>>3391395
HIATUS ALERT: This is the last thread before the hiatus. There won’t be a new thread until at least mid- summer due to the graduation and diploma stuff. It will go similarly to the October exam hiatus. Do not worry, I have an enormous amount of stuff planned for SGQ and I won’t disappear anywhere without a word. You can still contact me through Discord and Twitter at any time and I will leave updates on the current state of my exams through Twitter. In the meantime, please enjoy the 30th thread of Synthetic Gods Quest and I hope you have fun.

>>3391395
This is quite a peculiar situation. You are essentially trapped in a room with only one entrance and the cultists are currently opening the door at the further end of the tunnel. You could technically escape by opening the hatch but then they would still know that they were found. It would also not address the issue. Thus, you decided to take the cultists head on and try to talk with them.

However, you don’t want them to run away as soon as they find out that they were discovered so you and Haven position yourselves in such a way that you can only be seen from inside of the room and wait for the people to finally make their way to the improvised shrine. Fourteen villagers enter the room and you had a brief moment to assess the situation. 9 of them are from the “Originals”, the people who were in the village when you just arrived, the others are from Veterans and there is one from Newcomer strata. Among people you know by name there is carpenter Philan with his son and wife and… Xanthe, Rheia’s mother. Ooh boy…

They enter the room and notice you just as you close the door behind them so they don’t try escaping. After they calm down you ask them why do they think that you might need their worship. They say that this is a fact of life that deities require worship to grow in power and to discern their followers. They think that you are definitely a goddess, but you are weaker than other deities because you lack faithful followers. Once you get strong enough maybe you’d even make your own form of afterlife for them and maybe even join the rest of the pantheon or form your own. They feel like they need to repay you for taking care of the village even if you don’t demand worship from them. They also figured that you don’t want to be discovered at least for a while so they decided to keep the cult secret until you allow them to surface it. Sigh, let’s see what you can do…

You could explain them that you don’t want their worship at all but that is probably not going to end well. Then again you could explain that either you or deities in general don’t need worship to keep their powers but who knows how these people would interpret that. You could tell them to do good things instead of worship but that can be interpreted as if good things were the worship of you. After all, in Valistrat there is a deity whose cult does literally crossfit as a prayer. You could also just ignore the problem or encourage them somewhat. Or maybe you can come up with something else?

>>3391401
>Disown the cult. Explain them that you for real don’t want any worship of you (highly unpredictable consequences)
>Explain them that you don’t get any power from worship (risk of cultural shock)
>Explain them that deities in general are self- sustaining and don’t rely on worship for any of their powers (risk of major cultural shock)
>Tell them that if they want, they can help less fortunate of the people and do good deeds (adds “holy charity” as cult’s trait)
>Tell them that they can do what they think is right (adds “freedom of interpretation” cult trait)
>Tell them that you are done here and leave, ignore this for now (cult might consider this as a “go ahead” sign)
>Tell them that fine, you’ll be their goddess, they can do their thing (you officially become a goddess of these people, you can now control the policies of the cult directly)
>Other ideas?

>>3391402
>Explain that, while we appreciate the sentiment, we did what we did for them because we could and because it felt right. We never asked for a reward or compensation for it, tell them there's no need to treat us as a godess because we haven't decided if that is what we are or what we'll become.

The softest let down I could think of, maybe too soft and they'll just ignore since they think they are helping us.

Get Haven's and Sig's imput after this, they know the truth about us and they could help us on the cultural front, about what to. Tell them how strange it feels to have people worshipping us and ask what they'd do.

>>3391412
Can't think of anything better to say, support

>>3391412
+1

>>3391419
>>3391413
>>3391412
Alright, writing

>>3391424
You explain that you appreciate the sentiment, but you did what you did because you could and it felt right. You never asked for a reward or compensation. There is no need to treat you like a goddess because you haven’t decided if you are one or if you even want to be one. The cultists bow their heads a bit as if they feel somewhat guilty. You don’t think they understood but it was probably the least risky approach. You doubt that they’d wrap up their small cult but you’ll deal with any other problems later. In the meantime, you leave with Haven and meet up with Sigrid. You’d like to know what they think.

Haven thinks that cults usually take a long time to grow and considering that they worship you they shouldn’t do anything too nasty to draw attention. After all, from their perspective it is quite obvious that you are at least a mostly benevolent entity. Secret cults get busted faster if their members are forced to do stuff like sacrifices or actions that are considered evil or highly unusual. Since you don’t direct them, they’ll most likely continue doing their thing and slowly growing their numbers. At that point you could direct them to do your bidding or just stuff you deem helpful to your cause like charity.

Also, assuming what you said was right and most deities were human before, there might be a reason why they bind in pantheons and push the religious approach instead of, for example, manually controlling their nations as kings and emperors. Maybe there really is some kind of feedback from subjects to their deity? Like an effect related to psychic powers maybe? After all, you don’t really understand those well. Haven also doesn’t think that pantheons would establish a system like that for sheer control of their populations and ego stroking. She thinks that gods really can create and maintain their own afterlives and grow power through worship.

