@Lugubrious Got it, though maybe you should talk with Kho to change this bit on the OP
<Snipped quote>
For this, Kho did say that gods are more proficient in their own domain. Just like an earth god could make a continent without expending might, I guess that Slough could create life of a complexity ahead of her level.
Also, to the extent of my understanding, sufficiently powerful gods can create things outside of their portfolio and domain. They're just less proficient at it, so at higher level what's stopping Toun from creating an owl perfectly natural anatomically?
The sound, the Last Sound, droned ever onward in the corpse of the universe as the dragon continued to beat its wings. Wings that had once spanned the gap between worlds, but now reached fruitlessly into nothing. The corpulent form of the dragon was grey and lifeless. To a keen observer it would have seemed so long dead that, had its flailing wings met any resistance, it would have crumbled to dust. Yet on it went, its seeming infirmity belayed by the raging fires deep within its sunken eye sockets. There was no scale to determine how long this continued, but eventually even its oblivious gaze noticed that where there had once been nothing, there were now swirling plumes of ash forming a corridor along its chosen path.
Its head tilted curiously, and after depthless pondering it realized that the ash came from its wings, it was moving backwards. As if that brief spark of sentience created a gap in the chaos enveloping its mind, the full gravity of the command that had been tugging it backwards slammed into its core.
'Come.'
The dragon stiffened under the weight of that immutable word, ceasing all resistance, and the rate at which it was being dragged across what was once creation increased exponentially. Scales shattered like dried bark, and the force of its passage ground its vast wings to nubs of brittle bone. It felt bestial, primal fear as its outermost layer of flesh began eroding away. With each layer pealed back, the fire lost more potency, retreating farther within its still massive form. Its legs, so long unused, were stripped away. Its reptilian lips curled back as the meat of its colossal head withered and eventually fell away, but its skeletal grin didn’t last long as its skull lost more and more definition with every passing moment.
Its body left a forlorn grey road, leading nowhere, as the inexorable force pulled it closer to its destination. All signs of its gluttony were quickly disappearing as the dragon, finally, became unrecognizable for what it had once been. Then, finally, a featureless lump of ash sailed through the tear in creation, trailing smoke and pitiful flickers of fire in its wake. As it neared the terrible being that had summoned it so forcefully, Amul'Sharar’s gaze flickered to the offending cloud of debris. Whatever was left in its center was halted so abruptly that the rest of the dragon’s flesh sloughed off, scattering into the void as it lost momentum.
Floating at the feet of the two supreme beings was a pallid, sickly looking humanoid creature lying on its back. Limp black hair spilled outwards from its head, and its spindly limbs were visibly shot through with veins, as if its skin was thin as parchment. Its frailty was obvious as it lay trembling there, but when Fate spoke it stilled, four of its liquid black eyes opening to fix on the voice.
“Algamex surrendered fully to his nature. He became so lost in chaos, he forgot how to die. Of him, there is nothing left. You are Belruarc, Patron of Desperation. Hold to your resolve.”
Belruarc, God of Magic, Level 1
4 Might
1 Free Points
Belruarc felt the words settle over her like a warm blanket as she lay there, their promise invigorating her. She felt the thoughts of some of her new… brethren… upon her, and the four eyes that had been focused on Fate went their own ways to consume her surroundings. The World, still empty. Creation, so close. Her wandering eyes met the gaze of some others, briefly, before converging on Teknall and the Grand Design unfurled at his fingertips. The disturbingly arm-like protrusions on her back formed translucent membranes at her prompting, and with a flutter guided her erect, or at least aligned her on the arbitrary plane that the others had decided upon.
Featureless as her body seemed, she remained unashamed of her nakedness as her insectile wings guided her to the blueprint. Looking down upon it, her eyes once again diverged to scour the parchment, seeking to make her contribution. Astarte’s influence became clear, magic was come to their universe. Ignoring the others surrounding the blueprint, Belruarc’s right hand rose to her face, and one claw like finger dipped into the pool of an eye, sinking up to the knuckle before she withdrew the appendage. It came away so black as to be invisible against the background of the void. With her stained claw she intermingled her essence with that of Astarte, and began to inscribe lawful magic.
Where the Crucible had created the esoteric magic of secret properties, and Astarte had infused the blueprint with magic wild and free, Belruarc added the magic of scholars. Refined and adhering to its own set of arcane principles, her magic could be constructed as the wielder desired, and would be proof and counterweight to the chaotic magic that now proliferated the blueprint. She thought Vulamera would approve, as it was the magic of thinkers, who would one day use it in unforeseen ways. The last of the inky blackness dripped from the edge of her finger onto the parchment, leaving her hand vaguely stained. Now her gaze turned towards the egg, in which was cradled the essence of Life. She leaned forward until her nose was almost touching its surface, her eyes staring expressionlessly inward.
“I believe… it is too late for me to form a pact with you. Perhaps, through this, your creations shall be inured to my bindings.” With that, her sultry voice fell away, and she fluttered a few feet back from the parchment, to examine it as a whole once more.
The Dragon of Discord, Algamex, is sundered by Amul'Sharar’s invocation. Its body revealed to be long dead as it plummets towards the new World.
From its ashes, Belruarc emerges, a being of vastly different character according to Fate.
She adds lawful magic to the Blueprint to balance Astarte's wild magic, and laments that she has come too late to influence Slough.
