>>4271575
To be honest, this group proves to be much tougher than you imagined. You are a goddess, so shouldn’t they be underpowered as weaker versions of the gods? Well, first of all, even if you are a goddess, there has only been about a year since you woke up. Other gods had almost a century instead so they are much more powerful than you, with well-polished skills and techniques that you are not yet aware of. Plus, you are fighting four of Holy Nation Angels. Holies are famous for compensating for their numbers in the pantheon with large quantity of Cups. Likely this group was chosen specifically for their combat prowess to counter another Cup and they should be geared for a massive overkill for that. You should never pick fair fights after all, that’s not how it works.

In any case, let’s look at the current situation: The Champions are currently standing some distance away from the melee fight. While they wish to attack you, they seem to understand that they’d likely get in the way of their own melee Angels at this point. Thus, they seem to organize themselves between you and both the hammer Angel and the caster Angel to protect them against you if you decide to lunge at them. With the caster it is understandable, but why the hammer girl? Does she have some other purpose than a melee fighter? She seems to stay some distance away from the melee squabble, not as far as the cannon, but it is still strange that she doesn’t attempt to fight you. Interesting, you need to pay attention to what she does.

>>4271600
The head angel slightly wobbles on his feet but he gets back to his senses almost instantly. You notice a glow from between the plates where you’ve struck which you guess is a sort of healing effect. So, he heals now, great… The spear Angel doesn’t seem to be wounded beyond his pride as he digs his head out of the dirt and spits out some of the soil that got its way into his mouth. You note that both of them are sucking in relatively large quantities of psi energy from the area. It is not enough to affect you, but it is more than nearly nothing that they absorbed at the start of the battle. Your guess is that their armors fuel forcefield regeneration off that energy and judging by your own performance it would take them significant time to get to “full”, a wild ass guess would put that time in at least several hours. This means that for this whole fight they are basically permanently depleted on shields allowing you to damage them directly. This would dictate your following tactics: take one of them out. This would decrease the pressure on you making it easier to beat up the rest of this “quirky miniboss squad”.

Now, you don’t want to kill them. That would likely soil any future relations with Holy Nation pantheon. Thus, you must attempt to take them out in the least lethal way possible. Big guy’s healing puts huge air quotes on “less lethal”. It is likely that you’d have to wound him sufficiently to overwhelm his healing reserves. Maybe even by cutting off all of the limbs if the fight goes far enough. Regarding the rest, if you compare them to Nike’s cups, they should be tougher than humans, but in a limited fashion with significant fraction of their power provided by their gear. With humans, the line between knocking a human out and giving permanent brain trauma is pretty thin. For Cups it is likely somewhat thicker since they likely have some safety augmentations to prevent or repair damage that would be permanent in humans. Still, your best bet is to disable some of them and force the others to concede instead of taking all of them out, and this promises to be much more difficult than initially planned.

>>4271603
It took you a fraction of a second to come up with a plan and you didn’t wait for others to be ready. You need to take out either the spear angel or the leader, and you decided to get on with the spearman. Your first attempt to disable him is based solely on your powers: he is a melee fighter so if he is suspended in the air away from you, he won’t be able to harm you. Unfortunately, it seems that Holy Nation Angels have a countermeasure for that. Your telekinetic grasp keeps shattering and losing stability which makes it exceedingly difficult to maintain focus on the target. You could brute force it if you were fighting one on one, but in one on four situation you can’t afford this method. The leader attempts to swing at you so with a burst of energy you drive the spearman into the ground forming a small crater with a deaf “thud” sound as you parry with your sword. To the surprise of the angel, you block the attack and even push back against it with one hand. His face displays both fury and concern at the same time, maybe the possibility of fighting a goddess finally crawled into his brain but it didn’t settle yet.

You redirect his blade into the ground and use this opening to whack the big guy into the center of mass with all your psi augmented force with the side of your shield. The shield deforms significantly, but the force of impact is substantial enough to leave a massive dent in his chestplate and throw the angel’s ass into the air and at least ten meters backwards where he landed on his back. You then sheathe your sword as you take a step back and turn right, catching the spear that is steaming ahead towards you just below its tip. The impact causes you to leave two short tracks in the ground as you are pushed back, but your strength was sufficient to stop the weapon from hitting you outright. The spear angel curses below his breath as you cover yourself with your shield once again. Three, two, one and…

The impact arrives just on time, you’ve correctly calculated the reload speed of caster’s shot. You leave two long tracks in the dirt that dig your legs up to your calves below the soil. You unbuckle and drop off your shield, it can no longer assist you. The previous blast already caught the inner wooden layer on fire meaning that the next shot would penetrate. Still, it leaves you with your sword and your bow, although you can’t find an opening to use it now.

You look at the battlefield once more. The spearman is regrouped, but he seems a bit out of his game after your performance and a near miss by another caster girl’s shot. Simultaneously, a group of five champions is rushing to fill in the hole that the temporary loss of the leader created. In the middle of all this stands leader’s sword embedded into the dirt with his proper owner a significant distance away. Should you?

