To make a good building you always need a plan, a design. The same can be said to live a good life. Ever since I was 8 I wanted to be an architect. I wanted to design the greatest building the world had ever seen. The first job I ever had was a construction worker. I took every opportunity to learn a new specialty of the trade. I went to a trade school right out of high school and at 22 years old I had my own company. It wasn't big, about 100 guys, mostly good guys. A few of them had records but I didn't care much. As long as they didn't steal from me or cheat our clients, does it matter that they did drugs or got into drunk fights at bars. They showed up for work and got the job done to my degree of satisfaction. I did not demand perfection, not from a guy just trying to make a living, it was close to perfection though. My company gained a reputation for excellent work at a good price for the quality we gave. It was amazing. I wanted more. I loved my company and my guys, but it wasn't enough. I had fame, relatively speaking, I had money. I could do more, be more. I wouldn't compromise my company or the guys. I saw my chance, and an employee wanted to buy me out. He knew I wanted more. Hank was an older gentleman, short paratical hair and close cropped beard, more salt than pepper. He smoked like a broken chimney and drank as much as he smoked, healthy as a horse though, he was pushing 70, and wanted to retire from the field. He was one of the first people I hired. Him, his sons, and a few friends were my first crew. For an older guy in a hard physical labor job you would think he would be less capable then some of them in their prime. You would be out money if you bet on that. He never stopped working and making sure the job got done on time. He had saved up money most of his life to give himself and his family a nice cushion. He saw how I built the company up and how I was always learning and pushing what we could do. I gave him a good price despite him arguing to pay more for all the good I did for the crew. I couldn't, not him. I took that money and found one of the best engineering colleges in the world. I grinded for 6 years to get that doctorate. Top of my class even. A good plan and design makes for a good life, you can say the same thing about buildings too. “I didn't plan that,” was my last thought as a horn blared and I saw saucer sized lights heading towards me. Then I blinked, at least I tried to blink. I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't breathe either or move. What's going on I think as I start to panic. I couldn't do anything, I was just floating around in some sort of geometric heaven. The clouds tumbled and changed into complex shapes, some my mind had a hard time comprehending. The stars and nebulas mixed in-between the clouds pulsing and moving in an unseen pattern. I thought I recognized a shape like the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, but a cloud obscured it before I could confirm. I felt a shudder ripe through me. I'd have screamed if I had a mouth or lungs to do so. STABILIZE, the word imposed itself into my reality. My shapeless form reduced down to one resembling the Vitruvian Man. Why doesn't this feel weird, I absently thought. It should feel weird to be like this. My former body displayed in a clinical manner like this. As I tried to notice more of the form my veins, organs, bones, everything started imposing itself on my form. They stayed separate from me, rotating and zooming in at random. Then I saw my soul, my memories, my essence. Without ever having seen them before I knew them. From deep inside all the parts that were my former body they came. Colors I had no name for coalesced into a ball in front of all the rest of myself that was imposed over my Vitruvian Man body. I felt HIM descend. That's all I thought was HIM, a power I couldn't comprehend. He studied everything that was me. Everything that I still was, I felt the separation now. I wasn't human anymore, I am Formless. “Smarter than your average human. Driven to obsessiveness. 1 on the aphantasia scale. Competitive.  It will do. IMPRINT. ENHANCE. TIE.” The words ripped through me. Impressions of a mission. I was chosen. I and several other Formless will be given a task, make a species and civilization to stand the test of time and we will ascend. What I was crumbled into motes of light, shifting to form a band around my ball. My new form. I almost looked like Saturn, I thought laughing. I was just a ball of formless essence, twistings of light and space to most everything's eyes. With a small band of light wrapping around me. I descended from the geometric heaven, and began to leave my old world behind. A great force held me for a moment before viciously ejecting me. I don't know how long I sped through space. I think it's space, stars and shapes fly by so fast in the darkness that surrounds me I can't be sure. As I begin to slow a power sufuses me and a screen appears in front of me. [NAME - N/A STATE - FORMLESS (GENESIS) LEVEL - 1 TIER - 0 CREATIONS - 0 CIV ADVANCEMENTS - N/A CULTURE - N/A TECHNOLOGY - N/A. TITLES - N/A STATS: MANA - 5 (Determines the increase to ambient mana density, regeneration, and influences the type of magic in territory. As well as if your species can cast and use magic.), INFLUENCE - 3(Determines how powerful your commands are and if you are able to make someone do something against their being.), CONTROL - 3(Determines how precise you can manipulate the environment, flora, and fauna. As well as how fine your other manipulation abilities can be used.), PRESENCE - 2(Determines how much your people can feel you in their everyday lives and how much others can feel you when you descend.). OMNISENSE RADIUS - 6 (INFLUENCE × PRESENCE) (The distance you can clearly sense before Fog of War obscures you) (REDUCED TO 0 TILL QUEST FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS IS COMPLETED). MAGIC - 15 (MANA × CONTROL) (How powerful and/or plentiful magical flora, fauna,and materials can be found in your claimed area. The power and number of spells you can create/cast.) WILL - 10 (MANA × PRESENCE) (How much you can exert yourself before needing to rest. NOTE: outside influence may expend your WILL faster.). FAITH - 9 (INFLUENCE × CONTROL) (Ambient power gathered by your faithful. Can be used in a variety of ways to gain small buffs or debuffs depending on the situation.). 

