"Naughty Naughty" You chide, driving your will into the virus-infested structure that was seeking to do something ill-advised. "Trying to take the prize from those who bested you?"
The fan snaps shut, extends into a shaft, and you twist your self-image into a swing--a blade crackling with verdant light erupts, gently curving downward.
The Scythe of the Maiden meets the Shadow of the Nightbringer--and carves it in twain
A howl of dying stars buffets you, but you are beyond the pretender god's power. You simply lean your scythe against you and smile.
The structure's lights flicker--the virus within submitting to your authority--and begin glowing a far brighter and healthier shade.
"Mine now" You smile as the echo flees screaming. "So don't come back if you know what's good for you."
Now you had a boat, Ho Ho Ho.
Yesssss. Now all shall quiver before the Flower Boat and its unstoppable voyage, dispensing justice vegetables and pleasing floral scents too all.
But seriously holy shit what are we feeding these dice. We just got here and most of the crisis got solved.
"Thoughts have power, even the thoughts of a machine" You add. "If a machine thinks that hard that it's alive, goes through all of the gestures to be alive, and even conducts sacrifice to convince itself even more that it's alive…"
"Then it counts as being alive, which means it can die?" Dana shakes her head. "That's ridiculous"
"Nah, it's just how the world works once you get right down to it.
Right. This world is literally shaped by thoughts and beliefs, which is why our new doctrines are so important. It's more than just what new technology and techniques we can get because what we believe, what we ideals we teach and spread to others can change, well, everything.
I'm picking this because, as pointed out earlier, it's damn near unique in the setting. Optimism is something that simply doesn't happen. It's also incredibly useful as a stabiliser and potentially a force multiplier; more optimistic cultists will be better able to endure hard times, and will have better morale on the field and thus be harder to break. Which brings me onto the final reason I like it.
It's essentially taking one of Nurgle's core traits- accepting everything is fucked up and only going to get worse- and flipping it on its head. Giving the same benefits, but from a much brighter standpoint. Emphasising the difference between us, while at the same time still being incredibly similar. And that's a level of thematic irony I really like.
Ruin and despair has put through the universe in the wringer and its only got rid of the Chaos Gods relatively recently. The scars are still there, and that's not counting all the other shit still here.
And that's something really, really interesting to me. What would happen if, after the worst storm of despair has passed, we plant the seeds of hope? How much can we change from this act? I want to see this change, a new being offering something truly new to other people, more than just power or a release from pain, but a chance that things can really change for the better.
Also but giving hope we would be spitting in Nurgle's dead face and cribbing from Tzeentch's profile, so that's a plus!
[X] Enlightenment of the Mind: The world is a dark and dreary place, but that doesn't mean you have to be--the Cult of Verdance believes in this thought, and take steps to brighten things up even when things are getting a bit shady--it's a bit infectious really.
[X] Stand: You've a ripe opportunity to take over a whole world! After all, you and your followers saved it in the first place. You're going to need to subvert the Governor's power though--and deal with the response that comes when you rise up in inevitable rebellion. But you'll have time, space, and manpower eventually provided your cult's expansion continues apace.
[X] Guardian
Power of salvation and security
I want to sell the idea of us being the good guys, of being protectors of justice and the weak and all that stuff, mostly so we could convince as many people to our side without bloodshed. And Guardian can prevent bloodshed even when fighting breaks out. Wanna do this because having to fight your people and parents suck.
Also a bunch of cultists creating plant abominations with no idea what they're doing is not as good an image. A cool one, just a very worrying.
but currently sorcery is losing by like 20 votes so we won't actually have that couse we are getting harvest. and that's the thing our entire build revolves around making creatures or plants that are unstoppable that not taking weavers of life is just so damn weird. all of our things are biology so why not take the biology focus for our cult it just doesn't make sense to me
The thing is that the bioweaving stuff is cool and all, but its more "something we can do," like a skill or technique. For one of the first foundational Doctrine should probably be "what we are," something that lays the backbone of our beliefs.
Also we totally would be doing bioweaving stuff, we just won't be spearheading a cult of mad scientists that may create plant abominations and go all "MWAHAHA IT'S ALIVE" and the inevitable "OBEY ME I AM YOUR CREATOR."
The Maiden totally still would though. The IT'S ALIVE part, not the second thing.
Just saying.
