It was an interesting divine sub-realm, unlike any she’d seen but then again it wasn’t really a realm just yet. It was merely the seedling of what might be and going just by the fact that four energies were at play within the air here told her this might be something to see once it finally finished it’s growth.
Then again it represented something that she hadn’t felt or thought to even feel for almost a few dozen centuries or was it a few millennium? She wouldn’t call it something as base as the hope of mortals but she also wouldn’t say what she felt wasn’t something similar or some kin to it.
The first god to be born on or as in this case adjacent to Imerith in quite a long time. Although the last time had been a few centuries ago though that had been a mundane god which hadn’t gone over well with the invading mundane pantheon that had taken over.
She grimaced at that thought.
She didn’t particularity enjoy having to keep up the charade of some mundane divine beast simply to be allowed to live.
A pulse of power, weak and pathetic by divine standards pulsed from the centre of the sub-realm she now found herself inside of. Though it still caught her interests and it refocused her from her trailing thoughts. A godling born inside a sub-realm manifesting a sparse decade ago was something she hadn’t ever heard off before.
She looked at the pulsing organic egg in the centre of the dais that made up most of the realm at the moment. It was around seventy meters from one end to the other of the circle. This dais standing a meter off the ground of a plateau that was roughly seventy meters giving the dais around seven centimetres breathing room on each side.
The plateau however emerged from a lazily stirring sea of grey water that went on from horizon to foggy horizon. The dais being made of a black marble veined with silver and gold alongside a small bridge leading off to the northern direction leading to another dais holding seven different archways. One of which she knew lead to Imerith, her home world, the others however she wasn’t so sure about. It did rouse her curiosity.
She knew this sub-realm was intimately tied to Imerith but those others seemed gateways to some of the adjacent worlds or universal worlds made by the most ambitious and egotistical of cosmic gods. A feat usually ending in a near comatose state for long aeons in recovery while their universe populates or destroys itself without their guidance. There was a reason doing something like that was considered the act of egotistical madness since the gods wouldn’t be allowed to do anything as by the time they finally recovered enough strength to really do anything it is usually the time the universal worlds end.
Usually this dubbed those gods as sleepers and the bunch were a cautionary tale within the communal divine realms she’d been isolated from since the invaders arrived. Snapping to it from her ever trailing and winding thoughts she continued her observations of the realm around her.
In the centre of the dais she now sat on, having brought her own simple foldable deck chair to sit on, was the pulsing organic egg in the middle of a small pond maybe 7 meters across. If one ignored the sky then this pond was the most interesting part of the realm she’d seen so far. Interesting as the numbers seemed to be adding up as currently to her senses at least the horizon simply ended after 7 kilometres.
The small knee high on an adult human wall around the pond appeared equal parts scales and feathers creating an esoteric pattern that while mind boggling was unusual for what she suspected to be the realm of an outer god. It wasn’t complex or incorporating elements that would lead a mortal to madness. Alongside this were the seven snakes that crew out of the middle and held the egg between themselves as they bathed the egg in the water spewing from their marble mouths. Each had four wings coming out of their backs with an upper one being of a clear feather type though oddly enough it included the thumb, index and middle finger of a bat wing into it. While the lower was of obvious bat or even draconic origins.
It was fascinating to her, if she was frank with herself at least. It all blended together in a sort of artistry she wasn’t exactly sure of what to expect from the being about to hatch. Even for the increasingly rare elder gods, if the whispers from beyond were to be believed, this all seamed highly unusual. There was a hand at work here but she couldn’t see to what end the hand would guide and she was a goddess of fate for the Primordials sake.
A sudden snap of booming sound preceded a bright green lighting bolt of such pure eldritch energies left her in awe as the bolt slammed down into the wet egg. The bolt somehow tamed by the seven snake statues around the egg creating a fountain in the middle, being held in a circle around the egg between the jaws of each snake.
She continued to watch as the next bolt slammed down but was split into eight parts as it slammed equally into the head of each snake as it did the top of the egg. Every so often an electric tongue lanced out from the chained circle of green eldritch electricity connecting it to the egg.
