Spirit Quest

[Oshha]

[X][Seryn] Accept.

[X] Plan Get Some Earth Mages
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Blessing
--[X][Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
--[X][Spirit] Avawyr
-[X][Avatar] Explore
--[X][Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[X][Avatar] Construction
--[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 6.25/18-28 Progress
-[X][Avatar] Visit
--[X][Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[X][Avatar] Experiment
--[X][Avatar] Try to bless some followers -including your 9-year-old son, Cadyl - with the ability to use Earth Magic, with Evatine's advice.
-[X][Leadership] Stone Wall Around Avawyr
-[X][Leadership] Blessing with the Earth
-[X][Leadership] Exploring the Mountains

***​

This cycle also proves to be a good one. In Avawyr, you and Bronwyn carry out your usually spiritual duties throughout the cycle whilst carrying out separate tasks in the rest of time.

Your wife focuses on more crafting, coming up with more pottery, stone carvings and other goods and works of art with the usual aid of Gwyn and her artisans. Terwyn and Vardyn cares for their children whilst aiding you and Bronwyn in running Avawyr with Eulyn also pitching in.

Speaking of your grandkids, it seems that they inherited some of the Aspect of the Wildcat as the girls were growing up quicker than they should while Myrlin was maturing as rapidly as your own daughters did.

As for you, you make some more progress on the stone wall and you also decide to go poking at Elairamur's idol again. You are successful at the poking, but you do not get much of a response, just a bit of stirring by whatever remains of Elairamur inside your stone idol.

You also have a couple of things you want to achieve this cycle apart. First is an expedition to explore the mountains east of Avawyr while the second is to use your Aspect of Earth to make some Earth Mages or the Prydymar.

You had the latter idea floating around your head for some time now, but you have yet to get around to doing anything about it until now. And quite frankly, it is about time that you started doing something about it. Your brother has had Metal Mages, the Myrymar, for some time now and has made good use out of them while Isorine created from Water Mages, the Dywrymar, last cycle up in Prylake.

Since your brother has been successfully making Mages or Ymar for some time now, you decide to visit Evatine in Evalon for advice on the matter before trying your own hand at it.

It is shortly after arriving in on Eva Isle that you find out that Seryn as a similar idea regarding her Aspect of Lightning as your daughter shows up to see Evatine regarding the processing of creating Mages as well.

Your brother helpfully provides you and Seryn with the proper guidance on how to successful empower Mage while you answer Seryn's proposal with your belated acceptance.

Evatine offers you a private hut on the outskirts of Evalon for the experiment, keeping it free of mortal followers in case things go wrong.

It goes…for lack of a better word, well. It is odd from your perspective, but you cannot say that it went poorly.

To start it off, Seryn gives you a general blessing, one that she usually gives her followers. It proves to be limited to your Avatar, effecting no part of you beyond what is physically there in front of Seryn. It ultimately does not prove to be successful for couple of reasons.

The first is that Seryn's standard blessing is too weak for take place on you with your own spiritual energies being able to passively reject it without any active input from you. However, that would not have been a problem if it was not for the clash between her Divinity of Femininity and your Aspect of Fatherhood. And even if there was not any trouble, the blessing would have quickly worn off as you passively converted the foreign energy into your own spiritual aura.

With both being a major trait of your respective spiritual natures, both attempt to assert dominance when the rest of the blessing when fine with Seryn's Aspect of the Wildcat even strengthening your own lesser version of it.

A second attempt was made afterwards, this time using a stronger blessing than before. It proves to be successful depending on how you look at the matter. The blessing was successfully placed upon you, but it is not anything you would want to repeat.

The second blessing was strong enough to overcome your passive defences, but you feel confident that you could have resisted it if you were making an active effort. However, you were confident that Seryn could have powered through any active efforts on your part if she was putting enough effort into it. Except you were a Spirit of Chiefhood and Fatherhood and Seryn is your daughter and subordinate and you could not help, but feel was an important factor so maybe it was not as clear cut as a contest of skills.

Looking back at it, you could not shake the feeling that you stumbled across the domination thing that the crow-spirit Morcaviana had to inflict upon your wife so long ago.

In the end, none of that was relevant as you and Seryn were willing participants in the experiment and you did not resist the blessing despite your ability to do so.

So you let the Divinity of Femininity overcome the Aspect of Fatherhood in their struggle and the blessing took its effect on your avatar. Suppressing your own spiritual energies somewhat, especially your Fatherhood, the blessing took the form of one of Seryn's default blessings if a bit stronger than what she would normally use.

Since Seryn has become a goddess, all three of her Divinities, Vigour, Beauty and Femininity, take some form in each of her spiritual actions. Vigour and the less martial Aspects folded into it strengthen your avatar just as Seryn's blessing strengthens the physical bodies of her followers. That part is something that you expected, but what caught you off guard was what the Divinity of Femininity did and how the Divinity of Beauty interacted with what the Divinity of Femininity did.

Long story short, the blessing turned your avatar into a tall, muscular, but curvaceous cat girl, the epitome of Divine Beauty. You do not get as much benefit as a mortal follower would out of the blessing as Seryn's weaker Aspects do not have the staying power to have a noteworthy impact.

Even then, the blessing only lasted less than a couple of hours before fading and your avatar returned to normal. Seryn offered to give another go, having found the sight of you looking like one of her followers to be highly amusing, but you decline.

While Seryn found it amusing and Evatine was indifferent, you just found it to be irritating and uncomfortable at a core level, most likely due to your Aspect of Fatherhood due to how it kept clashing with Seryn's Divinity of Femininity.

In the end, you parted ways and left for your respective villages after a couple of days of catching up.

Seryn had been carrying out her usual blessings whilst also expending energy on supporting her Cath Wyrs in the Bedygan hills. Apart from continuing to make the path between Bedywn and Bedynn, which is now almost done after her work this cycle, Seryn has continued to hunt the shadow monsters with the aid of her Cath Wyrs.

The results are good, but not as good as Seryn hoped. She has healed any injuries that the Cath Wyrs suffer and as a result, has yet to lose any, but the number of shadow monsters does not seem to be thinning and whenever, they clear out an area, some more shadow monsters just come back in.

As for Evatine, he is continuing his usage routine, which is working out rather well for him. Sixty Myrymar, a hundred and eighty blessed iron spears and enough iron tools for half of Evalon. Within a great cycle, he will have more than enough iron tools for the entire village with some spare and enough iron spears for multiple armies.

Once he is done with Evalon's iron needs, you ought to look into getting your brother and some of his Myrymar into making some iron equipment for Avawyr.

***​

Your exploration expedition into eastern mountains is successful for a certain degree of the word. You and Arwyn managed to make good progress before turning back in time to get home for the cold season and you do not encounter any troubles out there that the two of you could not handle.

But you do not find anything of note either. Just more mountains. Perhaps there is something beyond what you explored, but you did not reach it this cycle.
At least your creation of Prydymar went successfully. Picking out a dozen of your more worthy followers plus your ten-cycle old son Cadyl, you use your Aspect of Earth to grant them the ability to shape the earth on their own power. Of course, they will be limited by how much spiritual energy a mortal human can gather and store on their own along with how much energy a mortal human can use at once, but it is something.

Cadyl is particularly pleased as while the lad will not admit, even to himself, he is somewhat jealous of being the only normal one of the family. Oh, he does not blame you or anyone else for that for the lad is smart and wise beyond his years to the point, it is joked that he is not actually your son, but your brother's. Yet, Cadyl cannot shake how he is as ordinary as your average mortal follower whereas his parents and uncle are respected spirits and his sisters are all extraordinary with Seryn being the most powerful being in the known world.

You also hear about Seryn's attempts at creating Ymar from across Lake Eva. While your daughter was successful like you were, Seryn ran into similar problems that you discovered when she attempted to bless you. Whenever she attempts to bless someone with one of her minor Aspects, her main Divinities leak into it.

The end result is while Seryn can create Lyltymar, all of those who receive the ability to wield Lightning Magic from her end up female, attractive looking and physically strong and tough.

Not a necessarily bad thing as unlike with the Myrymar, the Prydymar or even Isorine's Dywrymar up at Prylake, you cannot see any useful non-battle applications for the Lyltymar so having them so anyone who seeks to become a Lyltymar would not mind being one of Seryn's warriors.

At this point, it has become apparent that any blessing specific to Seryn is going to involve her three main Divinities. The generic blessings and healings that any spirit can do are fine, but if it relates to Seryn's aspects or is a major blessing, then her status as goddess comes into play.