>Roll 1d20 and do tactics. You may try to pick up enemy weapon…

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>4271605
Throw the sword far far away with TK, hopefully it hits an unsuspecting monster some dozens of kilometers from here

roflstomp the spear bastard and maybe make a beeline for the hammer girl, force her to show her colors

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>4271605

>>4271629
+1

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>4271605
Finish one of them

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>4271605
We have multiple sensors, blow dirt up to blind the chanpions (i don't think it will work on the angels but eh) and disable the angels

>>4271649
>>4271641
>>4271631
>>4271630
>>4271629
Alright, writing

>>4271649
>>4271641
>>4271630
Man I love SGQ dice

>>4271672
You decide to take out the loose weapon from the battlefield with telekinesis. As you attempt to throw it, your telekinetic grip fails and the sword spins out of control and impacts almost straight where it was while startling one of the Champions but ultimately doing nothing. Looks like not only the angels themselves are defended from the telekinesis but their gear as well. Well, here goes this idea. This entire mess allows the Champions to get into position between you and the sword while the spearman once again is ready to charge you.

You glance around to find something that could help you and your eyes fall on the consistency of the dirt that you’ve carved out with your legs. The soil is very dry since there hasn’t been much in terms of rain in the last couple of weeks and the terrain was damaged by the Mad Goddess. Thus, it is hard, flakey and… dusty which gives you a perfect idea. You slam the ground hard with telekinesis forming a dust cloud over the battlefield. This likely won’t save you from the Angels, but it seems to be enough to disorient the Champions who are likely not as augmented as the cups. This helps you to lower the number of enemies you have to engage at once.

And then you note that the caster angel is not firing even though she reloaded. What is she waiting for? You bet that not for the dust to clear. The leader is still away from the close range and he would take some time to get back in range which means your target for now is basically only the spearman. He steadies himself for a few moments after which the spear tip heats up to orange once again and he lunges at you. With only one on one he has no chance. You easily sidestep the attack that feels exceedingly slow for you and catch the spear with two hands. In the same motion you pull the spear towards you and apply a telekinesis augmented roundhouse kick into the rough area of solar plexus. The angel gulps and folds as he is thrown backwards for several meters leaving you with his spear in your hands.

>>4271847
Then you notice sharp pain in both of your palms. The whole spear has suddenly heated to white hot and both of your leather gloves caught fire while the steel protection for archery has already molten. As if by some unseen coordination, the caster angel simultaneously fires of a whole volley of shots into your direction as soon as the spear ends up in your hands. Three shots target your area while five others would fly through the possible angles of escape. Good plan, use distraction of the spear’s safety function to pepper your area with explosions hoping that you wouldn’t react fast enough. Luckily, you had the reaction speed to spare.

You see as spikes of searing hot air plunge into the cloud of dust leaving fiery trails behind them. While a normal person wouldn’t even have time for the signal to get from the eye to the brain, you just eyeball the trajectory between the cluster of three heading for you and the shot designed to catch you if you jolt upwards. Then you leap and precisely guide your body right between them while also flying towards the leader angel. The shots mostly sail into the forest causing a cascade of dull explosions in the distance. You land squarely on leader’s chest which along with some telekinetic boost throws the man on the ground as you drive the white-hot spear into his right shoulder. The barrier doesn’t hold for long and neither does the armor as you apply all of your force into the push and the spear embeds by about half of its length nailing the angel to the ground. “Are you done?” you ask with a grin. The man screams in both pain and rage, too incoherent to reply.

>>4271848
Thus, you just pull out your sword and fling yourself at the hammer girl once more. The distance is closed in barely two seconds. She successfully blocks your sword strike, but the force of your muscles along with lots of telekinesis causes her to buckle and fall on her knee. She looks scared and she mumbles: “Wyen esi ha’oi?!”. It is pretty obvious what she asks you, you caught enough words from Holy Nation’s traders and from your visit to the castle. Plus, the situation calls for it. She asked “What are you?!” You laugh and reply with a huge smile on your face “What am I? I already told you what I am.” The girl gets significantly more scared. To be fair, lacking half the teeth and having a massive burn mark on your face probably makes you worthy of a horror movie cast. You sigh and knock her on her back by swiping her legs from below her with the blade snug near her neck. The girl starts… praying, or at least that’s what you think she does, by rapidly mumbling something with her eyes closed. You note that the leader suddenly screams and bright light pours from his wound. It can’t close because he has a spear poking through it, but it all makes sense now. She’s a healer. Jackpot. The caster seems to be out of charges since she is mostly closing her mouth with her hands as if she’s witnessing something horrible while the spear guy is rushing you without any armaments while screaming bloody murder like a total madman. For the next few moments, she is all yours…

>Roll 1d20. You can attempt to talk to them, just saying…

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>4271850
Tell her to stop now, she is hurting him. or stop her mumbling with our hands if needed, try not to hurt her too much


"Enough! you can't win, leave my lands and pay for the damage your marauders caused to my people and the lives they took without provocation"

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>4271850
Bat the spearman away, hopefully knocking him out or hurting him enough, and then try to calm the girl down.
Tell l the others to stop

If they don't we can kidnap her, I doubt they will attack us if we have her hostage and then they will be forced to talk.

