A Solitary God In A Dark Multiverse 91 The Water Temple

One day, a community named Libertad abruptly arose at the edge of the sh.o.r.e of Puerto Rico's most remote coast. This community arose over the course of a few minutes and was inhabited by a diverse collection of humanoids who had been rescued from slavery by a young G.o.d.

This community started off as a humble collection of buildings surrounded by a small stone wall. As days pa.s.sed, that changed. And it changed in large part because of the strange G.o.d responsible for the community's creation.

On the first day after he built the community, the G.o.d dug a hole on the outskirts of town. And later that day things skittered out of the hole. When they did, the G.o.d reappeared and introduced the town's humanoid inhabitants to its non-humanoid neighbors.

The neighbors were an empire of myrmekes ants, oddly beautiful and handsome ant-humanoid hybrids who Althos revealed were also wors.h.i.+pers of his. Althos told the myrmekes ants that both communities were to be friends and that the humanoids were fellow Althonians.

Much to the surprise of the humanoids who inhabited the town Althos had created, the myrmekes ants were overjoyed at this news and volunteered to serve the town as guards. Ever since that day the towering ant-human hybrids were a common if off-putting sight in the town and later on even in the ocean just beyond the edge of town.

On the second day Althos appeared as the sun was setting and began to bestow blessings upon the town's people. He freely gave his people a number of potent blessings, so that they were more likely to survive if they found themselves in danger.

Some blessings he bestowed upon all of the town's people. Those blessings included the death-domain blessing, the poison domain blessing, and the blessing of the subdomain of air, as well as the "Aquatic freedom" ability. Others he had to be asked to bestow upon them, but if he could then he did.

On the third day, their G.o.d appeared and made general improvements to their community. He built a building specifically to tend to the injured, and he used his strange powers to make it into an area wherein pain is numbed and wounds can be overcome merely by sitting down and relaxing.

He also built a small park and filled it with flowers. He offered no compelling reason for this, he appeared to have done it solely because he wanted to.

The third day also happened to be the most significant day for the community. It was on the third day that Althos reminded everyone that he was a being whose mind was alien to their own because of what he did in the ocean.

Some hours after he finished his general medical building, Althos trotted off into the sea. He was silent as he did this, and he didn't walk far into the ocean but he did walk farther than even the most curious children had been brave enough to explore. Some of his followers followed him into the sea to behold whatever their G.o.d and savior was doing.

At a seemingly random point, the odd G.o.d stopped and set to work. The G.o.d immediately created and rose a temple to himself using his civilization based powers. The temple was made of the same stone as the seabed off of Puerto Rico's coast. It was a beautiful building to behold, made from greenish serpentine, a mineral named after a serpent's scales.

Althos then walked into the temple and began to use his magic to create rooms and even furniture, something his followers hadn't known he could do as he hadn't done it for them. The truth was that it was their wors.h.i.+p of him that allowed him to do that, and he was merely testing the ability.

By the time night had fallen on the community, the mortals who had followed after Althos had returned home. And Althos himself decided to spend the night in the eerie temple, alone aside from the occasional fish that wandered into the submerged building.

That night he entered the dreams of various aquatic creatures, some of them were animals, some were humanoids, and some of them were things that were less easy to define, thanks to his boosted powers. He gave them dreams of his temple and of him as a strange aquatic G.o.d of the depths.

The fourth and fifth days following the community's creation, Althos engaged more directly with the people of the community. On both days he gave them weapons, tools, and armor he hand-crafted from light and darkness, and he even spoke to them directly.

On the fourth day, he told them it was important that they decide on a government and begin to organize fully. They did as he commanded, and began to rudimentarily organize themselves. After he gave them his commands and they set out to obey him he went into the ocean and began to use more of his new powers.

He fused his agricultural abilities, his life abilities, and his powers over water to gain the ability to create simple aquatic life. It was a simple power, but it was one that let him fill the water off of Puerto Rico's coast with many, many more fish than it had once had. Because of this the bay was exploding with life and it was a tempting place for Libertad's hunter-gatherers to go out and hunt.