She didn’t get much time as another and yet another bolt lanced down from the clear starry skies above and as she looked up she saw it at last. The source of the bolts was the birth of a singularity above in the sky, snaking tendrils of blue ethereal fire began to snake up from all around the horizon as it manifested itself enough into being to really draw in with its gravitonic grip would on reality.
And yet the sub-realm’s manifested features didn’t seem affected. The water was sloshing around but not being sucked up into the singularity above that slammed a bolt of green lightning down on the egg each time it grew.
Then at last when the seventh and last bolt slammed into the egg the singularity above was crowned by a ring of blue ethereal fire as it took its place as a vengeful black sun in the centre of the sky above. Staying in the centre as if to hold on to the split the half's of the sky were.
For a long while she simply stayed still watching as the egg slowly leached electricity from the ring around it until it had absorbed it all. This was all highly unusual since the realm belonged to a newly born potential godling, not even a god and yet the power displayed would have belonged at least to god at the constellation rank. Yet she knew the creature that would emerge from that egg wouldn’t even be able to be considered a godling, nor even a lowly demigod.
It certainly wouldn’t be a mortal creature that was for certain. Her eldritch kin rarely if ever were now that she thought of it.
She smiled a little to herself then as she remembered the adage that her old pantheon leader had been fond of saying about her kin. “You eldritch beings alongside those darn demons, prissy angels and similarly ranked supernatural species are nothing if not consummate cheaters! Even your starting bonuses according to this system are ridiculous if it wasn’t for the sometimes rather blatant favouritism to some mortals!” She chuckled to herself as she remembered the bent old man of a god.
Her trailing thoughts again caught when light cracking sounds finally emerged from the egg while the fountain snakes suddenly turned off. The egg pulsed with an inner light which appeared purple due to the thin flesh that covered it but she saw the inhabitant clearly.
Humanoid, another rarity for her eldritch kin. Certainly not unheard of or exceedingly rare as far as she knew, just a rare beginning for her kin in general. It was usually some desire to dominate, guide, manipulate or otherwise influence mortals that her kin took on humanoid forms. It caused a situation that in the end resulted in at least one in every ten Elder gods were naturally humanoid in form and with at the very least four to five of every ten with the ability to appear mortal. To start out as humanoid was rare. Especially for the even rarer near-spontaneous birth events such as she was witnessing now.
It didn’t take long for the hand to emerge out from the fleshy egg as it flailed around while its owner did the same inside. The creatures panic causing it to use its clawed fingertips and toes to tear through the egg enough to deflate it and make emerging even easier for its occupant.
Once the head emerged from the fleshy tent that the egg had ended up as the snake heads of the fountain turned on once more allowing the creature to wash itself as it continued to emerge. The egg slowly starting to dissolve now that its purpose had been fulfilled at long last.
She held her breath as the creature stood up full before her, its back to her. She now understood at least a bit the aesthetic of the small pond with a fountain she found in the realm. From the creature’s back that stood around the size of a human ten year old, if one stretched a five year old to reach that size in proportions though, were four vestigial limbs. Each clearly an atrophied or underdeveloped form of the wings that the snakes on the fountain sported.
A tail of smooth scales that as she took a closer look had feathery patterns naturally occurring to them came from the creatures tail bone and as it turned around she had to swallow a little. Strange at least from all her experience with her kin to say the least. Even as the vestigial limbs and tail slowly shrank into the body until it left only the other usual four limbs of a humanoid form. Though eerily elongated.
As it faced her, she saw it was like an androgynous mannequin, humanoid but without any significant features besides the usual number of limbs and the aforementioned additional limbs yet almost a perversion of the Adonian form with the stretched slightly too long look of the limbs. With a flat featureless face from which the only feature was the pair of eyes staring at her right now. A glowing triangle rimmed by a slim band of equally ethereal blue shone in the deep dark pools that were the new-born's eyes.