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>4271850
Knock her out or take her with us to Farsalos

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>4271864
+1

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>4271864
Supporting

Let's hope they are tired and beat up enough for this to not be that bad....or that we unlock something nice.

>>4271864
>>4271876
>>4271885
>>4271894
>>4271904
Writing

>>4271949
“Stop, can’t you see you’re hurting him?!” you shout and close her mouth with your hand as you pull back the blade. The girl stops as you step off her to switch your attention to the spearman, who is absolutely angry of his tits, wielding one of Champion swords and closing in on melee range. You dodge out of the swing and nail the man with the sword’s pommel straight to the face with high force which breaks his nose and stops his attack in its tracks. Then you force push him into the ground and shout: "Enough! you can't win, leave my lands and pay for the damage your marauders caused to my people and the lives they took without provocation!"

The leader angel shouts back as he barely manages to pull the spear out with some help of the Champions: “Waenry, va'il nyi vivny a'ph ha'ois ra'tnidvn na' oil zaenya'oin ma'oitvl! Ya'oi vesi elg pha's a'ois loissitvis zyaeri ta'n istit oilaetk a'ois ya'rh retkoieki! Estit aeph ha'oi viphien oil ta'z, ha'oi ret'n ya'vi na' phaekyn nya'li zya' za'oirv ra'di tifn, etv nyih zaerr degi ha'oi veh pha's oil!” Your language skills are not on par, so you turn to the hammer girl and ask “…What did he say?” She looks at you dumbfounded, after which she replies in Ceno with very thick accent: “He said that your disrespect knows no bounds as you refuse to refer to us in the Holy Language… and that he won’t surrender as more Angels would be sent if we fail…” Now you are dumbstruck. Were you fighting these assholes just based on language differences? The leader considered it an insult that you didn’t reply in Holy Language?! What the fuck?!

>>4272201
“…Can you tell him that I only speak Ceno?” The hammer girl looks at you with confusion as she slowly heals the absolutely destroyed shoulder of the leader angel who is angrily stomping towards you. “Syi... va'ilt'n lvieg Ha'rh Ta'tkoii” she shouts to her peers after which she asks “Aren’t… cups… supposed to know the languages of all four states? We all had to learn them.” You look at her as your eye twitches and you almost shout back “It is because I AM NOT A CUP. For God’s sake, I’ve been telling you from the start! What the hell is wrong with you?!” The head angel waves to a few of the champions and they slowly form up a circle around your position, but he doesn’t attack. He just gives back the spear to the very angry spearman and orders him to hold.

“Do you have any proof to your words?” finally the big guy asks. You reply: “Beyond the fact that I’ve been beating up FOUR of you along with your quote on quote Champions? What else do you want as a proof of godhood?” He looks at you half confused half judging and replies with one word: “The Halo.” You can almost hear the whirr of gears starting to turn in your head as you facepalm hard. Of course, the fucking halo. This entire fight could have been averted if you wore it. Halos are an identifier, the synthetic god ID card, and you didn’t use it. Ceno pantheon gave it to you five weeks ago and you didn’t use it! You offloaded it back in Farsalos as you didn’t want it to get damaged in the fight. IDIOT! You sigh and say: “It’s not on me, wait here” as you accelerate into the sky and off into the distance as fast as you can. Your face is slowly getting beetroot red, and not just from a huge burn mark and hematoma from getting hit in the face with a hammer. This is just so embarrassing!

___________________________________________________________
And on this note we finally end the fight. Hope you’ve enjoyed it. This thread is significantly shorter than it was intended. You might have noticed that I’ve been starting the threads later and later in the day. This is all due to a side effect of one of my medications causing me to sleep for 14 hours a day as I wake up around 2 pm. I am currently changing dosage and later the medication itself which should reduce that effect and hopefully the threads would be long and great again. In the meantime, that’s it for today. Feel free to discuss, ask questions and make suggestions. Thanks again for joining in our adventure.

>>4272202
Thanks for running.
At least hammer girl is reasonable, as healers tend to be.

>>4272202
I hope it was not too anticlimax-y, had some trouble finishing this post.