He also went out deeper into the ocean and saw settlements of strange aquatic creatures, mermaids, sharkfolk, and other powerful and beautiful creatures. When he entered their dreams on the second night, some of them began to open themselves to the possibility that he was indeed what he claimed he was: an aquatic G.o.d.

On the fifth day, he gave his followers an important command. He commanded that they explore the ocean and that they chart the ocean floor. He also commanded that they treat strangers with kindness and hospitality.

He explained that the deeper parts of the ocean had strange and wonderful aquatic life, mermaids, sirens, evolved sharks and other creatures that could be engaged with meaningfully and kindly. He encouraged them to do so, as the creatures in the depths already knew about him as well.

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In the middle of the afternoon, five days after Althos created Liberad, named for the Reconquista word for "freedom", his orders were being obeyed. The ocean-floor off of the coast of Libertad was indeed being explored and being mapped by Althonians.

Some parts of it were being explored by driders and myrmekes, unusual companions to be sure but ones who worked well together. Other parts of it were being explored by the humanoid inhabitants of Libertad.

Two humans and a single gnome silently and slowly walked along the bottom of Puerto Rico's epipelagic zone, better known as the sunlight zone. The three companions were close friends and were skilled collaborators. They were able to breathe underwater and move freely while submerged thanks to their powerful G.o.d.

They wore skin-tight armor fas.h.i.+oned from blue light. It was one of the many gifts their strange G.o.d had given them in the days since he rescued them from a lifetime of slavery. And the final gift he had given them that was relevant to their current situations were tridents fas.h.i.+oned from darkness.

They were scouts and hunters, though they tended to focus on the hunter-aspect of their work. At the moment though, their inventories were stuffed with fish thanks to the work they had done all day so they were doing as their G.o.d commanded and mapping the ocean floor.

The three of them were three of the volunteers who had set out into the ocean following the command they received from their G.o.d. They were far enough from Libertad that they could see the strange temple their town's founder had created. They watched elves swim into the temple, and looked at each other. Almost in unison all three of them had sighed.

"So we aren't going there right?" The gnome asked, looking at her companions exasperated. They looked at her, the disappointment in their eyes matching the disappointment in her tone and shook their heads.

"Alright, I guess we ought to just keep going huh?" She asked. They nodded. She sighed but didn't put up a fight. Of the three she was the most talkative.

Her reaction might have felt strange to someone who didn't know why they wouldn't just go where others had been. The three-person team had made a pact that they would go and chart unvisited territory. Since another group of people were charting the temple Althos had created, they lost their chance to map it. The three explorers readied themselves to go out into the oceanic wilderness.

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Perhaps the strangest thing that had happened as a consequence of my escapades in Puerto Rico's underground region was that all of my powers were upgraded. I initially didn't even realize that they were upgraded too.

Days ago I learned that what I felt when I first met the freed slaves I had rescued was their awe giving me an overall boost to my power. It was incredibly useful and because of it I unlocked several new powers and was left far more powerful than before.

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[Dual domain details:

The alignment-domain of law is a critically powerful domain that governs governments, law, tradition, business, pacts, stability, obedience, authority, bargains, and honor. This is the third alignment domain you've acquired to date. Law as a domain grants you influence over devils, ancients, logicae, and a few other extraplanars.

The domain of time is a greater domain with a particularly unusual set of powers, related to history, and fate. With it, your other abilities related to time, such as your power to manipulate age and peer into the past are greatly improved. In time you gain powers that grant you powers that allow you to manipulate fate and edit the fate of those you target.

Each tier of influence over the time domain reduces the cooldown you have on your active powers by one increment. If a power can be used twice per half-an-hour you can now use it freely. If a power was twice per-twelve-hour-period you can now use it three times per six-hour period. If a power was usable once or twice per three and a half days then you can use it three times per day. So on and so forth.

To gain further influence over the law domain you need to create civilizations and cults that wors.h.i.+p you as a provider of order and as a champion of stability. And to gain further influence over the domain of time you need to practice your powers and gain greater knowledge of history, and how time works.

