Everything was color and chaos. Remnants of pain lingered in their minds as they spun, endlessly, falling in a void too vast to comprehend. Flashes of memories clung to them like cobwebs, straining to stay attached in the howling winds of the void, whisking off behind them as they fell. They couldn’t remember names, faces, everything falling off.
Fear.
They felt fear. Everything was unknown. Their instincts told them to reach out, but they had no limbs with which to grasp. They wanted to cry out, but there were no lungs or mouths with which to project. And alway the endless falling.
They were torn apart. Bit by bit. Even feelings and instincts coming off them. But one thing replaced it all. Companionship. They weren’t alone. They were one. But they weren’t alone. Winds of nothing battered them from every side, pushing them closer to one another. Entwining their broken pieces until they were a new whole. Slowly, the gales lessened. The descent halting. It was excruciating. There was no pain, for there were no nerves to send such signals, but it was a pain of loss.
Soon, even that faded.
They hovered. Having come to a stillness in the void. Nothing remained.
“What am I?” They pondered to themselves. The thought was fleeting. Quickly forgotten. They asked again. “What am I?” They couldn’t know it, as they had no memory, but they asked over and over again, each time forgetting what they asked. That they asked.
“...”
Suddenly. The void of existence filled with a flash of understanding.
They were Moss.
As immediate as the thought struck them, the world came into existence. They felt the pull of the world beneath them, the soil and rocks under their rhizoids. They could feel the liquids and nutrients flow through them, the air making contact with their thousands of leaves. The faintest strands of warmth caressing them from above. Oh! How joyous that warmth felt! Their rootlike rhizoids found themselves engulfed in what they recognized as… Water! They dipped themselves in it. Enjoying themselves to the fullest. Filling themselves with it. Water and warmth, and… Something else?
It was little more than a feeling. A knowledge. There was something else around them. Something they could sense. They reached their tiny moss mind toward it. It didn’t fill them with joy. But it was new. It was… interesting? How could this be? They pushed against it. And eventually, it began to give way. This brought joy! This force, they could move it! They could push it! But as they pushed it one direction, they felt it lessen in another. Whatever it was, they didn’t have a lot of it.
They also realized something horrible.
The water was diminishing! There was certainly less than there had been before. And they needed more. Quickly.
They grew their little moss tendrils as fast as they could. Stretching their rhizoids in every direction in search of more. They expanded across the ground, taking what little moisture they could find out of the soil. They felt the warmth above come and go. The periods between the presence of it lengthening. They feared it would eventually be gone forever.
Their explorative growth slowed. Less and less water was found, drinking in what they could. The warmth gone for horrifyingly expansive periods.
As they were on their final little stretch, feeling taut, emaciated, and drained, they found it!
Water!
This time, they didn’t just dip into it, they threw themselves as best they could into the water. Reaching all around the source of it, clambering to rocks and dirt alike, all in an effort to reach it. It was exquisite! They drank as much as their little self allowed taking it in. But… Maybe they should slow down? No. Why? What if this disappears too? Oh. Yeah. Maybe they should.
They slowed their drinking. While still filling, they kept themselves from gorging.
As they drank and explored the edges of the water, they found the warmth returning again! Faster and faster, the periods between warmth shortening. How marvelous! But what do they do when it goes away again? It won’t. It might! Hmm. Maybe… Maybe they ought to search more? For more warmth? More heat? Yes. Yes, they needed to find more. More water. More heat. And… And maybe move that strange force a little more? It had grown a little since they had been taking in nutrients on a regular basis again. It wasn’t a lot, but they could push it out, reach with it beyond their little rhizoids and leaves. They could explore the air above them, the water beyond them. Even… Yes. It was more difficult than even the water, but they could reach into the ground and rocks around them! They could explore!
They kept extending themself through the space. They climbed up walls, straining to get a good grip on the slick surface, but managing. They enjoyed a moment when they managed to connect themself fully, having gone up two opposing walls and meeting above, hanging off the ceiling. They explored the edge of the water, even dipped deeper into it on occasion. This proved to be even more difficult than climbing the walls had been. They had to really work to stay submerged, holding on to the bottom.
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Occasionally they would lose a bit of themself. They didn’t know where it went, or what had happened, but areas previously covered by them would suddenly empty. They speedily regrew themself and didn’t delve on it for long.
What they truly dreaded were the times when the warmth would disappear. It was always a frightening time, not knowing how long it would be gone or when it would return.
Eventually they grew to understand that it came and went as a pattern. Being able to trace it in cycles of increasing and declining warmth. On the seventh cycle, during the period of increasing warmth, they came across something new.
Water! No? Something else? It’s held together by something. In something.
They expanded their force to probe at the new liquid. It was in the shape of a small mound. Some parts were more solid and more akin to ground than the water they were used to. They traced their way through it. Layer by layer, liquid filled tunnel by liquid filled tunnel. They found some areas that were soft enough that they could push themselves through, savoring the liquid. It was water! Filled with other things. Like motes of warmth suspended in the water. They drank it in. They clambered over the mound, pushing their tendrils and rhizoids through the membranes containing the water. It was so filling! Their mind brimming with possibilities for what they could use these new nutrients for. Maybe even… Hmm.
They examined the various membranes that held together the mound. They used their force to examine it at an ever closer level. Maybe they could learn. Maybe, now that they had some additional nutrients to work with, they could attempt to recreate it? If they could store the heat in themselves, the way that the mound had, they could save it for when the cycle of warmth turned cooler!
They pushed their tendrils together. Grew ever smaller nets of them. Weaving them while incorporating the new materials they had found in the mound. It took more water and warmth and force than just growing themself had before, but if they were correct in their design the end result would prove to be worth it. The weaved layers were stronger than their previous tissue, and after several periods of weaving and layering, they could feel it! They had managed to keep some of the heat within the innermost layers of themselves! They expanded their force into this new sanctum. Fully embracing it as part of themselves.
“They did it! More memory! More cognitive function! Finally! How exciting! I can help!”
What? What was that? It was like something, some thoughts that were not their own, existed in their mind. An outside thought.
Then, for the second time in their existence, the world exploded in information.
[BLESSING:
CHAMPION OF CANNAE.
YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED BY CANNAE.
YOU WILL COMPREHEND NEW CONCEPTS AT A QUICKENED RATE.
YOU WILL NOW PERCEIVE THE WORLD AKIN TO THE CALCULATING MIND OF CANNAE.
N̶O̶ O̶T̶H̶E̶R̶ SOME OTHER GODS MAY DECLARE YOU THEIR CHAMPION.]
If they could have, they would have cradled their little moss mind. The information overload was staggering. Everything around them was absolutely brimming with previously incomprehensible knowledge. They tried to retreat their mind and their force into their newly created layers of extra strong and heated self, but even there they couldn’t escape the onslaught of new information.
NAME: (None Found)
CLASSES: ⅕ Elemental Domain Level 1
SPECIES: ⅕ Ensouled Domain
ATTRIBUTES: (N/A)
SOUL: (Innate) tangible, domain.
UNDERSTANDING:
Moss, (Innate) Expert
Soul, Novice
Water, Novice
Air, Novice
Earth, Novice
CLASS (Elemental Domain) TRAITS:
Spread Domain
Design Pattern
Enact Pattern
SPECIES (Ensouled Domain) TRAITS:
Possess Pattern
Soul Manipulation
Soul Sense
SPECIAL TRAITS:
Split Mind
Fragile Soul
BLESSINGS:
Champion of Propagation
Champion of Cannae
Oh, their poor little moss mind.
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