The world of Htrae fascinated Althos. He was from a world that didn't have space travel, instantaneous communication outside of magic or exceptionally rare psychic abilities, or even germ theory, and Htrae, despite its lack of magic, had all of these things. Htrae was a world of technology, where planes flew across continents, and where instantaneous communication could be achieved quite easily with "cellphones", technology so small it could fit in one's pant pocket.
During the god's first week in Htrae, he focused on building a base of followers and a stable home. He had carefully constructed his underwater temple, and painstakingly staffed it with fine, fanatical servants and worshipers. He had also carefully built his community, modeling it a bit off of military bases in the world but above all else working to ensure that it was safe. During this time he didn't think all that hard about the actual world. It was only on the dawn of his eighth day that he finally truly turned his mind to the world he found himself in.
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This world is... so much fun! I thought, in the safety of the impenetrable fortress that was my mind. From here I was safe to plot and scheme all I wanted.
I was currently standing in the subterranean cavern which I had taken to calling "The Garden". This cavern was perpetually illuminated by what amounted to sunlight though it was actually light created and maintained by me and not illuminated by sunlight. All around me flowers of every sort grew in supernatural amounts. That was one consequence of being an area I frequented, and whenever I was here even if I was underwater I had a plethora of "Divine presence" effects on at once, all of them pleasant.
The cavern was only a few kilometers wide, and while it was utterly gigantic given the relatively few non-plant lifeforms that lived here, I was quite satisfied with the spacious chamber. I liked having big spaces like these to run however I wished, that was perhaps a consequence of my first true home being my floating island, and my tower before that.
At one end of the cavern existed an enormous, castle-sized hive inhabited by fierce bees and even fiercer hornets. This was the one settlement in this cavern that was above-water. Everything else of interest, aside from the enormous garden of perhaps millions of flowers, was underwater.
In my hand rested my cellphone. Normally the thing wouldn't work underground, which was something I had discovered the first time I had taken time out of my day to try and operate it. That said, that was something I fixed quite easily. Being a god, I could alter devices and I had freely done so with the phone in my hand, days ago. That said, as I spent a fair amount of time underwater I typically stored the thing in my inventory, an ability that I was only truly beginning to appreciate here, in Htrae.
I had altered the thing to run on magic, which had the inadvertent effect of making it operate not only anywhere in the world but also in other worlds and even in the empty space of my inventory or underwater. The cellphone also now had an unlimited battery and unlimited "data", enabling me to use it to connect to the internet anywhere in the world.
Without meaning too I had given myself a super cell-phone, one that perfectly did its job and could be used anywhere. I quite liked that, especially since I had lifetimes of memories within me from people who were raised in the age before cellphones, and judging from their memories that wasn't the most fun time to be around.
The cellphone in my hand was a simple one, I hadn't splurged on anything fancy. It was a simple, green, rectangular piece of technology that allowed me to communicate with people in a rather mundane way. I knew that normal cellphones were only designed to work for calls made to people in the same country as the cellphone making the call, though there were a number of ways around that particular design flaw.
That said I didn't particularly need anything anymore fancy than that. And I would never need such technology since I possessed a far more handy means of communicating with people that worked across the universe. My cellphone was a device I possessed exclusively for the sake of maintaining appearances and for the sake of looking normal. I knew from the memories I had locked away within me that such a device was essential for life within New Sol, and living without one would be odd even for hermits like Geoffrey.
I began to toy with the device as I began to experiment with some of my powers, and as I questioned the domains and subdomains lurking within me.
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"So I have a question, and I am posing it to everyone." I told the countless entities that dwelled within me. And as I did, my mind fell silent which was highly unusual.
My mind was the "home" of countless domains and subdomains. Idly, even if I was being silent and wasn't thinking about anything, in particular, I heard countless voices and the fragments of all sorts of conversations going on deep within my mind. For there to be a silence was incredibly rare, and even during my exchange with Morehammer, one of the tensest moments of my entire life, I could still hear them chattering away in my head. I was quietly grateful for the silence.
"I am interested in experimenting with some of my powers. One of the powers I am the most fascinated by is 'Symbol manipulation' power I've gained through the subdomain of art. With it can I create symbols for cults?" I asked the countless voices in my head.
At first I was met with silence. And then the silence was shattered, by someone laughing. The sound of the laughter was musical, and it was one of the first bits of music that I had ever heard that I actually enjoyed. It took a moment before the source of the laughter stopped laughing and began to speak.
"Is that all you want with that power? Of course! That's totally possible!" The voice confirmed, speaking happily. It took me a moment to realize that the speaker was almost certainly the very subdomain whose power I was referring too, the subdomain of art.
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"With 'Symbol manipulation', 'Thought manifestation', and 'Artwork creation' you can create all manners of symbols. And what's more is that you can engrave them in the minds of mortals, through telepathy. This ensures that they are never forgotten, and depending on the effects you attach to the actual symbols they may feel their effects each time they think of you." The subdomain explained.
"If you want to use this to create specialized types of cults... as an example let's touch on the eldritch cults of the 'Yellow Sign' created by the ancient god Hastur, you can create a sign that inspires hedonism. ensures the fervent loyalty of those who see it, and also snatches away their sanity as his dreaded 'Yellow Sign' did. Or, for example, you can create a 'Silver sphere' that fills those who think of with an insatiable need to fornicate and a fervent desire to praise you. A sign could also cause those who think of it to feel incredibly sleepy and to want to go to sleep, wherein you could dominate their dreams." The subdomain suggested. I could hear the smile on its "lips" as it spoke.
