The moment that Althos gave his permission to the system to create an area where he could practice his powers, something happened. The system, or at least its most intelligent and most independent part, departed from Althos' mind. What was temporarily left behind was the system at its most automatic, merely an automaton that could do little more than relay simple information.
The system's more complex self departed from Althos momentarily. It left him for the sake of executing his will: it sought to create a simple training area where he could practice the varied skills that he had at his disposal. And the space in which it did so was just one part of the deity's limitless plane that was left unshaped in the wake of his initial bout of creation.
For the indescribably ancient system, one of a handful of leftover relics from the time of the most ancient gods, gods who were long gone even eons before the most recent set of gods sprung to life, the act of creating a training ground wherein Althos could practice his skills was child's play. All the system needed to do it was for Althos to give his express permission, and for the system to tap into the god's limitless magic and divine might.
At the moment the area was created, the system made use of divine energy and of ambient fragments of godly intention to create a simple, flat layer of solidified magic where the god would stand if he felt like standing at all. The almost earthlike magic stretched on for a few thousand meters in every direction.
The magic was then made solid through an immense amount of intention and forceful manipulation, like a wall that resisted being destroyed. Finally, the magic was loosely colored with a simple layer of illusion magic, designed to resemble a barren plain, perhaps one that was the sight of a devastating battle and never recovered.
A simple two-step process. But one that would have simply used up too much magical energy to be done by mortal spellcasters.
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Althos was still, his featureless face perfectly stationary as he stoically absorbed the emotions of his creations. They flowed into him, invigorating him and reinforcing the reality that he was, in fact, a god, not merely another living creature.
This power... it feels divine. This is an incredible feeling. I must be worthy of these feelings. I must... mature. I must be divine. He realized, feeling for the first time, the addictive feeling of true, honestly gained and deserved worship of mortal beings.
And as he did so he felt a small seed of responsibility be planted within his heart, a tiny seed of responsibility centered around these creatures, the ones whose devotion and admiration for their creator was empowering and feeding him.
It reminded him of what he was once told. "You gain power from your worshipers and servants." Samyaza once said that to Althos.
It was the angel's remark when Althos was an even younger deity, and he gained his first servant: the orcish brawler, Bazur. Ever since that moment, he hadn't yet experienced a sudden and dynamic surge like that again, even when he turned the jackaloids, an entire tribe of the creatures, into his servants. Instead, he felt small bursts of energy flow into him, not raw, powerful emotions like this.
He could physically see the emotions that surrounded him and suffused the air he breathed. They appeared like a thin vapor, perceptible to his eyes and his eyes alone, a kaleidoscopic burst of misty color.
"So this is true, heartfelt worship?" He questioned, as he began to recover from the surge. "I wonder if gods got... addicted to this feeling?" He asked, distracted by his own thoughts which rendered his words odd and devoid of necessary context to his followers, the elf and dryads around him.
He looked out at them and saw that they were mystified by his remarks. Oh... I should explain myself, I suppose. He thought after he saw the confusion on their faces.
"I was remarking on how the emotions of you, and my other creations feel. You see, I can feel your reverence, your worship. It... seeps into me. It is unlike the other worship I have received." He told them, and once again they could somehow hear that their creator was smiling at them.
"'Other worship', creator?" One of the dryads asked, curiosity and... something else, seeping into her voice. Is that... envy, I hear? Althos asked himself, largely unfamiliar with the emotion but aware of its existence partially through what memories of the desert titan he had studied and lived through. This may require further study. He thought though the god didn't hate that that may have been what the dryad felt.
"Yes, little one. You are some of the youngest creatures in all of existence. There are other worlds, other places, far away. And I have explored... an unimaginably minuscule percentage of parts of those places. Those places have inhabitants. I have begun the process of making some of them my servants, my worshipers. Yet... your worship feels different. Stronger. Purer perhaps." He told tree-spirit. There was honesty in his voice, a distinctness and a directness that assured his listeners that he told the truth.
"I see." She responded, though somehow there was something happy in her tone, something... satisfied. "I see?" But with a positive tone? Perhaps I navigated that... well. Or well enough. He thought, safe in the privacy of his mind.
