Age of Myths (Age of Sigmar): Third Time the charm

The August Star of Heavens: Conclusion
Is it greed that moves you so? Greed for both the raging power you see now burning in your essence and the bright palaces you could rebuild or bequeath? Perhaps but it's more probable it is the sheer contempt you hold Mikaboshi in. You followed the decrees of your masters even after they had left the world for a fate you know not even now. The idea of someone refusing to bow to the great hierarchies of beings that exist everywhere makes you sick. And so you see him pinned by the spears and burning light of the great shepherds of the sun and you are not alone. For even as you lift your hand and begin, other gods assume the Wyrd, the weaver of fate and destinies and lend you their aid as you forge a new decree. The voice that resounds through the air is cold as the wastes of Azyr, cold as moon and faraway stars.

"Mikaboshi of the Kamis, long have you warred against the other gods, concealing monstrous thoughts under a fair guise. Now the source of that pride is torn from you and your kingdom sinks beneath the waves of memories. Mikaboshi we name you. Mikaboshi the Darkness Within. Mikaboshi the Darkness Before. Mikaboshi to dwell with the other power of shadow, in a place darker than night where sins are alive and thought hidden by illusion. Descend now liar to the realm of liars, to the place where are the monsters who hunger for the stars and sun and moon. We cast you from Our presence and account you no longer in Our company.

Thus speak the Weaver and the Arbiter, thus speak the gods of Azyr! Now Begone!"

And Mikaboshi and his palaces and the spires of gold and the treasures inside, and the whispering courtiers and the great feasts, all of that and more fade into black water as the great gate of jet turns on its hinges and opens, letting Mikaboshi and his courtiers being swept up like fallen stars and fading away. The gate remains open but they are forbidden to cross it back as the nature of the realm is now opposing them. For a brief moment you gaze upon Ulgu realm of shadow and darkness and you see images. A snake that hiss with dreadful wrath for he sense the sun he wants to devour is there. Two wolves are baying too and a charioteer whose severed head fly pale above the bloody ruin of his neck. Yet there is also beauty there and laughs and great fields of poppies near the abode of old night clad like a queen and gods crowned with flowers and guardians of sleep. And strangely it is from these places that something flies, briefly swatting snake wolf and monstrous spider to touch your mind.

The image is one you know of, for you saw it many times in visions while you were in the world that was. An armor black as midnight covering burnt flesh, the night flecked only with gold. A will of iron and ancient eyes in a face who even now is the figure of dread. Indeed as you look beyond the mask of gold, you see the flesh is still burning, still melting and bubbling as if it had retained mortal weakness. King of Naggaroth for ages, Sorcerer, Tyrant, leader of armies and dark captain crowned with torment. Someone who learned sooner than some but later than most that Chaos is not a toy or a bauble you can use to your liking. His name is Malekith and you won't call him the Witch-King for monarchs never were much for your ancient eyes and he was to Shadow what you were to Heaven.

"My Legend is written in pain ancient one," begins the line of thought, "mine or those of my foes. It flowed at profusion then I attained the throne I wanted to have the island I desired sink beneath the cold waves. Shadows bring no succor, weaver of fate, only judgement and I am judgment now, the monster who will be the jailor of those who would defy the natural order."

You don't know if he tells the truth for Ulgu is no realm of unvarnished truth but even then your prodigious mind understand the images you were sent.

[Malekith: Epic Stamina, Darkness, Fire, Justice]

Before you can answer, his presence flees the other side of the gate and you understand that through the passage darkness, true darkness and not the stuff of night will spread in Azyr. This is good for even as it's terrifying, true soothing darkness can only helps the balance of energies. It is only a hypothesis but you think a great deal of the Realms dangers are due to their imbalance. Also isn't darkness a friend of the power of night? The other gods gaze with you on what was the Pole Star, now a perfect sphere of blackness who will only be reignited by your incarnation of the title, either in a creature split from your mind using the power of the Crown and Ultimate Intelligence, or to your child born from Astarte.