Regarding the latter, there are several afterlives in Cenophilan pantheon. Elspeth controls the biggest one and maintains several enclaves for followers of other deities inside. Valentina has her own separate thing and same goes for Ninmah and Tyrael. Tyr’s case is interesting since his afterlife is a kind of massive courtroom where actions of his followers are judged and either sent to Elspeth’s place with some kind of boon or kept locked up for several decades/centuries until they are released according on how much they realized their mistakes and changed. Elf pantheon had a different thing and they apparently had one big afterlife for all the deities and it was supposed to be connected to the real world somewhere in the Elven capital in their residence. The “gateway” is in a form of an enormously tall spire that radiates in all colors of rainbow and no mortal ever got access to it since the pantheons left.

>>3391481
Well, another curious landmark to see, right? Thinking of the particular gods mentioned, Elspeth apparently has “all the psi powers” so if real creation of afterlives is possible, she would have access. However, Valentina and Tyrael are described to have a power related to the mind. The former has the most powerful mind control of all four pantheons while the latter is said to have the ability to judge people’s actions and tell if they are lying. Maybe it is connected to a psi power you didn’t have access to? But then again, there is Ninmah with her very hippy afterlife. Maybe that is also connected with some kind of underlying psi ability that other psi is built on top? You need to ask Nike’ later about it…

Sigrid is not sure what to tell you on the subject. She thinks that it is fine either way whether you want to be a goddess or not. If you don’t want to be one how would that be different to small hero cults that happen all over Cenophila? However, if you want to be a goddess then it might be a good idea to check up on an existing deity and ask them for advice. If you are not fit for the task they’d be able to tell and if you are they might teach you how to correctly be one. After all, it is a position of great power and that places a lot of responsibility for your subjects on you. Not all deities seem to care enough to do that and people can suffer as a result. As she read a lot on the subject during her huntress training, she noticed that in ancient times all deities were harsher, less forgiving and so on. That includes Ceno, Valistrat, Holies and even her own home’s pantheon. Thus, she thinks that gods might need experience just as much as huntresses do but that’s only her opinion on the matter.

With this subject wrapped up, regarding the birthday party. You’ve told the girls about that in advance and Sig has recently made a trip to Mirangi to grab something, but Haven would like to go to her home to grab an item of her own. Even though you mentioned that they shouldn’t feel pressured to give you presents they still decided to get you something for your upcoming birthday on the fourth March. In addition, you planned to call Nike’ and see if she can visit as well. That means you both need to make your way to Platania, the closest Polis to Farsalos. Then Haven would split off and take a straight road to Teryia (elven capital) and she should return by the end of February.

>Offer Haven a lift
>Just get there like normal people
>Travel alone which should take like a day at most
>On the second thought, maybe you can skip Nike’s invitation and wait for her to come to the village on her own?
>Write-in

>>3391483
>Offer Haven a lift
Last time she got a little embarrassed, let's tease a little.

>>3391483
>Just get there like normal people

>>3391483
>Offer Haven a lift
Would you like to fly?

>>3391497
Also, that gateway sounds awesome, we should try to visit that afterlife, maybe that's where some elven gods decided to go

>>3391483
>Lift

>>3391497
>>3391498
>>3391500
>>3391502
>>3391520
Lift it is, writing

>>3391483
>travel like normal people
A bit of relaxation and sight seeing
*maybe even monester slaying*

>>3391530
I forgot to say it but we should grab more money than we usually do since this is a polis and they will have some interesting things

>>3391605
Sure, I'll give you some funds. It takes a while to write as I check half a year old notes, sorry

>>3391609
You suggest that you could give Haven a lift. After all that way it would take her less time as you don’t need to rest and you can travel faster than her. She first tries to protest saying that it is embarrassing to ride you, which amusingly comes out the wrong way as well making her even more embarrassed. But you understood what she meant, and if she is embarrassed to piggy back then you have another way.

You’ve progressed a lot since the first time you travelled with Haven. Back then you could only hover for a short amount of time and it took a lot of concentration. At first it was only useful to skip using ladders in construction and in getting in and out of the cave- in that leads to the Labyrinth access. However, after the fight with the Mad Goddess it seems that the rate at which you receive psi resources increased and you’ve learned new methods to use them more efficiently. This meant that you can now hover basically indefinitely without much effort. You haven’t been doing much of that but it is a surprisingly calming and lazy way to live. Like what astronauts experience in orbit but with more control of your position in space.

But the best thing that came out of that is your ability to fly. As keeping yourself in the air no longer drains power or attention you could just apply some thrust to your body to accelerate in a desired direction. Unfortunately, you have a height ceiling. When you fly above around 250 meters you can no longer push yourself against the ground and thus you lose all of your lift. However, even with those limitations, this is still the fastest way of travel in your arsenal.

