is to include their respective creature(s).

On that note, LDiCesare's regional descriptions are exactly what I am looking for. Concise and clear. I don't want anything overly-lengthy for these profiles. They should be summaries, while the main meat of their description lies in their original creation stories.

 

[merciary]

Starlife do you want my creature post separate since it was part of my Geomancing story?

 

[Starlife]

OOC: Sure! That would be nice. Just in case any one is ever looking for your description of that creature. They'll be able to find it easily. Because once we get humans involved in this world, knowing what kind of creatures exist and where will be useful.

 

[merciary]

Right then, here's the creature post with the half of the story in which they were mentioned:

He quickly carved a massive bucket to carry this strange metal back to his forge. On the way back to the surface some of the metal splashed over the edge of the bucket and fell to the ground. There it mixed with the trail Rilring's blood from his still bleeding finger and a strange thing happened. The pools began to squirm and move on their own. Soon identifiable shapes formed, arms, legs, a head, etc. Out of the pools crawled slightly humanoid figures made out of the metal, they looked at Rilring and then took off diving into the fissures of the rocks. Rilring looked at this in wonder but he had no time to sit there.

He moved out on to the surface and headed back to his forge the whole time thinking of the strange sight he had seen. Once there he put the bucket down and began to test the properties of this new metal. It was truly difficult to work with even for one as skilled as Rilring and it took him quite some time to even be able to fashion something as simple as a ring. After finishing this ring he sat down from exhaustion with a thud. His hammer which hung above his anvil fell and landed on the ring. Fearing that he may have just destroyed what took so long to make he threw his hammer off the anvil. To his dismay the ring was crushed, but then this odd metal born of his blood shocked him again and reformed itself in the shape of the ring. After all this excitement Rilring decided that he could do with a nap.

After resting his thoughts turned back to those strange creatures that he had made and decided to try in again. He laid out several new pools of the metal but before pricking his finger he place bars of steel in each pool. He then placed drops of blood in each one. Like before the creatures pulled themselves out of the pools but like he thought the steel had hardened them. They could not dive through the cracks like the others but their shape was still mailable as many turned their appendages into shapes like the tools around his forge. The seemed fascinated with many of the trinkets that Rilring had forged. Fearing that they would break his precious creations he yelled and shooed them away and these odd creatures bolted for the surface. Rilring was left there scratching his head and decided he needed another nap.

OOC:

Creature:
Name: Rilings or Metal Imps
Region: Subspecies 1 is found in 19 in the caves and Subspecies 2 is found at the base of Riling's forge (I'll rename these when I come up with actual region names)
Description: The appear as slightly humanoid and made out of the new metal. There are two different types of Rilings. The first one is found in the caves of 19 and their bodies only consist of the new metal and Riling's actual blood so their bodies are almost fluid allowing them to squeezes through most cracks but are physically weaker. The Second type was infused with steel so they are much stronger but cannot shift their bodies as easily. However they can change the shape of their limbs. These ones live in small burrows on Riling's mountainside.
Both types are very territorial but fascinated with crafts, something they got from their creator, and can be placated with gifts (this will be important once humans show up).
They have the intelligence of your typical "Hollywood" monkey.
They don't really need food but enjoy being in warm areas and are more active there.
Looks kinda like this:

Spoiler :

 

[Terrance888]