The more she watched the more the other two features came to her notice as if the creature was finishing the final touches to its infant form. Long elven like ears were sported alongside a strange pattern of protrusions around the crown of its head.
A total of seven protrusions gave an indication of horns one day with four emerging above the ears and three making a line across the forehead from one end to the other. As if preparing for the natural crown it would possibly come to have if allowed to grow. Then she noticed the tightness of the skin, appearing as if a thin layer of the scales lay under the skin both of which were stretched around a frame so that if it wasn’t moving it only appeared toned but any stretching of the skin would shown the corded and slightly unnaturally elongated muscles given the stretched look of the limbs.
The new-born looked around, clearly disoriented and confused and yet somehow curious and inquisitively overlooking its surroundings at the same time it swept them with its gaze. However she noted something about the new-born's gaze was off, she just couldn’t put her finger on it. Once more she thought, ‘strange’. This hadn't been what she expected when she finally formed the egg decades ago. Then she felt the tug, grimacing as she felt her time run out bit by bit.
The creature hadn’t looked at her for long once it had turned around initially as she’d frozen in place to see its nature as all god’s and godlings did when they were born. Once she decided it wasn’t of an unreasonable nature she started moving slowly towards it again and it took immediate notice. Then she noticed the wavering look in the eyes, the defensive posture and what had originally appeared as curious and eager observation revealed itself as the twitching panic of someone newly born.
Newly born of the conscious void as those gods spontaneously born of it called it. Gods like herself and she immediately remembered it and due to some bizarre reason extended her hands out in a gesture a mortal parent would to embrace its child and spoke the first words this new-born would hear passing the lips of her lesser avatar of a dark elf. Having assumed a mundane godling.
“It’s ok, you are real, I am real. You are ok.” She spoke softly and soothingly, not having an idea of what events had supplied the core understanding of concepts and the starting context this godling would begin its life with. She simply hoped it could understand what she was hoping to convey that it was safe.
She hadn’t expected the sudden assault as the new-born tackled her and held onto her midriff fiercely for a few moments as it shivered revealing it to be akin to a drowning man clutching a raft.
Once again affection was rare among the eldritch elder gods and usually, at least to a mortal, it was affection or a sought form of affection perverted in some way when in reality it was usually just experiments or the occasional obsessive compulsion or behaviour. Or even simple fancy or whimsy. Then again it wasn’t like they weren’t capable of such things. Some loved their offspring fiercely. What she felt from this creature was very much akin to a child requiring just a bit of an embrace, or rather a reaffirming comfort same as a mortal child would. This made her have to ask her question in the way she did.
“Child.” She paused and waited for the new-born to look up at her with those two triangular burning eyes. “You received flashes of memory and knowledge to start your outlook out from... correct?” She asked and the new-born hesitantly nodded which made her ask her real question.
“Were they all of or from a mortal perspective?” She asked almost tentatively not certain yet on the new-borns ability to communicate without a mouth.
The new-born seemed to have calmed down enough to actually give the question some thought and then it spoke. Frankly the act of speaking for the new-born was for tears appearing were a mouth would be on the face. For the first time in her memory she felt the skin of her avatar crawl and knew for a fact that a mortal couldn’t survive the new-born's voice and if they somehow did they’d be insane from the experience.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“I… believe all but the last… others were of a mortal... of some kind… I think... then a dying... god?... Or something... not mortal.” It spoke in a rasping tenor with the clear sign of being unused to speaking. Appearing slightly confused over the last entities identity but it cleared something up for her. Usually it was concepts, cosmic events or the like her kin saw that made them understand them on an instinctual and fundamental level.
The being before her would react with mortal or close to tendencies and the like but would never really think like a mortal. The Eldritch were incapable, some of those with divergent neurology came close perhaps but that was simply dipping their toes into the deep dive pool that was an eldritch mind.
She was about to ask more for clarification when she felt the tug again. It halted her curiosity and turned her to finish what she’d come here to do before her time ran out. It took power to forcefully invite oneself to a gods own sub-realm, let alone right as said god is being born if not before and she didn’t have much power to spare given her own circumstances.