>>4272202
It took you only a dozen minutes to get back home at full speed. You’ve actually never travelled that fast, but a small part of you wanted to get back and hide from your embarrassing mistake as fast as possible which kept pushing you on faster and faster. Well, on the good side it proves that you are still human, since making mistakes is a part of human experience. You land on the roof of your house and rush inside, the rest of the village still on high alert thanks to your warning. Inside you quickly browse through your backpack that you’ve barely touched since your arrival from Elspen and in a few moments your halo is in your hands once again. In return for the powers of adulthood, one surrenders the comforts of infancy. It might seem like a curse, but it’s a blessing, really. It is a bronze brown symbol that you are now a real goddess, and it is finally time to exercise that.

Another couple of minutes are spent on getting yourself fixed up. Thanks to the Rozen’s gauntlet your teeth and skin on your face are restored to what they were at the cost of the artifact’s battery almost completely depleted. Apparently, it takes more energy to heal more serious wounds on you in comparison to other humans. Maybe there is something special about your teeth and skin? In any case, With the halo placed on your head and you looking more presentable, it is time to finally engage in some diplomacy with your neighbors. You feel like it might have been better if you actually curbstomped one of them, but eh, it’s good enough.

Just under an hour after you’ve left, the Holy Nation army has already regrouped and standing in wait while the angels are discussing something to the side. Looks like you really messed up the leader’s shoulder as the hammer girl is still healing him. They look slightly surprised to see you come back and land nearby with a halo floating above your head. The leader’s eyes narrow on it as he focuses, after which he says “Aen'l rikaen, la'diya'z.” and his companions look at him with surprise. Then he adds: “So, you are truly a Hermit Idol… how peculiar. It makes the situation much more complicated…”

>>4284588
“Hermit Idol?” you ask him, to which he replies: “Thou shall have no other gods before Me. Yet, beyond our borders people still worship those who aren’t gods, whom we call Idols. Hermit Idols are usually lone rulers of their small territories. You are the first one so close to the Holy Nation, and it seems that a mistake was made. While rare, it was decided that appearance of a new Idol 70 years after the last known case was significantly less probable than a rogue Cup Bearer. Now, let’s discuss your demands and what we can and cannot do…”

You’ve demanded them to leave your land and pay reparations for stolen goods as well as abducted and killed civilians who were under your protection. As the situation has changed, their presence in the area is no longer required so the four angels and the champions attached to them would leave as soon as possible and then they’ll make sure that the Twins would get the news about your existence. You are to expect a more official envoy at a later date.

Unfortunately, with mortals and reparations it would be a different story. You see, Farsalos is Cenophilan and there is an agreement between the four states that allows mortals to execute military actions with no oversight and interference from the gods and their cup bearers. Holy Nation’s minor warband under a command of one of their nobles has exercised the “mortal right of conquest” which was a part of the accord between the nations. They are not actually raiders as they are not an illegal warband. The angels were attached to a new combined force of several noblemen that wanted to attack and actually take over the defended village itself in case the “rogue Cup Bearer” showed up again, which they incorrectly thought to be you.

>>4284589
Luckily for you, the accords allow the gods to defend their key strategic assets from mortal incursions which means that Cup Bearers can freely wreck the army besieging a major city or trying to get into a “holy site”. The gods are not allowed to put these sites of importance too close to international borders, but in your case, you basically have a right to enforce your domain personally across this area. So, you do technically have a right to beat up that army which is going to Farsalos. The angels will warn the Holy Nation forces of the situation and, as these people aren’t suicidal, they’d most likely turn back and leave your territory as well.

The good news end here though. The bad news is that you won’t be paid back. If you want reparations for the fight with cups itself to refund your damaged equipment, you’d have to debate it separately with the envoy, the angels are too low rank to offer any promises. They can’t even communicate instantaneously with their headquarters! You expected this to be a feature of all cups, but looks like Holies prefer to leave it only for higher ranking personnel. On the reparations regarding the deaths of your people, things are even more tricky. Technically, as it is the mortal doing, you have to ask mortals to repay, but as you are an Idol you can’t actually go extorting stuff from mortals as it would still be against the accords. To get the reparations, the force of offended state (in this case Ceno) has to basically force the offender to submit to their demands. You either need to form your own mortal force overwhelming enough for HN force to capitulate, or you need to ask Ceno to fight Holies for you, both of which feel like an awful solution…

>”Fine, just get out of my lands, I’ll discuss it with the envoy.” HN can’t afford to leave you angry for long if they want to actually have decent relations with the new goddess. They’ll likely pay for their people’s transgressions
>The angels are not leaving until they repay you for your sword and shield, those were custom made!
>Demand angels to leave a hostage out of their ranks until the envoy arrives
>The angels can leave, but you will demand the HN army’s leadership to arrange compensation for the stolen materials and dead civilians… or else. As you haven’t signed the accords, they have no power over you
>Other ideas?