De’Aadoros Island (Rancor)
Background: Without any help, Rancor finally escaped the void to find himself separated from Aadora and trapped with his siblings on Sunfane. Bursting with anger, rage and feelings of inadequacy, his tears and his shakes shaped the land, hidden across the horizon from the mainland. Later, he shaped the southern peninsula as a deliberate sculpture of his love of Aadora.
Shadows of the Woetrees
Background: Rancor’s hair grew into the ground, fed by his tears and changed by them. They grew into tall but silent trees, sentinels of nothing.
Visual: A Thick Temperate Rainforest lies to the north. It is a thick but quiet land, dominated by an overgrowth of bushes and small trees, as well as a few larger Redwood-type trees. It is watered by Rancor’s Tears, which sometimes flow out in springs. (See Features) The land is full of life but eerily silent.
Features: Giant Softwoods- Formed from Rancor’s Hair, they look like weeping willows despite their height.
Giant Hardwoods- Ye Old Redwoods and Ironwoods. Formed from Rancor's Hair.
The Silent Fens, The Weeping Swamp
Background: Rancor’s rage beat the land into a muddy mess, and filled with a mixture of tears and seawater. He then dug giant hollow hills (tbe Caverns) and hid himself for a long time.
Description: The center is a soggy lowland dominated by swamps, dry hills, and sinkholes. Above ground the great diversity of the Shadows of Woe slowly drown in the wetness of the Fens, with small outposts on the hills. The Caverns hid small ecosystems and natural resources from the land, sometimes revealing themselves through sinkholes.
Features: Great Caverns: Giant versions of many kinds of Vermin live there on Rancor’s Tears and the undergrowth. Ala Dwarf Fortress Caverns (sorta).
Plants: Especially poisons and antidotes.
The Firm Fens
Background: The Firm Fens are a dedication to his love and loss of Aadora. Hidden within its curves, valleys and ridges is the story of his life until that moment.
Visual: The South slowly gets dryer and rockier. It is marked by cool forests, beautiful sculpted hills and especially, the lack of springs compared to the North. The hills rise from the center of the Silent Fens and its rocky but firm soil takes life from the mists of the sea to grow the forests. The Hills form an imperceptible pattern which tells Rancor’s story.
Features: Solid Land: The Firm Fens contain the only solid fertile land on the Island
Ores- Specifically a few lodes of Iron, and a sprinkling of Tin.
Island Features:
Rancor’s Tears: Water from the god Rancor himself changed the springs of this land to be bitter yet filling. Makes good brew but over time changes to the drinker to be solitary and lonely (and increases their size like the Natives? No sentient drinker lives long enough to find out.) More common in the north.
Fertile Land: All the land of De’Aadoros is fertile above normal, fed with layers of decomposing life and Rancor’s Tears. The problem in the north is to dry the land by draining the Tears without making it worthless.
Unique Creatures: All of the creatures on De'Aadoros are larger, more intelligent, and more solitary than 'Normal' versions. Somethink it is due to the influence of Rancor's Tears.

The Rich Prairie (Rancor)
Background: Rancor placed the excess stone from the Aadoros caverns upon this land. Although he spent few, cursory moments working the land, Rancor's Mark still hides among the mounds.
Visual: Flat plains with sudden hillocks appearing out of the horizon. Each Hillock holds a Giant, Hugmungous, Unthinkably Large Tree powered by Rancor's Mark, a remnant of the Void Rancor unknowingly carries with him. The Trees dominate all the areas in their shade, show some kind of intelligence, and determine if the lush grasses around them live... or die. The Entire land is covered by fog the entire night, and all day except for Dawn, Noon and Sunset.
Features:
Rancor's Mark: A remnant of the Void Rancor carries with him in his right palm. It hides under the mounds and gives those with the will great powers.
HUGE TREES: So big you can carve a city inside if you survive its whomping-willow like self defense. These intelligent trees gained power from Rancor's mark and dominated the hillocks.
Resources: The Hillocks dredged from the center of De-Aadoros are rich in copper, silver, iron, gold and gems, as well as thick nutritious peat.

 

[Haseri]

useless space

 

[Starlife]

OOC: I think there is a misunderstanding with creatures. Creatures can only begin in a single region on the map. You cannot begin a creature in the whole world. They will spread naturally to other regions based on their descriptions and over time. But they should be specific to a region. Think the Minotaur and the Labyrinth or the Sirens and their island. However, unlike those mythologies, your creatures will adapt and spread to other regions based on their descriptions. But for now, I would like creatures designed uniquely and specifically for a region. I hope I am making sense.

But on another note, I like the creatures I have read thus far.

 

[Haseri]

OOC:...fine. Disregard. I'll come up with something in the morning.