For two of them, it is a nonissue as being physically stronger and tougher is not a problem as it is being better looking. But Seryn's Divinity of Femininity means that her specific blessings will only apply to females and if you are not one, well, then being exposed to enough of her divine energy will make you one.

Once again, you do not know how to feel about that.

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[] [Spirit] Iron Spears
-[] [Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
-[] [Spirit]
[] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[] [Spirit] Focus on Healing Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr

Avatar Actions: 4 Actions available
[] [Avatar] Explore
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the South-West
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the Far South-West (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the Far East (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake Western Coastline (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake Mountains (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Lake Eva Northern Coastline
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake
-[] [Avatar] The Southern Grasslands (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Eastern Forest (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Construction
-[] [Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 7.25/18-28 Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] [Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedywn
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedynn
-[] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Experiment
-[] [Avatar] Write-in.

Leadership Actions: 3 Actions available
Leadership Actions are used to improve other Actions such as Avatar or Spirit.
[] [Leadership] Write-in.

 

[Oshha]

Cadyl whittles away at the wooden branch, carving the wood into a proper shape for it to be used as a spear. Carving like this is one of the few things that he can do at his age.

In all honesty, he finds it annoying to be limited to such things by his age. Especially when his sisters are twice his age when they were born in the same year. Instead of having to grow up normally, they got to skipped straight to adulthood almost immediately compared to him.

Cadyl tries to not feel jealous, but he cannot help it as his sisters get all of the cool stuff. Spiritual powers, skipped childhood and blessings. He is even jealous the stuff they earned like Terwyn getting to be Dad's high priestess while Seryn is a goddess with two whole villages to lead.

Oh, he loves his sisters and they love him, but he is ordinary and they are not. Cadyl does his best to keep it from getting to him, but he finds it hard when he is the only ordinary person in the family. Dad, Mum and Uncle Evatine are all spirits with cool powers and villages to lead and unlike his sisters, he inherited none of that.

But even as Cadyl feels jealous and envy towards his family, he also keeps those feelings from getting to him and dominating his mind. No, he acknowledges that they did not deliberately chose to not give him any spiritual powers and instead lets his desire for greatness and power drive him to acquire such things via the conventional ways which are open to him.

Cadyl has no clue what the future will hold for him. He does not have any spiritual prowess like the rest of his family does, but the ordinary paths also do not fit him well either. He cannot take up the trade of his father or mother like many do given the unique positions of his parents. He could become a crafter or farmer, but those positions are too dull for Cadyl. He has a sharp mind and he enjoys using it.

Being a trader is an option especially as the trade between villages picks and up the various settlements are strengthening ties with each other, but such a path lacks the glory and greatness that a boy like Cadyl yearns for. He could become one of Arwyn's explorers, searching for new lands and sights. That option actually appeals to Cadyl even if it means subordinating himself to sister.

He also has the option of becoming a warrior or hunter with there being little difference between those two professions. However, that option is becoming more and more feminine over the cycles and it is only a matter of time until the Avawyrish hunters and warriors start taking the Gift of the Mighty Body from his sister. After that, it would be mere cycles at most until taking Seryn's blessing would be required for one to call themselves a warrior or hunter and depending on how soon that happens, it might be too quick for Cadyl to become a warrior or hunter without making certain sacrifices. And even if he did get in without having to take Seryn's blessing, Cadyl would certainly be at a disadvantage to those who did.

Perhaps it is just that Avawyr has too many spirits between his parents and sisters and that as a latecomer, Cadyl has got any good spots left for him to take.

Perhaps he ought to look aboard. His sister has three villages and the only spirit in them is her. Seryn would certainly have room for him. But if he did take that path, he would almost certainly have to accept her blessing, especially if he wants any position with real power.

Quite frankly, Cadyl has no clue if he wants to grow up to be a woman or not and he feels that he is too young to make an important decision like that. Still, if being granted power such as leadership over one of Seryn's village requires him to be a woman, a strong and beautiful one at that, Cadyl is pretty certain that he would take that deal.

"Hey Cadyl!" says a woman and Cadyl quickly places the voice as belonging to Arwyn as he turns to face his sister.

"Hello Arwyn," replies Cadyl as he puts his knife and stick down, "What brings you here?"

"I just thought I would see how you are doing," answers Arwyn as she plops herself down on the stone slab next to Cadyl, "Helping to craft another spear?"

"Yes," says Cadyl as he once again notices that despite being born at the same time, Arwyn is twice his age.

That fact is fairly obvious with how she is much taller than him with Cadyl only recently having grown enough to reach her chest. Which is awkward for him as he has also recently grown enough to begin appreciate the good looks of a beautiful woman. And Arwyn, like all of his sisters, have the supernatural beauty of a spirit. Only they are sisters so while it is not awkward in that way, it is still awkward as they are beautiful women, but he cannot enjoy like he should as they are also his sisters which makes certain things gross and not appealing like they should be.

"You okay Cadyl?" asks Arwyn as she looks down at him with her golden cat eyes.

"It is just really irritating for all of the beautiful girls in my life to also be my sisters," answers Cadyl honestly, startling a laugh out of his sister.

"I keep forgetting that you reached point in life," says Arwyn with a smile on her face as she places a sisterly hand on Cadyl's shoulder, "Yeah, that must be annoying. But you should not worry about that too much. When looking for a girl, do not worry about looks. Find someone who has a good heart and a strong spirit and Mum or Seryn will handle her beauty for you."

"I know that, but thank you anyway," replies Cadyl, having already received variations of that advice from his family before on various occasions, including from Arwyn.

"Still, if you do want to have a feel, I would not mind-" starts Arwyn before breaking out into a fit of laughter at the disgusted look on Cadyl's face.

"That is gross," protests Cadyl even though he knows that Arwyn is joking even as he knows his sister would still make that offer even if he would accept it, "Besides, if I want to feel a woman's chest, I would get my own from Seryn rather than go for one of my sisters."

"True, true," acknowledges Arwyn as her laughter settles down, "I take it you have been thinking about that possibility then?"

"I have to if I am going to consider all of my possible options for the future," answers Cadyl, "If you want to become a hunter or warrior, being a girl is going to become a requirement. Even if Dad does not want that to be a case."

"Yeah, Dad is going to have to come around sooner or later," agrees Arwyn as Cadyl pulls her tail over to him and begins to stoke it, "Even some of my explorers want it, but those are mainly the ones which are also hunters or warriors when they are not explorers. While women might be made for fighting these days, that is not what exploring is about. We survive in the wilderness, away from civilisation, discovering new things and new lands. You do not need fighting for that even if it does come in handy when faced with wild beasts."

"I might try exploring some day," says Cadyl.

"You will have to wait a few cycles first until you are older," replies Arwyn, "At the moment, you are a tad young for a dangerous and laborious activity such as hunting."

"I know," grumbles Cadyl, "It is just that...I have an idea about that."

"Oh?" says Arwyn inquiringly.

"I was thinking that if Seryn's blessings could make someone older become younger, they could make some younger become older," Cadyl tells her, "She could make me old enough to do dangerous tasks and I would spend a few cycles with her and learn how to fight, hunt and wage war. And then once I would be old enough in my normal body, she could turn back to normal and I could return home to do other things after gaining a bunch of experience. Plus it would also give me the chance to decide if I want to be male or female when I am older."

"That plan could work," says Arwyn thoughtfully, "Seryn would also certainly agree to it, but you would have to get Dad to go along with it."

"You think it could work?" asks Cadyl excitedly.

"Definitely, but your mind would remain young even if your body does not," answers Arwyn, "Less of a problem for you than anyone else as your mind is already older than your body, but it would be something that you would be wise to keep in mind."

Arwyn sighs before continuing.

"It also highlights the differences in our generations," muses Arwyn, "When I was growing up, being able to your gender was not an option. A boy grew up to be a man and a girl grew up to be a woman."

"A girl still grows up to be a woman," points out Cadyl before another thought occurs to him, "And we are the same generation! Mum gave birth to us at the same time."

"True," concedes Arwyn without a fight, "But we grow up in different times. What was true when I was your age may no longer be so."

"I wished siblings my age when I growing up," says Cadyl, leaning against Arwyn, who swiftly snuggles back.

"Yeah, it sucks that you did not get to grow up with the rest of us," replies Arwyn soothingly to her little brother, "Maybe it was for the best. We were trouble when we were younger. Morwyn was rather cruel to those around her rather than being just standoffish like she is now. And Seryn had such a big head. Her pride was ridiculous before Dad dealt with her. Now her pride is limited to what she can actually back up. I also had my fair share of troubles, but I will not be going on to those. Thankfully Dad took care of us while we were still young and curbed our worst traits."