>>4284591
>”Fine, just get out of my lands, I’ll discuss it with the envoy.” HN can’t afford to leave you angry for long if they want to actually have decent relations with the new goddess. They’ll likely pay for their people’s transgressions

>>4284605
+1

>>4284591
>Demand angels to leave a hostage out of their ranks until the envoy arrives

Just so we aren't seen as a pushover

>>4284591
>Demand angels to leave a hostage out of their ranks until the envoy arrives
Put the healer in our custody, that way we can learn as much as we can from her about their ways and that fucked up religion system of them

Point the fact that we only acted in self defense or rescue of our own and all the agression up to this point came from tjeir side, it is only fair they make a gesture of goodwill to remedy that

>>4284620
>>4284609
>>4284607
>>4284605
Alright, writing

>>4284664
“Fine, get out of my lands for now, I’ll discuss it further with the envoy, but…” you say: “I require one of you to stay here with me until the envoy arrives as a gesture of goodwill.” The four angels look at you with some confusion and surprise at first, and after a few moments you add: “I would like to remind you that I’ve acted only in my self defense and to rescue my captured civilians, all of the aggression came from your side.” The angels look at each other and after a long pause the hammer girl says: “Okay, I volunteer as tribute, I’ll be in your care.”

The leader angel and the spearman explode in argument with her. Mostly the spearman as he seems more emotionally connected to her. Maybe they are siblings or close friends. He almost screams: “Ha'z ra'oirv ha'oi va' nyen? Syi’l rsoiir etv veket! Hesti ha'oi pha'ska'nnit ya'z lyi lnsa'gi ekeaetln ha'oi?!” You are pretty sure that what he said was not savory towards you, but you’ll just watch the drama with a raised eyebrow for now. The cannon girl also watches without interfering, probably not being as emotionally involved in the situation. “Look…” hammer girl starts to reply. “She has obviously held back. If she wanted to kill us, she would have already done it during the fight even if she was not as strong as older Idols, so I’ll be okay. And I believe that it is impolite for us to discuss this in a way she doesn’t understand…” The spearman glances at you suspiciously, to which you just shrug.

The leader angel looks at this mess for some time after which to the surprise of all of the other angels he says “I’ll… allow this. Someone has to make a first step towards peace, and I have to admit, none of us has shown ourselves from the best side. Miss Agatha, are you aware of the consequences if this goes wrong?” You reply that you can guess. It is obvious that the opinion of you would worsen significantly if you don’t return her in one piece. But it is not like you intend to direct her to forced labor and you have no intend of killing her since it defeats the whole purpose. Instead, you’ll use her to learn more about your neighbors. An angel likely knows almost everything about their religion and maybe she could even teach you some Holy Language.

>>4284863

The angels then have a short discussion with mortal leaders of the HN army and by their expressions and glances towards you, you can tell that they are experiencing a combination of fear and disappointment. You make sure that the forces turn around and head back home, after which you take your hostage and head back to Farsalos. “What’s your name? We weren’t introduced officially.” You ask and she replies that she is Tabita and she is a higher Angel of the Holy Nation’s Choirs. Apparently, they use a system similar to Christian angels with a hierarchy that signifies the importance and role of the angels. The Twins are considered “Seraphs”, the leader angel and the caster girl are both lower Archangels which is why they have several pairs of wings. Tabita is basically second step from the bottom, kind of like Private first class. Not bottom tier but she is not in command of anything, the officers start from Archangel level. Interesting. And yeah, spear guy is actually her brother, but she asks you not to ask about her past much. She hasn’t been human for about 20 years now and they are forbidden from carrying over attachments from the human life, so she doesn’t want to remember unless she has to.

She flies pretty well and can catch up to you unless you push your speed and soon you get to Farsalos. “That’s a significant wall for such a small settlement, I presume that it is your work?” says the angel, to which you reply confirmation. As you land in the middle of the village, you tell the chief the good news and she rings the bell prompting everyone to assemble in the central plaza. You explain that you’ve won and the Holy Nation’s army is retreating from Farsalos, which causes quite a few cheers and sighs of relief. This mess is officially over for now, you just need to get the angel girl settled and report to the Ceno pantheon since they likely want to know how it went.

>>4284864
You tell Tabita to wait in your home as you get to the oracle and poke her to call Nika: “Hey, Ag. Congratulations on your first victory as a goddess. How did it go?” You explain everything to her as she listens attentively. “Well, I’ll have to congratulate the “Time Girl” on another successful projection right to the point where you got involved. You’ve actually managed to squeeze out second best course of actions, according to Vera’s predictions. The most likely predicted timeline resulted in you killing at least two of the four angels until they would’ve broken down sufficiently for diplomacy or retreat. Likeliest casualties would be support and caster elements of their force for obvious reasons of being most dangerous and, to quote, “having like two HP”, according to Vera. So yeah, congratulations. I’d say expect an envoy in two- three weeks. I’ll have to go now though, but I have a surprise for you from Belkh. He has drafted a couple concepts for the buildings and the Pantheon District for your city project. He said that he has a few other ideas, so if you don’t like them, he’ll think of something else. Just tell my oracle and she’ll forward the comments to me when I get free. Cya”

After the connection is cut, the Oracle passes you a stack of papers in a folder with “Ag’s City drafts” written on the side in English. You’ll need to check it out soon, but for now let’s get the angel settled. Where should you put her?

