The tunnel that the god and the dragon met in had never seen any sort of light before. No natural light or magical light had ever illuminated it. Yet the god didn't care about that. Unknowingly acting as a god of light, one of many things he had influence over, he illuminated the strange pathway freely with his "Unfettered Divinity" power.
The silvery illumination that sprung into being around the god and the dragon's head was beautiful. It was also incredibly powerful and forced the dragon to immediately accept the truth that Althos was a god. It was a simple, undeniable power that overwhelmed mortals with ease.
The dragon silently and swiftly came to terms with the powerful knowledge that seeped into its brain courtesy of the god. It wasn't a scholar but that didn't mean it was foolish enough to deny the awesome truth before it. It sensed the profound power that radiated out of the mighty god who stood before it.
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I looked at the dragon and stared silently for a few moments. I needed to get into the "proud" state of mind I had shown the other dragons if I wanted this exchanged to be as productive as possible. I took a deep breathe and then began to speak to the beast.
"Ygaynth, I am power incarnate." I began, speaking as arrogantly as I could. I channeled the divine pride that infused me into my voice.
"I am a god of life, death, time, and even dragons. Nothing can escape my influence." I told the beast in front, working to bolster the image it had of me in its mind. As I did that I thought of the significant powers afforded to me by the domain of dragons.
The system chose this moment to hit me with another notification. A brand new, special alert, which among other things detailed a brand new domain that I hadn't previously seen or heard of before. That said, I didn't hate what I saw.
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Draconic domain details:
Dragons are the greatest and most powerful types of mortal lifeforms. Their strength is so vast that they and their kin, creatures like half-dragons, devolved dragonkin, kobolds, and other draconic creatures, merit their own domain and not a subdomain like almost every other mortal lifeform possesses.
Dragons are the embodiment of mortal emotions, virtues, and sins. They can personify greed, sloth, happiness, patience, and other emotions. They are incredibly long-lived, capable of living until they are several thousand years old before old age inevitably takes them, and their strength only grows as they age.
In the ancient past, the gods of dragonkind were a varied bunch. Good gods of dragonkind embodied justice, benevolent leadership, peace, and cooperation. Evil gods of dragonkind embodied greed, lust, wrath, and conflagrations. The gods of dragonkind were immensely powerful dragons, creatures capable of singlehandedly combatting the populations of entire planets on their own.
As a lesser god of dragonkind, you possess powers over lesser dragonkin, such as kobolds and devolved dragonkin. You also possess the power to influence dragons but to gain true power over them as a god of their kind you must gain greater influence over the domain.
To gain more power over the draconic domain you must build up cults of draconic worshipers. These cults can be made up of dragons, or they can be made up of the lesser relatives of dragons.
Draconic domain passive powers:
Knowledge: This synergistic power takes from the domain of knowledge and gifts you with an understanding of dragons and their kin. This knowledge is simplistic, for now, but possessing knowledge about dragons is a valuable and rare gift in a world like Torus.
This knowledge is both significant and generalized. It applies to dragons and their lesser relatives as a whole, and isn't about specific members of any particular species. As an example of this, you now know that black dragons are earth dragons, powerful creatures with various powers over stone, soil, and the land itself.
Aura of draconic superiority: You exude an aura of power that renders lesser dragonkin subservient to you.
This aura turns lesser dragonkin, creatures that include beings as intelligent as kobolds, who are true humanoids and every bit as industrious as humans and dwarves, into your worshipers. It doesn't snatch away their freewill but all but the smartest or most willful kobolds who learn about you begin to worship you as a god of dragons, greed, and something else you may decide later.
Dragon breath: This is a redundant power. It grants you the elemental breath weapons that dragons possess, which your powers over elements already granted you.
Dragon physiology: This is a synergistic power that takes from the domains of life and biology as well as the dragon domain. With it, you can give your worshippers parts of a dragon's body if you wish through your transformational and mutagenic powers.
At will, you can now grant your worshipers' weak elemental breath weapons, dragon claws, dragon wings, and the incredibly hard scales of a dragon.