At first Haven was a bit scared but she quickly got over it and it seems that she even enjoyed it. It was a bit less embarrassing since you could afford to just suspend her in midair to your side instead of physically carrying her and all you needed was to hold her hand so you didn’t have to stretch the bumper field. For some reason this made her blush even more. Probably from the excitement of flying for the first time…

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>>3391692
In just under a day you’ve flown around the villages and finally arrived to Platania, the Cenophilan “Polis”. Well, you can officially say that you are impressed. This is the biggest and richest Cenophilan city you’ve ever seen yet. It is built on a large river but it is also multilayered and has some interesting waterworks that push river water up and through the various parts of the city feeding numerous parks making it look like a giant city- sized hanging gardens complex.

While most of the city is built by humans it is quite obvious that modern planning was involved and some things were obviously constructed by an SG like you. It has tall and somehow monolithic granite walls almost eight meters thick, the streets are planned with fire safety in mind, there is an underground sewer system and aqueducts that distribute water and remove waste from the houses and streets. The roads are all paved and shaped with a small bulge in the middle that is almost unnoticeable but still drags all rainwater to the storm drains on the sides similarly to your own design.

In the very center of the city is a cluster of structures obviously created by the Pantheon. Giant structures comparable to skyscrapers in size towering above the human structures below. Ornate buildings that incorporate some skillful architecture and psychic effects in their construction. Small arrangements of neat and tidy artificial floating island parks, giant monoliths that look incredibly fragile and unstable but in fact are incredibly tough, majestic gates leading to blindingly white and gold palaces (for the lack of better word) that house local Hero and Magic Universities, temples to the Pantheon, Cup Bearer estates and some other important facilities. If this Polis is at the smaller end of Ceno cities, what does Elspen look like? Now you want to see it even more!

The city’s inhabitants look richer than the people in villages and towns around the area. Their clothes are obviously higher grade and they have more varied diets and generally they look happier. There is still the poor class but even they are better off than their alternatives in smaller settlements as there are special charities to feed and clothe them. The richer folk prefers to live closer to the city center in an area with pretty marble brick buildings around the pantheon structures.

“A breathtaking view, isn’t it?” says Haven. “I’d like to grab something to eat and set off for my home. Oraces are in the Pantheon District over there, main market is close to the river but there are dozens of other marketplaces all over the area and keep an eye on your purses. No matter how clean it looks, it is a big city and those always have crime in them. Good luck and see you in Farsalos” she says and leaves. Well, time to take a look at what this city can provide…

>>3391697
>Grand Market: Time to go shopping!
>Hero University: Let’s take a look at what the finest huntsmen-in-training look like
>Nike’s Oracle: You are here for a specific goal. Let’s knock that out first…
>Temple of a specific deity: Polises have a major temple for each deity in the Pantheon District. Which one you’d like to see?
>Hall of Huntsmen: A kind of elite, large and better organized version of Hunter’s Inn. It manages monster hunters in the area, processes requests and distributes rewards and pensions.
>Parks: You think you know why Platania is called that way. These parks look magnificent…
>Docks: Platania sits on a large river that connects it both to the largest lake in the Cenophilan territory and the eastern coast. You’d like to hear some news of those territories…
>Other? The city is a big place. Maybe you’d like to see something else?

>>3391699
>Parks: You think you know why Platania is called that way. These parks look magnificent…
Pass through here
Check the hero academy
And then go to the oracle to make our phone call

We can shop before we go back since we don't know if we will have to spend money on something else or if we can grab some more money doing something at the hunters hall

>>3391699
>Hero University: Let’s take a look at what the finest huntsmen-in-training look like
>Hall of Huntsmen: A kind of elite, large and better organized version of Hunter’s Inn. It manages monster hunters in the area, processes requests and distributes rewards and pensions.
>Nike’s Oracle: You are here for a specific goal. Let’s knock that out first…

>>3391699
Oracle first, fun later

>>3391737
Agreed

Lets go to the oracle first and then we can visit the plaza, academy and hall, maybe Nika will come too.

>>3391717
>>3391721
>>3391737
>>3391747
So, Oracle first, Hero Uni, Hall of Huntsmen and pass through the parks. We won't do that in one post, but I'll keep them queued. Writing

>>3391785
Oh also I need a 1d20 for park encounter, I completely forgot about that

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>3391791

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>3391791

>>3391792
Damn pickpockets

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>3391791

>>3391805
Just imagine, it's that trickster god
That could be fun

>>3392033
You didn't roll a 1 for that lol

>>3391791
You decide to head straight for Nike’s Oracle but since you aren’t in a great hurry you decide to walk through some parks. To give credit where it’s due, these parks were not exaggerated. This is surprising how clean and pretty they are considering the state of local culture and technology. It seems that the parks are warmed and automatically watered and they house many plants that don’t grow naturally in Cenophila. Some of those don’t grow anywhere and seem to be biosculpted specifically for aesthetic purposes. Giant flowers the size of a dinner plate that give off amazing smell that you’ve never experienced before or careful arrangements of tiny flowers that slowly move their petals as if they were dancing in a shifting fractal pattern. Ferns as tall as a small house and delicate trees with multicolored glowing nuts among their leaves. You bet Ninmah is definitely the author of most of those considering that many of these flowers are rare and sensitive to climate shifts and there were at least two apocalypses since the time at which they existed. She probably resurrected entire species of exotic plants that were extinct for two thousand years or maybe even more.