ABILITIES - PERFECT RECALL (LIMITED), MINOR SHAPE, OMNISENSE (CONCEPTUAL), CELLULAR CONTROL (TEMPORARY), SOUL CONTROL (TEMPORARY), MAGIC CONTROL (WILL BE REDUCED TO MANA MANIPULATION), MENTAL AND CULTURAL INFLUENCE (TEMPORARY, LIMITED USE: 4)] I was about to focus on what all these abilities meant but a pulse in the corner of my vision caught my attention and a new screen appeared automatically. [NOTIFICATION: YOU HAVE RECEIVED NEW QUESTS, YOU HAVE RECEIVED A BLESSING FROM YOUR HIGHER BEING][QUEST: FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS - YOU HAVE BEEN TASKED BY A HIGHER BEING TO CREAT YOUR ULTIMATE LIFE FORM AND CREATE A CIVILIZATION THAT WILL TAKE OVER THE PLANET YOU HAVE BEEN TASKED WITH OVERSEEING. YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN ACCESS TO POWERS BEYOND YOUR ABILITY TO FACILITATE THE CREATION OF YOUR ULTIMATE LIFE FORM. THESE POWERS WILL BE TAKEN FROM YOU AFTER THE COMPLETION OF YOUR FIRST VIABLE LIFE FORM CAPABLE OF CIVILIZATION LEVEL ADVANCEMENTS. BEWARE AS THERE ARE FORMLESS WITH THE SAME MISSION AND ONLY ONE MAY CLAIM ASCENDANCE. QUEST AUTOMATICALLY ACCEPTED] [QUEST: PALE COLORED DOT - HALLELUJAH, YOU AND YOUR FELLOW FORMLESS HAVE BEEN GIVEN MODERATE CONTROL OF STARTING PLANET. A NEW SCREEN WILL BE TEMPORARILY ADDED WITH A LIST OF CHOICES THAT CAN BE MADE TO ALTER THE STARTING PLANET. NOTICE: EACH FORMLESS ONLY HAS 10 VOTES. QUEST AUTOMATICALLY ACCEPTED][HALLELUJAH A HIGHER BEING HAS BLESSED YOU, PICK ONE FROM THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS: 10 ADDITIONAL VOTES IN PALE COLORED DOT QUEST, 1 CONTROLLED MUTATION OF LIFE FORM, POWER ADVANCEMENT (IF A TEMPORARY POWER IS CHOSEN THE LEAST FORM WILL BE GIVEN UPON COMPLETION OF FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS QUEST] My mind is spinning. So much information, I don't know what to do. The tranquility of the geometric heaven seems to be wearing off and I'm starting to freak out. I died. All my plans don't matter. I just got my fucking doctorate and I die not even a day later, what the hell…STABILIZE, the words echo in my mind. It doesn't matter, it never mattered. I have a great mission now. I was chosen. I need to make a new plan. One that won't be ruined by death. I center myself and think. First, I need to see what all these abilities do. Second, I need to see the options I can vote for. Third, pick my blessing. It's not a long plan or a detailed plan, but it's a plan. I pull my sheet up and focus on my abilities. [PERFECT RECALL (LIMITED) - you can remember all information you have obtained consciously and subconsciously. Note: Just because you can remember the information does not mean you understand the information. Limited: You may only have perfect recall on subjects you have studied or put a significant amount of effort into learning. MINOR SHAPE - within range of your omnisense you have a minor amount of control over the environment, weather, and terrain. Beware accumulative and combined effects may lead to unexpected outcomes. Use of this ability will take time to have an effect. OMNISENSE (CONCEPTUAL) - within your omnisense radius you have complete observation of everything. Note: abilities and magical effects may obscure your omnisense. At the moment you may only sense your species and their makeup. CELLULAR CONTROL - You have the power to manipulate cells and their structure to your will, innate knowledge of how to do this has been given to you. This ability is temporary, the power and knowledge of how to use the power will be taken from you. SOUL CONTROL - You have the power to create, shape, and manipulate souls at your will, innate knowledge of how to do this has been given to you. This ability is temporary, the power and knowledge of how to use the power will be taken from you. MAGIC CONTROL - You have the power to create and manipulate mana. You have the ability to create and alter magical effects. You have the power to control how others in your omnisense can use and manipulate magic/mana. Innate knowledge of how to do this has been given to you. This ability is temporary and will be taken from you, replaced with a lesser version of this ability. MENTAL AND CULTURAL INFLUENCE - You have the power to change how those of your species think and what