- Pronouns
- He/Him
Alright. As the one positing it I'll come up with something and ask the thread how it seems, what needs to be changed, etc.
Also I edited in a few other things in the post you replied to if it matters.
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From the Hidden City (Warhammer Lizardmen Temple-City Quest)
- Thread starter CuttleFish2.0
- Start date
- Fantasy
Also I edited in a few other things in the post you replied to if it matters.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Can one assume a level of arcane management for Lizardmen insofar as handling some details @CuttleFish2.0 ? Like a rider dealing with the extreme velocity changes of a lunging serpent, communication, etc? Should I/we be making those nuances? Or should it be entirely absent any arcane solutions to issues, even minor ones?
I ask this. Because I saw a post by you of Lizardmen operating with the assumption that their casters will be able to provide lots of enchantments to make up for things in war. On the other hand it doesn't seem like every beast is managed with some sort of tool that conveys meaning and impressions, or outright controls them.
On a different note:
I ask this. Because I saw a post by you of Lizardmen operating with the assumption that their casters will be able to provide lots of enchantments to make up for things in war. On the other hand it doesn't seem like every beast is managed with some sort of tool that conveys meaning and impressions, or outright controls them.
On a different note:
Is this the same situation for Dread Saurians?
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I belive there are some on Dragon Islands on the Sea of Dread.
An odd question but how likely would our ambassadors be to meet the daughter of everqueen? Far as I'm aware they do not leave Avelorn so probably not likely. She could visit the court perhaps. Could be intresting?
Edit:
There are other places Old Ones 'invested' into. Evenif staffing was somewhat insufficient. Khuresh and Nippon having potential for that.
While Albion remaied in human hands, Khuresh was lost to chaos worshippers - Lamia like sentients if I recall right - and would intrench them selfs so hard it would take combine forces of Cathey, Nippon and Ind to get rid of them.... I think.
Either way. Old Ones stuff is durable. can be found in oddest of places. It is also inflinsicly rare.
Just something to keep in mind.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
I think you might be mixing it up with the fact they fought dragons in the primordial era for what would become Lustria.
huh, It was Thunder Lizards, not Dread Saurians. As far as was stated. Also 'dragons' are very 'clannish' be the sound of thing. Do not put them into one bag.
Could be still happen. It was never a very detailed area so Its possible. Mayby.
Need better navy or port on the other side of continet to try establishing contact.
No temple city will build a harbor before being refounded. It's asking for trouble other wise. Unless it's really well hidden...
On that note. While it is possible to create spawning pools on an outpost, refounding a Temple City is still easier than founding a new one. As our early turnes showed...
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm using the words straight from the canonical description in Monstrous Arcanum.
CuttleFish2.0
Friendly neighborhood cuttlefish
- Location
- Seattle, Washington.
Its not something that has come up mainly because either the 'viewpoint' characters have not known enough about the magic going on to comment on it or it's been in background enough that there's never been a good place for it to come up. There might be a decent place in Curious Archmages this turn for it to come up, but we're not there yet. Basically there is a fair amount of magic going on it's just pretty subtle.
But, my intention isn't for you to spend time coming up with every minute detail; just a rundown of the role(s) you foresee the warbeast playing in your forces, i.e. are they scouts? Shock troops? Passive guardians? Assassins? Monster duellists? Would they even have a rider? More than one? Sometimes? Never? basically, why are the slann deciding this is something they need to have.
These are the sort of questions that I want to get a handle on.
Yes.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Oh, cool, thanks for the clarification! That makes things even more fun. I'll still handle stuff like--
of course. I just don't have to figure out how they would be made acclimated to fellow warbeasts' presence and other really detailed stuff. So much less minutiae.
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- Location
- The Space Between
There are Elephants on the Plains. They're not cold-blooded but they're smart and there's an existing population. We could probably train them for labor assistance and eventually develop a war-panoply for them. Maybe.
They're likely smaller and lighter than our current heavy-labor beasts, at the cost of being way less useful for war initially. Elephants are very adaptable to various terrain though, and can even spend significant time swimming or surviving/living in cave systems. They survive in areas of extreme drought and also jungles of dense foliage. Some advantages:
1- Disembarking from ships is way easier than our current heavy war beasts (which double as beasts of burden)
2- Warmblood population growth
3- Very intelligent with a dexterous trunk. Capable of feats of gentleness, precision and raw strength that currently would have to be done with Kroxigor teams.
4- Expeditions that use them as beasts of burden clear the tops of the existing warbeasts for their war howdahs/engines so that they're ready for surprise combat (cost of having to protect Elephants)
5- Expanded "inventory" space for land expeditions through beast of burden use?
They also seem like a good target for becoming a sacred beast to the Vohlu religion. They're smart enough to create graveyards (earth versions do, at least) so perhaps they'd be a good seed for a sacred guardian of the dead? Pantheon alignment of Xonkha for Duty, Stone. Potec as the one that wards against the supernatural. Potec as one that labors, crafts and forges. This would be a greater project than just domestication. This would be the Lizardmen meddling with their Pantheon by attempting to introduce a god from outside the current three (Njem Njat and Lashu).
Would rely on the author for other uses, but I bet their various parts would make good reagents for magic as well. Not impossible that there's an Old One that likes them (Huanchi exists for Jaguars) either, but that's up to author interpretation.
~~~~~~~
for warbeasts any idea has to compete with Salamanders. They're not Dragon Turtles, but they're still plenty useful
They're likely smaller and lighter than our current heavy-labor beasts, at the cost of being way less useful for war initially. Elephants are very adaptable to various terrain though, and can even spend significant time swimming or surviving/living in cave systems. They survive in areas of extreme drought and also jungles of dense foliage. Some advantages:
1- Disembarking from ships is way easier than our current heavy war beasts (which double as beasts of burden)
2- Warmblood population growth
3- Very intelligent with a dexterous trunk. Capable of feats of gentleness, precision and raw strength that currently would have to be done with Kroxigor teams.
4- Expeditions that use them as beasts of burden clear the tops of the existing warbeasts for their war howdahs/engines so that they're ready for surprise combat (cost of having to protect Elephants)
5- Expanded "inventory" space for land expeditions through beast of burden use?
They also seem like a good target for becoming a sacred beast to the Vohlu religion. They're smart enough to create graveyards (earth versions do, at least) so perhaps they'd be a good seed for a sacred guardian of the dead? Pantheon alignment of Xonkha for Duty, Stone. Potec as the one that wards against the supernatural. Potec as one that labors, crafts and forges. This would be a greater project than just domestication. This would be the Lizardmen meddling with their Pantheon by attempting to introduce a god from outside the current three (Njem Njat and Lashu).
Would rely on the author for other uses, but I bet their various parts would make good reagents for magic as well. Not impossible that there's an Old One that likes them (Huanchi exists for Jaguars) either, but that's up to author interpretation.
~~~~~~~
for warbeasts any idea has to compete with Salamanders. They're not Dragon Turtles, but they're still plenty useful
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daedalus725
Kell of Kells, godking of Planet X
- Location
- Daedalus crater, The moon
As some who was for elephants before I support bringing them in ( even if we cannot teach the magic)
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Earth-Destroyer, you're repeating the same arguments over and over with at most minor variations. And they're not good arguments, because even if all the facts you say are true, they don't actually lead to your desired conclusion.
Congratulations, you've proven we need force multipliers and ways to keep our advantages solid and growing. Why this advantage in particular? Why this, and not that? You seem to keep evading questions like that in favor of falling back on the 'solid ground' of "orcs and beastmen and humans will outnumber us, therefore we must prepare by doing exactly the thing I think we should do."
