Spirit Quest

[X][Myrlin] Study Ymaryn further and any connection to the enemy spirit.
[X][Arwyn] Track down the enemy spirit with a small expedition as while they will slow her down somewhat, it is safer than going alone.


"So what did you find?" you asks Myrlin.

"A lot," answers your grandson with a grim smile, "The first thing I want to speak to you about is that I figured out what sort of connection the spirit had to Ymaryn."

"What did you find?" you inquire.

"Remember how you originally found her as a baby in the middle of nowhere?" asks Myrlin and you give him a nod, "Well, I found out where she came from. She had some back entrance connections into her mind and soul which were used by the spirit. From what I could tell, they were variant of the connection that a spirit or goddess or god has to their Chosen. The main difference is that whereas the connection that Chosen has is added in with consent, Ymaryn's connections have been buried there from the beginning. They were part of very existence."

"Were?" you repeat, raising an eyebrow at Myrlin, noting his use of the word.

"I could not just leave something like that open," replies Myrlin, "It would have been too dangerous so shut them down. Unfortunately, their existence has unfortunate implications."

"Such as how long our foe has been making plans against us," you say with a grimace, "Ymaryn has been with us for fourteen cycles and our enemy must have been acting against us for at least that long. Most likely longer if they waited before giving Ymaryn to us."

"I figured as much," agrees Myrlin, "Nonetheless, Ymaryn no longer has such vulnerabilities. I was also able to identify what Aspects the enemy spirit has. They also have three and while they are not Divinities, they are close to being such in power. They are Cold, Strength and Ice."

And with that last word, Myrlin uses his magic to form an ice spike in his hand.

"Did you-?" you start to ask as you stare the physical proof of Myrlin's ability to use Ice Magic.

"Steal the ability to use Ice Magic from our foe," finishes Myrlin with a proud grin, "I certainly did. While I was removing the pathways, I got the attention of the enemy spirit as my interactions with its connections got its attention just as interfering with a spirit's connection with their Chosen gets the attention of the spirit. We tangled and I came out triumph and managed to force it to grant me the ability to use Ice Magic during the fighting.

That beyond getting knowledge of its Aspects and the ability to wield Ice Magic, I discovered a couple of important things. One is that the enemy spirit isn't like you or the others when its comes to its spiritual nature. It is also not an animal spirit either. Instead, it felt more like the Shadow Monster Spirit. Not a person or animal spirit, but some kind of monster spirit. Only unlike the Shadow Monster Spirit, this one is intelligent."

That is not good news.

"I was also able to track down the location of the shadow spirit monster," continues Myrlin, "I will admit that doing so pushed me to my limits and I almost failed, but I was able to get the magical ah, well for lack of a better, 'scent' of the enemy spirit. I should be able to track down the enemy spirit, at least its general area and once I am in the same general area, I will be to find it via normal means."

"Good work Myrlin," you tell your grandson even as you

What do you do next?
[] Rally your forces and hunt down the enemy spirit.
[] Wait until Arwyn returns even if it means risking the trail going cold.
[] Write-in.

The end of the monster spirits was swift and quite frankly, incredible easy. You outnumbered them five to one in spirits and had more deities than they had spirits. You or Seryn alone could have crushed them and with the aid of Merlin, you banished them from this plane of existence.

The cycles after that were good ones. Strife and trouble were minimal and nothing beyond what mortals normally got up. One by one, the rest of your family took their places as gods or goddess over their own concepts while under your leadership, their places in the lives of your people were set out.

Some became patrons over certain jobs such as Seryn becoming the benefactor of warriors while Arwyn became the benefactor of explorers and settlers while Gwyn became the benefactor of crafters and artisans. As the influence and power of your divine members grew and Cadyl centralised the rule of the Arthish villages, worship of each deity became commonplace in all of the villages. Rather than worship the local spirits, a mortal follower would follow pray and follow whichever deities best suited their lot in life with almost every Arthish villager worship multiple gods or goddesses at once.