"I cannot imagine you not being extremely nice," Cadyl tells Arwyn honestly, causing her to breakout into another fit of laughter.

"You are a great kid," says Arwyn as she hugs her little brother, "Do not let that change."

 

[Oshha]

[X] Plan Experimentation
[X][Spirit] Focus on Blessing
-[X][Spirit] Prydymar
[X][Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[X][Spirit] Avawyr
[X][Avatar] Construction
-[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 7.25/18-28 Progress x2
[X][Avatar] Visit
-[X][Avatar] Seryn at Bedywn
[X][Avatar] Experiment
-[X][Avatar] With using your power over Earth to fuse stacked stones together. This should allow you to join smaller stones together once put in place for the wall so its harder to damage without going to the extreme effort of creating stone from scratch or having your mortal followers haul large rocks rather than smaller stones. Try using it to transform mud filling the spaces compared to reshaping the stones to fit and see which is easier.
[X][Leadership] Attempt to teach your Prydymar what you know about shaping the Earth by having them assist you in construction of the Stone Wall.
[X][Leadership] Put more focus than usual into bolstering the harvest, perhaps your Aspect of Earth could help somehow?
[X][Leadership] Talk to Seryn about the plague of shadow monsters and ask if there is anything we can do to assist her.

***​

This cycle is neither good or bad, but instead it is simply interesting due to the various developments that occur in it.

You bless more Prydymar, double how many you have, and focus on the harvest a bit more this year. You try focusing your blessing not just on the crops, but also on the soil that the crops are planted in using your Aspect of Earth to strengthen your influence over the soil.

It proves successful or at least you assume it is as the blessing attempt on the soil work as you hoped even if you do not see a noticeable impact on the harvest.

Beyond that, you spend most of your time working at Avawyr working on the stone wall. You make significant progress on the project and it is becoming clear that the wall will not take as long to complete as you originally feared even if it will still require a good deal of effort.

You also take the opportunity to train your fledging Prydymar by having them assist you on the construction of the wall. They are unable to do much due to their human limitations restricting how much magic they can perform and their small numbers meaning that they are only able to provide a helping hand here and there.

Hopefully they will be more useful once they have more experienced or as more knowledge about Earth Magic is gained.

Beyond that, you attempt to use your Aspect of Earth to fuse stacked stones together. You are not successful. You are able to make the stones grow a bit here and there, but you cannot actually merge them with another as they simply grow up against one another whilst remaining as separate entities. At least you know what not to do next time you try something like this.

You also make a trip to visit Seryn. Coordinating it with her ahead of time using your spiritual connection in Avawyr, you arrange to meet your daughter in Bedywn.

While you are always pleased to see your daughter, you primarily inquire about the shadow monsters in the Bydi Hills and if there is anything you can do to help. Although she was happy at your offer of aid, Seryn informed you that no, there was anything that you could do to help.

Your daughter has decided to change her strategy regarding the matter. With Bedygan empty of human life apart from the Cath Wyrs that she has operating out of the village, Seryn has decided that unlike with Bedynn and the Bydi Forest, there is no urgent need to clear out the Bydi Hills. Combined with there being no clear end in sight, Seryn has decided to focus less resources and attention on slaying the shadow monsters and instead win a war of attrition with the shadow monsters over the generation or two it will take to get enough people for Bedygan to be resettled.

Seryn also admits that this cycle, the fighting as gone poorly. Of course, poorly is relative when one side has a goddess of war on their side what Seryn means is that her Cath Wyrs have slain plenty of shadow monsters, but took higher than usual injuries that get promptly healed by your daughter with no long term damage.

With less focus on the shadow monsters in the Bydi Hills, Seryn is consolidating her position at home as Bedywn and Bedynn are underdeveloped compared to Evalon and Avawyr. To correct this, she has set up a fifth shrine in Evalon so she has a shrine in each village that answers to you.

Other than that, Seryn has been blessing more Lyltymar and has finished the dirt path between Bedywn and Bedynn and is always looking at potential sites for Lake Eva boat pens for both of her populated villages.

In Evalon, your brother and his followers have been doing their usual thing with more Myrymar being created, more iron spears being forged and blessed and Evatine crafting more iron tools for the Evalonish to use.

Your brother also organises an exploration expedition to explore the northern coast of Lake Eva, in particular the inland hills that remain unknown.

The Evalonish explorers prove successful, making their way past the grassland shores and into the hills. It was within those hills, that they discovered the village of Blawain. Within the eastern hills, Blawain is a farming village lead by spirit Orcante.

From what the Evalonish could gather before being made unwelcome by the standoffish Blawainish, Orcante has an Aspect of Farming, but also an Aspect of Earth like you do. But unlike you, her Aspect of Earth is more soil-based whilst your own is more rock-based. They also suspect that she has a third Aspect, something based about magic or spiritual power, but the Evalonish do not get to stick around long enough to find out for sure.

Surrounded by hills and dirt walls, the villages of Blawain have managed to step up a good number of farms with supernatural aid. They are also somewhat hostile to outsiders and while they tolerate the Evalonish for a bit, your brother's villagers are quickly made unwelcome, including threats of using force to drive them off if necessary.

Despite their hostility towards outsiders, the Blawainish do not appear to be a threat as while they will drive off visitors from their land with force if necessary, they also lack ambitions beyond their lands.

Back home, things continue as normal for the most part. Vardyn and Terwyn are slowly usurping the day to day running of Avawyr from Bronwyn while their kids continue to grow at rapid rates. Bronwyn does more crafting, but she and Arwyn also arranged an expedition to explore the grasslands south of Bedywn on the other side of the South River.

It is almost a complete disaster.

Oh, the exploration itself goes well enough. It is what they find when they get there which is the problem.

Like the Evalonish did this year, Bronwyn, Arwyn and the Avawyrish explorers find another village with their own spirit. Only they never get to meet or even see the spirit before the villagers decide to attack the Avawyrish expedition. With a spirit and a demi-spirit fighting against them, these southern village of 'Sangere'. The Sangerish are beaten back and Bronwyn decides that they should head back home rather than press their luck.

Sangere is definitely going to be a problem as from what Bronwyn and Arwyn have to say, the Sangerish have massive amounts of farmland and Sangere itself is easily the largest settlement in the region.

Nonetheless, as Bedywn is closest of your settlements to Sangere and you doubt they will give Seryn too much of a problem. After all, your daughter is the Mighty One, Goddess of War, Beauty and Femininity with hundreds of Cath Wyrs answering to her. The Sangerish warriors that Bronwyn and Arwyn fought were merely human and while the Sangerish have sheer numbers, Seryn has unmatched quality.

Speaking of Seryn and her Cath Wyr, you a matter at home relating to them to deal with. As you suspected they would for some time now, the Avawyrish hunters and warriors have approached you for permission to start accepting the Gift of the Mighty Body from Seryn. While you have not outright banned it, your subtle disapproval of it has kept them from accepting before now and is the reason why they ask your permission before doing so.

There is also another matter that you need to deal with by the end of the cycle. Your son Cadyl has approached you with an idea he seeks your permission for. Due to the limitations of his young age and body, he wishes to get around them by going to Seryn and accepting her blessing so he has an older body. He or rather she at the point would learn and train under his-her sister to gain experience until his normal body would have aged to a suitable point where he would return to it.

While you have an instinctive dislike for the idea, you cannot deny that Cadyl's logic is sound and you have no doubt that your son would benefit from the experience.

Do you let Cadyl go to learn under Seryn?
[] [Cadyl] Make him stay at home.
[] [Cadyl] Let him go.
[] [Cadyl] Write-in.

Do you let your warriors and hunters accept the Gift of the Mighty Body from Seryn?
[] [Cath] Allow them to accept your daughter's blessing.
[] [Cath] Refuse to allow it.
[] [Cath] Write-in.

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[] [Spirit] Iron Spears
-[] [Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
-[] [Spirit] Prydymar
-[] [Spirit] Write-in
[] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[] [Spirit] Write-in
[] [Spirit] Focus on Healing Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr

Avatar Actions: 4 Actions available
[] [Avatar] Explore
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the South-West
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the Far South-West (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the Far East (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake Western Coastline (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake Mountains (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Lake Eva Northern Coastline
-[] [Avatar] The Eastern Hills
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake
-[] [Avatar] The Southern Grasslands (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Eastern Forest (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Construction
-[] [Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 10/18-22 Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Raid
-[] [Avatar] Sangere at the Southern Fields
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] [Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[] [Avatar] Seryn
--[] [Avatar] Bedywn
--[] [Avatar] Bedynn
--[] [Avatar] Bedygan
-[] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] Orcante at Blawain
[] [Avatar] Experiment
-[] [Avatar] Write-in.