It seems that there is some class segregation in the parks. Lower parks are less taken care of and use common plants you’ve seen in the wild while the higher you go the fancier people dress while poor people stop appearing in their entirety. You think that this is mostly the issue of money and power. Cenophila doesn’t have official nobility. There are no serfdom laws and there are no lords to grant land. There are no laws forbidding anyone from purchasing a spot for themselves. However, as in ancient times, the de-facto nobles do exist even though they are not called that way. These are rich landlords who pass their fortune through generations. A lot of them own relatively large swathes of land and many have a shard of ancient bloodline in them. In addition, having money means your children can get better education and training which in turn almost guarantees their success. Pairing that with a requirement for some political power means that even though possible, few people can rise to nobility through their own power. It usually requires a massive feat or generations of effort and luck. Powerful heroes can expect to retire as minor or even medium nobles depending on their success, but those are extremely rare. Like Sig’s sister level of rare.

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>>3392161
There were no real encounters along the way. A few kids in the lower parks tried to bump into you and steal your purses but those don’t contain money as you know that pockets are a thing. Also, with your superior senses and telekinesis it was extremely easy to just sweep your possessions back into your property. It seems that after the third try whoever sent these cutpurses realized that it won’t work and the attempts ceased. In the richer areas you attracted some attention, but people mostly just chatted about who you might be. They all guessed that you were a successful monster huntress judging by your gear and that wolf pelt as an obvious trophy, but they had no idea what your armor was made out of and by whom.

In the end you made your way to the Pantheon District and asked for some directions from a few guards. Nike’s temple had Nike’s famous bow and sword on top of a shield surrounded by two laurel branches on the sides symbol attached right above the entrance. The building itself, even though highly ornate, looks more spartan than the rest of the temples. Well, she is an ex- military so it is not that surprising. In any case, you make your way inside and get past a couple dozen various monster hunters in various stages of being covered head to toe in trophies and managed to find a priestess. You informed her, as Nike’ told you to do, that you need to visit the Oracle since you have information regarding a new entrance to the Labyrinth. She nods and tells you to wait. It takes like 20 minutes after which you are led deeper into the temple and finally into a large circular room with columns, statues and a burning fireplace in the very center. There is a woman covered in all white that approaches you. After looking at you for a few seconds she says with a combination of her and Nike’s voice: “Oh, hello Agatha. How may I help you?”

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>>3392172
You explain that you’re done with the Oracle Shrine and then there is that birthday upcoming so you wanted to invite her. She replies that she would love to and she would definitely visit, however right now there is a thing going on in Valhalla, which is the totally original way Elspeth called their Not!Olympus, and she apologizes that she can’t visit you in person. Apparently, they are debriefing after they took down one of the Ceilings, the titanic creatures that can strike anywhere on the globe and hit the areas that exhibit high technology such as powerful radio transmissions. There are limited amounts of those and all pantheons agreed to try to take down all of them to ensure humanity’s eventual progress. There are less than 50 left and SGs basically “bait and nuke” them somewhere far in the ocean. Some get one-shot, others need a more hands- on approach but they all eventually fall if not from a small group of SGs then from a couple pantheons worth of firepower.

Quick one about afterlives, yes those are a thing but few people know how to do it and prayers do have a function in that, however few SGs are directly powered by that method. Most notably, Holies pantheon dabbles the most in that type of power collection. Elves have a kind of self- supporting afterlife artifact complex that still works but only for elves that still worship at least one of their former deities.

Last thing before she has to go, she could take you along with her to Valhalla for like a couple hours right now. You can see some people from the pantheon and hang out with her but whether or not you’d get blown would depend on your behavior. Aka behave like a promising huntress that Nike’ is eyeing for a position of a Cup and you’d be fine. Just don’t use TK at all and behave humble in front of the gods. In addition, since you don’t have a precognition wake you should be safe of being suddenly revealed through that.

>Sure, beam me up. Sounds highly informative to know them face to face
>No, too dangerous, maybe another time
>Other?

>>3392173

>Sure, beam me up. Sounds highly informative to know them face to face

Fuck it I'm curious.

