As quickly as they were placed upon the world, the various races of mortals did begin to mold the earth and look for meaning in the heavens.
The most advanced culture is that of the rather mundane humanoids living on upon the Firstland. And this is not to say that their culture was rich, for they lived rather simple lives. However, they posessed some modicum of technology which did set them apart from the other mortals. They possessed looms, typically one per household, which allowed this race to spin cotton from a local species. They were no artisans of course, with each family spinning their own loom, the quality of the cloth varied from family to family, though most were at least decent in their trade. In similar fashion, they did tend to fields and had at their disposal stone hoes for tilling the soil and knowledge enough in agriculture to have decent harvests of lumpkins, prickle fruit, and variegated beans. Some larger families tended apiaries, raising bees so that they may collect the honey to sweeten their meals. Other families even had herds of large chubby marmots, which whistle to eachother as they graze the pastures. They are raised for milk and meat. With such a variety of foods, most families are entirely self sustaining, and trade with eachother for whatever they lack that season. Most commonly traded is prickle fruit wine, which seems a delicacy among the young. They seem to have some sort of religion based upon the six mountains, with each of the villages having a church devoted mainly to their mountain, but with smaller holy maps depicting the others. Of course, the sudden appearance of smoke upon a thought to be dead mountain has rather shaken their society and few know what course of action to take. It has been many generations since any have attempted to reach the mountain the snake people inhabit, and the journey is one unlikely to succeed. Yet still, many young mortals do argue they must go and extend their hand to their brothers and sisters across the bog.
Unknown to them, it is not their kind who find themselves upon that mount, but the snakemen of Patriarch. Compared to the humans, who've had ages to establish themselves and acclimate to their lands, the snakemen are experiencing a kind of environmental shock. Many are not accustomed to the cold winds of the mountains, especially in the winters, and find their arms to become sluggish in the cold. Moreover, they could not partake in the mostly vegetarian lifestyle of the humans. As such, they much venture into the bogs in search of meat, and often become meals themselves. Quickly the weak are weeded out, and their fellows seem to have no qualm with posthumous cannibalism. The tribe of snakemen establish a warrior society, with a strong chieftain ruling over the others and leading hunting trips. The snakemen seem adept at working the leather of their prey, and use it in many applications from clothesmaking, to tent construction, and even make some into chewing sticks to gnaw on when food is sparse. Each individual actually seems to be composed of three separate minds, working in tandem. As such they tend to wield two weapons, with each snake aiming their own and the human part of the body managing movement and positioning. In the more talented fighters, this becomes a weaving dance of bone daggers and wooden spears which is rather beautiful to observe. And they are not entirely without culture, some cling to the faith of their creator god, who is far too distant to hear their prayers. Others have found a new faith. They believe they have been sent to a purgatory of sorts and believe the elephantoads are powerful godborn beasts. Twice a year they make a journey to a nearby lake and call forth the beast, which does indeed surface. They make offerings of meat and carcass, which the frog accepts, and then descends, though it has been known to take a snakeman or two as well. This is then interpreted as a sacrifice by the snakemen. If they frog took no snakemen, it meant it was pleased by the sacrifice and has given its blessing to the hunters, and if one is taken, then the sacrifice was insufficient and hunts will be poor until the next sacrifice. Yet others believe they were stolen by a greedy god, who took them from their homeland. They offer up prayers and carved bones upon alters to the heavenly thief so that they will not have their souls stolen by their captor.