Do you acknowledge that other people are finding this to be a problem, yes or no?
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We seem to have a fundamentally disagreement about this quest. We have severe short and long term problems to deal with. Solutions that address both short and longer term issues are the ideal.
You ask the question why should we reinforce the other temple cities with our warbeasts, notably Terradons and Cold Ones, alongside newly created warmachines.
When the answer is to send them warbeasts, and warmachines, so they are more militarily capable, can scout larger areas, deal with smaller bands of orks, beastmen, to lower the chances of them growing into problems will have to spend actions to deploy military forces to handle.
If you have any other ideas about practical solutions to improving the situations at the other temples cites please put them forward. We are still at the point where spending effort repairing our own city, gives us more then trying to repair another city. But we can reinforce, and improve the Lizardmen that are their, and their capabilities, even if we cannot get the city operating.
Reminder we are expecting hostile humans in a few turns.
You ask the question why should we reinforce the other temple cities with our warbeasts, notably Terradons and Cold Ones, alongside newly created warmachines.
When the answer is to send them warbeasts, and warmachines, so they are more militarily capable, can scout larger areas, deal with smaller bands of orks, beastmen, to lower the chances of them growing into problems will have to spend actions to deploy military forces to handle.
If you have any other ideas about practical solutions to improving the situations at the other temples cites please put them forward. We are still at the point where spending effort repairing our own city, gives us more then trying to repair another city. But we can reinforce, and improve the Lizardmen that are their, and their capabilities, even if we cannot get the city operating.
Reminder we are expecting hostile humans in a few turns.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
I know there's a chance of something going terribly wrong with experimental pool work so my heart was in my throat when I saw how low our roll was. Lucky we had so many bonuses.
It's interesting to hear that the geomantic web could boost the performance of spawning pools so much
It's interesting to hear that the geomantic web could boost the performance of spawning pools so much
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I mean, considering it's long established that they, like all infrastructure in a temple-city, are connected to it, it makes sense.
Not only th level of the city geomantic, but also the magnitude of Continenta Web. This is a slef reinforcing system. The more elements the better the synergies.
Going from Mag 1 to Mag 2 could possibly double the rate of spawnings. Sure depends on QM what other variables will influence it. But it is worth pursuing anyway.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
@CuttleFish2.0
The Utility of the Amaxon Swamp Python:
The titular serpent offers a number of tactical possibilities, filling holes in an already fairly versatile roster of warbeasts.
Aquatic: the few sources available, and those of RL counterparts, paint the snake and said counterparts as very comfortably aquatic. At their size, they would provide a strong amphibious force supplemented by Skinks and/or Kroxigors, allowing for absolutely brutal defense of river crossings. Between their low slung bodies relative to their size and natural coloration, any formation up to the size of monstrous infantry would be disrupted by the surprise, force, and writing coils of this snake. As natural ambush predators with nostrils just barely sticking above the water, they would be well suited to guarding confined waterways as well. Alternatively, they could quickly and quietly cross rivers, night or day, to bypass enemy forces or strike them in the rear or flank. Faster in water than on land, (5 knots on land, 10 in water for smaller IRL contemporaries) a river or lake or ocean might well become a tool to throw their bodies about with force that can only be leveraged in singular bursts on land.
Outside of combat, they could take the place of the pliodon. This monstrous amphibian has been noted as unsuccessfully transplanted to the Southlands, and assuming issues of IRL stamina are handled, the Amaxon Swamp Python could fulfill their role as transports of bodies and materiel. Smarter and less aggressive on average (based on comparisons between Lustria stats), they could well be more reliable. These are perhaps the easiest things to train and instill as far as their role in Lizardmen society and warfare.
In deeper waters, between the example of crushing Bretonnian galleons and the osmoregulation of some RL pythons it can be assumed that they can be active in salt water. Against enemy vessels, they might be less effective at destroying enemy ships with a presumed weaker bite and less armored exterior (though more than equivalent to heavy armor) they could well have a use as ship clearers, utilizing their ferrous nature and flexibility to snatch up crewmen, sweep them overboard with a swing of the tail or ripple of the body, all while dashing between water and craft—a coterie of Skinks and possibly Saurus could well cling to the long body of the serpent as it makes its way to its target and use its body to climb onto a vessel like a scaly bridge. Destruction via blunt force or construction would still be possible of course, but the former already covered by Dragon Turtles, the latter exposing the serpent to danger.
Submersible combat is quite possible.
However, given the nature of the evidence, potential to swim in salt water may not mean natural ability to. the context is towards offering a riverine lifestyle. Challenges may be presented in adapting them to oceanic combat, and a lack of easily available solid surfaces to supplement their amphibious combat style. Moreover, it may require full focus on breeding and raising them on the shore and shallows so as to not confuse and disrupt their physiologies from moving between salt water and fresh river water environments. As such, this might be considered a separate path of starting specialized development independent of these warbeast's general development, or an advanced one in their general development after initial taming and training. Akin to training that "costs" more perhaps.
As aquatic mounts, and mounts in general, Saurus would likely be best to help the pythons make the most of their deadliness and morphology, Tzunki-favored being the best followed Itzl. However, Abyssal Exploration Gear would be intermittently required depending on the situation and rider. Skinks would have less will to control them into the most skillful means of combat, but would be lighter and be much more effective overall due to not being quite as hindered in Aquatic situations. The largest pythons would likely require a Saurus, barring raising by and bonding with a particular, strong Skink from hatchling/spawnling age.
Subterranean: With infrared sensing, a natural inclination to dark, deep places, sensing via vibrations, and a great flexibility, younger pythons would be well suited to providing heavy support underground as well as exploring new, untouched areas beneath the surface. No warbeast currently fulfills a subterranean role save for very arguably Troglodons. Underground bodies of water would be little hindrance either, and their flexibility would preclude getting stuck, while also providing raw strength in areas where Kroxigors cannot yet fit. Even older pythons could conceivably squeeze themselves into tight areas and drive off or deal with threats with their sheer force and bites.
Mountaineering: Pythons and other snakes are quite adept at navigating rough terrain, providing monster support in areas less moving able for other warbeasts, such as the recent innocent with the hydra where Stegadons could only proceed part way. That same example provides another unique benefit, the transport of supplies into hardy terrain. However, these would be two successively difficult developments. Already naturally inclined to least effort and motion, the serpents would be ill inclined to take up notable amounts of extra burden up terrain that further taxes them. Moreover, harnesses and restraints that would keep supplies and tools secure against gravity and the python's method of movement under far greater pressure from gravity than on a body of water would further agitate the snakes. Even as a possible advanced development, barring arcane solutions the pythons would likely be carrying less cargo relative to their size up mountains than other monsters harnessed by the Lizardmen.
Open field battle: I foresee pythons on open ground combat to unfortunately have the least utility barring "inefficient" arcane means of allowing them to maintain their stamina. But, absent forest, water or similarly uneven terrain where they might harness their morphologies for multi-angle near 3Dimensional combat, I see them as monster hunters, with a secondary roll of formation disruption.
Monster Fighters: though not natural killers of the level of active carnivores like Carnosaurs and Troglodons, the pythons rival such in intelligence and their means of killing are effective enough that they need but refine their technique until constriction is the end result rather than the first step. Their instincts controlled, the threat of death not so overpowering, they learn to dodge, to slither back and forth, to turn their agility and initiative which outmatches the majority of similarly sized monsters into their greatest asset, and go for the metaphorical killing stroke: the constriction. Such a path would be well suited to lone combat, monster duels, and encouraging greater overall combat ability.
