Much more recently, it's become a trio game as
@Omicron actually joined in, playing a bird buddy of theirs who really isn't that remarkable in the grand scheme of things, and is probably not a shapeshifter who has claimed the position of the God of Teaching Birds Human Language. He's done some things you'd reasonably expect a bird to be capable of, and knows that which the birds know, and definitely has not recently assumed the rank of Duchess of the Fae, nor is he plotting to make a Sunday school for birds in an effort to fight violent crime on the Dreaming Sea. I do, of course, invite Omicron to tell you more, but, really, there's not a lot to say.
He's just a bird, after all.
Yatagarasu, the Eloquent Wing, is
the God of the Language of Birds. Appearing under the guise of a raven often surrounded by minor phenomena such as deepening shadows and a cloak of starlight, he is a being of vast knowledge, deep insight, and profound wisdom, whose eyes and ears reach far and wide, and he has sway with all the birds of the Dreaming Sea. He knows what the raven knows, and has learned the path to every magpie's treasure.
...although that is a trick of language. While the title he is using is not
wrong, it is a linguistics slight of hand. Yatagarasu is actually "the God of [Old Realm character for 'human speech'] of Birds." Which is to say, he is
the god of teaching parrots and corvids human words.
This is not, as you might guess, as lofty a station as his title of choice is suggesting. Though on the Celestial Bureaucracy's payroll and in practice quite wealthy, Yatagarasu is a very minor god, with a small purview, mostly worshipped by parrot owners, cormorant fishermen, ornithologists with a specific interest in corvids, and the odd Wyld-mutated talking bird; slim pickings if he were to remain at his appointed station, and likely the reason he approached Juran and Butterfly, the game's Solars. It's not... clear... where exactly he's from or were he used to dwell, but he's off-handedly mentioned being a native of the Dreaming Sea.
Having spent some time scouting the Dominion under the guise of a mere raven, he chose a night of treachery in which an enemy of the Solars attempted a stealthy attack against them to reveal himself to them. Though he had some life-or-death information he could have bargained harshly for, he asked for fairly simple terms of alliance: a bond of friendship, mutual aid, a tithe of prayer, that a ban be made that no harm be done against any talking bird within their dominion unless one was attacked first, and that he be allowed to roam anywhere unimpeached, and that he be allowed to ask any question and seek any knowledge (this does not mean anyone has to answer him truthfully or at all, only that he cannot be condemned, punished, or intimidated for enquiring). In exchange, he would provide the Solars with the reach of his knowledge, his gifts of minor prophecy, and his aid as an advisor. A very fair deal, all things considered, but if one paused to think about it, one that makes perfect sense and is very advantageous to the god considering that he is a much more minor deity than he seems at first hearing and likely lacks a proper base of worship.
Yatagarasu's appearance was a second thought for a bit. He arrived at a serendipitous time and provided some very useful information about further threats to the Solars' lives, and they were grateful for it, but he kind of faded in the background as one of many valuable allies. He did warn Juran, the Eclipse Caste, that a powerful Bloody Hand (a literal god of murder) had been sent after him by an angry King of the Woods and was waiting for some particular circumstances to ambush and kill him. He saw through the glamour of a fae assassin and warned Juran before a deadly blow, which is attributable to luck or keen senses, which likely fall under a bird god's broad purview, but that assassin seemed kind of unusually sluggish and sloppy, considering the raksha are typically defined by grace. He also brought some helpful omens, useful knowledge, that kind of thing.
His
most impressive achievement was the result of happenstance and bad choices; in the aftermath of the attack, he decided to go scout the territory of the Duchess Fantastical, the powerful fae lord who had sent those assassins. He was counting on his appearance as a mere bird to fool most observers and allow him to spy freely, which worked flawlessly
up to and until he spied into the chambers of the Duchess herself, who saw through his disguise and called him a "shapeshifter," likely misunderstanding the ability of gods to sometimes take on a human form; she nearly put him under her spell with her majesty and beauty and charisma, but he managed to resist her spell while fooling her into believing he was fully in her grasp; in the following exchange of words, he managed to ask her, "would you give me your name?" The Duchess, believing him fully under her sway, smiled in victory and whispered her True Name to him - which, because she had agreed to
give him her name, he immediately took, and flew away.
The Now Nameless Pretender's subsequent wrath had many dire consequences, although they were most dire for
her, as she was in such a frenzy to kill Yata- I mean, the Duchess Fantastical - and take back her name, that she launches a quick and dirty murder attempt with her best elites instead of leveraging her vast armies and overwhelming military power, which allowed the Solars (and the Duchess Yatagarasu, hiding behind them and taunting her) to defeat her, a defeat to which Yatagarasu personally contributed by deploying powerful Wyld energies to unravel the Pretender's form, which is something that just makes sense for him to be able to do since he had a powerful stolen Fae title.
Since then, Yata's kept fairly busy - most days he's not seen anywhere and it's not clear where he is, though he's attended some very instructive lessons in linguistics with Butterfly, he's been practicing divination to find help in fate for his Solar allies, getting to know everybody so he's no stranger to anyone, he's managed to acquire a very small yet still highly valuable pebble of starmetal for Butterfly's projects, he's helped Juran fend off the murder god's threat for a while, and after Butterfly mentioned to him her trouble finding an island suitable for her projects (magically potent but currently unoccupied by humans), he recalled the tale of an island hidden from sailors under the Constellation of the Mask, home to a powerful hellish entity whose designs threaten the stability of the world's fabric, which would fit Butterfly's designs exactly should she be able to slay its current occupier; she's set her sight on it and he's agreed to help her.
All in all, though he's still very new to the story and easy to forget when he's not around, I'm pretty happy with how Yata has been making his mark in the game so far, and am looking forward to future session.