Another thing that happened was the continuing of the trend of mortal followers taking over the lesser responsibilities of the spirits just as Bronwyn took over the day to day ruling of Avawyr and then Terwyn took it from her.

Withdrawing to the Galvance or Land of the Dead or Land of the Fallen, the otherworldly realm that you created with your divine power to live in and act as an afterlife for the dead Arthish, you became less and less involved in the affairs of the mortals, rarely using your avatar and your main interactions with your powers soon became blessings, healing and advising alongside shepherding dead souls to Galvance.

As greater cycles passed and your grandchildren had their own grandchildren, the rest of your spiritual family members did the same with some like Isorine and Evatine creating their own spiritual realms while most withdrew to Gwarvance, the spiritual realm that acted as divine realm for your family. By the time Cadyl reached a hundred cycles, only Wyrn remained as the only Arthish divine remaining amongst the mortal Arthish and even then, it was only as her avatars acting as armour-clothing for Cadyl and her children and some others who Wyrn cared about.

The rest of Cadyl's reign went unopposed by trouble. With the backing of you and the other spirits and the loyalty and respect of all the villages, Cadyl spend most of his reign forming a proper system of leadership so he could rule all of the region and the people living within it, avoiding the situation where villages would be ruled by individual rulers who did their own thing whilst answering to you when the situation called to it.

Instead, Cadyl set up a series of rules and codes that everyone had to live by and follow and whilst villages retained their own culture, their governance became unified. Even then, it is only due to the divine legitimancy of his rule, his own skill at leadership and the logistical genius of his wife that Cadyl was able to rule such a vast amount of land.

Realising that he required a single location to rule from, Cadyl set up a capital to rule from in:
[] [Capital] Avawyr. Just as you once did, Cadyl decided to rule from the mountain-village of Avawyr and using the power of his home villager and your original worshippers as his power base.
[] [Capital] Evalon. The island-village, Cadyl set up his permanent rule from Evalon. The most advanced and civilised of places, Cadyl has the metal-workers and knowledge seekers of the Noble One as his power base.
[] [Capital] Bedywn. The heart of Seryn's old rule, Cadyl had his rule operate from Bedywn, using the Cath Wyrs and Seryn's other followers as the heart of his power base.

The long term effects of earlier decisions by you and the other spirits became apparent over Cadyl's rule. The Gift of the Mighty Body moved away from its martial origins as people realised that it could be used to expand their own lifespans as an elderly person could use it to return to youth again with a stronger body and longer lifespan. While a blessing from the Mighty One was still required to be a Cath Wyr and by extend, a warrior, the Gift of the Mighty Body soon became the Second Youth where one had a second chance to grow up again live a second life.

Metal and magic would become commonplace. When it proved true that a baby would inherit the ability to use magic from their parents, it was mere generations before every Arthish had the ability to wield at least one kind of magic and it would be only a few more until the Arthish could wield every element of magic. Meanwhile iron tools and weapons became prevalent in every village as the increased number of Myrymar made forged iron ore into something useful.

It also became apparent that the majority of your people would be female. Between mostly even birth rates of boys and girls, Second Youth would soon make it so that there was four or five women for every man with two thirds of the populations being those who had undergone Second Youth.

Yet such things were beyond Cadyl's ability to control and instead, your son focused on:
[] [Cadyl] Expansion. While he nominal controls the region due to that being no one to oppose him most of the land lay unexplored and uninhabited. Cadyl changed this by founding a great many villages.
[] [Cadyl] Construction. With plenty of villages still requiring walls, boat pens and places for leaders to rule from along with paths to connect them to other villages, Cady built up these things before having additional villages settled.


Please note that with the Capital vote, the location of the village may be important when it comes to getting there or if it is attacked. With the Cadyl vote, it isn't one or the other. Cadyl will do both, but you are picking which one he focuses on more.