A secondary path would be to make the constriction an art. It need not kill, be it in seconds or minutes, it just needs to successfully latch on such that in the heat of battle, local Lizardmen alloes can take advantage of it for strikes that would never succeed Otherwise against a mobile, alert for ten or more times their size. Stabs into the eyes, under armor, into pits and necks and soft bits. Such a path of development would encourage cooperation and socialization with Lizardmen and willing fellow warbeasts better able to give such a blow.
Against masses of infantry of varying sizes, I see them used ss brief, wild spasming lengths utterly shattering semblance of formation in the flanks, creating great vulnerable holes for cavalry regiments to charge into. Frontal assaults would be more effectively carried out by Stegadons and Bastiladons as far as counterparts. Their low slung bodies and sinuous movements would help defend against ranged attacks as they approach. However, this sort of flailing in open air would be extremely disorienting to riders, and might even be unfeasible with them.
Outside of open, flattish terrain they would thrive in uneven terrain combat, such as forests and mountains, able to maneuver back and forth, up and down, striking and disrupting and practically becoming a mobile part of the environment. However, this could potentially be an advanced development due to the disinclination to fight in ways that are not immediately lethal, requiring expert training and/or particularly capable riders. It is a means of combat based on looking ahead, strategizing beyond instinct.
Urban combat: Though slips, trips and falls and the hazards of immovable terrain are not as big an issue as to real life counterparts, they are still a thing. But where heavy set quadrupeds or suddenly clumsy therapies might by stymied, their foes hiding behind walls, on solid roofs, in a thicket of (exceptionally tough) trees and branches, not so pythons which might slither through, into or over. As more and more civilizations are encountered and/or develop, urban combat becomes increasingly likely.
Economics: Snakes shed skin. Often. As the serpent's scales used by Tehenhauin show, the larger ones in this world have shed skins that can serve as quite capable armor, and given the organic nature and symbolism of the act, could be rife for enchantment. It would also provide a relatively consistent exotic trade good.
Unique possibility 1: In order to maximize their cooperation and effectiveness, there may be an opportunity to instill a unique bond between Skinks and Pythons not entirely unlike that between Kroxigors and Skinks. The basic concept is of affection and understanding that each provides something the other cannot, albeit for different reasons. The serpents cannot chew or cut up their food, or cook it, both of which are important for easier digestion, which is exceptionally important as the swallow whole method by which Pythons would have ingrained in them could lay them up for days or weeks. Both Skinks and Pythons enjoy water. One provides raw power, the other provides answers and solutions to problems a python is too animalistic or ignorant or lacking in dexterity and locomotion to solve. Relative to RL pythons and other constrictors, they are more docile than many serpent species, and in regards to those they regard as caretakers/providers. Skinks can provide (or seem to provide) artificial heat sources that the Pythons would otherwise not know to seek, or comprehend. And Skinks would be able to assist in the comfortable shedding process. All of this could work to forge bonds of trust, companionship, and symbiosis beyond that of other warbeasts.
Unique possibility 2: Pythons perceive heat, and sense through vibrations in the earth. Given the nature of the Geomantic Web and its ties to the geothermal energy, there might be things that might develop from that.
Aesthetics: By far the least useful, but still a thing. The serpentine body shape is not held by anything in our people or arsenal, and thus would stand out.
————
Relationships with other , barring exceptional solutions and expenditure:
Stegadons: Uncomfortable to neutral on average. As somewhat aggressive, protective herbivores, a gigantic predator would be uncomfortable. However, docility would assist in a more neutral, passive relationship when close by.
Razordons: Uncomfortable to neutral on average. While Razordons are easily small enough to be on the menu and they have similar habitats, apex predators will think twice before attacking a Razordon due to their natural defenses. They also do not compete with each other for natural food sources.
Salamanders: Uncomfortable on average. Sharing similar habitats, not exceptionally different food sources, and one being small enough to be a meal makes close quarters unlikely to be easy.
Carnosaurs: Uncomfortable to hostile. Apex predators, utterly different habitats making them not used to each other as far as their instincts, and Carnosaurs being exceptionally aggressive.
Troglodons: Uncomfortable to amiable? Would depend on development and circumstances, but similar levels of patience, being too large to be easy prey, and a noted ability to bond with others as well as shared likenesses in habitat could potentially serve to make them comfortable with each other.
Bastiladons: Neutral to positive. Too heavy and thick to swallow and digest for the pythons, these would naturally know they have no threat to each other on average. Younger pythons might potentially come to enjoy sunning themselves on the armored backs of their heavier monstrous associates, and from there serving as highly dextrous "guards" in battle. Though there might be an amusing challenge of keeping the older, larger Pythons from carrying on this behavior as far as sitting atop their increasingly overwhelmed friends.
Terradons and Ripperdactyls: Uncomfortable to hostile. Their eggs would be choice delicacies to pythons of all ages, and their flapping about and screeching, often in numbers, could well overstimulate the hunting instinct of the average python
The Utility of the Amaxon Swamp Python:
The titular serpent offers a number of tactical possibilities, filling holes in an already fairly versatile roster of warbeasts.
Aquatic: the few sources available, and those of RL counterparts, paint the snake and said counterparts as very comfortably aquatic. At their size, they would provide a strong amphibious force supplemented by Skinks and/or Kroxigors, allowing for absolutely brutal defense of river crossings. Between their low slung bodies relative to their size and natural coloration, any formation up to the size of monstrous infantry would be disrupted by the surprise, force, and writing coils of this snake. As natural ambush predators with nostrils just barely sticking above the water, they would be well suited to guarding confined waterways as well. Alternatively, they could quickly and quietly cross rivers, night or day, to bypass enemy forces or strike them in the rear or flank. Faster in water than on land, (5 knots on land, 10 in water for smaller IRL contemporaries) a river or lake or ocean might well become a tool to throw their bodies about with force that can only be leveraged in singular bursts on land.
Outside of combat, they could take the place of the pliodon. This monstrous amphibian has been noted as unsuccessfully transplanted to the Southlands, and assuming issues of IRL stamina are handled, the Amaxon Swamp Python could fulfill their role as transports of bodies and materiel. Smarter and less aggressive on average (based on comparisons between Lustria stats), they could well be more reliable. These are perhaps the easiest things to train and instill as far as their role in Lizardmen society and warfare.
In deeper waters, between the example of crushing Bretonnian galleons and the osmoregulation of some RL pythons it can be assumed that they can be active in salt water. Against enemy vessels, they might be less effective at destroying enemy ships with a presumed weaker bite and less armored exterior (though more than equivalent to heavy armor) they could well have a use as ship clearers, utilizing their ferrous nature and flexibility to snatch up crewmen, sweep them overboard with a swing of the tail or ripple of the body, all while dashing between water and craft—a coterie of Skinks and possibly Saurus could well cling to the long body of the serpent as it makes its way to its target and use its body to climb onto a vessel like a scaly bridge. Destruction via blunt force or construction would still be possible of course, but the former already covered by Dragon Turtles, the latter exposing the serpent to danger.
Submersible combat is quite possible.
However, given the nature of the evidence, potential to swim in salt water may not mean natural ability to. the context is towards offering a riverine lifestyle. Challenges may be presented in adapting them to oceanic combat, and a lack of easily available solid surfaces to supplement their amphibious combat style. Moreover, it may require full focus on breeding and raising them on the shore and shallows so as to not confuse and disrupt their physiologies from moving between salt water and fresh river water environments. As such, this might be considered a separate path of starting specialized development independent of these warbeast's general development, or an advanced one in their general development after initial taming and training. Akin to training that "costs" more perhaps.