Leadership Actions: 3 Actions available
Leadership Actions are used to improve other Actions such as Avatar or Spirit.
[] [Leadership] Write-in.

 

[Oshha]

Map from Cycle 14

 

[Oshha]

Wyrn's life has not been a kind one, something that started at birth. The youngest of three sisters, her body was not born right. Her right foot is the wrong shape, a mess of misshapen flesh and bone that vaguely fits the shape of a foot. With the Noble One still being weak when she was young and lacking the power that wields in the current day, her leg was never healed or cured, forcing Wyrn to grow up as a crippled for all intents and purposes.

It has not been easy for her and not just because she has never been able to walk properly, instead limping about on a crippled limb. No, her crippled foot has brought the distain of some of her fellow villagers and a bad reputation upon her. After all, why would the Noble One not heal her if she did not deserve it? If the Noble One had left her with a crippled limb, it was because she was unworthy of it.

So they treated her badly, jeering at her and bumming into her and otherwise showing no respect for her. It is not all of the Evalonish, just a few. Most just ignore her, wanting nothing to do with her while some even show her pity and kindness.

The fights do not help at all either as Wyrn often found herself violent engaged with other kids as she was growing up. As the crippled kid with no friends, she made for an easy target for the other kids in the village and sometimes it was not just kids who decided to be her up.

Her family was useless when it came to helping her. Mother is just prideful hag with no spine when it came to actually backing things up and had no use for a disliked cripple of a child who got into trouble. Father is a warrior who cared only for fame and glory and did not need a troublesome crippled daughter making him look bad. Both of them attempted to distance themselves from Wyrn and place the blame for you on the other with the end result making it look like neither was responsible for her behaviour and they both sought to be rid a trouble maker like her.

Which is the truth when Wyrn look at it as she has no doubts that they will cast them out of their household once she is of age.

Her two older sisters are no better than her parents. Gwyn, older than Wyrn by only a cycle, is kind enough, but is too focused on a good reputation in the village. That means making token attempts to help her in public as a good sister should aid their sibling whilst ignoring her and distancing herself from Wyrn as no one respectable should associate themselves with a troublemaker and social outcast like Wyrn.

Tarwyn is worse than the rest of their family put together. A rising huntress within the village and older than Wyrn by three cycles, Tarwyn is a judgemental girl who looks down upon Wyrn for her crippled limb and the fact that she gets into fights despite neither of those things being Wyrn's fault. Matters are only made worse by how Tarwyn is a good-looking, carefree socialite who does care much about the feelings of other people, especially not someone like Wyrn.
Wyrn hates Tarwyn with a passion as her social desires have led Wyrn's oldest sister to actually join in on physically beating up Wyrn with some of her friends.

Wyrn's only saving grace is the Noble One himself. Unlike her family and most of the village, the Noble One dos not hold Wyrn's crippled foot or the fights she gets into against her. Instead he heals her injuries from the fights and gives her comforting words that Wyrn rarely receives.

For that, Wyrn shall be eternally grateful and loyal to the Noble One. With the Noble One being one of the only people at cares about Wyrn, she makes it her daily routine to visit the Noble One's shrine by noon to the point that one day when she got intercepted by some folks looking for a fight with her, the Noble One sent some warriors to find out why she was late and if she required help.

Wyrn smiles as she makes her way up the steps to top of the hill where the Noble One's shrine is located. To have someone, let alone having that someone be a spirit, is one of the only things that keeps her going.

Unable to perform normal duties around the village with her crippled limb, Wyrn has been able to find work in serving the Noble One. A spirit of great wisdom, the Noble One has decided to incorporate her daily visit into her duties and had a small wooden hall built near his shrine for Wyrn to work in.

Her is unique and important and due to her crippled leg, it only requires use of her hands. While not vital to the wellbeing of the village, it is very useful as Wyrn is in charge of keeping track of how many important things the village.

How many iron spears there are, which have been blessed and how many silver tips are just a handful of the many things that Wyrn keeps track of. Villagers will collect the information and then verbally inform Wyrn of the knowledge. In turn, she then uses that knowledge to carve the right symbols into wood or stone to record that the information for future reference.

When details fade within the memories of men and women, having a record of accurate information is useful, especially should a problem arise due to a lack of information.

Having such a duty pleases Wyrn greatly as she hobbles over to the large slab of stone that she works on. With her right foot preventing her from coming a warrior like she wants to, Wyrn appreciates being given this duty by the Noble One. While it is not her first choice, being able to do something useful and carry out a duty in the name of the Noble One is something that Wyrn is eternally grateful.

Wyrn makes her way over to the wooden pieces carved into flat, circles to make it easier to carve symbols into and then read on later occasions.

Wood is the material that Wyrn uses on a day to day basis as it is easily found on Eva Isle and is easier to carve into. However, for the seasonal records, the Noble One has Wyrn use stone imported from Avawyr. Whilst both harder to use and to get than wood, the Noble One wants the important, long term records carved into stone and not wood.

Wyrn is not sure why that is the case, but it is not her duty to question, but to serve. So she does, doing what is required of her by the Noble One without complaint.

"Wyrn," says the Noble One, making Wyrn jump in surprise as the violet-eyed girl as she makes notches next to the symbol for Myrwyr in a wooden circle.

"Yes Noble One?" replies Wyrn reverently as she looks up to see the Avatar of the Noble One with the liquid metal aura and weakened body.

"Please come with me Wyrn," says the Noble One, "I require you for something."

"Of course Noble One," answers Wyrn and hobbles after the Noble One as he lead her out of her work hut and into his shrine proper.

A boy about Wyrn's age is waiting in there when Wyrn and the Noble One enter. With rough, short brown hair and kind blue eyes, Wyrn has no clue who this person is or why they are here and the only thing about them that she is certain of is that she has never met them before.

"You are back Uncle Evatine," says the boy and Wyrn stumbles in shock at the familiar turn of address towards the Noble One.

Unfortunately for Wyrn, stumbling for her means losing her footing and falling face first into the ground.

As she begins to get back up, Wyrn looks up to see the boy holding out a hand to her. Clasping it, Wyrn uses the boy as a support to steady herself as she gets back on her feet.

"Thank you," Wyrn tells the boy, unsurprised by his generosity as anybody who is kin of the Noble One would be helpful like that.

"Cadyl, this is Wyrn, my record-carver," says the Noble One to the boy before turning his attention to Wyrn herself, "Wyrn, this is my nephew Cadyl, son of Gwarlon and Bronwyn."

"Does she not have parents?" asks Cadyl as he looks at Wyrn curiously.

"None that are worth mentioning," answers the Noble One curtly before returning his focus to Wyrn, "Cadyl is here to visit me before heading to Bedwyn where he is to spend a few cycles learning under his sister Seryn before returning home. He has decided to stop here in his journey to seek my blessing and I shall grant it."

Wyrn is silent, waiting for the Noble One to continue whilst wondering why she is here.

"Are you not wondering why you are?" asks the Noble One, breaking the silence as he voices what Wyrn is thinking.

"I trust you," answers Wyrn without hesitation.

"I would like for you to go with Cadyl on his journey," says the Noble One and Wyrn blinks in surprise as Cadyl turns to look at her.

"W-why?" asks Wyrn, confused at why the Noble One would ask that of her.

"You have always wanted to be a warrior," replies the Noble One, "Serving under the Mighty One alongside Cadyl will give you that chance. Especially since it will give you the chance to overcome your…foot. Quite frankly, I am surprised you have not considered this before."

Wyrn cannot help, but feel amused at how for once, the Noble One is wrong. She has considered going to the Mighty One for the Gift of the Mighty Body. Ignoring the other many benefits, it would allow her to fulfil her dream of being a warrior and even if she did not have such dreams, being able to have a normal foot and walk properly would be worth it alone.

Except it is not to Wyrn. She does not just wish to be a warrior, but a warrior of the Noble One. She seeks to the serve the Noble One and the Noble One alone. To accept the Gift of the Mighty Body and to become a Cath Wyr would put her in the service of the Mighty One and not the Noble One. That makes that option unacceptable for Wyrn, no matter how much she may yearn for it.

"I want to serve you, not the Mighty One," answers Wyrn, looking down at her feet as she blushes.