Draconic domain active powers:
Lesser dragonkind manipulation: You can induce emotions in any number of lesser dragonkin. These emotions are currently limited to simple ones, like desire, rage, happiness, or sorrow. This can be done up to five times per half an hour.
Amplification: Once per day you can target a dragon and amplify whatever they are feeling. You cannot change what they are feeling, only amplify it.
Draconic domain blessing and curse details:
By blessing a non-dragon with this domain you amplify the effects of their attacks against dragons and their relatives, as well as how successful they are in regards to non-violently engaging with dragons. The curse has the opposite effect.
Special dual alert:
In your decision to indiscriminately heal the inhabitants of the world you did a number of things that no mundane god had ever done before. One of the things you did that no mundane god had ever done before was healing living abominations. One of the other things you did was convert a considerable number of said abominations into your worshipers.
Abominations are horrifying, alien lifeforms that are themselves aliens from other dimensions or in some cases were descended from such alien beings. These creatures, or their ancestors, were warped by interuniversal travel, and transformed into hateful, misanthropic monsters who could usually only tolerate other members of their own kind.
Abominations were hated by the majority of the ancient, and mundane gods. The ancient and mundane gods formed the majority of gods native to this particular universe. The mundane gods ordered their servants to wipe out the abominations, and the resulting conflict has gone on between the two groups for so long that it transcended even the death of the old gods.
Abominations were only accepted by the great old ones or the outer gods, two particular families of gods who defied their kin and possessed distinct, horrifying, and reality-warping powers. Abominations served these strange, alien gods eagerly, grateful for both the power that such gods granted their servants and the acceptance of the churches of the great old ones and the outer gods.
You already had a few abominations as your worshipers, but they were undead: the gugs you have reanimated. Now you are worshipped by living abominations, and that has an influence on you. Namely, it has granted you power over the eldritch domain.
Eldritch domain details:
The eldritch domain is the domain that governs abominations, madness, eldritch energies, and other reality-warping things. This domain is the eerie domain which empowered the great old ones and the outer gods to the extent that they, a relatively small fraction of gods, could stand against the combined forces of the other gods.
The eldritch domain is primarily a power-giving and transformative domain, though it does offer influence over lifeforms. It currently seeks to leave the multiverse an illogical, sinister, and terrifying place.
This domain is a mysterious one. It is a relatively young domain that doesn't associate much with its fellow domains, and its goals are only known because it was highly influenced by the bizarre gods who once possessed power over it. Some extraplanars are susceptible to the powers of this domain, especially demons whose affiliations with both chaos and evil make them occasional allies of abominations.
To gain greater influence over this domain use its eerie powers to create and organize cults of abominations. Please note that in doing so you'll begin to become more like the great old ones and the outer gods.
Eldritch domain passive powers:
Abominable knowledge: This obviously synergistic power grants you knowledge concerning different types of abominations.
Madness detection: Eldritch beings and gods can detect madness and insanity. They are also potent manipulators of madness.
Madness manipulation: As an eldritch god you can manipulate madness. What you do with this eerie power is entirely up to you, but you can twist and distort the minds of mad people and bend them to your will.
Additionally, you can create madness energy and infuse objects with it. This energy warps the objects you infect with it and causes them to exude auras of contagious madness.
If used on weapons it makes them more effective, if used on armor it makes it more protective, if used on food it makes it more delicious but also addictive. This power increases an item's effectiveness, but at the cost of slowly and steadily draining the sanity of any people brave enough to wield, wear, eat, or otherwise use them.
Maddening dreams: This synergistic power is an eerie fusion of the dream domain and the eldritch domain. It causes people to have dreams that lessen their sanity and render them more vulnerable to powers like 'Madness Burst'.
These dreams can be manipulated by you, and can still be restorative. That said if these dreams are twisted into restorative ones then the dreamers will awaken with manic energy and a frighteningly unstable, but thankfully temporary positive outlook. If this power is used on an entire community it can be part of a long-term assault on a community, driving people to chaos and madness.
Contagious madness: This disturbing power twists and empowers madness into something terrifying: something that can spread from person to person. It also grants you a few other abilities.