"Well, I trust you so if you say it's fine...we might need a hairpin, elspeth might recognize us"

>>3392173

>Sure, beam me up. Sounds highly informative to know them face to face

>>3392173

>Sure, beam me up. Sounds highly informative to know them face to face

She better stay at our side

>>3392190
Nike': "I don't think that the pin would be a good idea. You see, pins are made by Val and she is present. In addition, they are very easy to see through with powerful enough senses which goes out the window when Elspeth and Vera are involved. However, I don't think that anyone would recognize you. In the picture that Dan had you were more than a head shorter than you are now, your hair shade and style is almost completely different, you lack characteristical blemishes and even your skin and facial features have changed. Also, Elspeth remembers what people she froze and, as you are in the third pod wave, Elspeth doesn't even know it exists so she doesn't expect anyone outside of her initial test subjects. Don't get me wrong, it is somewhat risky and that's why I ask you first if you really want to go"

>>3392332
"Thanks, bean me up, just don't leave me alone there or I might fuck up."

>>3392190
>>3392242
>>3392298
>>3392355
Alright, writing

>>3392057
That would have been a 1?
Would he have been a natural 20 as well?

>>3392522
Nat 20 would have been Matilda, Nike's Cup that we've already met. Nat 1 would be Marco. Just straight up Marco and that would have been enough for the day lol.

>>3392537
I wanna troll Marco
Literally troll him, just managing that would guarantee his respect I bet

>>3392566
He's probably untrollable,even if we manage it, he says it was all acording to keikaku and pulls sone shit up, i just hope his idea of funny is not bringuing or house down or something kek

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>>3392173
“Alright, let’s go then” she says and your vision shifts as the temple disappears and another room takes its place in an instant. The Oracle is replaced by Nike’ herself. She is wearing a kind of fancy chiton with some pieces of shining armor attached over it. Not protective at all but looks kind of cool. You wonder if armor can be a fashion statement even if it doesn’t work, but that’s thoughts for later.

“Welcome to Valhalla” says Nike’ as she slightly cringes. “…not sure what’s with El and her naming… but yeah. Almost all stuff built here is courtesy of Belkh, since he is a geomancer and has an actual architectural degree. Most of the psi powered stuff is made by Elspeth. Here I usually say about how lucky the hunter is to visit this place before becoming a Cup Bearer and stuff but for obvious reasons let’s skip this. I hope you’ll enjoy your stay.”

Well, to be fair, what Ceno cult doesn’t lack is a sense of style. The place is grandiose. Tall ceilings, perfectly smooth floors, beautiful statues, giant stained-glass windows and some small trees that grow indoors and pepper the area below them with pretty flower petals. You follow Nike’ back to a throne room of sorts. It is Elspeth’s place, judging by a giant statue of her just behind of the throne itself but a large table was hauled in the middle and several people you recognize are seated around it.

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>>3392826
Particularly, there is Valentina, Tyrael, Verdandi, Yawgmoth and Elspeth herself. And oh boy you imagined them differently:

Valentina is a tall woman with long blonde hair and a rack somewhere between double-Ds and E cup with an hourglass body to fit. She is wearing an expensive white dress with an incredibly high cut on the side of her leg as well as a cleavage so deep she can probably suffocate someone in it. She seems to have this almost constant sly smile that makes you just slightly uncomfortable and she has fleeting interest in your appearance. She just notes to her fellow deities that you look cute for a monster huntress. Definitely cuter than Nike’s last dozen recruits or so. “Maybe even cuter than Mary”, whoever that is. They seem to use English as their secret language and they don’t realize that you speak it.

Tyrael is this huge dude in plate armor that you’d only find in MMORPGs. Like seriously, he would probably rival the size of 40k space marine “thermoses” tactical dreadnought armors in it. It is stylized for some fantasy European designs at least so it is not a spiky ornate mess but it is still too shiny to directly look at. You are not sure how these people even tolerate it here as it is almost an equivalent of bringing a laser pointer to a conference specifically to fuck with the speaker. He also has the squarest jaw you have ever seen in real life but he doesn’t look ridiculous, more like old school superman brand of tough.

Verdandi is the shortest person from the group. She is almost half a head shorter than you and she doesn’t have much in terms of muscles or curves. Her hair is light brown and long and she has light blue eyes. She is wearing a blue robe with a large blue gem hanging around her chest. There is something cute in her appearance though. She looks fragile and adorable and there is something in the way her eyes glow when she uses her power. She doesn’t seem to care much about you beyond politely smiling in your direction when you entered before switching her attention back to Elspeth.

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>>3392834
Yawgmoth is an interesting fellow in the way that he is absolutely fucking boring in comparison to everyone else. He is just a guy with short black hair and he is wearing a white and grey cloak that hides the rest of his body. Since he likes making biomechanical Cups you’ve expected him to display some augments or gadgets or clever armor styles but he is just sitting wrapped up in the cloak with hands poking out of it from the sides. His hands do seem to be in gloves with while sections of some plastic or ceramic armor so there is that but still, why is he not just showing it off?