 

[LDiCesare]

Dinaus stood on the rainbow. Summoning it from anywhere on Sunfane was easy enough for him, and granted him a good and fast way to travel wherever he wanted.
Except for deserts, that is.
It was too hard to get rain in the deserts, particularly the Thirsting one he had created, for the magic of the place was too strong aand he didn't want to disrupt it. So he had to land his rainbow in the countries by the deserts.
That was, in fact, somewhat annoying.
He needed a means of locomotion that would bring him into the desert fast. Clouds were starting to bore him. Dinaus toyed with the idea of riding a sandstorm, but rejected it.
Instead, he would create a steed.
The animal had to be able to move swiftly in the sand dunes. It also had to be able to actually live in this land, and that was problematic, as all animals rely on water, and if it drank, it would be cursed to move eastwards until no water was left to find, and eventually starve or flock by the sea.
Dinaus pondered for a long while. Finally, he decided to make a creature of animated sand. A being that would use the plentiful light of the sun as its energy source. It would drill the earth and gnaw it to accumulate sand, then go out in the sun, fanning its large wings to gather sunlight and fly over the desert.

Spoiler :

OOC:
Sand dragon (Dinaus)
Region: The Thirsting Desert
Description: A 10 meter long serpent like being with very large foldable wings and two small paws right under the mouth . The beast drinks no water, requires lots of sunlight and eats rocks that it tunnels through, using its small claws for digging. The sand dragon digs and crawls to the top of a dune, from where it unfolds its wings and there rise and flies stunningly fast. Although its claws and teeth can easily rend any mineral, it is not a very good fighter, unless cornered. It is oviparous.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

Creatures: Singe
As the party left the tropical island, the very air vibrated with their joyful presence, vibrated with such force that parts of the air broke free from the rest, and took form. These creatures were small and hairy, adorable, some might say, but infused with the intelligence of a fun loving god, and mischievous to a fault. There was nothing they adored more than stealing food from one and other, unless it were sex.

Despite this mischievous attitude, or perhaps because of it, these creatures have an overwhelming curiosity (fatal, sometimes, but, more often than not, advantageous in the games of these creatures... Some of these creatures have even taken to the water, swimming around and paddling on branches.) Of course, the constant fun these creatures have is supplemented by the fact that some of the fruit on the rich islands ferment naturally, and are the favored fruit of the Singe.

Spoiler :

http://www.maxgarber.com/albums/thailand/monkey_beach_swimmers.jpg

OOC: These are essentially caricatures of RL monkeys: Curious, Fun loving, mischievous... Take every story you've heard about monkeys stealing tourists drinks, and double it.

 

[Eltain]

The Finger Lakes (Apatè)
Background: Apatè struck the ground, leaving claw marks. A tidal wave filled them and sowed the land with life.
Visual: Five elongated lakes running north to south with large hills in between. Exactly like claw marks in the dirt.
Features: Wheat, corn, rich soils, exposed copper

Sunpeak Mountains (Apatè)
Background: The Sunpeak Mountains were once hills, displaced and turned into great mountains (perhaps the largest in the world) when Apatè created the Shifting Caverns underground.
Visual: The Sunpeak Ridges soar high into the sky, some of them breaching the cloudcover. A deep canyon through which the River Somer flows. Along the walls of this canyon countless ever-changing entrances to the Shifting Caverns exist.
Features: Woods, gold,

The Shifting Caverns
Background: Apatè needed a place to hide away, a dark crevice, like his ancient home. He carved the caverns as a place to hide, and live. In carving out the caverns Apatè created the Sunpeak Mountains.
Visual: A complex and deep system of tunnels and large dome like underground structures. Great pillars inside of truly massive artificial seeming domes and scraggly caverns are just as common as stalagmite filled holes in the ground. The cavern tunnels sometimes change, getting adventurers and goats alike lostall the time.
Features: Stone, lots of stone. Some of it magic, some of it not. Moss, lichen, rats, vampire bats

