As you stretched your tendrils and yawned within the womb dimension that had been crafted for you, you played around with your power for a bit, enjoying the feel of it and getting used to it. Everything felt much slower than before, but also much clearer now that you had been born. It felt like you had finally awakened from a long, lucid dream.

Gathering your power, you reached out to the edge of the womb and poked a single tentacle out into reality. Space warped and twisted as your power, your soul, broke through to and was unleashed upon your birthworld. That was as much as you could do for now, so next you began to craft your Avatar. The senses of bone, flesh, and blood filled you as your body was rapidly created, and then tethered to your soul.

Once more, you opened your eyes for the first time.

Light filled your view, and the first thing you felt was pain. It was rather wonderful, you found! A new experience already, and your Avatar had just been crafted! After a moment of considering and enjoying this new experience, you realized the cause. The sun’s light was hurting your Avatar’s eyes! Was it because you had just been born, or was staring into the sun in of itself painful? You honestly didn’t know at first. A search through the database of basic/commodities in reality that your parents had thankfully provided you, however, overwhelmingly supported that it was most likely staring at the sun itself that hurt your Avatar’s fragile eyes.

Armed with this new information, you avert your gaze. Then, you slowly get to your feet and stand up. Senses crash upon you in waves, in an absolutely delightful overflow of new experiences and information that you struggle to process every iota of. Smells, sounds, sights, the feeling of the breeze or the heat of the sun above upon your skin, it was all so fascinating! So these were true wonders of being alive.

Spending a few minutes to take it all in, you found that your Avatar had been created in a small clearing in a forest of some sort. Looking around you, you see the effects that your Avatar’s creation and you ‘peeking’ a bit with your true body had on the life around you. The grass and trees are completely warped, their colors a strange myriad of unnatural shades. A few colors are ones you're pretty sure don’t naturally exist anywhere on your birthworld. Their bark is flesh-like, stretched and wrinkled in odd directions, while the soil beneath your feet is almost like oil and seems to shift and move without reason or cause.

You leave the scene, picking the first direction that had something beyond the area affected by your entrance that caught your eyes. In this case, it was a river not too far from you, though far enough it wasn’t altered by your power in any way. Coming to it, you kneel down and dip your right hand into it slowly. You shiver as the cool water rushes past your fingers. You could still somewhat see your reflection in the river’s water, and study it for a moment. Your Avatar’s emotionless, young face stared back at you. It was, unsurprisingly, exactly as you imagined it. Your long hair was a wild, feral mess and you were naked. From what you remembered seeing and according to the database, that would indeed be somewhat frowned upon, but there wasn’t much else you could do or had to work with at the moment.

Examining your Avatar through your reflection further, you crack bones and stretch muscles, wiggling your fingers and toes and wagging your bushy fox tail. You feel your ears atop your head, letting them twitch and fold. Examining your claws, you slowly poke your nail against your arms skin, steadily digging the claw deeper. Eventually, it's deep enough to pierce your Avatar’s pale skin and draw blood. A small red river ran down your arm, dripping down from your hand and into the water where it was rapidly swept away. The pain of your claw sinking so deep into your bare flesh was a very different sort of pain when you compared it to the sunlight burning your eyes. Removing your claw, your flesh sealed like clay flowing back together, all traces of it vanishing completely. With a simple wash of the river water, any signs, stains, or blemishes from your self-inflicted injury are gone from everything but your memory.

Drawing your attention away from your Avatar’s senses, you instead focus your attention inwards. You call upon one of the more mundane, but very useful, abilities that Cosmicus naturally possessed. The ability to read souls and reality, and easily analyze them for information:

Personal Information (Avatar):

Name: Vortigern Cosmicus

Subspecies: Thyria

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Height: 4’11” (5’3” including ears)

Level: 0 | 0/1000

Quintessence: 250

Sovereignties: [Chaos]

Authorities: [Flesh] | [Beast]

Attributes:

Mend: [150/150] = 100 + 50 (Chaotic Flesh)

• Regeneration per Hour: [10] = 5 + 5 (Chaotic Flesh)

An Avatar is nothing but a vessel. Even if it's wounded, you can use your power to heal its injuries. However, an Avatar's simple form can only hold so much power and it takes time to refill it.

Lives: [1/1]

• Regeneration per Day: [1]

When your Avatar is killed, you can flood it with power to restore it to life. However, you can only do this so many times before you burn it out completely.