You can now physically attack someone and deal damage to their sanity instead of their body. If you wanted too, even an attack that ought to be fatal can be transformed into an attack that instead drives someone insane. People driven insane in this manner, by you or by an empowered abomination who serves you, begin to worship you as an eldritch deity of pain, pleasure, and terror.
You can target people who are mad and empower their madness. This makes their madness nearly incurable and allows them to sap the sanity of those who are influenced by them or who are in close proximity to them. This also increases their charisma. If you wish they can begin to worship you, but that's up to you.
Maddening aura: At will you can project an aura that causes creatures in your presence to begin to lose sanity. Abominations who enter your aura immediately become empowered servants of yours and seek to enact your will. Eventually, even the sanest creature will lose the last bit of their sanity and become a maddened worshiper of yours.
Eldritch conversion: If you wish you can transform someone who is insane into an abomination. You can either transform them into existing abominations, like deep-ones, mi-gos, gugs, night-gaunts, or countless other types of creatures, and even into handcrafted abominations. If you remake someone into an existing type of abomination then they worship you in ways that fit their species.
Gugs worship you as an eldritch god of violence and dreams. Mi-gos worship you as an eldritch deity of transformations, and fungi. Deep-ones worship you as an eldritch deity of fertility and the ocean. And so on and so forth.
Handcrafted abominations are usually influenced by the particular idiosyncrasies of their madness, as well as their personal vices and they worship you as an eldritch deity, their creator, and as a god of the truth. Creatures transformed by you are irreversibly transformed unless, of course, you decide to undo the transformation.
Fanaticism inducement: This power is a synergistic one that takes from the faith domain and the eldritch domain. It allows you to target creatures who worship you and transform them into fanatics. Such a transformation is immediate, and potentially destroys their sanity, but if not it definitely strains it. Fanatics worship you zealously and seek to fulfill your will.
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Maddening touch: Your mere touch can sap sanity. This is an at-will effect. Your touch alone isn't very potent, but if you do other things in addition to touch someone the effect is magnified.
Empowerment: You can empower abominations. Empowering an abomination makes it bigger, smarter, and more dangerous, as well as more hateful towards humanoids. Empowered abominations automatically become fanatics of yours and seek to convert their neighbors to your worship. They often attempt to become leaders of other, nearby abominations and form cults, communities, or even entire regions devoted to you.
Eldritch mind: You can project your thoughts into the mind of someone else and can forcibly alter their perceptions of reality. With this, you can trap someone in a prison of their own mind, or even assault someone using your thoughts. Additionally attempts to read your mind result in someone falling under your corruptive influence.
This is a synergistic power that incorporates mind-domain abilities.
Eldritch domain active power:
Subjective perception: This power is trapped in a weaker state until you gain powers over the art subdomain and the domains of emotions and reality, but in its current state, you gain a once-per-day power that further enhances your shapeshifting talent.
This power causes how you look to differ radically from person to person for two hours. You can take on a form that matches the most beautiful or handsome creature imaginable to those who see you, or the most terrifying thing imaginable to them. These forms can differ wildly and even be of different races or genders.
Eldritch domain blessing and curse details:
If you bless someone with this domain, abominations view them favorably and their sanity is constantly being drained. A mortal blessed by this domain will become an abomination upon their death.
If you curse someone with this domain abominations will detect your curse and will single them out. A mortal cursed by this domain also becomes an abomination upon their death.
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"You will worship me. But I have a number of ways that I can induce this if you won't worship me willingly. And your death is not an obstacle. Not to me, anyway." I told the dragon, my confidence empowered by the bizarre array of new abilities I possessed.
I immediately activated my newest aura and chuckled as I felt insidious, maddening energy begin to seep out of me. The power that I now radiated was dark and cruel, it was a mutative and corruptive font of power that offered those who partook of it eldritch might, but at the cost of their sanity. And if it were me, I could make people partake of the power regardless of their willingness.
"Ygaynth... Your actions have encouraged civilizations who live in this area to practice slavery. And that is an unforgivable offense." I calmly informed the dragon. This caused the beast to tense up. The dragon's head reared back and then stretched upwards so that the beast could look down on me, as an emotional defense mechanism. I chuckled.