The Phosphorescent Forest (Apatè)
Background: Apatè's apparently life-giving hands scraped ancient primordial muds and stones from the ground, laying them in piles, and applying the heat of a mountain being created above and around them. This gave birth to some of the world's most glorious underground fauna. Located deep within the Shifting Caverns, it is near impossible even for Aadora himself to locate two thirds of the time.
Visual: Your basic forest, with the obvious exception that it is underground and consists of redwood sized mushrooms which glow like blue sunshine in the dark. An entire ecosystem has developped around these mushrooms, from the lowly dung beetle and ant to the occasional mighty bear and eagle.
Features: Hardy mushroom wood which glows in the dark, giant phosphorescent mushrooms, fauna and wildlife

Great Road (Apatè)
Background: Apatè carved the Great Road out of nothingness, and sowed the seeds of life surrounding it on all sides, as a form of apology for scarring the world with the Sunpeak Mountains and the Finger Lakes, in his rage.
Visual: You walk along the path. On one side, the endless fields of wheat, corn and apple trees. On the other, a large, lazily winding river, and beyond that, the mirror. A truly serene place.
Features: Honey, wheat, corn, apples, fish, freshwater urchins

 

[SKILORD]

Tarrator plays his flute again short, peppy notes, and north of his lands in a small range of mountains a Deciduous Forest begins to rise.

The leaves shimmer in the low lighting, as his longer notes begin to sing clouds to cover the land and bring rain to fill the rivers and ponds. The thunder adds bass to his orchestrations as they shift to a slow dirge.

The song of all suffering, of nicks and scrapes, bruises. Burns and rashes, all of these things call out to him already, he can see that they will come, he will be prepared. The long notes form out into slugs of all magnificent colors, glowing orange and yellows and greens, spots and swirls and stripes, they crawl out from his pipe and slither to the trees, to drink the sap which they will then process into a healing balm. Tarrator chooses to name these creatures 'Healscargot.'

But their powers will operate within limits, deeper wounds will require deeper sacrifice, Tarrator knows the balance of the Gods. But he offers his leeches as a gift to the peoples of this land who may one day worship the children of Aadora.

And these leeches, Tarrator's Healscargot, will spread through the rivers and wherever they find a forest and drink of its sap, they will offer their healing to the peoples of those lands.

In the middle of this forest Tarrator sings a pool into existence, atop a hill in a clearing. Whoever, man or beast, should look into this pool would be so moved by the majesty of the reflection that they would not even drink from it, lest the ripples would hide their reflection. The slugs will also be moved by the pool, and many will congregate around it, allowing those who are pure of heart to have a constant supply.


-

OOC: Deciduous Forests, Rainy Climate in 2, Healscargot. Vanity Pool in the middle.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

The lifemother Shara had not moved for a great, long time. That is not, of course, to say that she was not busy.

A colossal engine of fertility, Shara had hauled her bulk deep into Sunfane, and settled it in the protected womb of life. From here, she had pumped vivacity into the world, and since her arrival, it had spread far. Much had been co-opted by her siblings. She had created the animals and the plants to be strong, and knew that they would be able to thrive and adopt a fantastic variety of forms in the hands of her fellow divinities.

Shara held little interest in the shaping of the world. While she had lifted the terrain protecting her garden, and fed the waters which carried life out from this nexus of vitality, she had little wish to further shape the dead rocks and empty waters of the world, and so remained content within her home.

Time passed strangely for the mother goddess. In many ways, it passed instantly, in others, it was an eternity. To pass the epochs, Shara crafted life. She gave it no direction, and many bizarre forms rose within the bounds of her garden. The vast majority of these failed, being outcompeted by their more successfor siblings and ultimately returned to the earth to feed the cycle over.

One of the strangest creatures to escape the garden would one day be named the Grover. A colossal, ambulatory forest would be one way to describe it. Five spindly legs lifted up a huge, disc-shaped body. Deep, cavernous recesses littered the lower face of the disc, while a spongy surface covers its back. Trees and plants take root in the back of the creature, perforating it and growing rich in symbiosis with their host. Animals, fungi and all other varieties of life sheltered in the Grover's recesses.