Strength: [12] = 2 + 10 (Enhanced Form)

Your strength is enhanced beyond biological possibility. You can lift far more weight and your attacks easily break through stone and damage iron or steel.

Agility: [14] = 4 + 10 (Enhanced Form)

Your reflexes and dexterity are both greatly enhanced. You can move effectively through any terrain and react to most projectiles, though dodging them completely will still have difficulty.

Mind: [10] = 5 + 5 (Eldritch Mind)

Your Avatar’s brain struggles to process the knowledge of your true one, but what knowledge you can greatly improves your mind’s flexibility and ability to hold and process information.

Spirit: [28] = 3 + 25 (Cosmic Soul)

Your Avatar is only tethered to your true soul, but the soul of even a newborn Cosmicus is still far superior to anything else. You will always have a home field advantage in conflicts and challenges of the soul even when working through your Avatar.

Traits:

Avatar: It generally would be a bad idea of a Cosmicus to just be wandering around in their true body, which is why you have an Avatar to do that for you! Tethered to your true body and soul, you are disconnected from your Avatar to a point. This allows you to regenerate your Avatar if it is damaged and even bring it back to life, though it can only handle so much of either before you risk burning it out permanently and having to make a new one.

• Can Mend Avatar beyond normal limits

• Have multiple Lives, which are consumed upon receiving lethal injuries

• When a Life is used, restores Avatar to peak condition

Cosmic Soul: The soul of a Cosmicus is a vast and terrifying thing, but it is only tethered to your Avatar. While you can only call upon a small portion of its power, that’s still more power than most normal things upon your birthworld.

• +25 + [Level X5] Spirit

• Immune to most Soul afflictions

Eldritch Mind: The mind of a Cosmicus may not be as potent as their soul, but it is still a vast thing far beyond what your Avatar could possibly handle. What it can handle however greatly boosts your mental abilities, and the cosmic truths you already know give their own protections.

• +5 + [Level X1] Mind

• Moderate resistance to hallucinations

• Immune to Mind-altering afflictions, like madness

Thyria Senses: Of the subspecies of Mankind, the Thyrians are blessed with senses as keen as those of animals. You can experience much more of the world through these senses and perceive many things far more easily.

• Your senses are far better compared to the other subspecies of mankind. Your five senses have a wider range and can process more.

• You have moderate Night Vision.

• Your senses make it easier to detect the hidden or stealthed.

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On its own, your Avatar was little more than an average Thyria. But with it tethered to your true soul, you could at least channel enough power through it to give you a fighting chance. As you got a sense of your Stats, there was one thing you immediately focused on in particular.

Vortigern Cosmicus.

That was your name. You had known that of course, it had been among the memories your parents had left you. As for the name itself, Cosmicus didn’t have a physical language of their own really, or at least not one that needed or could really even use things like ‘names.’ Thus, Cosmicus tended to choose names based on interesting ones they had heard. You were fairly certain that Vortigern was a name native to your birthworld. Though if it was still used or even remembered at this time was another story altogether. Such concerns were secondary at the moment, however. First, you had to actually find someone or civilization.

*Crack*

Your ears twitch immediately at the sound of branches snapping directly behind you, drawing your attention away from yourself and back to your surroundings. You could hear more than just the crunching of twigs and sticks now. You could also hear a low, gravely and raspy groaning sound. You spin around, curious as to what had stumbled across your Avatar.

It isn’t mankind or any animal. Still, what it was was interesting at the very least. You had seen the monsters that prowled your birthworld in the glimpses and visions you’d had, but seeing them through your Avatar’s eyes was a very different experience.

These ones were humanoid in stature if not appearance, though their proportions are quite different with their bodies slumped far forward and their arms too long for their height. They had ram-like heads and legs, their bodies covered with a coat of thick, rubbery tar black ‘fur.’ They had no eyes, their mouths filled with fangs and fingers tipped with claws. Both were glowing neon green, as were their horns and several spikes and plates that grew all over their body as a crude type of natural armor. There were three of them surrounding you, slowly stalking towards you as they made more of their odd raspy gurgling sounds.

“Hello,” you say with calm interest, tilting your head to the side as you observe them. “I don’t suppose you have any intelligence or capability to communicate with me?”