>She is a prisoner, set up one of the numerous underground facilities in the village into a jail.
>Give her one of the spare houses in the village, not too extravagant but not demeaning either
>Settle her in a guest room in your own home. It would be a bit more luxurious and you’ll keep an eye on her better
>Settle her in Nike’s temple. Slightly ironic but pretty luxurious as well. Hopefully oracle girl won’t mind…
>Build something exclusively for her
>Other ideas?

>>4284866

>Settle her in a guest room in your own home. It would be a bit more luxurious and you’ll keep an eye on her better

Politely ask h err to remain out of our private parts in the house

>>4284866
>Settle her in a guest room in your own home. It would be a bit more luxurious and you’ll keep an eye on her better

>>4284866

>Settle her in a guest room in your own home. It would be a bit more luxurious and you’ll keep an eye on her better

>>4284922
>>4284921
>>4284908
Writing

>>4284975
You decide to settle Tabita in your own home since that way you can keep a closer eye on her and provide her with at least some amount of luxury. You ask her not to go into private rooms and into your laboratory mostly so that she won’t bother your friends or get hurt while digging in frankly unsafe area of your home. You really need to install lights and ventilation in there before you can let anyone in. She didn’t expect such gesture from you, but she accepts and takes one of the guest rooms on the first floor. You introduce her to your companions, explain the rules, quickly cook up some lunch for everyone and settle to read the stone god’s proposals for architecture.

First go the notes regarding his analysis of underground elf architecture. Like with the dwarves, it is characterized by flat roofs as in Labyrinth the precipitation is very low and thus there is no need to engineer for the rain and snowfall. The main construction materials for their buildings include a type of fungal wood that is cultivated in their area and it is used more in less luxurious homes, it has distinct pale cream wood color. The main material for most of the more expensive buildings, like with dwarves, is stone, in particular metamorphic rock found in their area. The Town is settled near a large deposit of marble and the entire inner city is built mostly out of it. Main material for roofs for lower income houses is the tough matter from the cap of the wood-shrooms that has distinct light purple color and they usually fashion the rim of the roof to fold below making a rounded edge as the cap matter can be bent. Richer houses use ceramic tiling, but the fashion still remains and most of their buildings in the center of the Town have flat domes, especially on larger or public buildings.

>>4285152
While not viable for surface construction as is, it would be relatively simple to adjust the plans to incorporate design features from their architecture to your city plan. The pages have a lot of drafts of various buildings from two story houses to large five- six story apartments. You really like one that is kind of like a tall donut, essentially being a version of the design that you used for compact housing before but taller and more rounded with a small park area on the inside. It looks very cute, kind of like a Super Mario pipe but in a building form.

Then you find a recommendation note: Belkh says that color purple for the underground elves is kind of like blue for Ceno or white for Holies, a sort of national color. On the surface a whole city with purple roofs might look a bit out of place and somewhat of an eyesore while you can also use this opportunity to introduce your own banner’s color to subconsciously tell the elves that it is not just their territory, but yours. Or you can also just use whatever colors fit the raw materials and the local area to make it more varied and having less meaning…

>Purple roofs and elf architecture sound good, you want the elves to feel as at home as possible
>Brown roofs would go better while keeping the elf architecture, they need to feel at home but also realize that this is your domain. Your place means your color
>Random roofs with elf architecture. Elves need to feel at home, but they must realize that this is not their old place, it is something new.
>Your architecture. Their home is gone and you are not their old goddess, they’ll have to adapt if they want to truly live alongside you
>Other?

>>4285157
>>Random roofs with elf architecture. Elves need to feel at home, but they must realize that this is not their old place, it is something new.

new beginnings

I like the donnut buildings a lot too

>>4285157

>Brown roofs would go better while keeping the elf architecture, they need to feel at home but also realize that this is your domain. Your place means your color

>>4285157

>>Random roofs with elf architecture. Elves need to feel at home, but they must realize that this is not their old place, it is something new.

>>4285157
>>Random roofs with elf architecture. Elves need to feel at home, but they must realize that this is not their old place, it is something new.

>>4285198
>>4285184
>>4285177
>>4285171
Writing

>>4285223
You decide that while you like the idea of elf architecture, you don’t want to have purple roofs and mandating your own color would be counterproductive. Instead, roof color would be dictated by the materials and maybe preferences of the owner of the building. While you want the elves to feel at home, you don’t want them to think that it is just the recovery of the old ways. Out with the old, in with the new!

You also note some changes to the road pattern design. Now it is a complicated mix of radial, grid and Cul-De-Sac road patterns. In essence, the design avoids having X intersections and focuses on T intersections while also keeping everything much more connected than American Cul-De-Sac designs. The notes tell you that apparently there are much more traffic accidents on X intersections in comparison to T intersections which should help in the long run. In your opinion, it makes the layout much more “alive” and less sterile, so that’s a plus as well.