Quickly but calmly and most of all as gently as she could manage she had the new-born sit down before her as she stood and stored the deck chair away. “I’ll be frank with you child. Imerith will be hostile to you when you finally emerge there so you need to become as strong as you can before you do so.”
She felt quite satisfied at the attentive posture and clear interest the new-born showed to her words, perhaps sensing her time running out as she spoke?
“We gods grow from our starting stage usually called the origin, as this is when we become gods, something you will first have to achieve at the bare minimum. As I’m in a hurry I’ll simply name the stages above that in order. From Origin to Earthly to Heavenly to Star to Constellation to Nebulous and then finally cosmic according to the system we use at least. There is a myth that above a cosmic god there are primordial ones but one hasn’t been seen in millions of years before my imprisonment and I doubt that has yet changed.
Any way I’m telling you this because the pantheon that invaded and took control over Imerith is a group of Heavenly and Constellation stage gods lead by a Nebulous one. I took quite a few risks to bring you some items I’d hidden away for any godling that might form in one of the sub-realms the invaders don’t have access to. As I know that despite the advantages of our kin you are starting at a disadvantage simply by their opposition to your existence. Hence giving you any advantage I can to aid a fellow natural shall we say of our realm. Should a candidate such as yourself present itself that is. They took the world through force and the incompetent bastards intend to keep it through force. I’ve witnessed many a newly born gods on the face Imerith be hunted down for sport during the rare instances of their birth. Being born inside a new sub-realm that only you have access to once I leave until you emerge for the first time on Imerith is your advantage so build up your realm well.”
She hated to simply dump all of this on the new-born but she was running out of time and wanted to at least get everything out before she was forced to leave. Thankfully the new-born continued to listen attentively to her despite the barrage of information she had to dump on its fresh mind.
“Here.” She said handing the new-born a simple black ring similar to a mortals weeding band if not for the strange arcane runes of silver covering the outside and inside of it. “Inside there are all the items I’ve been able to hide away so I can give any other god native born to Imerith more of a fighting chance. The Pantheon thinks me a mere divine beast, a spider to spin the webs of fate for their idiot and sad excuse for a goddess of fate. My safety only guaranteed due to the fact my webs are woven of Imeriths fate itself due to my hand in its creation with the original pantheon. My power kept in-check by a limiting and forceful pet collar as they called it. You on the other hand will have no such guarantee of safety once you step through that archway.” She pointed at the middle archway opposite the bridge making it the first one to be seen from the front as the new-born would make its way there.
The new-born nodded and gripped the ring in its fist and listened as she taught the new-born how to access it, though too quickly for it to put it into action just yet. Simply giving him a quick run down of how to do so before it even had access to the energies required for it.
“Even if you do not become a Nebulous stage god you’ll still have to be prepared for the other pantheon. Make sure you are as prepared as you can be.” She hammered the point in before she turned showing her need to rush to leave as her time was running out.
“Halt!”
The new-borns command rooted her in place right at the threshold and she could do nothing but turn around to see the new-born standing there a short way behind her. The act astonishing her.
“Name.” It growled low.
“I am Sas’seshkaneth, [The fate weaver] and [Mistress of the great web].” She answered with her name, name sake chief title and the secondary chief title she had.
It shook its head. “Name.” The new-born repeated and it took a bit of time for her to realize the tone was demanding. She was to name this strange eldritch godling before her.
It wouldn’t do to name it the same way as herself and most others of their kind, no. This one was too strange, like Raastur [The cowled] had been or Iraslotheb [The many faced]. Perhaps a similar name yet one all of its own? She noted that while at first she had thought to name this god as male from the tenor of its voice, the androgynous appearance of a child's mannequin stretched to fit an older mould that its body evoked the idea of made her pause however. She felt that she was allowed to waste a bit of time, likely the system governing Imerith helping her cheat just that little bit extra as it usually did. Her metaphorical child allowing her, her questions to properly name the new-born.