The monsters tilt their own heads in response, growling and gurgling more. They seemed surprised, almost perplexed by your lack of fear or anything really towards them. Despite this response, however, you found their conversational abilities sadly lacking. Animalistic or even feral doesn’t quite describe the feeling you get from them. Instead, they have a hollow, ravenous aura emanating from them. That was also rather curious.

The closest of the monsters lets out a low snarl, then charges at you madly. Its head down low and its glowing horns aimed at your Avatar’s heart. Your Avatar is more than capable of handling it physically, though you quickly find your lack of experience with it more of a problem than you originally considered. Your dodge isn’t efficient in the slightest, more you clumsily throwing yourself to the left instead of the simple step or dash that was needed. Finer movements and control were certainly something you’d need to work on, and luckily these monsters seemed weak enough you could use them for just that.

Regardless of efficiency, your dodge does work. The monster charges over where you had been standing, unable to stop or slow itself as it falls directly into the rushing river. Another monster howls and the other two both quickly move in for their own attacks against you. The first reaches you, choosing to lunge and slash at you with its claws instead of trying to gore you like the first. You back up as it repeatedly swipes at you, and after the third decide to try and go for a counterattack. Stopping completely and then pushing forward, you're right in the face of the monster in an instant. It begins to open its mouth to try and tear your throat out, but you strike first. Not having many other options, you decide to copy it. You slash at it, calling on your Beast Authority. Your already somewhat sharp nails lengthen and thicken, growing into blade-like claws. You aim for the monster’s throat, and your new claws dig into the rubbery fur and flesh, gouging out a chunk of the black substance that made up these monsters’ “flesh.”

Neon green blood sprays and splatters you, and you take a moment to notice that it’s oddly warm. Not painfully hot, but there’s a strange, almost feverishness to it. Nausea begins to set in, and you imagine that a normal Thyria would be quite distracted and uncomfortable at best from this, actively sick and retching at worst. For you, however, it’s all rather fascinating to experience, actually. The blood and its unnatural heat is trying to do something to you, but you can’t tell what. The only thing you can tell is it isn’t very successful.

The dead monster slumps to the ground at your feet, its flesh and blood begins to steam as a sickly smell like rotting flowers reaches your nose. The green glow all across its body dims rapidly, likely signifying its complete death, and its body begins to crumble and melt at an unnatural speed. At best, it will probably only be about ten minutes before the corpse has decayed completely if it keeps up at this pace.

You watch the fascinating process, when the remaining monster interrupts you to your great annoyance. It stabs down at you, trying to impale you with its claws. Instead of dodging, you teach out and quickly grab its left hand with both of yours. It pushes you back, your feet digging into the ground beneath you before you force its arm up and throw it over you, slamming it back first onto the ground. You lift up a leg and stomp on its head, shoving it into the ground and cracking the plates that covered its face. As it thrashed madly beneath you, you pulled a hand back and stabbed down into its chest. Your claws break through the protective plate and tear into its flesh, a geyser of glowing blood coating your entire arm. Grabbing a hold of something, you yank your arm back and pull it out of its chest. The monster goes limp immediately, the glow across its body dimming completely in an instant.

You look to your hand, and find you're holding an oddly shaped, fleshy crystal that still has some glow left to it, though it’s also fading rapidly. Green and black tendrils hang off of and are still loosely connected to it. Is this the monster’s heart, or whatever its equivalent is? Its ‘core?’ Eyeing it from a moment, and feeling the sickly heat pouring off of it as the ‘heart’ begins to steam and crack, you make a quick and simple decision. A Cosmicus can learn and gain much from many different things, and there was one relatively simple one that would pretty much always be available to you in some compassion.

Consumption.

You bring the decaying crystal heart to your lips and take a large bit out of it. The crystal is surprisingly soft and easy to tear into even as you feel it dissolving and breaking down in your mouth as you swallow it, and it goes down smoothly despite the size. It has a rather… sweet taste, though it's sickly and overpowering to the point most would probably spit it out instantly. It doesn’t bother you, however, so instead you eat the entirety of it. You feel it dissolve completely in your stomach, and then feel it pouring into your very soul as it also rapidly tries to saturate the entirety of your Avatar’s flesh. Heat floods your veins as you begin to sweat uncomfortably, nausea slamming into you hard enough a normal person would have been brought to the ground. Hatred, terror, despair, and a variety of other negative emotions attempt to overwhelm you. You can feel it attempting to do something to your soul and mind, though in both cases it fails miserably. A Cosmicus, even their Avatar, would never be so easily altered by something as minor as this. The emotions and attempts pass, and you assimilate it completely. With that, you gain a bit of info about the monsters you just slew.