As aquatic mounts, and mounts in general, Saurus would likely be best to help the pythons make the most of their deadliness and morphology, Tzunki-favored being the best followed Itzl. However, Abyssal Exploration Gear would be intermittently required depending on the situation and rider. Skinks would have less will to control them into the most skillful means of combat, but would be lighter and be much more effective overall due to not being quite as hindered in Aquatic situations. The largest pythons would likely require a Saurus, barring raising by and bonding with a particular, strong Skink from hatchling/spawnling age.
Subterranean: With infrared sensing, a natural inclination to dark, deep places, sensing via vibrations, and a great flexibility, younger pythons would be well suited to providing heavy support underground as well as exploring new, untouched areas beneath the surface. No warbeast currently fulfills a subterranean role save for very arguably Troglodons. Underground bodies of water would be little hindrance either, and their flexibility would preclude getting stuck, while also providing raw strength in areas where Kroxigors cannot yet fit. Even older pythons could conceivably squeeze themselves into tight areas and drive off or deal with threats with their sheer force and bites.
Mountaineering: Pythons and other snakes are quite adept at navigating rough terrain, providing monster support in areas less moving able for other warbeasts, such as the recent innocent with the hydra where Stegadons could only proceed part way. That same example provides another unique benefit, the transport of supplies into hardy terrain. However, these would be two successively difficult developments. Already naturally inclined to least effort and motion, the serpents would be ill inclined to take up notable amounts of extra burden up terrain that further taxes them. Moreover, harnesses and restraints that would keep supplies and tools secure against gravity and the python's method of movement under far greater pressure from gravity than on a body of water would further agitate the snakes. Even as a possible advanced development, barring arcane solutions the pythons would likely be carrying less cargo relative to their size up mountains than other monsters harnessed by the Lizardmen.
Open field battle: I foresee pythons on open ground combat to unfortunately have the least utility barring "inefficient" arcane means of allowing them to maintain their stamina. But, absent forest, water or similarly uneven terrain where they might harness their morphologies for multi-angle near 3Dimensional combat, I see them as monster hunters, with a secondary roll of formation disruption.
Monster Fighters: though not natural killers of the level of active carnivores like Carnosaurs and Troglodons, the pythons rival such in intelligence and their means of killing are effective enough that they need but refine their technique until constriction is the end result rather than the first step. Their instincts controlled, the threat of death not so overpowering, they learn to dodge, to slither back and forth, to turn their agility and initiative which outmatches the majority of similarly sized monsters into their greatest asset, and go for the metaphorical killing stroke: the constriction. Such a path would be well suited to lone combat, monster duels, and encouraging greater overall combat ability.
A secondary path would be to make the constriction an art. It need not kill, be it in seconds or minutes, it just needs to successfully latch on such that in the heat of battle, local Lizardmen alloes can take advantage of it for strikes that would never succeed Otherwise against a mobile, alert for ten or more times their size. Stabs into the eyes, under armor, into pits and necks and soft bits. Such a path of development would encourage cooperation and socialization with Lizardmen and willing fellow warbeasts better able to give such a blow.
Against masses of infantry of varying sizes, I see them used ss brief, wild spasming lengths utterly shattering semblance of formation in the flanks, creating great vulnerable holes for cavalry regiments to charge into. Frontal assaults would be more effectively carried out by Stegadons and Bastiladons as far as counterparts. Their low slung bodies and sinuous movements would help defend against ranged attacks as they approach. However, this sort of flailing in open air would be extremely disorienting to riders, and might even be unfeasible with them.
Outside of open, flattish terrain they would thrive in uneven terrain combat, such as forests and mountains, able to maneuver back and forth, up and down, striking and disrupting and practically becoming a mobile part of the environment. However, this could potentially be an advanced development due to the disinclination to fight in ways that are not immediately lethal, requiring expert training and/or particularly capable riders. It is a means of combat based on looking ahead, strategizing beyond instinct.
Urban combat: Though slips, trips and falls and the hazards of immovable terrain are not as big an issue as to real life counterparts, they are still a thing. But where heavy set quadrupeds or suddenly clumsy therapies might by stymied, their foes hiding behind walls, on solid roofs, in a thicket of (exceptionally tough) trees and branches, not so pythons which might slither through, into or over. As more and more civilizations are encountered and/or develop, urban combat becomes increasingly likely.
Economics: Snakes shed skin. Often. As the serpent's scales used by Tehenhauin show, the larger ones in this world have shed skins that can serve as quite capable armor, and given the organic nature and symbolism of the act, could be rife for enchantment. It would also provide a relatively consistent exotic trade good.
Unique possibility 1: In order to maximize their cooperation and effectiveness, there may be an opportunity to instill a unique bond between Skinks and Pythons not entirely unlike that between Kroxigors and Skinks. The basic concept is of affection and understanding that each provides something the other cannot, albeit for different reasons. The serpents cannot chew or cut up their food, or cook it, both of which are important for easier digestion, which is exceptionally important as the swallow whole method by which Pythons would have ingrained in them could lay them up for days or weeks. Both Skinks and Pythons enjoy water. One provides raw power, the other provides answers and solutions to problems a python is too animalistic or ignorant or lacking in dexterity and locomotion to solve. Relative to RL pythons and other constrictors, they are more docile than many serpent species, and in regards to those they regard as caretakers/providers. Skinks can provide (or seem to provide) artificial heat sources that the Pythons would otherwise not know to seek, or comprehend. And Skinks would be able to assist in the comfortable shedding process. All of this could work to forge bonds of trust, companionship, and symbiosis beyond that of other warbeasts.
Unique possibility 2: Pythons perceive heat, and sense through vibrations in the earth. Given the nature of the Geomantic Web and its ties to the geothermal energy, there might be things that might develop from that.
Aesthetics: By far the least useful, but still a thing. The serpentine body shape is not held by anything in our people or arsenal, and thus would stand out.
————
Relationships with other , barring exceptional solutions and expenditure:
Stegadons: Uncomfortable to neutral on average. As somewhat aggressive, protective herbivores, a gigantic predator would be uncomfortable. However, docility would assist in a more neutral, passive relationship when close by.
Razordons: Uncomfortable to neutral on average. While Razordons are easily small enough to be on the menu and they have similar habitats, apex predators will think twice before attacking a Razordon due to their natural defenses. They also do not compete with each other for natural food sources.
Salamanders: Uncomfortable on average. Sharing similar habitats, not exceptionally different food sources, and one being small enough to be a meal makes close quarters unlikely to be easy.
Carnosaurs: Uncomfortable to hostile. Apex predators, utterly different habitats making them not used to each other as far as their instincts, and Carnosaurs being exceptionally aggressive.
Troglodons: Uncomfortable to amiable? Would depend on development and circumstances, but similar levels of patience, being too large to be easy prey, and a noted ability to bond with others as well as shared likenesses in habitat could potentially serve to make them comfortable with each other.
Bastiladons: Neutral to positive. Too heavy and thick to swallow and digest for the pythons, these would naturally know they have no threat to each other on average. Younger pythons might potentially come to enjoy sunning themselves on the armored backs of their heavier monstrous associates, and from there serving as highly dextrous "guards" in battle. Though there might be an amusing challenge of keeping the older, larger Pythons from carrying on this behavior as far as sitting atop their increasingly overwhelmed friends.