Dual domain pa.s.sive powers:

Autocratic authoritarian: You gain an auric ability which grants you the power to force lesser creatures to obey you. It doesn't dominate them but it can force them to cease any attacks. This is stronger than your "Patience palm" but "Patience palm" changes someone's att.i.tude and this power doesn't.

Authority detection: You can detect who someone serves. This power is less reliable on chaotic and non-lawful beings, but if someone is some variant of lawful than you detect who is their source of law, be it a person or a cause, without fail.

Awaken: Synergistic power between the domains of nature, knowledge, mind, and law, but you can now awaken a creature at will. This power is related to law tangentially, as it is an authority related power. You can access it as a figure with authority over nature and minds. Creatures you awaken become some variant of lawful.

Awakening a creature allows it to speak a humanoid language and learn more, as well as granting it sapience.

Contract creation: You can create a contract and make a deal with a lawful or neutral being that confers power to them in exchange for their soul. You can grant them non-chaotic powers and upon their deaths their souls are yours. Unless you will it otherwise these souls automatically undergo a devilish transformation at the moment of their deaths.

Const.i.tution command: You can use your authority as a lawful G.o.d to force a community to organize themselves more effectively. This power compels all lawful members of a community, no matter where else they fall alignment-wise, to come together and to try and organize their community into a more organized one.

Devil duke: As someone who can influence the evil domain you gain the power to interact more successfully with devils, creatures of law and tyranny. Devils are more likely to serve you or can be convinced to serve you more easily. This power is necessary to eventually become an archdevil.

Hierarchy establishment: You can establish hierarchies. This is a power that affects social structures and is an inherently lawful power meant to reorganize societies.

Historic touch: With a touch you can absorb the history of an object. Absorbing the history of an object allows you to learn the object's secrets, and this valuable power can be used to solve mysteries, perform thefts, or even alter objects.

Lawful soul: Lawful creatures see you as an inherently lawful creature. This doesn't mean that your alignment changes, just that lawful beings see themselves in you and are more likely to respect you and obey you.

Time theft: If you strike an enemy with a blow you can s.n.a.t.c.h away up to five years of their lifespan, as calculated by fate, and store those years to do with as you see fit.

You can only use this once per target unless you don't steal the maximum number of years, in which case you can use it again. You can give those years to someone else, use them to force an enemy to do as you say, or even just destroy them.

Dual domain active powers:

Authority: This law domain power grants you considerable power. With it you can declare an area your territory and gain nearly total power over it to the point that even instant death effects become a power you can use within it. You can use this power four times per three and a half days.

Gerascophobia entrapment: This is an age-manipulation power afforded to you by the synergy between the domains of death and time. With it, if you touch someone you can trap them in a vision wherein they are stuck in a body on the verge of dying of old-age. You can leave them stuck in this vision for up to an hour. This power can be used freely.

Devilish transformation: If you detect a mortal who is lawful evil and they are going to die you can cause them to transform into a devil the moment they perish. They become a type of devil that most fit their personalities and skills and become utterly loyal to you. You can only use this power once a day. Synergistic power fusing the domains of law, evil, death, and souls.

Resurrection: Once per every six months you can perform a true resurrection.

True resurrections are resurrections that cure curses, diseases, allow someone to live past their species' maximum old-age for up to a decade at this tier of influence, and otherwise come back to life fully healthy. They even rebuild bodies if the person on whom it is being used lacks a body for their soul to return too. This synergistic power is the result of the domains of life, death, and time.

This power does not work on higher beings. It can resurrect any non-higher-being, but cannot resurrect a higher-being. It also doesn't work on someone whose soul has been destroyed or devoured.

Dual domain blessing and curse details:

By blessing someone with the lawful domain you improve their business success, their reputation in their communities, and their overall stats so long as they remain in lawful lands. By cursing someone with this domain you do the opposite.

You cannot bless someone using the time domain. At least not at your current level of influence over the domain.]

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During the last five days a lot in my personal life changed. One of the little things that changed was that I moved out of the Silver Xana. I did so only after converting all of Isadora's family, including her distant uncle, into my wors.h.i.+pers, but I still moved out and into my tower full time.