I placed a hand on the dragon's exposed, elongated, neck and activated my "Maddening Touch" power. I felt unstable energy begin to manifest in my fingertips and seep into the dragon. The dragon hissed, but the sound wasn't an uncomfortable one, it was one of surprise.
I calmly retreated into my mind. In the sanctuary that was my head, I was able to assess the situation I found myself in.
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Ygaynth was a cruel, powerful dragon. He was at the zenith of his power as an ancient dragon.
The gigantic beast was responsible for not only the destruction of countless human kingdoms, but he had also devoured countless sacrifices given to him. Not to mention that he was one of the forces responsible for ensuring the continuation of the practice of slavery in the world below Puerto Rico.
Ygaynth was believed to be, by numerous factions throughout this area, an unstoppable force of nature. And he was now my prisoner, helpless to resist my strange powers. But how to proceed from here?
I could kill the dragon. Doing so, regardless of whether or not I reanimated or even resurrected him, would truly cement my status as the lord of the world beneath Puerto Rico. Killing him wouldn't even be hard. And that's before considering the numerous voices in my head clamoring for the death of the dragon.
I could also convert the dragon. If I turned the massive beast into a worshiper of mine, especially if I made it a fanatic, I didn't doubt that my personal fame and the power of my worshipers as a distinct faction in the world beneath Puerto Rico would skyrocket.
There were also a few other possibilities. I could convert the dragon into an abomination and thus secure its worship, as well as test my eldritch abilities. Heck I could even infect the dragon with demonic infection, and thus allow the beast to become possessed by a praereptor demon.
So many choices, and one of the best parts of it all was that I had unlimited time to make a decision. I felt the beast's sanity lessening by the second.
"Ygaynth... What do I do with you?" I asked. I smiled at the massive creature shortly after speaking. I wondered if the beast could sense its sanity slipping. My hand was still on its neck, and every second that passed was a second in which I stole more of its sanity.
The neck my hand was on was a thick thing. Sharp, serendibite-like scales covered and protected what I assumed was tough skin but the scales didn't bother me.
The dragon spent a moment trying to shake my hand off, but it didn't work. And since I wasn't grabbing its neck this wasn't classified as an attack. This meant I could steal the thing's sanity, all while it couldn't attack me in return.
"Althos... What are you doing?" The dragon asked, fear and anger mixing into its voice. I looked up at the dragon and chuckled.
I could sense the creature's emotions thanks to a new synergistic power I possessed. It was one from the mind domain, and I was grateful to it. It allowed me to sense the emotions of creatures affected by my powers.
"Well Ygaynth... I am preparing." I informed the dragon. I could sense even more fear begin to radiate off of the beast.
"What are you preparing for?" It asked me, moving from afraid and angry to just afraid. I was silent for a moment before I replied. I liked the silence. It built dramatic tension.
"I am preparing you." I told the dragon. It didn't reply to this. Instead, I felt a tremor of terror from within the beast, which made its neck shake.
I legitimately wasn't sure what I'd do with the dragon. That said, stealing away its draconic sanity and while doing so making the dragon a willing servant was a good idea no matter what path I chose.
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I didn't let the dragon see the turmoil in my mind but my mind was a chaotic mess at the moment. I could distinctly hear a number of voices, none of which were mine, arguing.
"He should kill the dragon. After all, the dragon did commit unforgivable offenses. And the dragon can only die once." A domain, the death domain, muttered. It possessed a voice that was audibly ancient.
"I agree! Imagine the power he'd gain from reanimating an ancient black dragon? Even if he made it a zombie, or a skeleton, the beast would be among his strongest undead. If he took the thing's soul and created a lich from it..." The necromancy subdomain added, giggling as she finished the thought.
"The dragon can be redeemed! It may not atone for its sins but he could use it as one of his champions in the fight against slavery. A living champion." Roared another voice. This was one I was unfamiliar with, but intuitively recognized as one of my newer domains: the domain of goodness.
"Death... You said that the dragon can only die once. That's not true." Another domain, the domain of life replied. This caused the death domain to grunt in response, but the sound was a poor attempt to hide interest. Moments later the death domain did something else to reveal its interest: it spoke.