Terradons and Ripperdactyls: Uncomfortable to hostile. Their eggs would be choice delicacies to pythons of all ages, and their flapping about and screeching, often in numbers, could well overstimulate the hunting instinct of the average python
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daedalus725
Kell of Kells, godking of Planet X
- Location
- Daedalus crater, The moon
Random thought based on the band the Python might be native to the south lands
Because pythons are Africa rather than South American
Because pythons are Africa rather than South American
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm aware of the potential species mixup myself for that and other reasons, and have informed Cuttlefish.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
With what he got from the Hydra itself, I wonder if a spell that could regenerate a destroyed or severed head, at least if it was quick enough. If severed Saurus heads can keep snapping for three days, I figure they at least have the physiology as capable rcipiebts of such a spell.
Experimental Pool Work: In Shadow
New
CuttleFish2.0
Friendly neighborhood cuttlefish
- Location
- Seattle, Washington.
Deep within the bowels of each temple, where lie the lower archives; those storehouses of ancient records, domain of hoary scribes, past aisles of stone shelves there is a spot. Fifteen paces by fifteen paces across, precisely, no matter who or what trods their length. There silence sits long and heavy and shadows yawn in bated anticipation.
One who walks with the correct authority, warded by certain permissions, may come and see not bare stone and emptiness, but a cube of obsinite— five meters to a side and five meters tall, a circular slab set into one face decorated by ring after ring of golden-glyphs gleaming with fell magics. Each promising a retribution greater and more terrible than the last should the unworthy breach their seal. No lock or key opens the way, for those recognized the portal simply opens and the waiting forms of temple-guard retreat back into the shadowed crevices that hid them.
Within lie the greatest treasure of any temple-city, hung like curtains between polished poles of bone set deep into the floor, the Sacred Plaques of the Old Ones through which they once revealed their instructions to their Servants in ages gone. Each a rectangle three hand lengths wide and five tall, and etched with innumerable tiny glyphs and geometric designs like the fine filaments of fungal mycelium.
Each temple in Zlatlan holds more than a dozen plaques. More than a hundred across the entire temple-city, half again what all the temples of Chuqitzan put together hold. Treasures more precious than even the slann themselves.
Day 29 Potec's Season, 11652
Huanxi'otl and Qu'ata'xamundi sat across from one another in the Star Chamber of the latter; a simple hexagonal room, arcing high overhead, walls decorated with the glyphs of the Old Ones. Scattered around the edge of the edge of the chamber on plinths and held in skeletal wooden frameworks were the fossilized of remains from before the coming of the Old Ones to the world— segmented coils wrapped around a hook clawed hand, some sort of multi-chambered shell, a thin tube bristling with long spikes, and more and stranger.
Between the slann on a wooden stand was a single Sacred Plaque, surface rippling slowly with prismatic waves. Symbols and patterns shifted and rearranged themselves.
Sat upon their palanquins, eyes closed, their breath slow and gently inflating and deflating their great chests, neither slann witness those changes. Not with their eyes.
Lesser souls needed to contemplate the Sacred Plaques indirectly, reading vast cosmic meaning and universal truth from the gross matter of their ever changing surfaces by sight and feel. Slann were beyond such crude methods though, their manifold minds and souls of diamond cut perfection had been crafted for greater purpose.
Swirling constellations of half-formed glyphs stretched across a moonsilver skyn held up between pillars of braided crystal. Arcs of lightning kilometers wide met mid-air and rained down sparks on a landscape of roiling shadow, where they landed towering mirror flowers sprouted, petals reflecting impossibilities.
Huanxi'otl braced himself against buffeting winds of long dead tongues.
Overwhelmed, he remained transfixed. Motionless, a rock upon which great tidal currents broke. Shapeless shadows moved beyond perception and direction inverted; beneath the wheeling sky, above the shadow sea and gleaming quicksilver flowers.
Somewhere a bell tolled— out of nothingness unfolded fractal temple-pyramids. Three, five, seven, eleven pointed stars rising in stepped procession.
Rainbow highways rising from their peaks to join together into a vast network that spread from horizon to horizon all around him. Faint, indistinct figures crawled along them like lines of ants. And in the emptiness between the temples and highways the darkness rippled and began to distend, shadow thinning until it ran like rain drops off a leaf and from within the darkness appeared the pale, gleaming surface of Tlazcotl's Eye.
Again tolled the bell, a pure tone, ringing, ringing, ringing—
Night, deepest black and stitched with glittering stars stretched out in every direction.
In a ripple of the umbral warp and weft a squashed teardrop of quicksilver curves appeared in a halo of heavenly fire. Through the void it flew on vast, diaphanous wings of violet that caught invisible currents and bent them into motion, with impossible grace the teardrop swum through the darkness. Flashing across great distances.
Signals raced across the void like lightning; aggressive demands of surrender and identity. Powers to shatter worlds and blacken the stars themselves turned themselves upon the teardrop and… quieted.
Adamantine minds of steel and iron quailed, bending their knees and supplicating themselves like meek slaves. Gnashing, growling predatory souls whined like chastised hounds.
But the voice within the quicksilver vessel ignored them all, racing on.
Soon it neared the fourth world from the star, a jewel of green and blue and white whose orbits glittered with other shapes of quicksilver; these too the voice ignored—
" —Security-and-Safety to Adversary-Collaborator, query purpose, affirm status."
Instead of making for the orbits closer to the world it made for the white moon of the world, pockmarked with craters and fissures. Finding a particular depression, perfectly circular with walls kilometers high, it gently turned and fell toward one of its walls, where the deep shadows hid a wide rectangular cavern.
From that cavern another voice reached out.
"Warning, approach restricted. Damage-dissolution-dea— "
This time the voice within the quicksilver teardrop did respond, "Local-isolate-echo-pattern, acknowledge deep-actual-secondary, confirm. Await instruction."
"Acknowledged, deep-actual-secondary. Ready."
"Alert, local-isolate-agent-primary-all, delivery pending; live specimen, sensitive high-priority. Immediate incubation/containment necessary. Acknowledge."
"Local-isolate-agent-primary-Kra'kro acknowledges, local-isolate-agent-primary-Qrua acknowledges."
Part of the vessel began to distend and pull away, forming a droplet connected only by thin quicksilver strands that eventually snapped. Free the droplet shot off towards the cavern, arcing through the void on small violet wings until it slipped between the yawning opening and came to a stop within an instant. Great basaltic walls rose on either side, their surfaces etched with mammoth labyrinthine diamonds, the ceiling and floor covered in regularly spaced designs of intertwining arcs and circles which lit the room with pure, white light.
Off the back wall, three great corridors ran off into the depths of lunar stone. Contraptions of dark metal and stone lay scattered across the vast hangar, stretched arrowheads and toppled columns.
And before the vessel floated to figures; two long, bent legs dangled beneath a wide, bloated body from which extended a pair of thick, muscled arms. Large sloping heads sat atop their bodies with a wide mouth that nearly split their face and bulging black eyes that glowed with an inner light. Their gazes were fixed firmly on the quicksilver droplet— a quiet whining, popping sound echoing through the hangar.
Finally after several moments the underside of the vessels parted like a curtain, revealing darkness.
And from within that darkness echoed out a voice like a tidal wave. Both figures rocked back as if struck, their eyes widening fractionally as the psychic pressure washed over them and their minds froze in surprise.
"Qrua, Kra'kro (Servants) (Local-isolate-agent-primary-all). Delivery; live specimen, sensitive high-priority (I come with a new specimen) (Delivery pending)."
Shocked from their momentary stupor both figures bent low in mid-air, their voices coming in perfect unison, echoing harmonies over one another, "Mistress/Lady we did not— "
"Acknowledge-receipt, query progress/status (You were not meant to. How goes the project) (Discretion required. Update)?"