Next are the fungaloids of the forest. At first, they did not have much in the way of religion and culture. And in most ways, this has not changed. They still live in the simplest of hovels, and their language is so rudimentary that most complex topics cannot be conveyed, though this is rarely a problem to these simple beings. Yet, two new words have recently become part of their language. Ualk, which means death, and Klau, which means life. The fungaloids did not seem to previously have any sort of religion, but after being purchased by two separate gods, the idea of powers beyond the giant salamanders has entered their collective consciousness. To those of the forest, Klau is often described as a force in all things. When a particularly large mushroom tree is found, it is typically decorated by the mushfolk, who adorn it with pretty shells and rocks, as well as tasty mushrooms. The thinking is, because its so big, it must have more Klau. Yet, Klau is not entirely distinct from Ualk. Ualk is the energy of the dead, the matter which Klau is made of. This is best, and really only, described in a passing phrase among the mushroom folk, which loosely translates to "The Ualk log grows the Klau mushrooms." As such, death and life are not entirely distinct ideas for these beings, though many struggle to comprehend them in a meaningful way in the first place. Of course, this is a different story for the Synith. The Synith and a collection of other mushfolk did follow the god Aiei into the wilds, venturing through the mushroom forests, the bogs, and the forests. Here they learned more of death and rot and became more attuned to it. While mushroomfolk typically aren't poisonous, some members of this expedition did become so, and grew closer to death, often literally. When they returned from the lectures of Aiei, they truly learned little, but did discover they could intentionally poison predators by sacrificing part of their body. And thus, they quickly came closer to death, attempting to be partially eaten by beasts so that the beasts may die. When they did so, they offered some of the beast's corpse, it's Ualk, to Aeie. Yet among them, the Synith was the most intelligent. It's mind had accepted and understood much more of the god's lecture and gained a modicum of power over Ualk. It often raised the dead, using the corpse of its prey as a walking larder until it was too rotten to consume, or otherwise decayed by the mushrooms which rapidly grow from the carcass. It lived a simple life, as all mushfolk do, in a hovel and in most ways, was not too changed from it's fellows who revered Klau.
The other set of mushfolk did not gain such lofty insights. They lived in similar colonies within the depths of the mountain continent. Here their mushroom hovels were replaced with nooks and crannies of the caves. When startled or pursued by predators, these mushroom men would let out a loud echoing yelp, and dozens of them would flee for cover in a chaotic sprint. Here in the caves they mostly lived as scavengers, eating what others left behind, whether that be dung or carcasses. Here they had little connection to Aiei, and only in their mythos is he mentioned. Aiei is described as "The smell of food" and "Stillness of sleep", which as these mushfolk do not sleep, the idea to them is indistinguishable from death. This often leads to very dangerous situations, as when they disturb a sleeping creature, to them, it has raised from the dead. It is in this scenario they lament Aiei, who has played a trick on them. Yet, when they do find food that is not merely sleeping, they thank Aiei, in their crude language.
And they do not find themselves alone in the caverns. The stonelings and mushfolk often run into eachother, as the stonelings migrate through the caves in search of food. When the two races meet, typically the stonelings will rejoice, for they have found easy prey, and the mushfolk are hunted. Many are slain, but the mushfolk are numerous compared to the stoneling tribes, and so there is no incredible danger of extinction by their hand. Even so, as dangerous as it is, many mushfolk will follow the stonelings at a distance, tailing them through the caverns to eat upon the remains the stonelings leave behind.
As for the stonelings, they are perhaps the most advanced of the races as of yet, with the exception of the mountain folk. They quickly became a nomadic people, the caverns, while plentiful, grew life slowly and deliberately. As such, permanent encampments were nearly impossible for a large population, and instead, the various tribes migrate through the caverns. Over time, each tribe gains a route, pioneered by their ancestors, that they walk in circles over their lifetime. Each stoneling's age is actually measured by the number of times they have passed the point of their birth, which upon birth, is marked by their mother. The stonelings actually do this for a variety of events. As such, the ancestral paths of these tribes are marked with their stories. Records of births, of deaths, of acts of heroism, as well as warnings of nearby danger. The exact method of marking varies from tribe to tribe, some using hard crystals to etch upon the walls, while others use paints of ground mushrooms or blood. Their diet consists mainly of meat of the various cave creatures, as well as deep bananas and rock potatoes. Though, all tribes pass by a single location, a deep still pool of mineral water in a large cavern. This deep deep cavern is where the various tribes meet and trade, sharing stories and information with eachother, typically all arriving about the same time every year. The waters here are rich in minerals, and drinking from them hardens the shells of the stonelings. This location holds a spiritual significance to the stonelings. They believe that were once simply rocks, parts of the caves they now live in. Yet long ago, two gods used the waters which run through the caves to carve them from the stone and imbue them with life. Argonbagh, who's name is equivalent with stone, but somewhat distinct, Stone, as opposed to stone, or occasionally "The Stone" is viewed as a maternal figure. Argonbagh is the quarry from which they were mined. While Acter is viewed as paternal. They are the sculptor and the sharper who reached into Stone and carved them out. The exact amount of romanticism involved in this act is debated among the tribes. Yet in any case, it is a widely held belief that this pool is the resting place of the waters used by Acter to mold Argonbagh into the stonelings, and thus by drinking from it, it enriches both their stoney exteriors and their souls.