[Althos, your training ground is ready for you. Come to it whenever you feel ready to do so. In order to arrive, just focus on this image and visualize yourself there.] The system instructed, returning to him in force even though he hadn't known that the smartest parts of it had even departed, while simultaneously transmitting an image of a nondescript plain. A truly plain, plain.
Althos received the message and responded to it quickly. [You didn't need any help?] He asked, his mental tone conveying a bit of disappointment. After that he mentally viewed the image that the message contained, opening it and memorizing it, before willing away the notification with a nearly unconscious thought, a sort of mental reflex.
[Nope. This is a really simple process. What we needed was your permission. Even we cannot build in your realm unless you allow it.] Althos was told, by mental message seconds later. Mentally he nodded at the message, so as to signify acceptance of it and an acknowledgment of what it said. Then Althos refocused on his current surroundings. And on what he planned to go and do: discover his powers and begin to gain an understanding of them.
He looked upward and stared at the canopies of the trees. As he did so, he thought something dramatic. What if I'm not the only one who discovers my powers? He wondered, smiling as he imagined all of his servants, both here and elsewhere, witnessing his might even as he discovered what he could do.
How can I set about making the next few minutes an event that I undergo, and that my people witness? He asked himself, mulling it over for a few seconds before realizing something he often forgot. Oh, why do I keep acting like I'm all alone? He questioned, feeling rather foolish for a moment. He prepared and then sent out a message to his advisors, the system, and even Qu'Ren, figuring the witch might have useful advice for him.
[Hey, is there a way for me to share what I'm about to do with those who worship me? I want to go and explore my powers. I want to gain an understanding of what I can do at the moment, and of my magic. And so I've created, or rather I had the system create, a place where I could test my powers. I'm about to head there now, but I think that using this to inspire those who follow me might invigorate them and in many cases show them I'm a real, living thing.] He said, wisely sharing his thoughts and the problem before him with his allies.
[I want to show all of my worshipers, and my servants, my power. I want them to see me, and to see the abilities at my disposal. What I need help with is the "how" of going about this. Do you know of any magic or even any divine abilities that may allow me to do this?] He added, clarifying what his main concern was.
He was met with silence for a few moments, silence from each of the figures he hoped would have an answer. A silence that continued until his handy mental assistant, the entity known as M.A. spoke up with a clever suggestion.
[Althos, why not use your vision menu? It's part of your religion menu, and normally it's used just for oracles, like Drow and his family but deities can gift anyone with visions, especially if they are willing to make those visions into dreams, which are easier for many mortals to process.] M.A. told her master.
[Mortals who can't handle visions can be hurt by them. If you use dreams instead, you should be able to record your actions as part of a message you transmit to your servants and do so safely.] Althos' ally told him, all while also transmitting the message to all of the other recipients as well, to ensure everyone knew that this question had been answered.
Dreams huh... Okay. I can do that. He realized, grinning internally. A simple, elegant, and safe answer. Not bad, M.A.! He added, before he composed a message to her and the other recipients as well.
[Thank you! That's precisely the sort of answer I was hoping to get, without even fully realizing it.] He said, his mental voice now coming across as grateful and eager to those who heard it, a pleasant change from the oftentimes neutral or apathetic voice they heard when Althos' mind spoke to theirs.
And then Althos spoke to his worshipers who had gathered in the forest. His faceless head was still and seemed to point blankly ahead as his voice came out from within his core. As he did so he began to focus on the generic plain the system had shown him earlier.
"I am going to demonstrate my power. When you sleep, when you dream, you will see a dream of my might. It will be no mere dream, but a display of my majesty. It will show you my power. My abilities. I hope it inspires you. I hope it reinforces your loyalty, your devotion, and your desire to know me." He said, not only to the creatures assembled before and around him, but once again to all of the creatures he had created to inhabit his dimension.
His voice surged out of him, flowing in all directions and even into the skies above and the tunnels below the god. Once again all of his people heard his words. And as soon as he finished speaking, as soon as the word "me" escaped his odd form, he vanished. And in an instant, a mere nanosecond, he went from being surrounded by trees and his other creations, to being all alone in an unremarkable and safe to destroy plain.