It turned out that Isadora's relatives were lawful and thus adjusted to wors.h.i.+pping me quite easily. I had a funny knack for engaging with lawful wors.h.i.+pers that I suppose I probably gained mostly by engaging with the swarm, something I did far more aggressively now than I did before.

Isadora's uncle, in particular, was an excellent convert. He was a monk who lived in Reconquista and I entered his dreams three days in a row and easily turned him into my wors.h.i.+per. He was a curious fellow who especially liked asking me questions about G.o.dhood. In exchange, I freely asked him questions about the world.

Thanks to him I gained two big things: I got to start my own monastic order with an existing monk, and I got to gain more knowledge about the world.

I learned that the Reconquista empire was humanity's largest empire in this world, and was the most aggressive power in the world. I learned that there were four major landma.s.ses in this world, only one of which was populated mostly by humans. I also learned about the three major empires in the world, one run by humans, one run by elves, and one run by a coalition of monstrous races.

Despite gaining an incredible amount of power over a wide variety of things, perhaps the area I had gained the most power in were the elements. Unsurprisingly, as someone on the cusp of becoming an elemental overlord, I possessed significant elemental powers, and the recent upgrade I received had only increased my powers over the elements further.

One of the upgrades I had earned allowed me to manipulate more things. In the case of the earth subdomain, I could now manipulate metal, in the case of the air subdomain I could now manipulate gases in general, in the case of the fire subdomain I could manipulate plasma, and in the case of the liquid subdomain, I could now manipulate something called "oil".

I had also begun to spend more time exploring my environmental menu. I used it to study the world's climate, with a special emphasis on Puerto Rico. It was eye-opening in a fun way as I occasionally messed with it but I kept my mischief to the minimum, opting to make warm days chilly ones and vice-versa.

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Off the coast of Puerto Rico, I had created the largest temple I'd create to myself to date. To be fair I had only created three, but this one was the most impressive by far.

It was a large and imposing thing that'd surely catch the eyes of any sapient creature not just for its size and style but because it is underwater. It was also where I spent plenty of my time. And you'd think that eventually my wors.h.i.+pers would learn that, but so far they hadn't.

In front of me knelt three elven wors.h.i.+pers of mine. They were slender high-elves with a complexion that surely marked them as high-elves but they lacked the haughtiness of their fellow high-elves. Perhaps their trials and tribulations had caused them to lose the pride of their fellow high-elves, or perhaps they were just naturally humbler than their peers, but one way or another I quite liked them.

"Why do you kneel?" I asked the trio, all of whom were women. They had courageously approached me while I was here, and then immediately knelt before me. I was confused by this display, as I had never particularly demanded that one show obedience to me by kneeling in my presence.

I had visited the temple twice since I created it. I planned to make a habit of visiting this place every day at the same time so that my followers who explore the coast know that they can reliably see me if they venture into the temple below the waves.

The three elves wore the armor I had crafted for them, and when they looked up at me to speak I could detect their feelings of awe emanating from their gazes. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder as if to indicate that they were equals, and I was a bit surprised to see that they were lawful neutral and their sources of law were all the same when I appraised them.

Each member of the blonde trio held me as their source of law. That was deeply flattering. It meant that their sense of morality and ethics were all anch.o.r.ed in their religion and the G.o.d they wors.h.i.+ped: me.

"Althos, if you'd let us know... We merely wish to know what you plan to do with this temple?" One of them asked. She spoke softly, and there was a tremble in her voice. Another spoke as soon as her peer was done and provided an explanation.

"If our question oversteps please let us know, but if you have plans for this temple and they require aid we'd be happy to provide said aid. You are our G.o.d, and we wish to enact your will." She said, hoping to soothe things over with me in case I was annoyed by the question.

I looked at her and chuckled. To be fair to them I hadn't ever told them that I was going to build a temple to myself underwater. On the third day after I made Libertad I went into the sea and erected this odd temple for no explicitly stated reason.

I studied the elves for a second and mulled over how to reply to them in a way that suggested that I had some grand design. It didn't take me long to come up with a creative lie that might as well have been true.