Finally, there are mefolk of the shallow ocean. Here most tribes live hunter gather lifestyles upon the waves. Using long spears of bone or wood, they mainly hunt fish, crabs, shellfish, and giant sea slugs for sustenance. Though bubble reed, sea tomatoes, and a variety of edible anemones round out their diets. For these people, beauty and wealth determine the standing of a tribe, and what belongs to another is incredibly coveted. Pretty shells, shiny rocks, well made spears, and the like are all used to determine the value of a tribe, but most importantly of all, the beauty of their queen. Even small weak tribes may find themselves respected by others, if their queen is beautiful enough that marriage of one of children may be in the cards for the members of the stronger tribes. It is in this way that many smaller tribes are incorporated into others, and as princesses that are not wed grow past wedding age, they become queens and start new tribes of their own. They are followed by the ambitious, who have much to gain in social status by becoming the first of a new tribe. And thus the cycle continues, tribes growing, trading, warring, and splitting, the geopolitics of the area in constant flux. And it is in this they praise Ytlili, the first queen. Ytlili is, according to the fishfolk, the mother of their race. It is from her eggs that the fishfolk were first born, and it is her blood that makes them beautiful. It is in her name that most wealth is collected, and the treasuries of each tribe are marked with her symbol, signifying that this wealth is held in reverence to the goddess.
Yet one tribe of fishfolk has undergone a transformation of sorts. While they remain physically the same, they do not rest and they do not laze about as the others of their kind might. They have come to inhabit the eternal whirlpool around Py, which rests at the center of their village. The constant movement of the ocean around it makes the waters choppy and difficult to see through, and the sky is often stormy. Here the islands move themselves and the sea comes alive. And the inhabitants of this tribe grow industrious, they come to learn skills more quickly and have begun using nets and lures in hunting. So too they have come to raid their fellows, though they seek not riches. Unlike the other tribes which will steal the coffers and leave the lives of their fellows intact, unless they attempt to defend their hordes, the Tribe of Py take slaves of all they can, putting them to work in the twisting seas of their home. Some of these tribes even capitalize on this, making slaves of their most ugly members and selling them to the Py Tribe for strange and exotic shells which shimmer with a constant motion. They have come to worship Idmova, who's name is whispered by Py. They see the world like the ocean, ever moving and shifting. This is Idmova, it is the motion of the waves of the sun, and the body. It is said that the world was still before Idmova threw Py down upon it. As it flew to the earth, it bumped the sun so that it may roll across the sky, and the still ocean rocked so profoundly by it's arrival, that all the waves upon it are simply ripples rebounding across the water from the edges of the waters. They see Py as the child of Idmova, an egg sent here to be tended, so that one day, it will ultimately hatch into another Idmova, which will rise up into the heavens and allow it's mother to move on to another world.
As the first visitors finished up their sales, they departed, leaving the gods alone with their realms for a time. Yet slowly, others replaced them and an audience with the gods was requested.