"Tertiary stage has begun, implementation of divinity protocols amongst population two is proceeding rapidly. Complete inoculation expected ten to fifteen generations," said the left most of the pair as he unbent.
Their voices were as candles next to a wildfire.
"Progress amongst population one lags significantly. Proximity to existing infrastructure has led to cross-contamination," continued the other, "Either relocation or more stringent isolation protocols are required to stabilize trajectory."
"Negative (deny, affirm current priorities) (No, we will continue as we have)."
"Yes, Lady/Mistress."
"Now, a new project (Receive delivery) (Delivery of specimen shadow-laurel branch-one)."
Out of the darkness a glass sphere emerged, larger than either of the floating figures, held between two squat discs of black metal filled with some sort of clear, bubbling liquid. Within swam a long pale shape about three meters long and wormlike, with a long reptilian snout and bright, liquid eyes. For a moment the three stared at one another in silent communication.
Behind those eyes the mind that reached out was… young but quick as lightning, probing and testing even as it flinched away from their own gentle approaches.
Bright…
It flinched away from them for a moment, spinning away in a swirl of coiling flesh. Then a moment later it came back, pressing the side of its head against the glass, pale flesh oozing across the glass. A single small beady eye peered out at them.
Strange… fat… crunchy? Smelly…
Grasping hold of the contraption with their minds the two brought it between them and the creature darted away— retreating upwards to the shadows beneath the upper plate. A shiver ran down the length of its form; milky, smooth flesh became iridescent feathers, then pearlescent scales and spikes. Fins sprouted up along its side and shriveled into claws. Bone white plates pushed their way out from between spikes before melting back into scales, fangs sprouted from between its lips and multiplied. Opening wide its maw the creature snapped and then shrank bank, its eyes boring into them.
Day 22 Caxuatn's Season, 11656
"... without any further major delays, all secondary pools should be complete on time," Xehtzaihl finished saying.
From atop the Disc of Yuxa Udhi-Tegha looked down on Xehtzaihl and Awanabil'tat. Mere months remained before the new spawning pools would be ready for his own touch, though his work had begun years ago.
Each of the existing spawning pools of the temple-city took on a different form within the Geomantic Web— those of the western gate were a grand mirror bowl from which the stilt-legged spider servitors plucked the strands of new souls, while those situated around the Temples of Uxmac, Tlanxla, and Chotec were crystal moonless of suspended water, and the pools within the Temples of Xokha, Tepok, and Tlazcotl only showed in the vast moonsilver vines that ran between the temple-glyphs. Beneath those metaphysical surfaces they each connected to the vast submerged soul-kelp forest which he had explored with Ecu'otta less than three decades ago.
His time these last few years had been spent in deep meditation, submerged within the city-glyph of Zlatlan; assembling the arcane components that made up the mystical architecture of the new spawning pools. Physical location and form did not necessarily determine form and location within the Geomantic Web, but they did greatly impact it.
Existing beneath the temple-city placed the spawning pools somewhat awkwardly for geomantic purposes.
Such difficulties had already been considered before even the first pick touched stone, and now it was down to Udhi-Tegha to solve them. He might have done any number of things; 'space' was not a limited quantity in the Geomantic Web in the same way as it was in the material world, but such solutions were less than elegant. No, he had something else in mind.
Under normal conception there was nothing 'beneath' a city-glyph, only deeper layers within and an escape out. And yet… the aethyr was a place of metaphor and analogy. 'Beneath' was not simply a matter of location, but of relativistic position; an inverted topological referent across a basal plane.
From this insight Udhi-Tegha had thus found a useful new perspective from which to view the city-glyph of Zlatlan—- and the Geomantic Web more broadly, one which opened previously invisible horizons to him. Above was still the swirling moonsilver sky and the great gold-bronze plateaus and the grand, lightning filled chasms but inverted to them was now a vast, black basaltic plain under- over- (within?) a howling void. Pale flickering ghost lights occasionally seeped through the cracks and fissures in the plain.
Energy leaking through from all the many arcane mechanisms of the Geomantic Web.
Movement within the space was difficult. Souls required reference points to traverse aethyric landscapes, context from which to collapse infinite possibility down to useful options, and there were none in that place. Even the razor festooned wards were beyond sight though Udhi-Tegha could still feel them.
It took painstaking months and months of meditation to define the limits of the space for himself.
At last though there arrived a day (or perhaps night) when at last he saw dawn on the horizon— an ever approaching dawn, but that was enough to dictate the bounds of this inverted layer. He could now approach the edge just as easily as he could have before.
Doing so, he found that the dawn he had seen was the light of Zlatlan's wards which grew as he approached from a thin glow to towering walls arching high overhead. Udhi-Tegha beheld them, the interlocking gears and looping brambles sprouting from every face. Shadows moved beneath their surface in slow, patient patrols.
Turning away the slann moved again to the 'center' of the inverted basalt plain and there began to slowly construct the scaffolding of the spawning pools in pieces. Five skeletal, upside down pyramids took shape floating above the plain as he cut a circular bowl, smaller than that above, into its surface. Great collars of silverine light he wrought as guidelines for the strands of newborn souls and stacked thousands high, their inner rims lined with the glyphs of Caxuatn, Xhotl, and Xokha. Winches he forged from duty, their sides carved with the glyph of Tzunki. Strange, many-armed contraptions he built of crystal logic and whispering winds, emblazoned with the glyphs of Uxmac and Tepok. Blazing bands of brass wrought with Chotec's glyph on their inner surface.
And more. So much more.
He emerged only occasionally from his meditations to take reports on the progress of the pools and ensure his own work would not hold up the timetable. Such as now.
Nodding to Awanabil'tat and Xehtzaihl, he said, "Good. Continue your work."
Closing his eyes he began to slip away anew into meditation, the glyphs of the Disc of Yuxa lighting up and a hum filling the air of the chamber. Both skinks hurried away to quickly return to their duties, but Udhi-Tegha took no notice.
Day 7 Potec's Season, 11658
Connecting the two 'sides' of the city-glyph was simple. At least in theory. All it required was to tunnel through the 'rock' separating the two and begin to draw earthbound magic down from the active city-glyph into the inverted space 'below' it.
That was easier said than done. Moving the 'rock' was trivial, requiring only a thought, but only resulted in more 'rock' appearing to tunnel through. New 'rock' which became steadily more and more difficult to move as he continued on until no matter how strongly Udhi-Tegha willed it the 'rock' would not shift.
His own conception of the 'beneath' layer as an inverted topology working against him. It was a barrier too exact and fundamental to be pierced in so crude a manner.
But there was already something which managed to make its way from one side to the other. Searching out one of the cracks and fissures in the basalt plain, he waited until one of the ghost lights appeared and then followed it into the 'rock.' As the black 'rock' closed in around him and his spirit collapsed down into a thin strand of self he found himself assaulted by an immense ego-pressure.
Like a hurricane wind it bore down on him, whipping his soul with alien self-conceptions and fragments of broken semi-consciousnesses. He tasted sunlight on stone skin and drank starlight through crystal eyes. Insects bore through his flesh and stretched it across impossible distances.
Udhi-Tegha flooded like the tide through a network of capillaries and his senses collapsed down to the barest sense of light and dark. He felt a barrier before him… or not a barrier but a gateway? Ahead was a dim darkness— quiet and cool like the early morning.
From somewhere within he heard whispering, Huanchi.
[] Invoke Huanchi, Jaguar Lord, and pounce like a hunter upon his prey.