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The place Althos found himself standing in, following his teleportation was uniform in all directions. The plain stretched farther than he could see, but there were no identifying features in any direction.
The ground at his feet was a rather bland shade of brown, and there was a sun that shone in a cloudless, beautifully blue, sky above him. There were no lifeforms of any kind in any direction. He was as alone as he could be, given that he had still had the system, M.A., and Samyaza with him, and in a way inside of him.
So this is my training ground huh? He asked himself, thankful for its barrenness, even if he wasn't expecting it to be so utterly empty. [You did a good job with this.] He said, messaging the system. After a few seconds, none of the odd voices that sometimes accompanied the system's textboxes responded.
I hope it doesn't think I'm being sarcastic... He thought, almost worried for a second before the system spoke up. [We don't. We just weren't sure how to respond to that.] The thing told Althos, a reaction which caused him to smile.
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[Oh! Don't worry about it. I get that.] He said, lying. He didn't understand the thing's reaction, but a small part of him, a quiet part with a better understanding of emotion, perhaps one that had seen and begun to understand the emotions in the memories of Mahmud, urged him to respond that way.
Althos felt a small, alien sensation of gratitude well up within the part of his mind where voices from mental links came from, the part of him that was most intimately connected to other creatures. Is that... gratitude? From the system? Wow... could it be that I'm slowly understanding emotions better? He wondered, allowing himself a few moments to celebrate this small victory.
And once nearly half a minute had passed, the creator of the dimension turned inward and opened his religion menu so that he could begin the process of creating the dream he sought to gift his followers.
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The secondary will found itself wandering alone in the city of desert giants, an ancient place named Namira. All around himself, the will was exposed to new things. And because of that, its thoughts were alight with notifications.
The will was almost at the only stop it was going to make before it went towards the tower that contained the object of a quest it was undertaking: the liberation of a young angel from an enigmatic prison.
Each of the giant steps Althos' desert-giant disguise took led him closer and closer to a strange farm that was not only within a city but located inside of a city in the middle of a massive desert. The will was curious as to the sort of vegetation that could even grow in a farm in a desert-city since most of the plants it had come across in the desert weren't plants that struck it as being good to eat.
What sort of plants do these people eat? All the food I've seen, even according to my new knowledge powers are meat. The will noted, having made extensive use of its new abilities in the time since it had begun this new phase of its grander quest to corrupt souls in the desert.
That said... some plants do grow here. Althos noted, sensing their presence nearby. He sensed them much like how the deity's mind, currently preparing to practice its powers, could sense things.
Althos, including his second will, could detect nearby plants thanks to his ever-active detection powers: the radar and tremor-sense. And in the wake of gaining his recently newer powers, the young god could also hear them. The plants whispered when he got close, their voices soft and difficult to focus on, but perceivable and receptive to his presence.
The plants he saw, both in the wild desert and in the city itself were plants that were quite pretty and resilient. Cacti grew in the desert and in the city, including kinds without external spines, but the further Althos walked into the city, the more he saw a wider variety of plants like pleasant-smelling wild and domesticated flowers and aggressively thirsty desert reeds.
The further he went into the city, the more people he saw. Both his radar and his tremor-sense began to come to life, sending him dozens of tiny, ignorable alerts with each step he took. So this city is one of those cities with more people in the interior than the exterior huh? The opposite of Undermoon. He thought, grinning as he smiled at children who stepped close to him and chuckling as their families would then grab them, pull them close, and sternly lecture them, chiding them for even casual interactions with adult strangers.
And in time, after he had spent perhaps half an hour or so walking from his khan towards the tower, the black tower loomed even larger than before. And Althos made it to the outermost farm that was safely tucked within the city.
The ground at his feet was no longer made of paved sandstone or worked rocks. The ground at his feet was sand, which to this particular aspect of Althos was a pleasant and comforting feeling, one he had grown accustomed too.
What he saw when he looked out ahead of himself was a gigantic expanse made up of countless tilled fields. And between each field, there were tiny, controlled streams of water that ensured that the soil and sand were close enough to water for healthy crops to grow in them.
Countless, possibly hundreds, of desert giants of every age and gender worked these fields. The scent of their sweat mixed with the scent of the water that they were close too, and the strange, cloying scent of the plants they were growing. These plants also reacted to Althos' presence.