Ponderously, these leviathans of the land wander, before settling down and burying themselves into the earth. Forests spread off of the creature's back, and after hundreds of years, a forest has grown around the Grover. Stirred, these vast beasts will develop the urge to move again, lifting themselves out of the earth and resuming their endless wanderings.

The most ancient of the Grovers can grow to fantastic size, but they are a rare breed indeed. Scant dozens wander the earth, and mating is a very rare occurrence. The young can taken thousands of years to grow to significant sizes, but exhibit tremendous resilience throughout their lives- indeed, they are functionally immortal. It is a rare gift for one to witness one of these timeless, but peaceful giants in motion.

Grover (Shara)
Region: The Garden
Description: Grovers are tremendous pentapods which serve as a platform for a small piece of a biome. They wander and rest in alternating periods, traversing across diverse environments with unclear purpose. Giant and tremendously resistant to physical damage and aging, Grovers can be some of the longest-lived mortal creatures to be found in Sunfane.

Also for your convenience:

The Garden (Shara)
Background: Created by Shara shortly after her arrival on land, this region was the site where the goddess anchored herself, to serve as the heart of life and vitality in the world of Sunfane. From it springs all life, and a holy spring whose healing waters flow forth across the world in five streams.
Visual: The mountains enshrouding the Garden are a verdant green, overgrown with a tremendous diversity of plant life, flooded with an incredible richness of animals of all sizes. One could see it as the peak of fertility, or a tangled, unnavigable, infested mess. Within the peaks, the forests grow progressively more dense, until they reach the core of the Garden Valley, where Shara lies, infusing the world with life at the side of her holy spring.
Features: Fertile Soil, Forests, Animals, Healing Waters

 

[Polish Ghetto]

Bedroefdheid (Veldri)
Background: Created when Veldri dammed the river and flooded the surrounding plains.
Visual: A vast marsh, dotted with small islands and pockets of coniferous trees. In the middle is Veldri’s original home, a mountain that has suffered massive erosion since the flooding.
Features: Rich soils and clay deposits are frequent but difficult to access. There are also pockets of peat and coal. Potable water is somewhat scarce.

Patukahetsus (Forest)/ Evig Spook (Mountains) (Veldri)
Background: Created when Veldri’s conscience desired atonement for destroying so much life with the creation of the Bedroefdheid.
Visual: A land covered in pine forests with a mountain range protecting in from the sea. The climate is very cold and snow is a frequent occurrence. The aurora borealis often come in contact with the ground as the light battles the darkness interred there.
Features: Multicolored gemstones and ebony are the by-products of the darkness and light fighting in the mountains. The woods are filled with game and the river with fish. The aurora borealis has strange effects on those it physically contacts as does the darkness in the mountains.

Zmeirzch (Veldri)
Background: Created when Veldri convinced the darkness to accept Sunfane and try its hand at life.
Visual: A massive jungle with a canopy hundreds of feet high that blocks almost all light from reaching the forest floor. The air is constantly humid and sometimes clouds develop and rainstorms occur under the forest canopy itself. There is a large network of subterranean rivers, caverns, and oil pockets.
Features: Many exotic animals and plant reside here. There is little natural light except for in the forest canopy. The underground rivers break through the ground sometimes to form springs and lakes. Other than the oil, there is little mineral wealth. The perpetual twilight of the forest allows the darkness to physically manifest itself as tendrils of mist that rise from the soil in specific locations, ascend to the canopy, and then sink back to the ground.

Ulciscor (Veldri)
Background: Created when Aadora set the sun in a fixed location to burn Veldri out of existence and prevent the darkness from claiming more land through him.
Visual: An unbroken desert that is so desolate no life exists on its surface (at least not for long). Underground, the series of tunnels from the Jungle of continue. In these tunnels there is some basic life.
Features: Tunnel network that contains vast amounts of obsidian and gemstones as well as a few rivers and oil pockets. All of the life is confined here. The entrances to the tunnels may only be located by generous beings; those who are greedy are doomed to wander the surface until they die of thirst or hunger.

 

[Starlife]

OOC: These are all very interesting!

I've gone ahead and decided to make this our OOC thread. So we don't have to keep clogging this one.