The first individual which arrived was a familiar face among the heavens, Jyll, goddess of slimes. I am Jyll, queen of all the jiggles, goddess of goo, and the slime in the sky. I come here to make an offer to the fledgling gods of this realm. I know firsthand the difficulty in gaining a foothold in the world, and growing your following can be so taxing when you must also construct land, plants and animals. Indeed, many find themselves quickly to be lacking the power needed to pursue their goals. And so, I offer four acts in exchange for allowing me to seed this world with my children. I need at least two gods to accept this offer, and up to four gods may do so, with the acts split among them.
The next is a diminutive creature, most likely a demigod, or at least its equivalent. It is a small statue, gnomish of shape and size, and composed entirely of solid gold. I am Klizzlestamf Antiguine the Third, peddler of wonders and goods most exotic. I have in my possession several objects which may interest the gods. A race of large blue constructs, though I did recently lose a shipment of them, so there are quite a bit fewer than I'd normally offer. Since there are so few, I offer them for only 2 acts. The second is a special kind of crystal, which continuously grows larger. Plant outdoors for best results. A single infusion costs but one act. Lastly is a powerful artifact, a skywhale. The skywhale is a giant construct which is capable of hosting an entire civilization within and upon it's body. Outfitted with defensive weapondry, agricultural zones, water collection systems, and more, this bonafide wonder is a steal at just 5 acts!
Third is an official looking individual, tall and reptilian, clad in grey robes and a ceremonial hat. I am Retom, a representative of the the Inter-dimensional Order of Agreeable Gods. I heard word of the birth of a new world and come to offer induction into the IOAG. As members of the IOAG, this world will be able to call upon other IOAG members in time of great need, as well as make requests of IOAG merchants, and complimentary gifts every few cycles. Of course, you'd also follow and be protected by our laws. Accepting the induction required unanimous agreement of the gods, and taxes typically run about 1 act per god per turn.
Last is a lavender colored eldritch being. They have many rows of tentacles which rotate across their humanoid body in rows, with each row rotating the opposite direction. This gives them a rather unusual sense of uneasy movement. I am Agai. I come here wishing to establish a garden upon this world. I will populate it with floura and fauna of my world, and occasionally return to prune the garden and collect some of it's fruit. I will pay up to five acts for this, though will accept offers if gods are willing to accept it for less than that.
Acts: 1
Sphere Acts: 0
Worshipers
Stonelings: +1 act
Wild Seeds
Acts: 1
Sphere Acts: 0
Worshipers:
Klau mushfolk: +1
Synith: A mushfolk prophet with an understanding of necromancy. [1 undeath act]
Abololabola Seed
Wild Seeds
Acts: 1
Sphere Acts: 0
Worshipers
Stonelings: +1 act
Acts: 1
Sphere Acts: 1 Hunting, 1 Depravity
Worshipers:
Snakefolk: +1 act
Acts: 1
Sphere Acts: 1 Motion
Worshipers
Py Tribe: +1 act
Acts: 1
Sphere Acts: 0
Worshipers:
Ualk Mushfolk: +1 Act
Acts: 0
Sphere Acts: 1 Child Act
Acts: 1
Sphere Acts: 0
Worshipers:
Mefolk: +1 Act
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The winds cackle and shudder and as sudden as it had began, it ended. At the centre of the storm were sleeping children, innocence in their eyes.
1 Children Act, 2 Acts: Kos(m)aritencku creates the Cinncoire*, a race of eternally youthful spirit folk.
The Cinncoire, or Fae/Faeries, are a race of the spiritual realm; they are eternally children. Each ceanncoire is born from the dreams of another ceanncoire, who wishes for a child so deeply that another is born in their sleep. Each ceanncoire has the personality of a child. E.g. a mischievous prankster, who loves their friends and families; a respectful child, who honours their elders; or a child who is friendly towards all things. The Cinncoire are 'innocent' in that they do not comprehend good or evil, only what is fun and what is not fun. Even the most studious and polite fae is doing what they do because its fun or at least, more entertaining than the alternatives. Still, most will honour any deals or agreements they make, in the manner they understand it. Being of the spiritual realm, fairies are able to commune with the spirits even when in the mundane plane. They are in-tune with the magics of the spiritual realm and are fairly long-lived. Even old fairies resemble children.