"You can serve us both, Seryn would not mind," says the Noble One as he places a comforting hand on Wyrn's soldier, "Go and serve my niece alongside Cadyl, fulfil your dreams of becoming a warrior and overcome the curse of your body that you do not deserve. If it helps, consider this to by a personal request from me."

"As you say Noble One," replies Wyrn, feeling the joy bubbling up inside her as her wildest dreams are coming true right before her.

She can barely keep her face from breaking out into a unbearably wide smile.

"Cadyl," says the Noble One as he turns to his nephew, "Wryn is a loyal and valued follower of mine who has an unfair lot in life through no fault of her own. Please look after for me."

"I will," answers Cadyl, looking the Noble One directly in the eye with a determined resolve in his voice.

"Good," says the Noble One, clasping his hands together, "Now for the blessing."

Wyrn finally smiles as she feels the Noble One's power following through her body and soul. She experiences it on a near daily basis, but the violet-eyed girl is vaguely aware that it is different this time. Stronger and clearer. More stable and unmoving, as it if is not going to go away.

Something within her awakens and something else is formed. Wyrn can feel a direct connection to the Noble One-to Evatine in her soul while she can reach out tap into the spiritual power in her soul. Even as she becomes aware of both, she can feel energy flowing from her new connection to Evatine, strengthening her personal pool of spiritual energy by at least tenfold.

Not only that, but she can stronger already, standing here in the heart of Evalon, the most advanced place in the world. Wyrn know where civilisation stands, faintly feeling the directions in which the other known villages are.

And then there is the metal. Wyrn can now reach out and tap into metal surrounding Evatine, being able to shape, feel and move it with her spiritual power.

A Myrymar. That is what Wyrn is now. Truly this is a great day for her.

"I have a gift for each of you," says Evatine.

Wyrn cannot help, but wonder if they will be given an iron spear like the Silver Tips use. None of the Cath Wyr have any, but if she is to serve the Noble One whilst also serving the Mighty One…

As she gazes upon what Evatine has to offer her, Wyrn realises that the Noble One's gift is far better than any iron spear.

Two iron swords, their silver blades glistening in the light of the Noble One's shrine.

"An iron sword for each of you," continues Evatine as both Wyrn and Cadyl take a sword, "You shall find them better than the stone weaponry used by Seryn's warriors. I have no doubt that you make good use of them over the cycles."

Holding the weapon by the hilt, Wyrn can instinctively feel how to properly use the sword despite never touching one before. Another part of the Noble One's blessing.

"Now you may go west with my blessing and my gift," says the Evatine as he smiles at the two of them, "May you find what you are looking for under Seryn."

 

[Oshha]

Cycle 15 Map

 

[Oshha]

[X] Plan Tidings of Innovation
-[X][Cadyl] Let him go, as long as he promises to keep training his earth magic. Who knows? The blessing could even complement each other.
-[X][Cath] Only those men who have already fathered at least one male and one female child may take the blessing, lest there be no more men in the future.
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
--[X][Spirit] Avawyr
---[X] Cadyl
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Blessing
--[X][Spirit] Prydymar
-[X][Avatar] Construction
--[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 10/18-22 Progress
-[X][Avatar] Visit
--[X][Avatar] Orcante at Blawain
-[X][Avatar] Visit
--[X][Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[X][Avatar] Experiment
--[X][Avatar] Try and learn new techniques using earth and stone, especially ranged ones, like making instant spears or spikes from the ground. If successfull, teach your earth mages. Also ask them to test and create their own techniques, with caution to not hurt themselves or others.
-[X][Leadership] Support Experiment
-[X][Leadership] Cadyl Inspiring
-[X][Leadership] Visit Orcante

***​

The cycle had a good start to it. You agreed to Cadyl's request on the condition that he continues to keep training his earth magic.

He is swift to agree to your condition and is even annoyed that the implication that he would not use or train his earth magic.

As for the request of your warriors and hunters, you agree to it as well, also attaching a condition to the agreement. If an Avawyrish villager is to accept the Gift of the Mighty Body, they must have at least two children. You originally had decided that they would have to a child of each gender, but your followers had argued you down to a lesser requirement, reasoning that it was unfair because you did not get to choose the gender of your child and whether or not you could get the blessing came down to luck rather than merit.

And under that reduced condition, all of your current warriors all qualify for accepting the Gift of the Mighty Body.

It is going to take you a while to get used to watching copies of your daughter walking about the village.

The rest of the year went well for you, you inspired Cadyl, which led the boy to Evalon to seek the blessing of his uncle. You created more Prydymar while Bronwyn focused on normal blessings and the harvest.

You make more progress on the stone wall and you have definitely passed the halfway point by the end of the cycle. Meanwhile your wife continues to work on more pottery and crafts with Vardyn and Terwyn leading the village.

Both you and your wife have the idea of visiting people this year. Setting off together, the two of you take a boat to Evalon first to visit your brother and it is then that you split ways. You head to the north-east to visit the isolationist Orcante while Bronwyn goes south-west to visit Seryn and see how her son is getting on in under the leadership of her daughter.

Evatine has been getting on well. He continues the usual routine of blessing more Myrymar, forging more iron tools and blessing the iron spears made by his Myrymar. The only exception this year is the presences of Cadyl.

Seeking Evatine's blessing, the spirit of Evalon happily granted his blessing to his nephew and one of his more devout and trusted followers, a crippled girl of Cadyl's age by the name Wyrn. And to your surprise, Evatine also gifted each of them with an iron sword, the second and third of their kind.

Other than that, the only thing of note to you that the Evalonish do this cycle is explore the western coast of North Lake. Exploring the grasslands, they find another village with their own spirit.

The villagers of Belamour and the sky-spirit Trevritine are neither actively hostile like the Sangerish or passively hostile like the Blawainish to the Evalonish explorers, but apathetic and non-caring of their presence.

Living under the protection of Trevritine, the Belamourish are unconcerned with the outside world, living in the shadows of mountains that they do not explore and otherwise surrounded by grassy fields that their hunters sometimes seek prey in.

As for Trevritine himself, the sky-spirit is of the sky and is strongest in the day. And strong he is as Trevritine is more than a match for you, Evatine or Bronwyn in a one on one fight even as he would stand no chance against the goddess that is Seryn.

Your own trip is somewhat successful. You make your way to Blawain on your own as you do not want to needless risk the lives of your mortal followers if things go wrong. Thankfully your worries go unfounded as the Blawainish reluctantly accept your presence.

You put it down to being a powerful spirit that the mortal Blawainish do not fancy their chances against.

That said, the Blawainish make no attempts to be friendly or talkative with you. You did not get much done beyond not getting attacked or driven off and the only thing of note you get out of the village is more information about Orcante.

The spirit of Blawain has an Aspect of the Earth like you do, but as the Evalonish suspected his has been shaped by the soil of the hills he lives in just as yours has been shaped by the stone of the mountains you live in.

He cannot shape rock like you can, but he can do the same with dirt and combined with his Aspect of the Farmer, he can improve the quality of the soil and fertility of it and the crops planted in it.

You are also able to discover the main effects of his third aspect. It appears to a more supernatural one in nature and grants Orcante to non-elemental magic as where as you are limited to Earth Magic, Evatine to Metal Magic and Seryn to Lightning Magic, Orcante is able to directly shape his spiritual energy into magical effects.

Your fellow Earth spirit seems to unaware of how to create mages as there are no Ymar to be seen in Blawain. Unsurprising as while they have become rather widespread in your villages and Prylake, that is only because Evatine has shared the knowledge with the rest of you.

Your wife's visit to Seryn was more successful than your visit to Blawain, meeting her daughter and her son in Bedywn.

Seryn has decided to give Cadyl and his new friend Wyrn a stronger and more personal blessing unto of the Gift of the Mighty Body to make themselves stand out more, including keeping more to their true appearances.

News from the west is somewhat worrying. Seryn has been spiritually stretched to the limit with her regular spiritual duties, making more Lyltymar, granting the Gift of the Mighty Body to Avawyrish, personal greater blessings for both Cadyl and Wyrn and healing her Cath Wyrs.

Beyond keeping some Cath Wyrs up north in Bedygan to continue the shadow monster purges, Seryn has decided to send a good portion of her Cath Wyr south to visit the Sangerish for what they did to her mother and sister.

This turns out to be a good idea as over the Sun Season, close to a thousand Sangerish warriors go north to Bedywn in various warbands. Often outnumbered ten to one, the Cath Wyr intercept the Sangerish raiders in the grasslands between Sangere and the South River.