[] Invoke Huanchi, the Illusive, to open the way..
Notes: Comments, critique, etc. May or may not be an update next week, depending on how things go.
2 hour Moratorium
One who walks with the correct authority, warded by certain permissions, may come and see not bare stone and emptiness, but a cube of obsinite— five meters to a side and five meters tall, a circular slab set into one face decorated by ring after ring of golden-glyphs gleaming with fell magics. Each promising a retribution greater and more terrible than the last should the unworthy breach their seal. No lock or key opens the way, for those recognized the portal simply opens and the waiting forms of temple-guard retreat back into the shadowed crevices that hid them.
Within lie the greatest treasure of any temple-city, hung like curtains between polished poles of bone set deep into the floor, the Sacred Plaques of the Old Ones through which they once revealed their instructions to their Servants in ages gone. Each a rectangle three hand lengths wide and five tall, and etched with innumerable tiny glyphs and geometric designs like the fine filaments of fungal mycelium.
Each temple in Zlatlan holds more than a dozen plaques. More than a hundred across the entire temple-city, half again what all the temples of Chuqitzan put together hold. Treasures more precious than even the slann themselves.
Day 29 Potec's Season, 11652
Huanxi'otl and Qu'ata'xamundi sat across from one another in the Star Chamber of the latter; a simple hexagonal room, arcing high overhead, walls decorated with the glyphs of the Old Ones. Scattered around the edge of the edge of the chamber on plinths and held in skeletal wooden frameworks were the fossilized of remains from before the coming of the Old Ones to the world— segmented coils wrapped around a hook clawed hand, some sort of multi-chambered shell, a thin tube bristling with long spikes, and more and stranger.
Between the slann on a wooden stand was a single Sacred Plaque, surface rippling slowly with prismatic waves. Symbols and patterns shifted and rearranged themselves.
Sat upon their palanquins, eyes closed, their breath slow and gently inflating and deflating their great chests, neither slann witness those changes. Not with their eyes.
Lesser souls needed to contemplate the Sacred Plaques indirectly, reading vast cosmic meaning and universal truth from the gross matter of their ever changing surfaces by sight and feel. Slann were beyond such crude methods though, their manifold minds and souls of diamond cut perfection had been crafted for greater purpose.
Swirling constellations of half-formed glyphs stretched across a moonsilver skyn held up between pillars of braided crystal. Arcs of lightning kilometers wide met mid-air and rained down sparks on a landscape of roiling shadow, where they landed towering mirror flowers sprouted, petals reflecting impossibilities.
Huanxi'otl braced himself against buffeting winds of long dead tongues.
Overwhelmed, he remained transfixed. Motionless, a rock upon which great tidal currents broke. Shapeless shadows moved beyond perception and direction inverted; beneath the wheeling sky, above the shadow sea and gleaming quicksilver flowers.
Somewhere a bell tolled— out of nothingness unfolded fractal temple-pyramids. Three, five, seven, eleven pointed stars rising in stepped procession.
Rainbow highways rising from their peaks to join together into a vast network that spread from horizon to horizon all around him. Faint, indistinct figures crawled along them like lines of ants. And in the emptiness between the temples and highways the darkness rippled and began to distend, shadow thinning until it ran like rain drops off a leaf and from within the darkness appeared the pale, gleaming surface of Tlazcotl's Eye.
Again tolled the bell, a pure tone, ringing, ringing, ringing—
Night, deepest black and stitched with glittering stars stretched out in every direction.
In a ripple of the umbral warp and weft a squashed teardrop of quicksilver curves appeared in a halo of heavenly fire. Through the void it flew on vast, diaphanous wings of violet that caught invisible currents and bent them into motion, with impossible grace the teardrop swum through the darkness. Flashing across great distances.
Signals raced across the void like lightning; aggressive demands of surrender and identity. Powers to shatter worlds and blacken the stars themselves turned themselves upon the teardrop and… quieted.
Adamantine minds of steel and iron quailed, bending their knees and supplicating themselves like meek slaves. Gnashing, growling predatory souls whined like chastised hounds.
But the voice within the quicksilver vessel ignored them all, racing on.
Soon it neared the fourth world from the star, a jewel of green and blue and white whose orbits glittered with other shapes of quicksilver; these too the voice ignored—
" —Security-and-Safety to Adversary-Collaborator, query purpose, affirm status."
Instead of making for the orbits closer to the world it made for the white moon of the world, pockmarked with craters and fissures. Finding a particular depression, perfectly circular with walls kilometers high, it gently turned and fell toward one of its walls, where the deep shadows hid a wide rectangular cavern.
From that cavern another voice reached out.
"Warning, approach restricted. Damage-dissolution-dea— "
This time the voice within the quicksilver teardrop did respond, "Local-isolate-echo-pattern, acknowledge deep-actual-secondary, confirm. Await instruction."
"Acknowledged, deep-actual-secondary. Ready."
"Alert, local-isolate-agent-primary-all, delivery pending; live specimen, sensitive high-priority. Immediate incubation/containment necessary. Acknowledge."
"Local-isolate-agent-primary-Kra'kro acknowledges, local-isolate-agent-primary-Qrua acknowledges."
Part of the vessel began to distend and pull away, forming a droplet connected only by thin quicksilver strands that eventually snapped. Free the droplet shot off towards the cavern, arcing through the void on small violet wings until it slipped between the yawning opening and came to a stop within an instant. Great basaltic walls rose on either side, their surfaces etched with mammoth labyrinthine diamonds, the ceiling and floor covered in regularly spaced designs of intertwining arcs and circles which lit the room with pure, white light.
Off the back wall, three great corridors ran off into the depths of lunar stone. Contraptions of dark metal and stone lay scattered across the vast hangar, stretched arrowheads and toppled columns.
And before the vessel floated to figures; two long, bent legs dangled beneath a wide, bloated body from which extended a pair of thick, muscled arms. Large sloping heads sat atop their bodies with a wide mouth that nearly split their face and bulging black eyes that glowed with an inner light. Their gazes were fixed firmly on the quicksilver droplet— a quiet whining, popping sound echoing through the hangar.
Finally after several moments the underside of the vessels parted like a curtain, revealing darkness.
And from within that darkness echoed out a voice like a tidal wave. Both figures rocked back as if struck, their eyes widening fractionally as the psychic pressure washed over them and their minds froze in surprise.
"Qrua, Kra'kro (Servants) (Local-isolate-agent-primary-all). Delivery; live specimen, sensitive high-priority (I come with a new specimen) (Delivery pending)."
Shocked from their momentary stupor both figures bent low in mid-air, their voices coming in perfect unison, echoing harmonies over one another, "Mistress/Lady we did not— "
"Acknowledge-receipt, query progress/status (You were not meant to. How goes the project) (Discretion required. Update)?"
"Tertiary stage has begun, implementation of divinity protocols amongst population two is proceeding rapidly. Complete inoculation expected ten to fifteen generations," said the left most of the pair as he unbent.
Their voices were as candles next to a wildfire.
"Progress amongst population one lags significantly. Proximity to existing infrastructure has led to cross-contamination," continued the other, "Either relocation or more stringent isolation protocols are required to stabilize trajectory."
"Negative (deny, affirm current priorities) (No, we will continue as we have)."
"Yes, Lady/Mistress."
"Now, a new project (Receive delivery) (Delivery of specimen shadow-laurel branch-one)."
Out of the darkness a glass sphere emerged, larger than either of the floating figures, held between two squat discs of black metal filled with some sort of clear, bubbling liquid. Within swam a long pale shape about three meters long and wormlike, with a long reptilian snout and bright, liquid eyes. For a moment the three stared at one another in silent communication.