“What are your titles?” She asked.
“Now… [The Dweller from the Void]… will have… [The Star Wright]... [The Eidolon of the beyond]... [The Potentate of the Primordial Firmament]... and [The Autarch of the twin cycles] once I emerge in…” The new-born paused, she was almost certain it’d heard her avatar swallow at the mention of those titles, though in the end it was to find the word. “Imertith. I also posses the minor ones of... [Father Death] and... [Mother Life]”
A multitude of chief titles was a good thing for any gods, it was something that could grant authority over a specific domain over other similar gods or special skills and traits. Though usually the grander the title the more power it meant for a god and some of these sounded rather grandiose to her. She did note the number and felt something might be coming to add to the number of titles the newborn held.
It also gave her the idea that this was a god and goddess or even genderless, (as mortals so often seemed intent on aspecting everything), of duality if she wasn’t mistaken. A first to her limited experience from her millennia of travelling during her youth. These were exceptionally rare, though usually they often understood themselves very little. Their aspect of duality somehow denying them instinctual or even academic knowledge of themselves save the most easiest to understand parts. What they were racial, domain and power wise for example. She was also glad the new-born had shared it with her as it bode well to having it as a possible ally should it grow powerful enough to free her true body.
She took a bit of time and wracked her brain to come up with a name. Then as she looked up she decided. “Kainaat Mors Alta’farud.” The new-born's limited facial expression appeared that it didn’t much like it at first or was it thoughtful but then shrugged as it didn’t have a better idea anyway. She noted that unless the new-born spoke the tears that formed on its mouth area didn’t show up or were even visible.
With that little observation she smiled and left through the archway, leaving the newly named Kainaat Mors to settle in and hopefully make the most out of what she had managed to squirrel away over the centuries during her captivity. Only able to move during those rare periods that no one was watching.
-
I watched the woman walk through the Archway that to me was empty like the rest but she looked like she was just walking out of existence. It left me empty in a way I wasn’t sure about but I took comfort in my new name and the simple knowledge that this goddess I’d met had tried her best to give me a fighting chance against something that sounded like it wasn’t part of the natural order of... our(?) world. Against enemies I hadn’t even known of nor would have been able to oppose it seemed.
“Kainaat Mors Alta’Farud.” I spoke softly aloud as I made my way back to the central dais and away from what I’d now refer to as the Archway dais for now. At least until I managed to do something with my realm. I sighed a bit as my gaze went over the moving waters and little land that, what I innately knew as, my own realm offered.
Then of course I looked up and would smile if I was capable of it. Sas’seshkaneth had managed to provide a relief and fulfilled a need I hadn’t even thought I needed. Despite how disappointed I was over her short stay I had felt it, she couldn’t have stayed longer even if she wanted to. Not if she wanted to keep her Avatar hale and whole at least. Though I had no idea of how I knew that.
The other relief I received I hadn’t known I’d needed was the starry sky above. One half of the sky a vibrant star scape of nebulas and star clusters seemingly overflowing with new life and vibrant colours while the other seemed dull and faded with a lot fewer stars glinting stubbornly within the dark.
All stubbornly clinging to life in a dying universe as compared to the vibrant life filled one that was the previously mentioned half of the sky. The dichotomy of a new universe infused with fresh life on one hand and a dying universe on the other pleased me.
Then in the centre of the sky above as if the force holding it all together was the solid void of a black hole ringed by blue ethereal fire that cast down pale blue light allowing me to clearly see by. Secondary light provided by the seven tendrils of blue fire that rose over the horizon and came together in a slight spiral towards the singularities surrounding ring of fire making them out to seem like some heavenly ethereal rivers.
I blinked a bit and shook my head as I took a seat on the lip of the fountain in the centre of the central dais and got a bit comfortable to get into seeing what the ring supposedly held.
Or I would before I suddenly felt the skin at were I’d have a mouth tear open as I let out a scream of pain as my body writhed on the inside. Every muscle fibre and organ pulsing and writhing inside me as I dropped down to my knees. My heart stopping while my blood rushed around inside causing it to feel like some thin many legged things crawling inside of me.