The fighting is brutal. No Cath Wyr actually die either calling upon Seryn for healing when they are close enough to Bedywn or limping back to friendly territory with terrible injuries that would have killed a non-Cath Wyr.

Despite killing a full tenth to fifth of the Sangerish and wounding many more, the Cath Wyr are driven back to Bedygan by the end of the Sun Season and the start of the Harvest Season, having conceded the other side of the South River to Sangerish.

However, the Sangerish stop coming as the Harvest Season comes, allowing the Cath Wyr to lick their wounds as Seryn begins construction of a wooden wall around Bedygan.

While you knew he would be involved in fighting, you cannot help, but be worry when you find out that Cadyl was involved in the fighting against the Sangerish. Despite your fears, your son only suffers minor injuries during the Sun Season and acquitted himself in the fighting.

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[] [Spirit] Iron Spears
-[] [Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
-[] [Spirit] Prydymar
[] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[] [Spirit] Focus on Healing Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr

Avatar Actions: 4 Actions available
[] [Avatar] Explore
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the South-West
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the Far South-West (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the Far East (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake Western Coastline (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake Mountains (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Lake Eva Northern Coastline
-[] [Avatar] The Eastern Hills
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake
-[] [Avatar] The Southern Grasslands (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Eastern Forest (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Construction
-[] [Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 11.5/20 Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Raid
-[] [Avatar] Sangere at the Southern Fields
-[] [Avatar] Shadow Monsters in the Eastern Hills
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] [Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[] [Avatar] Seryn
--[] [Avatar] Bedywn
--[] [Avatar] Bedynn
--[] [Avatar] Bedygan
-[] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] Orcante at Blawain
-[] [Avatar] Trevritine at Belamour (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Experiment
-[] [Avatar] Write-in.

Leadership Actions: 3 Actions available
Leadership Actions are used to improve other Actions such as Avatar or Spirit.
[] [Leadership] Write-in.

 

[Oshha]

[X] Plan Defensive Measures
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Blessing
--[X][Spirit] Avawyr
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
--[X] Cadyl and his companion
-[X][Avatar] Construction
--[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 11.5/20 Progress
-[X][Avatar] Construction
--[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 11.5/20 Progress
-[X][Avatar] Visit
--[X][Avatar] Seryn
---[X] Coordinate raiding efforts
-[X][Avatar] Raid
--[X][Avatar] Sangere at the Southern Fields
-[X][Leadership] Sangere Raid
-[X][Leadership] Construct Stone Wall
-[X][Leadership] Inspiration

***​

The cycle is good one. You do not make more Prydymar this cycle, but instead focus on the conflict in the south. In the Growth Season, you continue on the stone wall around Avawyr with the foundation of the wall being done and the only matter remaining being building it up to a respectable height, so it will keep out hostile warriors.

Otherwise, you let Bronwyn, Terwyn and Vardyn handle the affairs of the village as you focus your attention on the fighting with Sangere in the southern lands.

Rallying up the Cath Wyrs of Avawyr, you head south to assist Seryn with Sangerish raiders when they come in the Sun Season. Your brother has a similar idea as when you arrive in Bedywn with about a hundred Cath Wyrs, all two hundred of Evatine's Silver Tips show up as well.

As for Seryn, she has been preparing as she has been turning more of her Cath Wyrs into Lyltymar and continued work on the wooden wall around Bedywn, making noteworthy progress as the southern side of the village is now protected with if the north, west and east flanks are still exposed.

When the Growth Season ends and the Sangerish warriors come at the start of the Sun Season, Seryn personally takes the field, leading the entirety of the Lyltymar and the Cath Wyrs at Bedywn against the enemy with Cadyl and Wyrn assisting her along with her two Cath Wyr leaders, Merfyn and Cerwyn.

You stay back at Bedywn with the Silver Tips, ready to send the village should any of the Sangerish should make it through Seryn's warriors.

Thankfully, your worries go unfounded as Seryn is the Goddess of War and while the Sangerish outnumber her forces, eight hundred mortal warriors are no match for close to five hundred Cath Wyrs even if you did not take Seryn herself into the equation.

Seryn picks off the various Sangerish warbands one by one as since each one numbers no more than a hundred at most whilst she brings at least two hundred Cath Wyrs against each one.

Despite what you would have expected, Seryn does not kill all of the Sangerish and instead only a very few of them die as Seryn takes just shy of eight hundred prisoners.

What to do with them is of much debate. So many warriors are troublesome so a decision needs to be make sooner rather than latter, but what decision should be chosen?

You cannot just let them go as they will just come back next Sun Season. While the option to kill them in cold blood and be done with the matter is there, Seryn vigorously argues that would be a waste. Your daughter claims that if they are to die, then then some good should be done in the process and proposal sacrificing them to either Ascend the rest of her sisters or to strengthen your existing spirits further.

The other option is to send them up to Bedynn and Bedygan to repopulate Seryn's northern villages. Another eight hundred bodies would be very helpful to increasing the numbers including potentially allowing people to live in Bedygan once again.

Seryn personally argues for sacrificing them to strengthen your family, arguing that doing so will help establish local dominance even further and claiming that while she can handle having the prisoners added to her villages, she would rather not have the hassle.

Evatine is neutral on the matter, not seeing any good options available and this being a matter of picking the least bad option. Bronwyn is the opposite, viewing either option as a decent solution and willing to support whichever one is chosen.

As for you personally, you are against killing the prisoners, but that might be your personal distaste for death of people. After all, the alternative option is not going to be causing any problems for you so perhaps you are unfairly biased in the situation.

At least Cadyl has proven himself in the fighting this cycle. Seryn made sure to include her brother in every fight against the Sangerish this cycle and your son learning both how to personally fight, but also how to lead and command others as he watches Seryn direct the Cath Wyrs into battle and during the campaign.

The rest of cycle year goes good as well. The creation of more arts and crafts continues in Avawyr under Gwyn and Bronwyn with a focus on making containers for this cycle's bountiful harvest. Meanwhile your grandson, Myrlin has himself to be a talent Prydymar, able to replicate your current abilities only with a more efficient usage of energy as while he has inherited some spiritual nature from his parents, Myrlin has no where near your output and reserves of energy.

Bronwyn does make a visit to Prylake with some Avawyrish traders, deciding to meet Isorine in person. The two of them hit off great, both happy to have another female spirit to speak with as a friend and equal. And like with most things which make your wife happy, the news of Bronwyn making a new friend pleases you as well.

As for Isorine and Prylakish have been up to, the lake spirit herself has been making more Dywrymar while the Prylakish villagers have been continuing to fish as they always done whilst continuing the trading with the Avawyrish and the Evalonish that Bronwyn and Evatine have gotten them to do.

In Evalon, Evatine shifts his usual routine up a bit by having the Myrymar make iron tools instead of iron spears while he himself splits his attentions between forging more iron tools as usual, but also making some iron spears since his Myrymar are not making anymore.

Speaking of iron tools and iron spears, Evatine has made enough that by the end of the cycle that there are enough iron tools for every villager in Evalon while your brother has over a hundred iron spears left in storage even after assigning one to every Silver Tip.

Perhaps you should inquire into getting some iron tools and spears for Avawyr?

Decisions, decisions.

What is to be done with the Sangerish prisoners?
[] [Prisoners] Sacrifice them to empower your family just as Cynfanor once did with Seryn.
-[] [Prisoners] Ascend remaining daughters into Spirits.
-[] [Prisoners] Empower existing Spirits.
[] [Prisoners] Let Seryn use them to repopulate her northern villages.
[] [Prisoners] Write-in.

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[] [Spirit] Iron Spears
-[] [Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
-[] [Spirit] Prydymar
[] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[] [Spirit] Focus on Healing Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr

Avatar Actions: 4 Actions available
[] [Avatar] Explore
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the South-West
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the Far South-West (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the Far East (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake Western Coastline (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake Mountains (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Lake Eva Northern Coastline
-[] [Avatar] The Eastern Hills
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake
-[] [Avatar] The Southern Grasslands (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Eastern Forest (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Construction
-[] [Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 14.5/20 Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Raid
-[] [Avatar] Sangere at the Southern Fields
-[] [Avatar] Shadow Monsters in the Eastern Hills
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] [Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[] [Avatar] Seryn
--[] [Avatar] Bedywn
--[] [Avatar] Bedynn
--[] [Avatar] Bedygan
-[] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] Orcante at Blawain
-[] [Avatar] Trevritine at Belamour (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Experiment
-[] [Avatar] Write-in.