"The boy can already perform resurrections? Were you one of his initial domains?" Death asked, a moment later. The domain tried to hide its interest behind an annoyed tone, but wasn't a good actor.
"No. Healing on the other hand..." The life domain revealed, and I could have sworn I heard the smile on the domain's lips if domains even possessed lips.
"He was a natural-born healer? Now that is interesting. Has he performed a resurrection yet?" The death domain asked, followed up by asking another question. This time it's questions were answered by a subdomain.
"No. Not yet anyway. But to be fair, he still doesn't know he can now perform multiple resurrections. He doesn't know what the second tier of influence over me awards him." The subdomain of healing informed the "gathering" of domains and subdomains. It wasn't done talking either.
"Resurrecting someone is... As you know, it's hard. Initially, he could only do one every six months. The poor lad has only been alive for about twelve days. Not even half a month." The subdomain said, defending my hesitation. I grinned, appreciative of the words of the subdomain.
"He could interact with the dragon using me. I am great for making friends!" Another voice, a new one, told the "crowd" of domains and subdomains. This voice belonged to another new subdomain, the subdomain of fungi. It was one of the subdomains I had gained access too through my worldwide miracle, even though to do so the subdomain had had to change its quest.
The subdomain of fungi was another odd subdomain. It granted me considerable power, and its powers were all unsettling ones. Among other new abilities I had gained the power to generate infective and parasitic spores within myself and infect others with them. It was a powerful ability but also one that I recognized would snatch away a creature's free will.
There was a part of me that wanted to test this power out on Ygaynth and have the creature spend the rest of its life clashing against those who continued to practice slavery. But I also recognized how odd it was to use such a power in the name of ending slavery. And I wasn't unaware of the optics of my other powers either.
I recognized the strangeness of having an undead horde clash against those who practiced human sacrifice and slavery. That said, there was something humorous, to me at least, about using an army of the undead to liberate the living. And I liked the fact that slavers joined this army and thus spent their undeath working to atone for the sins they performed in life.
I was also aware of the brutality of my passive decision to snatch away the sanity of Ygaynth. But I didn't feel any guilt about this choice.
Ygaynth had ended countless lives as a "sane" member of his species and had shown no remorse. So far I hadn't made the choice to kill the dragon and I wasn't really snatching away his freewill but even if I did, it could be argued that that would be a just punishment for the life-ending dragon.
I intended to leave the dragon changed. I still hadn't decided just how changed I wanted to leave the dragon, but I did know I wanted to leave it unrecognizable.
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The beast in front of me was feeling an array of emotions. I sensed fear as the preeminent emotion in its heart, but there were a number of other things the monster was feeling as well.
The creature felt a small but growing calmness deep in its heart. I could recognize that it felt that this emotion was unnatural in some way. And it was. The calmness in its heart was due to my theft of its sanity. As its sanity decreased, its calmness increased because a growing part of it began to revere me. The part of it that revered me wasn't at all afraid of me.
Another emotion it felt was anger. This anger had started off powerful and plentiful, but now it was beginning to fade away.
"I can feel the change in your heart. Can you feel it too?" I asked the dragon, smiling at it. The beast silently ignored my question, trying to cling to the anger and pride that lingered stubbornly in its heart. That was amusing so I decided to play with Ygaynth a bit.
I moved my head forward and gently kissed its neck. My lips met the cold and hard scales that protected the creature's bare skin, but they offered no resistance to my powers. The dragon shivered and sighed breathily, surprising even me.
"Oh? I didn't think you'd be able to actually feel that." I said a grin on my face. I kissed the scales again, and the dragon shivered once more, slightly more this time. I also felt more of its sanity melt off of the beast, as a consequence of my kiss. I delivered another kiss to its scale and laughed as the dragon shook in a mixture of delight and frustration. Shortly after I finished laughing I spoke to the shadow-scaled beast.
"You should know that I'm a thief. My kisses can steal away your sanity." I informed the dragon. The dragon growled, a vibration visibly shaking its neck. The vibration was visible, but there was almost no hostility in the cat-like gesture.