Behind those eyes the mind that reached out was… young but quick as lightning, probing and testing even as it flinched away from their own gentle approaches.
Bright…
It flinched away from them for a moment, spinning away in a swirl of coiling flesh. Then a moment later it came back, pressing the side of its head against the glass, pale flesh oozing across the glass. A single small beady eye peered out at them.
Strange… fat… crunchy? Smelly…
Grasping hold of the contraption with their minds the two brought it between them and the creature darted away— retreating upwards to the shadows beneath the upper plate. A shiver ran down the length of its form; milky, smooth flesh became iridescent feathers, then pearlescent scales and spikes. Fins sprouted up along its side and shriveled into claws. Bone white plates pushed their way out from between spikes before melting back into scales, fangs sprouted from between its lips and multiplied. Opening wide its maw the creature snapped and then shrank bank, its eyes boring into them.
Day 22 Caxuatn's Season, 11656
"... without any further major delays, all secondary pools should be complete on time," Xehtzaihl finished saying.
From atop the Disc of Yuxa Udhi-Tegha looked down on Xehtzaihl and Awanabil'tat. Mere months remained before the new spawning pools would be ready for his own touch, though his work had begun years ago.
Each of the existing spawning pools of the temple-city took on a different form within the Geomantic Web— those of the western gate were a grand mirror bowl from which the stilt-legged spider servitors plucked the strands of new souls, while those situated around the Temples of Uxmac, Tlanxla, and Chotec were crystal moonless of suspended water, and the pools within the Temples of Xokha, Tepok, and Tlazcotl only showed in the vast moonsilver vines that ran between the temple-glyphs. Beneath those metaphysical surfaces they each connected to the vast submerged soul-kelp forest which he had explored with Ecu'otta less than three decades ago.
His time these last few years had been spent in deep meditation, submerged within the city-glyph of Zlatlan; assembling the arcane components that made up the mystical architecture of the new spawning pools. Physical location and form did not necessarily determine form and location within the Geomantic Web, but they did greatly impact it.
Existing beneath the temple-city placed the spawning pools somewhat awkwardly for geomantic purposes.
Such difficulties had already been considered before even the first pick touched stone, and now it was down to Udhi-Tegha to solve them. He might have done any number of things; 'space' was not a limited quantity in the Geomantic Web in the same way as it was in the material world, but such solutions were less than elegant. No, he had something else in mind.
Under normal conception there was nothing 'beneath' a city-glyph, only deeper layers within and an escape out. And yet… the aethyr was a place of metaphor and analogy. 'Beneath' was not simply a matter of location, but of relativistic position; an inverted topological referent across a basal plane.
From this insight Udhi-Tegha had thus found a useful new perspective from which to view the city-glyph of Zlatlan—- and the Geomantic Web more broadly, one which opened previously invisible horizons to him. Above was still the swirling moonsilver sky and the great gold-bronze plateaus and the grand, lightning filled chasms but inverted to them was now a vast, black basaltic plain under- over- (within?) a howling void. Pale flickering ghost lights occasionally seeped through the cracks and fissures in the plain.
Energy leaking through from all the many arcane mechanisms of the Geomantic Web.
Movement within the space was difficult. Souls required reference points to traverse aethyric landscapes, context from which to collapse infinite possibility down to useful options, and there were none in that place. Even the razor festooned wards were beyond sight though Udhi-Tegha could still feel them.
It took painstaking months and months of meditation to define the limits of the space for himself.
At last though there arrived a day (or perhaps night) when at last he saw dawn on the horizon— an ever approaching dawn, but that was enough to dictate the bounds of this inverted layer. He could now approach the edge just as easily as he could have before.
Doing so, he found that the dawn he had seen was the light of Zlatlan's wards which grew as he approached from a thin glow to towering walls arching high overhead. Udhi-Tegha beheld them, the interlocking gears and looping brambles sprouting from every face. Shadows moved beneath their surface in slow, patient patrols.
Turning away the slann moved again to the 'center' of the inverted basalt plain and there began to slowly construct the scaffolding of the spawning pools in pieces. Five skeletal, upside down pyramids took shape floating above the plain as he cut a circular bowl, smaller than that above, into its surface. Great collars of silverine light he wrought as guidelines for the strands of newborn souls and stacked thousands high, their inner rims lined with the glyphs of Caxuatn, Xhotl, and Xokha. Winches he forged from duty, their sides carved with the glyph of Tzunki. Strange, many-armed contraptions he built of crystal logic and whispering winds, emblazoned with the glyphs of Uxmac and Tepok. Blazing bands of brass wrought with Chotec's glyph on their inner surface.
And more. So much more.
He emerged only occasionally from his meditations to take reports on the progress of the pools and ensure his own work would not hold up the timetable. Such as now.
Nodding to Awanabil'tat and Xehtzaihl, he said, "Good. Continue your work."
Closing his eyes he began to slip away anew into meditation, the glyphs of the Disc of Yuxa lighting up and a hum filling the air of the chamber. Both skinks hurried away to quickly return to their duties, but Udhi-Tegha took no notice.
Day 7 Potec's Season, 11658
Connecting the two 'sides' of the city-glyph was simple. At least in theory. All it required was to tunnel through the 'rock' separating the two and begin to draw earthbound magic down from the active city-glyph into the inverted space 'below' it.
That was easier said than done. Moving the 'rock' was trivial, requiring only a thought, but only resulted in more 'rock' appearing to tunnel through. New 'rock' which became steadily more and more difficult to move as he continued on until no matter how strongly Udhi-Tegha willed it the 'rock' would not shift.
His own conception of the 'beneath' layer as an inverted topology working against him. It was a barrier too exact and fundamental to be pierced in so crude a manner.
But there was already something which managed to make its way from one side to the other. Searching out one of the cracks and fissures in the basalt plain, he waited until one of the ghost lights appeared and then followed it into the 'rock.' As the black 'rock' closed in around him and his spirit collapsed down into a thin strand of self he found himself assaulted by an immense ego-pressure.
Like a hurricane wind it bore down on him, whipping his soul with alien self-conceptions and fragments of broken semi-consciousnesses. He tasted sunlight on stone skin and drank starlight through crystal eyes. Insects bore through his flesh and stretched it across impossible distances.
Udhi-Tegha flooded like the tide through a network of capillaries and his senses collapsed down to the barest sense of light and dark. He felt a barrier before him… or not a barrier but a gateway? Ahead was a dim darkness— quiet and cool like the early morning.
From somewhere within he heard whispering, Huanchi.
[] Invoke Huanchi, Jaguar Lord, and pounce like a hunter upon his prey.
[] Invoke Huanchi, the Illusive, to open the way..
Notes: Comments, critique, etc. May or may not be an update next week, depending on how things go.
2 hour Moratorium
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Oh dear. I hope this isn't a case of only one answer being the right one. Based on previous actions on the Web, it's often been that we have symbolism and imagery regarding open flows and paths in the ways the Web is fixed and realigned.
On the other hand, an aetheric consciousness is troubling. We don't know if it's meant to be because we've never done this before.
On the other hand, an aetheric consciousness is troubling. We don't know if it's meant to be because we've never done this before.
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Oh boy. Something tells me we were not supposed to see that. Also, still cool to 'see' Old Ones at work. Really having those higher grade of existence vibe to it. Love it
Great update. Geomancy work done right never dissapoints
- Location
- yorkshire
[X] Invoke Huanchi, the Illusive, to open the way..
[X] Invoke Huanchi, the Illusive, to open the way.