Or there is another option as you gaze upon the sea of stars. Normally gods born from you alone would only be able to wield such powers you've already mastered. But there is a window of opportunity there as the sun gods are still shining brightly and with them the power of light reaching down and the power of darkness rising to face it. You could weave the title now in a creature born from the confluence of energies there.

Of course such an act would be untidy, some would even say chaotic in nature for you would have no mastery over the abilities of the child. There is simply too many variables, too many gods who have spread their powers there for you to do more than simply stir the process and hope. The title and the child will be yours nonetheless as the Fate connection is simply too strong yet what will come of it is unknown.

[] Release the title and create a child
[] Keep the title and return home
[] Write-in

Crowning
The title that burns your belly with power, you don't keep but bequeath to your child for you have noticed that those who came to the battle had many helpers and you a single servant. So as the Wyrd and the winner of the contest you spread your hands and anoint your son-daughter as the Lord of the Pole Star. You sense the threads of fate tighten around them as you declare the connection and the other gods accept to bear witness to it. The gathering doesn't object and from that you learn a great lesson. They are greedy the gods, greedy and prideful but cautious too. They much prefer that each domain has clear borders and nothing exist that is not overseen by one of them. Most of them are still scared straight from the conflicts who ended their worlds. An unclaimed part of the heavens means an opportunity to war and that is not what they seek for the moment.

Still beware for you learn from idle chat there are factions in Azyr who even now loathe each other with the passion of a thousand suns. War will come either inside the Realm of Heavens or across the Great Tree.

Yet for the moment all eyes are turned to Sacton as they take flight and receive their crown.

Darkness Roll: 32+36: 68 Moderate Success: The potential for Darkness is there but untapped
Appearance Roll: 72+36: 108: Artificial Critical Success: Sacton has acquired Epic Appearance (Positive)

Beautiful is your child now, not as beautiful as their mother Astarte or fallen Mikaboshi, but beautiful nonetheless. Lustrous is the black of their scale, majestic their draconic head, sublime the fire of their eyes where dance the gleam of the star they now rule. They grow in power and understanding as the title let them know the inner workings of the stars and master the music of the spheres. They soon assume the Crown in a grand display of power that marks them among the great gods. Strange are they for they stand unmoved and unmovable (at the slight displeasure of Coeus who is the axis around which each thing in Azyr turns). A great dragon made of starlight with four powerful arms always sculpting, always molding and wings covered as a butterfly's were with dew in the dust and stones of asteroids. They cast their eyes to the star of darkness and they exert their might for the first time.

First the star ignites again, blue-white light driving the darkness inside, sinking it below a sea of strange radiance. Yet Sacton doesn't wish to rule a fiery domain with no foundation and at their order space is traversed by countless arrow of stone and ice and several unclaimed planets who are then transmuted by their gaze. It's a slow process as it is rooted not in an Assumption but in lesser powers but still soon you see the new Pole Star and are stunned. The surface is glass and bright metal giving light as a star would. Of white are the stones who build the many-stepped pyramids and temple-cities at the surface, white stone and bright silver. The flame of the star is not extinguished but run in wells and canals at the surface which serve as defenses. Sacton despite their wings makes their abode underground in a great network of caves, to protect and study the passage to Ulgu.

There is a last thing they does that surprises you the most. With all the art they is able to muster, they shape twelve great statues of living stone and Azyrite shining like starlight. They are magnificent, great crowned dragonmen with wings and tools. Then once they are at their liking, Sacton breaks the Crown and puts its own essence in them, giving them the light of the stars and animating them.

Roll: 67+36: 103: Artficial Critical

What they have created is not life, you are sure of it. Your perceptions do not lie on this point. Yet they are not like the images of Lizzardmen you can summon. You gaze upon one of them and are amazed. It is not life. These beings are created by the craft of your child and their assumption of the Crown, they cannot reproduce. Their minds are independent, or at least can show initiative but so can the shade of your Oldblood act upon memories of war, unconsciously drawing from your mind the knowledge they need. Still these living statues are lesser versions of your child and they can help them in their projects. They are also mortal in most senses of the term. Sacton has not reached the apex of Earth and Craft and so the bodies they have created won't resist to the living starry fire in which is rooted the minds of their creation. In time they will break.