Leadership Actions: 3 Actions available
Leadership Actions are used to improve other Actions such as Avatar or Spirit.
[] [Leadership] Write-in.

 

[Oshha]

[X][Prisoners] Let Seryn use them to repopulate her northern villages.
[X] Plan The Usual 2.0
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
--[X][Spirit] Bedynn Leadership
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
--[X][Spirit] Avawyr
-[X][Avatar] Construction
--[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 14.5/20 Progress x2
-[X][Avatar] Visit
--[X][Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
---[X][Avatar] 1. Ask him to provide some iron tools for Avawyr. 2. See if he'd be willing to send Silver Spears to Bedynn and Bedygan to help ease the settling in of prisoners and foster civilization.
--[X][Avatar] Seryn at Bedynn
---[X] 1. Thank her for agreeing to resettle the prisoners. 2. Ask if she thinks we would be of help in fortifying Bedygan next cycle. 3. Inspire relevant leadership in an attempt to ease the process of integration (action devoted above). 4. Provide additional assistance by casting general blessings, aiding construction efforts, etc. 5. Think about ways traveling to Bedynn and back could be made easier.
-[X][Leadership] Wall Construction x2
-[X][Leadership] Harvest

***​

This cycle has been an absolute mess and by the end of it things, the metaphorical fires are still burning.

Oh, it has been good in some parts. The harvest went well and Bronwyn and Evatine had been attempting to encourage trade after you managed to convince Evatine to allow iron tools to be traded. That said, the Evalonish have shown an extreme reluctance to trade their iron tools away.

Evatine continues the new version of his old routine with blessing new Myrymar while the Myrymar make iron tools while Evatine himself makes both iron tools and iron spears. However, your brother actually does something interesting this cycle as he finally allows Seryn use the Gift of the Mighty Body in Evalon.

He and Seryn have come to an arrangement that a warrior accepting the Gift of the Mighty Body does not automatically put them under the leadership of Seryn and the likewise applies to becoming a Silver Tip in regard to Evatine.

The end result is all two hundred of the Silver Tips becoming Cath Wyrs, meaning that all of the warriors in your villages are now Cath Wyrs and it is going to be effectively impossible for someone to become a warrior without becoming a Cath Wyr.

You cannot help, but note that Cadyl had accurately predicted this outcome occurring and even within this time frame.

His reasoning when you ask him during your visit is to do with something about making the sizes of the warriors all the same to allow universally fitting armour to be made rather than having to get the measures of each individual warrior.

You hope that this a good thing, especially since you believe it will involve the iron that Evatine always works with.

Things are also quiet up in Prylake while Seryn continues her campaign against the shadow monsters and continues to increase the amount of Cath Wyr which are also Lyltymar. Your daughter also finishes the wooden wall around Bedywn, securing against any minor raids or attacks whilst beginning construction of one around Bedygan in order to secure her most northern village against the shadow monsters in the surrounding hills.

As for the dealing with the Sangerish raiders, Seryn decides to let Cadyl and Wyrn handle that this Sun Season, giving your son and his new friend a chance to show how well they can handle themselves in command.

And then you have the grand mess of this cycle and you have a sneaking feeling of what caused all of this to kick off.

It finally hits home that when you inspire someone, you have no control over what you inspire them to do. While that has not been a concern of yours so far due to all of your inspirations resulting in things which benefitted you.

This cycle? Not so much. It turns out that when you attempted to inspire the Sangerish prisoners in Bedynn to help them settle in to their new home, you ended up inspiring a rebellion which would not have happened otherwise due to their fear of Seryn.

So oops?

At least Seryn does not realise that it was your fault, instead blaming on the unknown Sangerish spirit. You will just have to live with this dirty little secret of yours and the ensuring guilt.

Most of the Sangerish prisoners have settled into their new lives without any serious trouble, but about two hundred of them decided to launch an uprising against Seryn in a bid for freedom.

Seryn crushed it in less than an hour.

Your daughter did not use physical might or her Cath Wyrs, but a new technique that she has come up with. After you had her undo her permanent blessing during the solution to the incident when she invented the Gift of the Mighty Body, Seryn has been experimenting with it a bit further, thinking up ways to take the removal of a blessing one step further.

Seryn has come up with cursing, an inverted version of blessing where instead of adding something, you take it away. Your daughter has yet to fully master this new technique as she is using for the first time to crush the rebellion. At this point in time, Seryn can only remove one of her main Divinities in a curse by compensating by adding her other two Divinities as a counterbalance.

Something to do with Myrlin's theory of all magic has a cost that must be paid.

In end the uprising, Seryn curses the rebels with loss of Vigour to leave them too weak to fight or do resist any of Seryn's followers. The end result is two hundred very attractive women who are incredibly weak and helpless.

Which has Seryn absolutely furious to your initial surprise as it turns out that as far as Seryn is concerned, women should be strong and beautiful and having weak women is unnatural and wrong.

Between the rebellion occurring, the nature of the curse upsetting Seryn's spiritual nature, your daughter's natural pride and the vindication at the idea she argued against going wrong in a manner which would not have occurred if she had suggested it, Seryn is understandable upset with you when you arrive in Bedynn with the one hundred Silver Tips that Evatine has sent to help integrate the Sangerish prisoners.

To appease her and in all fairness, you cannot deny that you need to given how your plan ended, Seryn has a series of demands of which you must accept at least some.

[X] Let the characters make in-character decisions.
-[X] Sacrifice the rebels to empower four of your daughters. (2 Points)
--[X] Arwyn
--[X] Terwyn
--[X] Gwyn
--[X] Eulyn
-[X] Future rebels will be used as ritual sacrifices. (1 Point)
-[X] Allow Seryn and your other daughters to sleep with female followers. (1 Point)
-[X] All women must accept Seryn's blessing when they come of age. (1 Point)

Seryn offers various things such as sacrificing the rebels for Ascension of her sisters as she originally wanted with the same applying to any future rebels. Alternatives included keeping the rebels as lower value villagers, forced to do unpleasant work or using them for human experimentation that Seryn would not dare do upon on her mortal followers.

The rest of her demands included lesser and mostly unrelated things that Seryn would like to happen and allowing them would please her. Some of them made sense to you such as her demand for all women to receive a blessing from her when they came of age while others make no sense to you such as requesting that she and her sisters be allowed to sleep with women, especially since Seryn clarify that no, she did not find women attractive and still felt lust for men.

Other potential demands including iron spears for her Cath Wyrs, a personal iron sword, giving a blessing to every woman in your villages and having a regular quote of recruits to the Cath Wyrs.

In the end, you agreed to let Seryn keep the rebels around to do the dirty work of her villages in order to avoid the deaths or potential deaths in the alternative options. Other than that, you decided to give her permission to sleep with other women and extend that same privilege to her sisters.

You have no clue why she asked this, especially when she does not feel lust towards women like you do. But it is a choice that requires the willingly participation of your daughters for it to be relevant and before agreeing to it, you made sure that Seryn still understood the concept of consent and not inflicting things upon her followers without them being willing.

The other options were less obvious. Iron spears and an iron sword would be something that she would need to ask Evatine for and you could not just agree to let Seryn have some when that was not your decision to make.

A regular quote of Cath Wyr recruits could prove troublesome in the long run given that Seryn would accept no less than half a dozen each cycle. Keeping up with that quote could prove troublesome as would getting recruits, especially if you suffered a major dent or two in your population, might prove hard if there were not enough willing volunteers.

With blessings all of the women, those two choices were more acceptable. Blessing all of the current ones would prove to be tiresome work for your daughter and would take at least a few cycles and quite frankly, you cannot afford to let Seryn exhaust herself, not with Sangere being so troublesome in the south and the shadow monsters in the north and old threat of Caradawg in the east.

You really ought to investigate the Cynfanor loyalists and what become of them at some point.

So you settle for letting her bless each girl as she becomes a woman. It should be simple enough. Seryn has a shrine in each village and doing it as each girl comes of age will be less taxing on her. And Seryn's reasons for wanting it are benign as she simply desires to make every woman strong and beautiful as she claims that they should be.

You and Seryn are close to settling on a deal when Evatine shows up with his other one hundred Silver Tips. Upon hearing what you are going to agree upon, Evatine decided to get you a refresher on why he is the best talker in the world even if you cannot actually prove that commonly accepted claim.

He argues against having the rebels being forced into doing low quality jobs lest such problems get caused in the future. After all, if people have to do those jobs as punishments, then will those jobs become punishments? If so, what happens when the current rebels die out? Who will do the punishments then? Innocents who have done nothing wrong? What if more of the jobs requiring doing than there are rebels to do them? Do innocents get forced into punishment then as well?