Fiend:

Type: Satyr

Rank: 1

Level: 0

Attributes:

Strength: [5]

Agility: [7]

Cunning: [2]

Spirit: [1]

Traits:

Mountainwalk: The hooves of these Fiends at times seem to defy gravity itself.

• Can walk up even near vertical surfaces as long as they have at least some grip to them

Description:

“Lesser Fiends that appear like humanoids crossed with rams. Satyrs are commonly found in mountains and surrounding forests. Weak on their own, they typically fight either by slashing at their victims or goreing them. Their most dangerous ability is their climbing, letting them walk up many types of walls or natural defenses.”

The information you received was rather sparse and lacking, but that wasn’t too surprising over all. Their souls were strange, you found as you analyzed them, seemingly hollow. It was like they had all the support and scaffolding of a soul on par with human’s, but it lacked even more substance than that of an animal. Even some plants may possess more complex souls. These monsters, the ‘Fiends,’ didn’t even have minds, just feral animalistic cunning, and even that was lacking most of life’s basic instincts.

Truly, you couldn’t help but be fascinated by these strange beings. How had such things ever been created?

Your thoughts are rudely interrupted by the river behind you exploding. Water rains down upon you and washes away some of the blood covering you, and you begin to spin around. Your senses scream in alarm, but you don’t have time to dodge as the first Satyr gores you. It charges forward with you impaled in its left horn, which has been stabbed deep into your belly. The Satyr throws its head to the side, sending your wounded body flying into a tree.

You slumped down the tree, blood gushing from the wound, mildly concussed, and with several bones in your back broken or cracked. All in all, a fair bit of damage to your Avatar. One that would have been fatal to a normal Thyria.

And that…

Your form begins to mend. Your concussion rapidly vanishes until not even a headache is left. The damaged bones in your back crack back into place as they fuse back together and the fractures mend. The internal damage is healed, your flesh flowing and melting back together. As your body replaces the lost blood, it’s as if no damage had occurred at all. In the end, it had only taken eleven of your Mend to undo the Satyr’s vicious attack completely. But that didn’t take away your memory of it, or the intentions the Satyr had had.

…infuriated you greatly.

Your rage bubbles up into fury, your first real experience with this burning emotion. You had spent so long dreaming, unable to see beyond the womb that held you except for mere glimpse and dreams. The idea of this pathetic thing robbing you of your Avatar not even an hour after you had created it was beyond enraging. Certainly you could craft another, but that would have taken even more time when you had already patiently waited for so long.

You get to your feet, glaring at the Satyr as you do so. The nails on your other hand also grow into sharp claws as you stand and challenge the Fiend. The Satyr notes your healed injuries, then shrieks in response before charging you for a third time. You make no attempt to dodge or move out of the way, instead you charge back at the Fiend yourself.

Diving under it, you stab up with your left hand. Your claws shatter the stony plates and pierce dip into its chest as you shove it back, the Satyr clawing and biting at you even as it gurgles madly and begins to choke on its own blood. This was a soon to be lethal injury, but your fury towards this monster wouldn’t be satisfied so easily. You shove your other hand into its chest as well, before pulling it down with your Avatar’s full strength. Its flesh distorts and warps before finally giving way as you tear its lower half from its upper one, its legs splattering uselessly on the floor, its blood splattering and covering you from the tips of your ears to your toes. Still not finished with the now rapidly dying Fiend, you then plunge your freed hand back into its chest and tear out its heart crystal before tossing its limp upper half back into the river.

Consuming the heart, despite its feverish heat it was as if icy water dumped on your head. Your fury subsides, leaving calmness once more. Surveying the carnage of your first battle, you watch as the Satyrs’ corpses are all in various states of accelerated decay. Looking at the Fiend’s blood covering your body, you can see what doesn’t soak into your Avatar is rapidly evaporating. You suspect it will be completely gone in only a few minutes.

Turning attention outwards, you decide to begin to follow up the river. You haven’t any idea what you’ll find, but considering all of the exciting new things you’ve experienced after only a few minutes of life; you’re certain whatever is up the river will be just as, if not more, exciting!

You truly couldn’t wait.