Still it's one of the most astounding things you ever saw and you wonder if you could do the same thing. Your prodigious mind warns you about hubris. You could create a race sculptedin living star flame but they would be redundant with the many Slaans that compose your form. You are already able to break down in many helpers, Sacton needed helpers to be present in many places at one time and unlike yours component parts, their servants are inferior in intelligence to their creator. That was an inspired idea and it guides your decision. You reach through the stars with the Crown and seizes your nameless city before placing it in orbit of your child's home.

"This city will have a name now", you say. "It will be Sacton-Itza for I sired you and after ages uncounted experimented new things. I saw you grow in understanding and surprise me time and time again in the blink of an eye. You are the first of my children while before I had but servants and vassals."

Sacton Lord of the Pole Star, Acquired the Crown (Assumption of Stars) and Epic Appearance (Positive).
Sacton: Epic Intelligence 9/12, Epic Appearance 9/12, Stars 12, Chaos 9, Earth 9, Artistry 9
Sacton's Helpers: Epic Intelligence 6/12. All have Stars 6/12. Half of them have Earth 6 and serve as architects. Half of them have Artistry 6 and serve at their parents' side. Sacton hates the Chaos purview he has inherited from Astarte and didn't bestow it to its creation.

Sacton will train to develop their purviews and attributes. You can order to train some in priority but their preferences are Earth, Artistry, Epic Intelligence, Epic Appeareance. They won't train in Chaos unless ordered to by you or Astarte.

Turn 2 In-Between
War in Heavens: There is a war in heavens, terrible and warning everyone of the price of gods fighting in their full glory. After having banished Mikaboshi to Ulgu, the Feathered Serpent and the Hummingbird of the Left, not great friends but united against common foes have united their polities and people, rejoicing their dark brother Smoking Mirror was not there to mar their joy. Such a reunion have enabled them to restart a war from their ruined homeworld and now the northern reaches of Azyr are ablaze with the conflagration.

It's a three-way engagement between the two Teotl as they name themselves, the great Cloud Serpent and his mother the Obsidian Butterfly and her legions of star-demons. Planets are broken, stars are born and die, and there was already a conflict of Assumptions who broke the great milky path of the North. The constellations in these parts of space have been wakened by the constant battle and tamed by the contestant before being sent against each other. When asked while they warred against their own ancestors, the two gods have decried them as "titans", threats that in their world were only held at bay by constant battle. They are helped by the fact that Mixcoatl and Itzlpapalotl have not judged good to even speak to the other gods of Azyr.

Chaos is sighted: After having spent so much time and efforts trying to escape the attention of the Primordial Anihilator the gods are dismayed to see that Chaos has indeed tainted Azyr with its ageless malice. Comets of Warpstone who seem to give birth to strange rat-like creatures, inauspicious evil stars with dead cities orbiting them, even monstrous living planets acting as fonts of twisted life are noticed in every domains. Most of the gods arm themselves to try and destroy these reminders of their defeat but Azyr is vast and full of hiding places.

Newcomers: In what some gods have described as a uncommon but not unheard from occurrence, a whole planetary system of nine planets and two asteroid belts have appeared in Azyr. The transition sent shockwaves in the entire realm. The other gods have advised you to let the inhabitants and their protectors get their bearing before meeting them but they have changed their tune when you all noticed the battle in the system, especially on the third planet, has not abated and even continue heedless of anything. Still their counsel prevailed until you see a great thing that looked like the hybrid of a great Wyrm, a serpent and a centipede flee the scene, leaving the gods of the planets, badly wounded but still alive. While not chaotic in nature, the wounds of the Wyrm oozed corruption and the whole system stinks of death in amounts you have rarely witnessed.

Choose an event you want to intervene in

[] War in heavens
[] Chaos Sighted
[] Newcomers
[] Write-in