The last but not least is Elspeth. And oh boy… You’ve finally remembered who she reminds you of. Green eyes, red hair tied up into a ponytail with a tiara, red and gold armor undertones, she is straight up Pyrrha Nikos from RWBY. She didn’t even try. You know, this is probably the most disappointing thing about her. You only recognize the character because Dan used to watch that show once among othes in his “should have been good but actually suck” movie folder. To be fair, Elspeth didn’t rip off her voice and her outfit does not look exactly like hers but she is just straight up cosplaying as her “godlike appearance” and this is very much cringy. But then again, can you copyright claim her looks if all claim owners died in a nuclear exchange?

In any case, you accompany Nike’ to the table and stand near her with somewhat lowered head as the conference resumes…
_________________________
And with this note we are forced to pause for today. I am sorry but SGQ enters hiatus from this point onward. There won’t be any new threads until I graduate and judging by the diploma deadline it should be some time during mid-summer. However, I will still post updates on my current state in Twitter and you can find me on Discord for any reason. In addition, this thread will be active until I archive it next week. That means I will still actively reply to any questions, suggestions and discussions for a whole another week so feel free to do that. I really hope you’ve enjoyed and see you next time.

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>>3392840
And here is Yaw since he didn't fit in the images

>>3392840
Thanks for running, this gonna be good kek

>>3392848
That looks amazing, cant wait to read him in action, just not against us I hope

Marco is part of the ceno pantheon but just goes around doing his own thing right?
In any case, thank you for running, good luck with your diploma and see you in a few months

>>3392848
We need a pic of Valentina for researching purposes.

>>3397771
I don’t actually have a perfectly fitting pic so I am free for suggestions. I mostly have her Cups(badumtss). Just keep them sfw for reasons of blue board please.

>>3392967
Yaw is a deity of mechanisms, machines, engineering and invention. He probably has Mind aug(and potentially biosculpting aug) judging from that description and since he is a techie he probably has a lot of machines to fight for him.

Regarding Marco, he is definitely a part of Ceno pantheon. He is like half Loki half Dionysus in his depictions so his thing is jokes/pranks, self expression, parties, booze and the intoxication itself. As with Dionysus, the madness aspect of intoxication is not usually displayed but it is highly important and is the reason for a deity of booze to hang out with pantheon that includes such concepts as Wisdom, War and Justice. He has some connections with other pantheons(which is true for almost every SG) but he is not a loose cannon or a potential traitor, he is in for the Ceno ride, knows the boundaries and when he should get serious or stop completely.

>>3397790
Verdandi's abilities are only precog or does she have any other notable skills?

is Yaw the first posthuman cyborg we see?

How was Elspeth before she entered the pod, did she at least resemble her current form in any way?

I imagine we will be very courteous and reverent to maintain our facade around here, but could we explore around with Nika or does she need to stay in the meeting?

Oh, we should not forget to comment with Nike that she can send that healer back to Farsalos so they can start healing the primitives, we have the wall and the gear to protect them now.

>>3397798
Okay, I've managed to deal with the practice report so I can finally reply. Sorry for the wait.

1) We don't know that yet. All we know is that she has spent more on precog than usual. That can mean anything from a little more to almost all of her potential. Also, mark 2 pods that were used by Ceno pantheon applied individual augments which is different from our mark 3 augment packages. She could have parts of aug packages we are familiar with or even things we don’t know about. Same applies for the rest of Ceno pantheon.

2) We don’t know he has cybernetic aug yet though. However, yes, he is the first user of complete cybernetic augmentation. That means all of him including his brain is artificial somewhat like in Inuyashiki. Since augmentation is long and gradual form tracking identity is preserved so he is still arguably human at least in the head. Cyber aug users are much more resilient to trauma to the point they can waddle through molten lava or survive small nuclear explosions with cosmetic damage. In fact, cyber aug plus body aug is as close as you can get to invulnerability with the pods. Also, cyber users can have psychic powers and augs that rely on organic bodies get changed for their robotic equivalents. For example, it is much easier to make synthetic active sensors like radar instead of organic versions. The main downside is that while these bodies have nanomachine maintenance systems they have to consume weird and sometimes rare materials to do repairs such as plastics, refined metals and alloys or specific chemicals. They could survive by just consuming stuff that contains required raw materials but it would take much longer. In other words, if something does wound them it is pricy and time consuming to heal back up.

3) Elspeth did have reddish hair and she preferred a ponytail. However, she was not as attractive. She was shorter, her eyes were brown and not green, her hair had a different shade, her facial features changed, her skin color is now lighter and she has larger chest. The rest is small tweaks. Honestly, if she didn’t wear Pyrrha inspired armor you wouldn’t have noticed it.

4) We will hang out with Nike’ after the meeting and walk around for a bit, no worries. The meeting is mostly about one of the Ceilings (powerful tech seeking monsters) that was taken down recently and I think that information on how exactly that happened is important for Ag.