they find important in their society. This does not change individuals, only changing what the species as a whole value and how their thought process works. Innate knowledge of how to do this has been given to you. This power is temporary and limited in the number of uses. The ability and knowledge will be taken from you upon the fourth use of this ability.] “Holy shit, I am a god!” “No,” I immediately corrected, “HE was a god. I'm just given these so I have the tools of a god. So that I can begin my mission of domination.” The knowledge required to use these powers flashes through me. So much information that if I had a brain still it would be overloaded and I would probably die of a hemorrhage. I'm not dumb, but the amount of information coursing through me makes me feel dumb. I know what I would need to do to create the entire structure of a strand of DNA. I know what a soul is made of and the esoteric methods needed to make them. It feels wrong with how simple a soul is really. Don't get me wrong it is complex beyond what my mortal brain could originally understand. How a soul isn't necessary for life but every living entity will have one. The very act of experiencing life generates them. I pull myself back, my being hurts as the power shoves into me. It's too much. I fear for a moment that it will kill me. I spent a few moments collecting myself. “How can I feel sore without muscles,” I wonder. “Focus, I have a lot to do. Now that I've looked through my abilities and have some idea what I can do, let's see what my options are for my new world.” I take a deep breath even without lungs. I pull up the world page. A hollow planet devoid of any features appears in the background. Lines of text appear pointing to places on the planet. [SIZE: MARS, EARTH, URANUS, OR JUPITER. TYPE: PANGEA, CONTINENTAL, ISLAND, OR CUSTOM(COST ONE VOTE PUT FORTH CUSTOM OPTION) RESOURCES: LOW SCATTERED, MID SCATTERED, DENSE SCATTERED, LOW POCKETS, MID POCKETS, OR DENSE POCKETS. AMBIENT MAGIC LEVEL: NONE, LOW, MID, OR HIGH. (WARNING: THE HIGHER THE AMBIENT MAGIC LEVEL THE HIGHER CHANCE FOR RANDOM MAGICAL EFFECTS) CLIMATE: DRY ARID, DRY DESERT, DRY SAVANNA, FROZEN ALPINE, FROZEN ARCTIC, FROZEN TUNDRA, WET TROPIC, WET OCEANIC, WET TROPICAL. (NOTE: THESE EFFECT RELATIVE POSITION OF PLANET TO PRIMARY STAR. THESE AFFECT THE OVERALL WEATHER, PLANETS, AND LIFE FOUND ON THE PLANET. THE OPTION PICKED MAY CAUSE A CHANGE IN PLANET TYPE PICKED) STARTING LOCATION: RANDOM OR STRATEGIC. CUSTOM OPTION (ADD A OPTION TO BE VOTED ON. ONE VOTE USED TO CREATE OPTION)] I was a little disappointed in the options I could pick. They seemed limited in what was available and what they changed. I could add another option, like for specific flora and fauna or maybe even floating islands. Would I want to spend a vote to create those options though. 10 votes seems like a lot but I have 7 others that will vote and chances of all of them voting for what I want is low. A flash catches my eye. [ATTENTION: ALL FORMLESS HAVE VIEWED THE PLANETARY OPTIONS AND THE COUNTDOWN TO VOTE HAS BEGUN. TIME REMAINING: 1 HOUR] “Shit, ok so not much time to choose. I need to decide if I want the extra votes or not. They would be good and with them I could swing any votes to my favor and maybe even add a few options. Do I care though? I can just make a species that survives in any of those conditions. The only 2 I really care about is the size and ambient magic level. My stats lean towards a higher magic level and the bigger the planet the better, right.” I ponder for a bit. I mean a larger planet would mean more space and resources in general or because there is a different option for it will the resources be completely separate from the planet size? Focusing on the options doesn't give me any more information. I'm on my own for guesses. [ALERT A NEW PLANETARY OPTION HAS BEEN ADDED. NEW OPTION PLANET ALIGNMENT: LIFE OR DEATH. VOTES FOR DEATH ALIGNED PLANET: 7] “What, someone made an option for that and it already has 7 votes” I scream into the void of space. What kind of creature would want the planet to be death aligned? Even if I don't know exactly what that means I doubt it is good for most of us. With that number of votes either everyone wants it or one of them used most of