Then goes the main part of the course, the central building and the design of the Pantheon District, or its equivalent at least. It would essentially have all the functionality of the similar districts found in every Ceno polis: it would contain the seat of power, the main temple, the facilities for the Academy as well as all the things needed by a goddess and her cups, such as workshops, living quarters, recreation areas and facilities for meeting guests. Inside of the folder you find two distinct design concepts, labeled the Crystal Spire and the Dome.

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>>4285291
The Crystal Spire is going to be a fascinating marvel of engineering, partially mimicking Elspen’s Arcology while offering a complete redesign. In its essence, it is a skyscraper carved out from a giant piece of transparent crystal. It is fashioned to look like a natural crystal growth with offshoot spires at the bottom going off at various angles from under the ground. The spire itself is a 400-meter-tall smooth piece of crystal with all of the building established inside. Your quarters would, of course, be on the very top of it. While it might look like it is “organically created”, the crystal would be designed in a way to provide a lightshow shining like a giant diamond as sun’s rays reflect and refract inside of it sending colorful lights all around the inner city. The crystal would be essentially an equivalent of the glass on the skyscrapers of your time, but it would be specifically designed not to allow outside viewers to see what’s inside of the crystal while on the inside you would be able to see outside with no issues. The crystal would also glow softly at night which can be controlled in color and intensity if you wish for it to illuminate the city or just to look pretty.

On the inside, as crystal everything would be pretty boring, it would have floors and walls mostly made out of psi- ceramic and marble fashioned in white and light shades while the clever design of the supports would beam the outside light in during the day and keep everything lit up during the night. The spire would have a single central telekinetic elevator similar to the ones used in Ceno capital and in Valhalla, but it would be upsized to compensate for the fact that it is alone. The utilities would be separated on various floors with workshops, labs and supporting equipment being placed underground, mortal facilities placed in nearby smaller spires and on the surface levels and other stuff in the main spire at an elevation.

>>4285294
The Dome, on the other hand, is apparently going to be a collaboration between Belkh and Nina. It would be a massive district- sized non- transparent dome placed in the very middle of the city. In the very middle of it would sit a single spire that would pierce the dome in the very center and go high into the sky for about 300 meters while posing a very cool lookout spot for observing the city. The spire would contain your godly stuff with most of it placed underground below the spire. Unfortunately, the majority of it unfortunately uninhabitable due to how thin it is. Separate buildings under the dome would be dedicated for mortal pursuits like government, education, prayer or several cultural buildings that the structure now has space for. The dome would mostly be made from field-reinforced psi ceramic to make it lighter and capable of supporting its own weight. The outer side of the dome would have some colors and pattern designs, but the main stuff is on the inside. The underside of the dome would specifically mimic night-day cycle with an artificial sun and stars not only for aesthetics, but also to provide light for a huge park area placed below with various exotic flowers and huge trees. The entire inner area would be climate controlled to allow the park to function all year round.

Both designs boast roughly the same capabilities. The Dome is technically much wider and houses several cultural buildings like a theater, but the city as a whole won’t miss anything if you choose one over another as what won’t be placed in the central building would still be placed somewhere else. Also, tall spires are one of the requirements for a powerful protection barrier generator that can cover the inner part of the city in a forcefield bubble for several days if needed. Yaw wanted to get something from his own stores, and thus this immensely powerful artifact is a potential gift from him. If you don’t like the designs, you can ask Belkh to return to the drawing board if you request something specific that you want from the center of the city…

>You like the Crystal Spire
>You like the Dome
>You’d prefer a writein option. Maybe a titanic statue of you or some abstract sculpture? Or maybe something tamer and more distributed?
___________________________________________
And on this note we have to end the thread for today. Voting would continue until the next thread. I recommend to discuss what you want in terms of design and if you want to alter something. Feel free to ask questions and suggest stuff. You can also ask stuff about Holy Nation from your prisoner angel. I hope you’ve enjoyed and I’ll see you next time.

>>4285295
I simply must have that gigantic clime controled park with night and day cycle but that crystal tower sounds gorgeous..........could we put the cristal thing at the center of the dome instead of the spire it originally comes with?

Also, damn nice gifts from Ceno pantheon, those guys are cool

>>4285295
>You like the Crystal Spire
-Dome is alright, but I don't like that we lose a lot of floor space as the dome is too thin to be load bearing. If we want biodomes we can ask for a couple smaller ones for parks, test areas, etc.
-I wouldn't mind if the Spire had more of a skyscraper aesthetic than natural crystal.
-Might be cool if we could get an underground tram system, obviously this would have to be built after we got our industry up but look into if there is a psi alternative. I'd like the tunnels built along with our underground infrastructure, might also make said underground infrastructure easier to do maintenance on.
-Shield generator is cool, ask what's required to make/fuel one of these. Perhaps we could get a few more in the future for interlocking/layered defense.