"I have wors.h.i.+pers on the surface, and underground. I want to begin to gain wors.h.i.+pers under the sea. This temple will serve as a sanctuary for all of my wors.h.i.+pers who dwell under the waves or whose livelihoods are affected by the seas. I constructed this temple as a neutral place for aquatic creatures to come and rest, while praying and offering me the proper tribute." I explained, lying but speaking with confidence.

"I want to begin to interact meaningfully with the denizens of the deep, and also with humanoids who dwell along the coasts. My intention is to build temples like this off of major coastal cities all over the world, and near major cities underneath the waves. This temple is just a prototype, though I must admit... I do love it here." I told the pious elves.

I was only lying to them about that plan being the origin of the temple. I actually really liked that idea and mentally stored it away in the list of ideas I had that I needed to better develop but were themselves good ideas. I had gotten quite a few of those over the last few days.

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[Dual subdomain details:

The subdomains of truth and lies are two polar opposite subdomains. It is interesting that you acquired both at more or less the same time.

The subdomain of truth governs things like honesty, secrets, peels past illusions and enchantments, and abhors lies. The subdomain of lies governs deceit, misinformation, and propaganda.

At the first tier of influence, these subdomains don't seem like much. Don't be fooled though, they possess many synergistic powers that make these subdomains far stronger than you may think right now.

Both of these subdomains require the usual things that subdomains ask you for in order to continue gaining influence over them.

Subdomain pa.s.sive powers:

Lie manipulation/Truth corruption: As a G.o.d of lies, you can detect a lie the moment it is uttered. A lie is a deliberate falsehood, not merely an incorrect statement. If you wish you can force creatures in your presence to only lie. You can also target specific creatures and affect them with this condition.

Truth detection/Banishment of lies: As a G.o.d of the truth you can detect when a creature is being honest. Honesty doesn't mean accuracy, an honest statement could be incorrect but be sincerely believed by whoever uttered it. You can force creatures in your presence to only utter the truth.

Eyes of truth: No illusion or enchantment can affect you, and no technology can hide something from your view.

Cut the lies: At will you forcibly deactivate technology or dispel magic that puts up illusions or hides something from view.

Subdomain active powers:

Believe me: You can tell a lie once per day that is believed by anyone who hears it for at least twenty-four hours no matter how obviously wrong that lie is.

The truth hurts: You can tap up to twenty people per twelve-hour period and they automatically learn who last lied to them. They are filled with rage towards whoever they learn lied to them last and will attempt to destroy them or otherwise cause them pain. If you know of a specific lie told to a target you can instead cause them to be filled with anger towards the person who told them that specific lie.

Lies destroy: You can cause someone to experience excruciating pain for a minute for every lie they uttered in the last twenty-four hours. Synergistic power fusing the subdomains of truth and pain.

Secret detection: You can pick a creature and learn a secret about them. This power can only be used once a day on a target, but so long as the targets are different people it can be used up to twice per half-day.

Agony: By merely speaking to someone you can cause them to believe they are experiencing pain. The pain isn't real, but it lasts for an hour and nothing can convince the person suffering from it that isn't. This power can be used twice per twelve-hour period and is a synergistic power that touches the subdomains of pain and lies.

Naked truth: Synergistic power tying together the subdomains of truth, corruption, and the domains of evil and knowledge.

If a person is attracted to someone, especially someone they shouldn't be attracted too, they are overwhelmed by a wave of l.u.s.t too strong for them to overcome. This evil power can be used to destroy relations.h.i.+ps and cause pain. This can be used twice per twelve-hour-period.

Dual subdomain blessing and curse details:

Blessing someone with the truth subdomain causes them to gain strength when they tell the truth. Cursing someone with the truth subdomain weakens them whenever they lie.

Blessing someone with the subdomain of lies grants them temporary charisma each time they lie. Cursing someone with the subdomain of lies causes them to lose charisma, temporarily, each time they lie.]

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As I continued to converse with the elves, I did something I had turned into a daily ritual: I opened my religion menu and tapped on a relatively new section of it ent.i.tled "Families, sects, cults, and churches".

This section of my religion menu was one of my favorites. It allowed me to swiftly learn about the conditions of the a.s.sorted individuals, communities, and species that wors.h.i.+ped me.