Then I heard the scream turn to a loud hiss as my body shrank, elongated and changed. My vision turning from seeing the world around me to a hue of blue that turned a sharp black leaving the blue to simply provide outlines of the world. Lessening what I truly saw to the simplicity of shapes without anything else in the environment really having it’s own identity to my eyes. The outline of the world and only the most prominent shapes of an object such as the slight lines I saw indicating the scale pattern surrounding the fountains walls.
Like the world only had two colours black and the blue that outlined everything like a... drawing?
I tried to move but felt the difference right away.
Now instead of those two legs flopping around I felt I was much closer to the ground and soon was slithering around before I felt my changed limbs making contact with the ground. I turned my head and noticed my form fully.
My form was glowing with a thick outline of blue lines while the rest was a mix of strange oranges, reds, yellows, blacks and purples. All colours moving in strange patterns without any real shape within the inside of my body. A body now clearly in the form of those four winged snakes on the fountain.
“A Mingshe…” I muttered, the name suddenly coming to my mind for some reason but felt apt. The lower set of wings was strange, the upper still had at least a thumb, index and middle fingers to help me stand on the featherless appendages, the lower half was more bat-like.
The positioning of the wings allowed me to commandeer them as legs for my snake form if I wished it but I was also rather certain I wasn’t ready to use them for their intended purposes. Instead I decided to master slithering while folding the wings in as best I could. It took a while to get the hang of it before I managed to move on to four-legged locomotion as it might be seen with the wings acting as my legs. Then once I’d finally managed to get the hang of it as well the pain returned.
This time I kept my eyes on my body and finally saw it better when the first to change was my eyes this time. Spiky scales that went from a gradient of near pink red along the middle of the underbelly before deepening to near black purple scales at the very top with black tips to some of the spikier scales.
The Upper wings fleshy and clearly still to develop, looking more like a thick arm with three very thin and long fingers. The lower wings were wings similar to a deformed hand with membrane between the fingers. Those membranes appearing to mimic ever so lightly the dull portion of the star scape above.
Once I finally reached my original form I was sitting there just staring at my own body. Wondering exactly what had just happened to me and why?
I felt my brain be hit by a new tablet which did give me a bit of an answer before I went on to explore myself.
[You have been designated as a dual being of cycles, your forms will be restricted to 7 yet each will be two in one. Your true form is that of the Mingshe and the Autarch and once you’ve managed comfort in changing between the two the same ease will be achieved with the dual nature of the coming forms. To gain a new form for selection achieve a racial evolution.]
I felt like I was smiling, though it felt more like a vague half remembered and half imagined in truth. I didn’t have any facial feature other than eyes after all, I’d prodded and poked before finding my reflection in the fountains mirror still waters.
Then with a shock I realized something and frantically started looking around. In my first change I’d lost my grip on Sas’seshkaneth’s gift!
My sharply tipped fingers ran along the entirety of the dais’s marble like stone as my eyes went over the entirety of the dais’s surface. It wasn’t really helped given the ring was black to begin with on black marble.
A cold panic began to well up within me until I noticed it after being rather certain I’d searched the entire dais twice already. The ring turning up on the only fanged one of the seven snake statues in the centre of the fountain.
Somehow the ring had been flung into the air only to be hocked on the right lower fang of the Mingshe snake. On further investigation it seemed it was the only one and coincidentally the one who’s back faced the narrow path to the archway dais that lead from this one. The fangs made of some strange crystalline material that make it smoky yet transparent.
I almost took the ring but decided not to, not yet. I felt them there hovering over me, the tablets I’d pushed away when I finally became physical. Partly due to having sensed Sas’seshkaneth presence at my birth and also due to slight… excitement to get out of the egg I now realized there wasn’t any sign of any more.
Leaving the ring were it was for now I moved over to sit back down on the lip of the fountain before I went over the notifications. I took a deep breath before focusing and mentally pulling them up.