In their waking dream, Kos(m)aritencku brands their minds with the Love of Itself and tells them that they must honour the lords of the spirit. The Garden is to known as sacred and holy. Its hiding and protection should be the highest of entertainments. Still, to enjoy of it is a great pleasure.
*Cinncoire is plural, the singular is ceanncoire.
3 Acts, 0 Children Acts, 0 Mysticism Acts
Spend 2 acts creating a new location such that it would be desireable for Agai's Garden, based on Multitude's very masterful understanding. This piece of land is not owned by any single god, it is the communal property of Kripa, like all its lands are. It is connected by a land-bridge to the First Land.
Kos(m)aritencku contributes 1 Act to this new land furnishing it with the nutrients for life.
0 Acts, 0 Children Acts, 0 Mysticism Acts
The first among them was a wizened old beast, an ancient tiger's head with saber teeth upon the body of a man wearing purple. My name is Haunjur, I have come to buy a mortal race. There is a distinct lack of free range mortals in the worlds in my region, and I would very much like to purchase some. I will take two thirds of any already established race and in return, pay you 4 acts. Though of course, you can only offer a race you have either purchased, or created yourself, and not the race of another.
The next was a low white shadow drifting in the vague pantomime of a man. "Fellow gods of a foreign world, I would offer you a series of landmarks. I have a set of two canyons, each one filled with winds which always blow in the opposite direction of the other canyon. A river which dyes its waters red. A forest which grows with unnatural speed. A mountain which slowly spins. A set of three floating islands. Two deserts of unusual color. Any of these could be available for 2 acts."
Next was a being of disaster. A god of Apocalypse and tragedy. They looked like the end of the world wrapped into the shape of a man. "Your world knows not the fear of the end. The ultimate conclusion that is born into the minds of mortals, the end of the world as they know it. A flood wiping out a village, a plague sweeping a population, a war upon your doorstep. Yet your world has yet to know these things. I offer you three acts in exchange for allowing a disaster upon your people which will inspire this fear."
Lastly was a strange human, a mage of no small power if they were to have made it here upon the light river. "Dear Gods of this realm, my name is Pimious, and I am a wandering mage. I offer to instill knowledge of magic by going among them and teaching them of different ways of drawing forth magic from the world. Each race will learn differently, based upon their culture. In exchange for this service, I charge 3 acts."
And so the time for the gods to act was once again upon them.
Acts: 1
Sphere Acts: 0
Worshipers
Stonelings: +1 Act Per Turn
Wild Seeds
Kide: Human Prophet with a tendency to fall into depression when faced with the reality of his people's plight.
Qaya: A very skilled Stoneling leader who is championed as a master mushroom trainer.
Acts: 1
Minor Acts: 1
Sphere Acts: 0
Worshipers:
Klau mushfolk: +1 Act Per Turn
Synthians: +1 Minor Act Per Turn
Synith: A mushfolk prophet with an understanding of necromancy. [1 undeath act]
Abololabola Seed
Wild Seeds
Acts: 1
Sphere Acts: 0
Worshipers
Stonelings: +1 Act Per Turn
Kide: Human Prophet with a tendency to fall into depression when faced with the reality of his people's plight.
Qaya: A very skilled Stoneling leader who is championed as a master mushroom trainer.
Acts: 2
Sphere Acts: 1 Hunting, 1 Depravity
Worshipers:
Snakefolk: +1 Act Per Turn
Acts: 1
Sphere Acts: 1 Motion
Worshipers
Pyranesis Tribe: +1 Act Per Turn
Cobaol: A merfolk prophet with a deep connection to and understanding of Py.
Acts: 1
Sphere Acts: 0
Worshipers:
Ualk Mushfolk: +1 Act Per Turn
Acts: 1
Sphere Acts:
Cincoire: +1 Act Per Turn
Acts: 1
Minor Acts: 1
Sphere Acts: 0
Worshipers:
Mefolk: +1 Act Per Turn
Unnamed Blue Constructs: +1 Minor Act Per Turn