>>3398132
We are mostly waiting for the dorfs to set up. No worries, I remember and healer will get to the village as fast as possible without risking our reveal.

Are there minor or independent gods under Ceno protection or nearby? Kind of like the ice Goddess on the nearby island, what is her relationship with Ceno?

Can biological cups be ageless?

Farsalos is growing and the refugees will soon be there, I was thinking more about creating a mining settlement to house even more refugees at the copper mine, would that be feasable? We probably would have to set up an alarm system somehow

>>3406377
Well, Saturday has arrived and if not for the hiatus we would be running… Luckily, I am still here. I will actively reply to your questions and suggestions and I will participate in discussions until the thread dies so feel free to start some. Alright, let’s see…

1)There are two types of “minor gods”, the Outsiders and deities that have their own plot of land and people. We are yet to encounter anyone from the first group and it is hard to tell when you do since they usually try to hide themselves from the local pantheons. In the latter group we have Lady of the Frost and that psycho nature goddess that has plant elves, plant monsters and an island the size of Great Britain. There are two ways it could go here: either you are highly isolationist and you have enough power to defend yourself so that no one wants to touch you even if they can or you have arrangements with the major powers. There are no minor pantheons in the area as in no groups of two or more SGs independent from the four nations because if they were, we’d have five nations. I don’t count dorf pantheon since they are either a major pantheon or nonexistent.

Lady of the Frost is relatively far away to the south from Ceno and the sea lanes often get severed by monsters. She has an agreement of “mutual coexistence” with Ceno and she is basically too far away to be touched by any of the other powers. She is not subservient to the Ceno pantheon if only because she is too far to get that enforced and she poses near to no threat due to mostly being focused on her own people and projects.

The yet unnamed plant goddess is within range of both Ceno and Valistrat. However, her island is so dangerous it could be compared to the most monster infested zones soon before the Long Night ended. That means her defenses are lethal to Cup Bearers and difficult to take down even by some deities. That means a pantheon would be forced to dedicate all of their fighting force while expecting heavy Cup casualties if they wanted to deal with her. Due to her being mostly isolationist (except for maybe a few cases of rare “kaiju attacks”) she would cost more to kill compared to containing.

Due to the expansion of the four nations minor gods were absorbed into their pantheons and thus the only remaining minor powers are set up in positions that can’t be absorbed. They are either too far away to get touched or they are contested by two or more powers. For example, if you were a minor independent deity of the region between the four nations (as you are right now but more built up and independent), you’d be too valuable for the other powers to let anyone absorb you. Due to that if anyone tries to invade your stuff the three other nations should send their forces to help you.

>>3411687
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to provide new names and information about other deities for the reasons of spoilers and the fact that this part of the setting is not yet finalized. Minor deities on the regular don’t affect much beyond their own micro civilizations and they usually live in areas where major civilizations can’t expand easily such as islands or deep wilderness to the north of Ethea and Valistrat.

2)Oh, the Aging, THE generative disease that affects 100% of humans on Earth. While there are stories of how bad it would be to become ageless, of watching all your family and friends die in an eyeblink or aging but not dying and so on, aging ended up being pretty simple… ish. It is around 12 different processes both on sub- cellular, cellular and multicellular scales in which body’s self- repair systems fail in general or due to wear and tear. Eventually they are unable to repair the body at the speed at which it breaks causing aging diseases. In that state a person lives until something important breaks that kills a vital organ and you just die.

While the precise science is worth decades of research and papers that can stack up as tall as some buildings, this is nothing metaphysical. You fix these processes and the person stops aging and stays in their prime forever… or unless they die from cancer, disease or an unfortunate accident. This should be true for both this world and SGQ world as first drugs that target some of the specific aging processes are starting clinical trials IRL. It is quite possible that people who are alive right now can live hundreds or even thousands of years if not until the heat death of the universe.

Back on the subject of cups, making an ageless human is relatively simple for a biomancer who knows what they are doing. Any biological SG is a blueprint for numerous systems that keep them alive indefinitely. From special cells that maintain genetic code stability to new white blood cell types that are 100% efficient at finding and killing any form of cancer. You just copy that and paste it on an existing human and BAM, they are immortal. They don’t even have to be cups as underground elves don’t age past their prime as well.

>>3411689
3)Copper mine settlement will probably have to wait for a while. For you see, refugees don’t immediately flee in the direction of any new hope en-masse. They are not stupid. During the next year small number of refugees would appear in the ruin and settle in, then more would come and so on until the main mass of refugees realizes that the prospect is safe and as advertised.

Regarding the particular spot, it would not be possible to easily set up a village on the surface if you need an armed escort each time you want to get some refugees there. It is most likely that you’d have to clear out the nearby Labyrinth, reinforce the path to the surface and build a paved road all the way from the village to the ruin first. Those are a bit more important than housing if you want to settle the surface. In the meantime, most refugees would settle in the ruin itself.

