Chronicles of Nations - Civ Quest

[X] The cats did not come on their own, but were sent by the goddess Arthryn to aid the People. These creatures are servants of the goddess and are sacred to Arthryn.
[H] [SEC] Venerate Arthryn

"But why did the goddess let in the outsiders?" asks Gyrd and the young boy earns himself some glares from the other children.

Ymarn just gives the young lad a smile before answering the question.

"Because while they were not the People, they were still people and had the potential to become part of the People," explains Ymarn, "Arthryn realise this and decide to give the chance. Even if the outsiders weren't going to become People, Arthryn would have still treated them with respect as every person deserves some level of fair treatment.

The goddess realises this and rather than reject them or cheat them like some mortals would have done back then, she treated them fairly and with the respect that they deserve due to being people even if they were outsiders. It is this wisdom that the Goddess made sure to pass down, about how every person is born equal to each other and is deserving of some respect regardless of who they are born to or their physical form. Everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves and you should judge someone by their actions and choices."

"Like you Elder Ymarn?" asks Bonryn, one of the older girls who is almost of age.

While that sort of question might have caused her some upset when she is younger, Ymarn has grown used to people misunderstand who she is and her past based on her appearance. Lacking the blessing of the goddess, many assume that she is some kind of outsider who is new to the People even Ymarn was born in Greenbay and has been part of the People for the entirety of her life.

"No, I was born in Greenbay," answers Ymarn, "I was born into the People and have been part of the People for my entire life."

"So why do you, well, not have?" starts Bonryn with some confusion at Ymarn's answer before indicating towards her own chest, already large despite her age.

Another thing that Ymarn has grown used to as she has grown older is that she doesn't have the looks and health of every other woman in the village. While all those with the goddess' blessing have wide hips to safely birth their babies and ample bosoms to feed them, Ymarn doesn't. She is by no means weak or sickly, but her hips are thin and slender while her bosom is almost as non-existent as that of a man.

Not only does her body ensure that she is often mistaken for a former outsider, but no man in the village wants Ymarn to have their child. No one wishes to have children with her when they could go for a woman with child-bearing curves. Even as she grows close to her fortieth winter and begins to gain the elder grey in her hair, Ymarn has yet to have any children from her own womb.

But none of that matters and the answer to Bonryn's question is a simple one.

"Both of my parents were from the lowlands," says Ymarn, "Rescued from the Foresters by the traders sent south long before anyone here was born. As a result, my blood doesn't have any blessed blood to it despite being born amongst the People."

"Oh," mutters Bonryn as several of the kids start chatting amongst themselves and Ymarn has little doubt as to what they are talking about.

Glancing at the sun, Ymarn decides that it is beginning to get late in the day.

"Everyone," says Ymarn loudly as she gets to her feet, "Today's lessons are over. Any further questions can be asked to me tomorrow. I have to prepare for tonight's tribute to the goddess."

"Why are you leading the tribute if the goddess hasn't blessed you?" demands Gyrd, earning himself glares and unhappy mutterings from his fellow children while Ymarn lets out an internal sigh.

She knows that Gyrd isn't the most quick-witted of the People or even quick-witted at all, but even for him, he is being slow to grasp what he should have learned many seasons ago.

As the children set themselves upon Gyrd, Ymarn ignores them as she isn't about to answer questions after she just said she wouldn't and she is confident in the ability of the rest of the children to educate Gyrd or the very least, answer the question that he asked.

The days where Ymarn was the one collecting the tribute have past and at her current age, she has youngsters to do it for her. Making her way to the shrine, someone should already be there waiting for her with the collected tribute. The crowd will have already begun to gather and when she arrives, Ymarn is proven correct as there is already a handful of people at the shrine. While some may be praying to the goddess on their own time, others will have arrived early for the tribute.

Giving out a few polite greetings as she passes the gathered people, Ymarn makes her way to the centre shrine, where a young lad is waiting with a cart of spare food, both meat and plant.

"Thank you Warth," says Ymarn to the lad who gives her a polite nod in return, "I shall take matters from here. Feel free to watch and learn."

As she waits for the crowd to properly gather as more and more people trickle in, Ymarn goes through the tribute, making sure that there is enough and it is all in good condition. It would be disrespectful to Arthryn to give the goddess inferior tribute when there is food in better quality available.

As the crowd reaches a good size by Ymarn's count, the elder finishes looking at the tribute, deciding that it is all in fit condition to be offered up to the goddess.

Deciding that it is time to offer up the tribute, Ymarn makes her way to the central statue of Arthryn, which has been joint by some cat stone carvings in the last generation along with a couple carvings of the goddess' head. Ignoring the crowd, Ymarn begins the ritual, praising Arthryn for her wisdom and offering her thanks for her teachings before finally offering up the tribute to Arthryn, a show of how they have followed her wisdom well enough to enough food spare to give it up as tribute.

Normally, the tribute offering would end and the gathered people would either get on with the rest of their day or stick about to make a private offering or thanks to the goddess. Instead, the main figure glows with light and Ymarn covers her eyes so it doesn't blind her.

Keeping her arm covering her vision, Ymarn feels a strange sensation. Not a bad one, but an odd one as she feels like someone has slapped wet clay on her. Except it is all over her body and all of her body is wet clay. The feeling lasts for a bare moment before Ymarn feels like she is back to normal.

Feeling disoriented, Ymarn attempts to lower her arm now that the light has faded, but encounters resistance as her arm is blocked by something.

Glancing downwards, Ymarn's eyes widen as she spots the large breasts on her chest that were not there before. Having idea of what has happened to her, Ymarn twists around enough to see past her newfound bosom to see that her hips have also grown out. Glancing at the statue of Arthryn, Ymarn begins to realise what happened to her and checks the length of her hair to confirm it.

As she puts together what just happened, the elder looks back and forth between the statue of the goddess and her new form as she realises that her form is now a flesh and blood copy of the statue.

Ymarn hopes that her face has stayed the same, but regardless of that, she cannot help, but regard this as a positive development. She has a few seasons left to give birth to a child or two and now that she has been blessed by the goddess, Ymarn will have no trouble finding a man to give her some.

What does Ymarn focus on?
[] Looking after her family. Ymarn teaches her children to take after her and uphold her legacy.
[] Leading the People. Having been blessed by Arthryn, Ymarn leverages her new prestige and her own talents to gain leadership of the People.
[] Service to Arthryn. In gratitude to the goddess for her blessing, Ymarn devotes herself to serving Arthryn faithfully.
[] Studying the world. Ymarn chooses to spend her time study the nature of the world and how it works in the hopes of finding new insights to help the People.


The secondary action that came with the vote was Venerate Arthryn, which managed to crit succeed while you have a Mystic Genius. When thinking of an appropriate thing for the hero-crit to cause, I figured that since Ymarn lacked the blessing of Arthryn despite being a devoted and faithful follower, I figured that Ymarn would get personally blessed by Arthryn and I would roll to see if she gets a boost from one Arthryn's heroic attributes. She did and it turned out to be admin so now you have a Mystic-Admin Hero.

And of course, an Admin Hero hijacks the turn actions. This makes for interesting times as you have a Hero taking leadership of the People for the first time in centuries in addition to being Mystic Hero as your religion is gaining more internal power. As per the title of the update, the reign of Ymarn has begun.