"I bet that you don't mind though, do you?" I asked. There was a coy smile on my lips. I watched as the throat of the beast moved, but no sound came out of its mouth. I immediately sensed its discomfort and annoyance. I was able to piece together what had just happened without much difficulty.
"Did you try to lie to me just now? I am a god of truth. Unless I allow it mortals cannot lie in my presence." I informed Ygaynth.
"It's okay though. I am the king of succubi and incubi." I revealed, smiling as I considered ways to toy with this feared, semi-mythical being.
"I can feel your lust." I said to the dragon, lying through my teeth as I did so. Even as I lied, I activated an entertaining power named "Believe me" that caused the dragon's heart to twist in fear and confusion as it wondered if it felt lust towards me. As it struggled with my lie, and the overwhelming compulsion it felt to believe what I had said, I kissed its scale-covered neck again.
The dragon let out a sloven sigh, and I laughed mirthfully. I was enjoying myself.
"To think that in this region you are seen as a symbol of terror, death, and authority. And yet here I am... Toying with you." I said, feeling the power that defined gods so keenly at this moment.
"Is this the real difference in power between a god and a mortal?" I wondered, thinking aloud as I felt the dragon slide closer and closer to the edge of madness.
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My life so far had led me to have a particular perception of mortals. I had presented as one of them to entire communities for pretty much my whole life until this point. I had walked among them and worked to protect them. A not so small part of me even viewed them as equals. But now...
I had rendered a greater member of one of the greatest species of mortals helpless and was toying with it. I had no inclination to hurt Ygaynth or anything, but seeing how easily I had dealt with an ancient black dragon was definitely forcing me to contend with the realities of godhood.
I was not a mortal. And I never would be. That was a reality that I had blinded myself too, until the moment I had decided to embrace my godhood to bring an end to slavery. And now I was once again being reminded of the differences between myself and even the most powerful mortal.
I could do anything to this dragon and it would have no choice but to accept it. As a god I doubted that anything similar to that could ever happen to me, especially since the mythic age was over and I was in all likelihood the only god and the last higher being to come into existence.
I felt a few distinct emotions radiating within me at this moment. I felt anger aimed at Ygaynth for the cruelty he had shown to his fellow mortals. I felt a keen sense of happiness towards myself and my own, undeniable power.
I also felt anger at the mortals that I knew intended to disobey me. There was a part of me, a portion of myself that was driven by my pride, that wanted to torment slaveowners and nobles who intended to continue to wage war despite my commands.
I also felt a growing coldness towards Ygaynth. I had envisioned us having a philosophical showdown, and instead I had easily overwhelmed the beast and it immediately began to fear for its life. I was still resistant to the idea of killing the beast, but that resistance was fading.
Ygaynth's negative feelings were fading away. I had successfully stolen enough of the beast's sanity to render it harmless while I was introspectively mulling over my own emotions.
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"I suppose I ought to make a decision concerning your fate." I muttered, staring at the beast. There was just a tiny bit of sanity left in the beast, but I pulled my hand off of the thing's scales which slowed the rate at which I took away its sanity. This would give it another minute or so before it sunk into irreversible insanity.
I took a step away from it and the beast's head turned to face me. There was a look of sadness on its face as if it somehow missed the sensation of my hand on its neck. I gazed at it, anger, disappointment, and curiosity mixing together in my eyes.
"Ygaynth... Why did you do what you did?" I asked the creature, wanting to understand it before I did anything. So far everything I had done was reversible. And with my current level of power even killing Ygaynth would be reversible. That said, I wanted to understand the beast now that I had ensured that the thing wouldn't try to hurt me or anyone else, unless I commanded it.
"Why did I do... What exactly?" The dragon asked, unsure of what I was asking.
"Why did you destroy so much? Why did you kill other sapient creatures, destroy their homes, and order other creatures to capture sacrifices for you?" I asked, wanting to gain a glimpse into the thing's mind.
The creature fell silent for a moment. In its gaze, there were an array of new emotions, intense ones. One of them was an unsettling reverence for me, or at least its insane understanding of me. I had stolen just about every bit of sanity the thing possessed, and I was unsurprised to see that it adored me, in its own way.