"Whoa... who is that?" They whispered, their voices mellow and calm, even as Althos' presence invigorated them and caused them to sense his proximity. What sort of plants are those? He wondered, as even the closest ones he could make out were nothing like any plants he had ever seen.
The closest plants were themselves growing in the tiny, controlled streams of water that the giants relied on to keep their crops hydrated. They were gorgeous blue flowers, and on average the ones that grew in the streams Althos could see were about a bit larger than a human hand. They had thick petals that were blue on the outside and white on the inside, which protected fiery yellow filaments and anthers.
He quietly invoked one of his newest powers: the ability to appraise items, and targeted the plants.
[New Plant Knowledge Alert: Blue Lotus.
Blue Lotuses are a type of water lily. These beautiful plants are grown for a range of reasons, but there are two primary factors that drive agricultural creatures to plant them.
The most prominent reason why desert giants in particular plant them is that they have psychoactive effects and are a popular drug, among both desert giants and the few trading partners desert giants have, such as desert-dwelling humans, and travelers who come to this layer from other dimensions or layers of Infernius. When grown exclusively for the purpose of being used as a drug these plants can be consumed or otherwise used in a range of ways.
Another reason why they are grown is that they are beautiful decorations or accessories, and many visitors to the desert are surprised to find them and eager to buy them. Desert giant artwork has included its usage in a range of ways throughout their history, in Infernius and beyond.
The kinds found in Infernius are considerably darker than their extraplanar counterparts, and they are far more potent when used as a drug. This has led to a situation wherein they are grown far and wide throughout the city of Namira, though they are from the only sort of drug grown in the city of Namira.]
Oh! Those gorgeous plants are... drugs? Althos learned, after having read the alert. What are... drugs? He paused, asking himself a valuable question.
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Althos' latest usage of the religion menu brought him more knowledge. He spent a few moments sorting through the thing, reaching the visions sub-menu, and then selecting the dream menu. It was a simple thing, and it provided him with a number of different options to chose from. While he was using it, he vanished from the view of the dryads and restored his face, the face of his default human form, the one recognizable to Bazur, and the other orcs.
The first moment he truly hesitated and thought for a second was when he was presented with a choice. A choice that involved who all would witness Althos' demonstration of power.
[Who all will witness this dream? And for extraplanar creatures is it acceptable for this to become an unintrusive vision instead?] The system asked him.
[Unintrusive vision? Can I choose that option for mortals too?] He quickly responded, a split second passing wherein he hoped that he may yet get to just craft a vision instead of a dream. The menu shut him down quick though.
[Nope! This option is only for extraplanars. You see, extraplanars don't sleep. Or at least... incredibly few of them do. So gods used to send them visions. The reality is that if an extraplanar received a normal vision at an inopportune time it could be fatal. So eventually the system created this alternative to visions and dreams, which is a vision that activates only when the extraplanar can safely be temporarily indisposed. Due to the nature of mortal minds, there's no way to create safe, unintrusive visions for them.] The menu politely informed Althos.
[Damn. Okay, extraplanars can definitely view this in an unintrusive way. And as for your other question...] Althos was now faced with the question of what to say about this most important of questions.
Who all should see this? He asked himself. Are there any benefits to making this something all of my servants and worshipers see? Obviously. That's a dumb question. This, if it goes well, will reinforce viewers' faith in me. Now... are there any downsides to the decision to show this to everyone? How could it go wrong? Althos' thoughts were purposeful and careful.
Have I made any servants or worshipers who might be frightened of power to the point of leaving my service?... No. I don't think I have. So should I show this to everyone? I... He reflected on his life.
He remembered the creatures he had met that weren't his servants or worshipers. The goblins... the dark unicorn... the bears and the wolves... so many dark elves and even a few orcs. Not to mention the desert giants I've met who don't know my true nature. What if this is enough to convince them to worship me? Many of them never saw my true power, those of them that met me only saw that I was a powerful creature. He realized, feeling a bit of ambition creep into his heart.