>>3411690
So theoretically ice island functions as a protectorate, maybe without the tributes, either way, worth a visit to see how the sea lines are and to meet a goddess in a similar position to our current one(not exacly since she only suffers influence from one major nation but still similar).

As for some additional questions:

How could we learn, or who could teach us new forms of psy manipulation? If that is not too spoilery.

How long would we take to set up an iron and colored metals industry, with the goal of developing rifles? Do we have the raw materials or we would have to search for something in the Labyrith or elsewhere

Regarding your answer to the refugeea and the copper mining settlement, so it is a more medium term goal sonce we would need more refugees to come and then to set up some protection and infraestructure, do we have other raw resourses relativellt close besides the clay pit that could be explored by our people in an outpost?

>>3412210
I think I already replied to this once in some form, but currently there is no way for Ag to learn a whole different type of psi ability. In other words, we can’t learn how to be a biomancer or how to shoot lightning like Elspeth unassisted. However, we can learn more powerful techniques that could potentially mimic other powers. For example, using friction and pressure to raise temperature indirectly or making a telekinetic jet engine to mimic pyrokinetic jet propulsion. That won’t be efficient but that’s a thing.

That doesn’t mean that we are limited to only spacetime psi. There is a basic layer to it that has some powerful mid- late game abilities that we could potentially access. For example, Nike’ seems to know how to charge psi artifacts with energy using herself like a battery and even Haven displays something similar and she doesn’t even display any other psi abilities. There are some ridiculous things in this list but most are spoiler. Out of all SGs Elspeth is the most adept user of this particular branch of psionics. Apply exploration, research and creativity for best results.


Regarding your second question, that’s complicated. Do you want flintlock muskets? Caplock muskets? Case ammunition? Semi- auto guns? Depending on what you’d like to shoot for the requirements would be different.

We technically have everything from raw materials needed for production of pig iron, steel, copper and all the alloys for all black gunpowder weapon types. For Napoleonic era cannons you need a casting plant in addition to pig iron, for muskets you want high pressure lubrication boring machine technology or sheet metal to make the barrels plus specialized tools for flintlock mechanisms (No worries I’ll drop them all in the same type of factory for simpler infrastructure choices). Having steam power or any other form of engine would make boring a lot less boring and difficult but it is still possible to arrange some gunsmith training for villagers without it.

For anything more advanced than a flintlock you have to have primary chemicals plant and then mercury fulminate plant set up. This allows for percussion caps both for weather resistant muskets and later cased ammunition. To process casings, you need metal stamping press and colored metals plant for higher quality copper. After that you can use alloy plant to make gunmetal which is used in mechanisms and gun parts.

>>3412388
Last but not least, the gunpowder. We currently manufacture chlorate gunpowder in small quantities that is more sensitive than traditional gunpowder. In addition, part of the process requires electrolyzing salt which is, while not prohibitive, still relatively expensive. However, direct alternative of traditional gunpowder is even more difficult to acquire due to extremely expensive saltpeter that is more useful as fertilizer. You could set up nitric acid production but that requires electric arc and chemicals that we don’t have direct access to. Then there is smokeless gunpowder which is its own massive pain in the ass.

In total, minimum requirement for smoothbore muskets would be a steel mill, a colored metals plant, a rolling mill and a gunsmith manufactory. This is like… half a year…ish while under focus? Then there is boring that allows for rifling but that’s a couple months longer due to complicated pressure lubrication mechanism and output would be kinda shit without your direct involvement if you don’t get some steam power.


All resources that I’ve listed are placed somewhere at the end of the inventory pastebin. It is not very elegant and I’ll move it somewhere else later, but for the moment let me copy it here for you. Currently unexploited resources:

Immediate area: quartz, feldspar, augite, spodumene (lithium ore), muscovite, olivine(flux), magnetite (Iron ore, bad quality), sulfuric acid (Labyrinth deposit, no container for transport)

Close north- eastern basin: limestone (flux, construction), galena (large deposit of lead ore, zinc and silver), cinnabar(mercury), coal (sulfur contaminant), hematite (large deposit of iron ore), sulfur, geyser (geothermal), small river (gold dust, power, water)

It doesn’t mention copper deposit since it is already exploited and it doesn’t mention field area river resource since I am yet to update the inventory after the fix. Sorry about that.

>>3412393
What would we need to try and create "magic items" like the ring Nika gave us, to infuse our psy capabilities into something.

>>3412586
Well, the act of placing psi charge into a material is one of the underlying psi abilities. We need to see this “enchantment” in process and/or get enough samples of psi charged items and anomalies to do independent research. We have that ring we didn’t look into yet. It won’t be enough but it should give some insight in how psi energy stuff works.

>>3412626
Looks like I’ll have to archive this tomorrow morning. Remember that if you want to contact me during hiatus you can always find me on quest general discord and on twitter. See you around.

>>3425400
Thread archived