Under his logic, it would be better to just use the rebels as ascensions sacrifices. Get them deal with no long term problems and no varying punishments of a supernatural nature whilst getting some benefit out of the whole deal.

He still does not like the idea of using blood sacrifices however.

Acknowledging her uncle's logic, Seryn decides to turn the rebels back into men for the sacrifices at which point Evatine tells her that she will leave them as women when she sacrifices them to ascend her sisters.

Normally, you would step in at this point, but your brother is a good talker, you trust him and he seems to be leading up to a good point as always.

When Seryn asks him why she would do that in no small amount of confusion, Evatine tells her so she will not enjoy taking the lives of other people and find the sacrificing to be upsetting and unenjoyable. And then when Seryn demands to know why Evatine want that to happen, he replies with a single word.

'Lynellt.'

It shuts down Seryn's anger and even makes her flinch, a sight that irritates to you to no end and you make your displeasure known to Evatine with a slight scowl. He gives you a slight nod of acknowledgement before ignoring your reaction.

Things would have continued further, but everything goes horrible wrong as Seryn receives the second to worst report possible in Bedywn.

Cadyl has been captured by the Sangerish. Having successfully lead ambushes and attacks against the incoming Sangerish raiders this Sun Season, Cadyl and Wyrn were both leading a group of half a dozen Cath Wyrs a couple of days ago.

When neither of them came back within the next day or the one after that, that was expected as it was perfectly ordinary to run into some troubles or delays while out on a hunt, especially if you managed to capture some prisoners.

This morning, another hunt led by found the bodies of all, but one of the Cath Wyrs with Cadyl, buried in hastily dug graves. Sending a runner back, the rest pressed onto towards Sangere before stumbling across the untouched bodies of half of the Cath Wyrs with Wyrn along with a couple dozen dead Sangerish warriors and Wyrn's iron sword, its blade broken and shattered.

The Sangerish have captured Cadyl, Wyrn and another four Cath Wyrs.
[] [Cadyl] The Rescue of Seryn II: Cadyl Edition. Send everything just as you did last time. You got three spirits, a Goddess of War, several hundred Cath Wyrs and a few hundred iron spears. The Sangerish may outnumber you, but you will crush them.
[] [Cadyl] Write-in.

 

[Oshha]

Myrlin lets out a deep breath as he taps into his well of spiritual power. While his origins have given him an innate connection to it, Myrlin has an average amount of power for a mortal and unlike his granddad, he cannot just brute-force a solution by throwing more energy at the problem.

Let the spiritual energy flow through his body, Myrlin settles his gaze upon the rocky ground. Focusing upon the ground, he reaches out with his spiritual energy and grasps the rock within the ground with it. Gently maintaining the flow of energy even as his reserves are slowly lessen, Myrlin reshapes the rock, raising it into a pillar out of the ground.

He does not bother to fill in the hole he leaves behind as he creates a pillar of rock as while Myrlin can grow rock like granddad can, it uses up too much of Myrlin's power and unlike granddad, he cannot afford to so carelessly use his power without regard as to how much he is using.

Even beyond having a far greater well and being able to channel a lot more at once, granddad has another advantage over Myrlin and the other Prydymar in that he does not have a body to get tired. Whereas Myrlin and the other mortal users of Earth Magic tire themselves when wielding their power as is if they were doing a run or carrying something about, granddad does not get physically tired due to technically not having a body.

Speaking of his granddad's avatar, Myrlin finds the existence of avatars of granddad and the other spirits like him to be an incredibly frustrating mystery. While Aunt Seryn and grandma continue to keep their old physical bodies from pre-ascension, granddad and Uncle Evatine have their avatars made of out of spiritual energy.

That should be some kind of on-going cost for maintaining their existence, but instead, they just have to pay an initial cost and then not worry about pumping any energy into their avatars beyond repairing damage or bypassing physical limitations like sleep or the need to rest or the need to eat and drink.

That should be impossible according to what Myrlin has observed of other magic. All active usage of magic requires a source of power to sustain it and even blessings must follow that rule. Temporary blessings only last as long as the power the spirit put into the blessing lasts while permanent blessing make physical alteration that replaces what was there before and any active magic is either done using the follower's personal well of power or by calling upon the power of a spirit via a connection to that spirit.

And yet avatars are the exception to the rule.

Letting a grunt of annoyance at the rule-breaking existence of the avatars, Myrlin halts the flow of power from his well and into his body and uses up what he has already drawn upon on the pillar as it comes to its conclusion.

As Myrlin observes the rock pillar that is twice his height, he notes that it serves no purpose beyond him practicing one of the three main usages of Earth Magic.

"It does look good," says a feminine voice from behind Myrlin and the boy almost jumps with surprise at the unexpected presence of his Aunt Eulyn.

"It is just the result of my practicing of Earth Magic," replies Myrlin as he looks up into the golden eyes of his auntie, "It serves no purpose and it is the deed which created it that has worth to it."

"So what you going to do about it then?" inquires Eulyn curiously as she eyes the pillar of rock.

"Reshape it as part of my practice," answers Myrlin, "I am trying to figure out how to more efficiently use my spiritual power when casting magic."

"How is that going for you?" asks Eulyn, "Dad has not made much progress in the matter."

"That is because it is much easier and simpler to do the opposite and increase how much energy is being used to get a solution," says Myrlin, "Dad can pull that off, but mere mortals like me cannot so. In a way, that makes things easier for me as I have to take the harder route of finding a more efficient way of channelling my spiritual energy. And I have succeeded. By focusing on it and calming my mind and body, I have been able to increase my control over how much spiritual energy that I channel at once and direct into a spell.

I also find that practice helps with being able to more easily cast the spell, judge how much energy is required, having greater control over how much energy you can channel and direct and a few other things. I think that magical ability is like physical ability, the more you practice and use it, the easier it is and the more capable you become."

"I see," says Eulyn, "So you are just going to practice to get stronger and better?"

"Yes and no," answers Myrlin, "I am going to practice, but I shall do other things as well. I intend to travel to Evalon to study how the Myrymar use Metal Magic and how similar it is to how Prydymar use Earth Magic. I would also like to see what discoveries regarding magic that Uncle Evatine and his followers have discovered. Maybe acquire Metal Magic if Uncle Evatine is willing. I also want to meet the Lyltymar regarding Lightning Magic. As for getting some of my own, well, what is it like being a girl?"

"Eh, alright," replies Eulyn, caught slightly off-guard, "I got nothing to compare it too, but I cannot think of anything wrong with it. You can carry a baby in your gut, you take a piss differently and I do not know, have free access to breasts on demand? You also cannot become a warrior without being female. If you really want to find out, just go to Seryn and try it out for a bit."

"I might, says Myrlin thoughtfully, "If only for the experience, it would be interesting and potentially useful."

"We could go now if you wanted," suggests Eulyn, "Dad has just left on his journey so if you did it now, you could get a few days as a girl and then turn back before Dad gets back, especially if we got Seryn to give us a heads up on when Dad starts to head back."

"I will think it over," replies Myrlin, "I will have an answer for you by dinner."

"Okay, I will see you then," replies Eulyn, "I take it you will continue to spend the afternoon practicing your Earth Magic?"

"Yes, I will," answers Myrlin, turning his attention back to the rock pillar.

As Eulyn heads off, Myrlin turns his thoughts to blessings performed by the spirits. When a spirit grants a mortal follower the ability to use magic, are they actually adding something new to the person or just using their power to grant access to what is already there? Given how he was born with his Earth Magic, Myrlin has no clue what the answer might be.

Perhaps giving access to another magic might give him the answers he seeks.

And what about blessings as magic? Are they a particular type of spell that is not tied to any element, but to a spirit instead? That is something that Myrlin wants to investigate as well as if they are another spell, what is to say that he cannot replicate their effects like he can with his granddad's Earth Magic.

Thinking it over, Myrlin decides that he will require access to magic beyond mere Earth. Uncle Evatine will almost certainly get him Metal and Auntie Seryn will definitely give him Lightning Magic if he does not mind paying the cost for it. And if he can manage it, Myrlin will even try to get Water Magic from Isorine up in Prylake.

Coming to that conclusion, Myrlin realises that regardless of whether or not he prefers it, he will be willing to become a woman if that is required to gain Lightning Magic. He cannot afford to give up a chance at gaining new magic for something as trivial as remaining male.

Knowing what answer he will give Eulyn, Myrlin lets out a deep breath as he taps into his well of spiritual power.