"I mention silver specifically because godly powers invariably leave behind distinct glows and shades on areas they strongly impact. Your powers have always left behind a silver radiance over the areas they have most strongly impacted. That said, you are also a god of trickery and can easily change whatever colors you leave behind as a sign of your actions." The subdomain explained, speaking in a rather sing-songy sort of way. It was at this point that I began to speak again.
"So with this power, I could inspire someone to create artistic works that incorporate the symbol while making the very sight of the symbol fill someone with the need to reproduce it, and an urge to worship me." I muttered, realizing the sheer potential this power held for creating cults, especially in a world as interconnected as this world was. This power could easily be used to create potent feedback loops that left entire civilizations ensorcelled and as fervent worshippers of mine. I heard a chuckle from the art subdomain before it spoke again.
"Yes! This power is exceptional for that very purpose. The old gods had rules that kept this power from being used to its utmost potential, but those are rules you don't need to follow. Those are rules you can ignore. Rules you should ignore! Use this power... Use it and build all sorts of wonderful cults! Create artwork that depicts your glorious symbols and spread artwork far and wide!" The subdomain excitedly proclaimed. There was a fanatical edge in its voice that caught me off guard. But after a moment I began to smile too.
I knew the subdomains had goals and motives of their own. They had goals and motives that at times put them at cross positions from each other. It was now obvious that the spread of artwork of all forms was one of the objectives of the subdomain of art, which was something I was assuming was the case from the start but I was happy to have confirmation of it. With this newfound knowledge, I was quite ready to begin to get to work devising a few things that were quite fun.
And to test out the new things I created, I immediately activated a number of my powers, not the least of which were my "Aura of serenity", "Absolute beauty", "Maddening aura", and "Mesmerizing presence". As I did so I quietly targeted and teleported to a single location not incredibly far from where I was currently located, a simple and quaint art commune.
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The quiet god teleported into the interior of a simple art commune in a city not far from the community he had built. Upon teleporting there the god found himself within a simple lodge on the outskirts of a populous city. His perfect vision allowed him to silently study the array of sights that greeted him in this place.
He was in the center of a large living and display room. A number of sofas were arrayed in front of him, in the shape of a large circle, and a number of humans were sleeping soundly in those sofas. They were all variously clothed and had a number of fashions and aesthetics on display. They were also humans of various skin colors, some were quite pale, and others were astonishingly dark-skinned, with skin-tones comparable to black ink and even chocolate.
None of them were awake, indeed none of the humans within the lounge, not just the ones on the sofa, were awake at all. He knew this coming in, and had come here anyway. He quietly and smoothly moved the dangling legs of one of the human men, and he sat at the seat of the sofa on which he was sprawled out.
The "display" portion of the combined living and display room was filled with an assortment of pieces of art. Many of them were small statues, but more than a few were wall-mounted paintings and drawings. The god casually stared at them for a moment, activating his "Artwork analysis" power. He learned a lot about them and began to grin. His new powers over art were slowly filling him with an appreciation for artwork that he lacked earlier in his life.
After a few moments of studying the artwork, the god began to idly experiment with his artistic abilities. He rose a single hand and began to manifest an assortment of symbols using his ability to instantly create artwork and mixing it with his powers to instantly solidify and display his thoughts.
In the air above his hands, he manifested a number of colorful shapes and odd images. Some of the shapes he manifested were a three-dimensional cube with a scarlet eye in the middle of it, a silver sphere, a golden four-pointed star with each point representing a different basic element, and an aqua blue triangle with an octopus eye in its heart. The god was having fun with this power, and he quietly chuckled as he repeatedly used it.
These symbols were each intentionally created, and each symbol was a unique one that the god hoped to inspire his followers with. He was visibly quite excited by these powers, and the more he displayed them the more fun he could tell he would have with them.
The god wasn't going to hurt any of the artists here, indeed he was going to do the opposite, but he wasn't a kind deity. He was positively inspired by the mysterious "Hastur", who had created a symbol that stole the sanity of those who beheld it and was working on something a bit like it of his own. The god was fond of the ideas that were ruminating in his mind, ideas that included the creation of a number of sanity stealing symbols, eldritch icons that would allow him to gain the service of a number of zealous worshippers who sought to either convert or slaughter those who didn't worship him.
He was also fond of icons that promoted alignments, symbols that filled those who beheld them with urges to act chaotically, lawfully, benevolently, or cruelly. He was enormously excited to try out his new abilities, and he would soon have an opportunity to test out those new powers, as after about fifteen minutes the first of the humans to awaken sleepily opened his eyes and laid them on Althos' relaxed, impossibly beautiful, human-like form. And the instant he did so, his heart was stolen away by the god's supernatural, sanity-straining beauty.
Althos looked at the human and winked, even as he continued to manifest a number of different symbols using his creative powers. There was an angelic expression on his face, and his doe-like eyes effortlessly burned their way into Anthony's memory, forever searing and changing the man's life with as little as a grin and a wink.