If sending this to the creatures of the places I've been too and the creatures I've met who've yet to join me, drives them to me, it will be worth it. And if not, that's fine. I can't imagine that this would somehow hurt me. He reasoned, after contemplating possible impacts of the dream he was about to create, and possible effects it could have on mortal minds.
[All of the mortals I've met, including animals and even desert giants will see this dream. And all of the dark elves of Undermoon as well. The purpose of this is to get people who are not yet in the fold into it by allowing my abilities to speak for themselves. And to showcase the fundamental truth that I am a god, one who possesses incredible power.] He told the menu, allowing himself to feel some nervousness as the menu accepted his choice.
[Okay. From here on out, everything you do will be recorded. Once you've recorded what you wish to show mortals you can inform the menu with a thought, and then you'll have the ability to edit the material you've recorded or even use divine energy to create whole new scenes. Good luck on your dream-crafting endeavors!] The menu said, teaching Althos the simplest version of how it worked.
"Okay! Cool. Here we go." He said. And then he stood still. For one of the few times in his life, he felt nervous. "What... should I try out first?" He asked himself, experiencing an unpleasant feeling that mixed stage fright and general uncertainty into something toxic and halting.
After a few moments passed, he took a deep breath and then hissed in annoyance. I can't let... stage fright or whatever this feeling is, get in the way! I'm here to experiment with my powers, and I'm gonna do it.
"I can do this!" He shouted, smacking his head with both of his palms to beat the nervousness away. And then he turned inward, recalling the wide diversity of powers he had made use of over the course of his short life.
"I can do a lot. I can control the very earth at my feet." He told himself, feigning confidence as he recalled the first time he ever used magic. He unconsciously gathered magical energy in his hands and then he turned his hands so that the palms were facing the ground, and opened them. Magical energy poured out of his hand like sand, seeping into the ground at his feet, and the ground in front of him began to shake.
"If you fight me on the ground, I control the battlefield." He said, and as the ground beneath his feet trembled because of his magical power the confidence with which he spoke was less feigned than it had been before. "But that's far from the limit of my power." He told no one in particular.
"Plants are my servants." He said, purposefully deepening his voice as he willed the earth beneath him to stop shaking. He dramatically flared his hand outward, opening it wide in front of him and willing a burst of divine energy out of him in a specific form.
Vines exploded out of his hand, being conjured by magical energy, and bending to his whims thanks to his usage of divine energy to control their growth and direction thanks to his powers over the plant subdomain. "I can aim my floral children into the ground." He said, kneeling down and plunging a hand into the ground.
A moment later vines and roots began to crack through the ground in front of him and surge forward, disturbing and pushing dirt away while leaving a trail of vines, roots, and even a few flower blossoms in their wake. He visually followed them for a few moments, before focusing once again on himself and speaking yet again.
"Plants... the earth... even fungi follow me." He said, inhaling at the end of his statement, and then exhaling dramatically. Hundreds of nearly invisible, but faintly glowing spores flew out of his open mouth, tinting the air in front of him.
He was still kneeling and so he gently placed his other hand on the ground. He willed the earth in front of him to become an explosive fungal bed, fungi emerging spontaneously and speedily, surging forward in a manner not unlike the plant vines did. The fungi grew, not content to remain tiny mushrooms. Instead they grew bigger and bigger, eventually shading their creator and shielding him from the sun.
Althos quietly pulled his arms from the ground and the floor. And the god, trying to make this as dramatic as possible, closed his eyes. "Nature is my weapon." And he opened his eyes. They changed while he had closed them, becoming a new color and larger.
His eyes were now pure red, deeply fiery orbs. "And nature is more than just the earth and plants. Nature is fire." He said, grinning as he felt flames well up within him. "Taste my... fire." He told those who'd view his dream, willing the heat and blaze that surged within him outward, out of his body and into this safe to destroy plain.
The fires slipped past the confines of his physical form and as they surged out of him they surrounded him in a jade-colored egg of flame. That's it... this is really neat! He thought, getting more and more excited with each display of his own powers.
But for the most part... this has all been stuff I'm familiar with. Aside from the plant thing anyway. He thought, readying himself to begin to practice his more eerie and strange skills, especially ones he hadn't used yet. And now... magic. He told himself, smiling as he did so.