their votes for it. I pull up the option again. [PLANETARY ALIGNMENT: LIFE (4 VOTES) DEATH (7 VOTES)] Okay so at least one other doesn't want it either, but aren't throwing in the votes to completely override it. That's fair. I put 2 of my votes into it to bring the total for life up to 6. I don't want to waste all my votes if someone else will put in a couple more to tip the balance. I leave it for now and focus on putting votes into the other options. I end up putting 4 votes into high ambient magic level, 2 into strategic starting location, and 1 into dense scattered for resources. I leave one back in case I need to tie the votes for life or death. [ALERT A NEW PLANETARY OPTION HAS BEEN ADDED. NEW OPTION: NATIVE INTELLIGENT LIFE: YES OR NO. NATIVE INTELLIGENT LIFE: YES 2 VOTES] It seems like the other Formless didn't like the limited options either. It was getting closer to the end of voting. [VOTE TIME REMAINING 10 MINUTES] I didn't want to change my votes but I looked over the options to see what others had voted. [SIZE: URANUS 6 VOTES, EARTH 3 VOTES, MARS 2 VOTES. TYPE: CONTINENTAL 3 VOTES, ISLAND 2 VOTES, PANGEA 1 VOTE. RESOURCES: DENSE SCATTERED 5 VOTES, MID POCKETS 4 VOTES, DENSE POCKETS 4 VOTES, LOW SCATTERED 1 VOTE. AMBIENT MAGIC LEVEL: MID 5 VOTES, HIGH 4 VOTES, LOW 2 VOTES. CLIMATE: WET TROPICAL 7 VOTES, DRY ARID 5 VOTES, FROZEN TUNDRA 5 VOTES, WET OCEANIC 1 VOTE. STARTING LOCATION: STRATEGIC 2 VOTES. ADDITIONAL OPTIONS. PLANET ALIGNMENT: DEATH 7 VOTES, LIFE 6 VOTES. NATIVE INTELLIGENT LIFE: YES 2 VOTES, NO 1 VOTE] I put my last vote into life alignment so that it would be even. I didn't want to choose the add 10 votes blessing as I thought the other 2 options were the better choices. It is tempting at the moment as while I didn't have hard opinions on most of the options for the planet I didn't want native intelligences fighting for my resources and I wanted high magic. With the timer approaching zero I took a point from strategic starting and put it into high magic to make it even. Hoping ties wouldn't cause too many problems. A notification forced itself in front of me. [VOTING HAS BEEN CLOSED. ANY REMAINING VOTES ARE LOST. TWO TIES HAVE BEEN DETECTED AND MUST BE RESOLVED BEFORE PLANETARY CHANGES CAN BE IMPLEMENTED. FIRST TIE. AMBIENT MAGIC LEVEL: 5 VOTES MID, 5 VOTES HIGH. RESOLUTION: RANDOM CHOICE. RESULT: HIGH WINS. SECOND TIE. PLANETARY ALIGNMENT: 7 VOTES DEATH, 7 VOTES LIFE. RESOLUTION: RANDOM CHOICE…ERROR…RESOLUTION OVERRIDEN. NEW RESOLUTION: COMBINED. PLANETARY ALIGNMENT: MIXED LIFE AND DEATH. TIES HAVE BEEN RESOLVED. HALLELUJAH THE GODS HAVE ACCEPTED YOUR VOTES AND THE PLANET IS BEING REMADE. NEW PLANET. SIZE: URANUS. TYPE: CONTINENTAL. RESOURCES: DENSE SCATTERED. AMBIENT MAGIC LEVEL: HIGH. CLIMATE: WET TROPICAL. STARTING LOCATION: STRATEGIC. PLANETARY ALIGNMENT: MIXED LIFE AND DEATH. NATIVE INTELLIGENT LIFE: YES] I watched as the planet below me morphed. It grew bigger and moved just a bit closer to the sun. Not much visually but what I could remember from my science classes even that much was tens of miles closer and would vastly change a planet normally. The water and land moved, giving the planet 5 continents not counting the poles and several archipelagos with a handful of small single islands. The poles were small, the ice restricted to roughly only a million square miles each. Dense jungle seemed to cover most of the planet. While I never went to space and I know earth wasn't a perfect sphere, this planet seems much more oval shaped than earth. The sun is able to hit much more of the planet directly then a spherical planet could. 3 moons began to appear around it,  2 followed closer to each other and 1 almost on the other side of the planet. The oceans moved in time with them, clouds and great storms began covering the world. [ALERT: DUE TO HIGH AMBIENT MAGIC GREAT MAGICAL STORMS WILL RANDOMLY APPEAR AROUND THE PLANET. ALERT: DUE TO HIGH AMBIENT MAGIC THE GRAVITY OF THE PLANET HAS INCREASED.] Well I guess that might have been one of the reasons some of the others didn't want high magic. I winced as I saw one of the magic storms turn an archipelago into a frozen hellscape. Before I could see more my vision turned black.

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