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>>4285471
Pre-building the framework for utilities in general may be a good idea as well. Say we want to wire in a city power grid at a much later date - we'd have to choose between digging up the entire street network to lay the wires or pulling a pic related, but taking the opportunity to build in some small utility tunnels to freely string them through later would be a good investment to avoid a lot of repeated effort, kludging and roadworks down the line.

>>4285368
I’d say that it is unfortunately not feasible, the crystal would not fit with the dome both aesthetically and physically. However, it might be possible to replace the dome’s spire with a skyscraper. It would be significantly shorter than the Crystal Spire, but hey, it is going to be a thing.

>>4285471
-The civilian buildings would be built below the Dome and it would occupy only the central district in the center of the city. It is big but not absurdly big, it is not a city sized biodome. Most of this space would be used up by central facilities anyway, it just has a bigger footprint than the Crystal and contains a bit more amenities that else would have been around the same area anyway.

-The question then is what aesthetic for it do you want. If you go for modern skyscraper aesthetics you need to remember that it would likely be a sole skyscraper in the city for a century or more. Won’t it be a bit out of place with all the rest of the buildings much smaller than it and in significantly different style? While high rise apartments existed even in antiquity, they were only around 10 floors tall. Also, there are many designs for skyscrapers: do you want a straight featureless tower of glass and concrete, or maybe something more Art Deco like Empire State Building, or there is also an option of some heavy brutalism with thick beams or maybe even something futuristic with more glass and white psi- ceramic. If enough people like the idea of normal- looking skyscraper then sure

-We have planned for underground infrastructure to be created first since it is easier to dig while there are no buildings on the surface. We will have a hybrid subway- bunker system, even if subway part would not function without more advancements in manufacturing. We would also have separate infrastructure networks both for existing (water, sewage, storm drains) and potential (power, phone lines, etc.). As we are the only goddess who plans to rapidly industrialize, we would have the first subway system in the region, if not on the continent.

-Shield generator is the same type of technology used to defend the Valhalla and smaller versions of it defend cup bearers. The power source would be a distributed psi collector and psi battery network below the city center. Same source would feed a psi-grid that would power all energy- hungry psi equipment that you might install later as well as supplement structural integrity field generators that would support the Dome or the Crystal Spire. You might argue that this is not safe, but Belkh would assure you that active support with sufficient redundancy is no less safe than a conventional steel beam skeleton. Integrity field generators are counted in dozens and each can support the structure on its own, they have months of emergency supply power and if someone blows them all up, they can blow up physical reinforcements just as easily, so it should not be a concern proportionally speaking. Regarding the shield itself, on this scale it is an impressive feat of psi engineering that would take Yaw months to manufacture and install and it is pricy even for him. Thus, the most we can hope for is to duplicate the technology at a much smaller scale in foreseeable future, but you can indeed interlock them, just saying.

>>4286433
Installation of manholes and tunnels for services that we can’t yet manufacture is on the list, such as metro tunnels and underground networks for telephone and electric lines. I thought that I mentioned it as an option that people voted for, it was under future- proofing the city. So, no worries, electricity would be easy to implement assuming you manage mass production of insulated wires. They need polymer factory, rolling plant and either lots of rubber plants or a petrochemical refinery.

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>>4286503
>>4286503
I've been mostly dropping in and out to observe the quest thus far, so my memory of what's been done so far is poor. I forgot about that, and probably other things too.

As an aside, any self-respecting city has to have its own unique manhole cover design. We should make a nice design for them, or at least put our crest on it.

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>>4286499
Was thinking something along the line of pic related.
I suppose it would look a little weird but couldn't the same be said for the crystal spire, in terms of contrasting architecture?

>>4287548
Technically I’d agree with your point, this would be the most massive building in the city for the near future in any case. However, the Crystal Spire doesn’t actually look like a building, but more like a natural terrain feature that the city was built around of. Basically, it doesn’t look like a building from the outside and thus I’d argue that it won’t conflict with city architecture on the basis of no visible architecture being present, but I guess my point of view can be argued with. In any case, point taken. If enough people agree with you, I’d look into designing a unique skyscraper with features similar to your picture.

>>4285295
>You like the Crystal Spire

keep it crystly

as I understood, we would still have the dome somewhereelse in the city, it would just not be the central administration structure am I right?

we could put one of our labs under it to have a pleasant environment when we take breaks

>>4285295
>You like the Crystal Spire

>>4288782
Well, no and yes. The central building would be unique, we are either getting the Dome with the climate-controlled huge park or we get the crystal spire. If we choose one the other won’t be built. However, domes are a major design feature of the city so there would be numerous domes on smaller buildings. No small climate-controlled parks planed yet, but it might be possible for some of the more central parks if you really want to.

>>4293222
I do really want a central park like that yes

>>4293257
Hmm, I checked the building plan and there is an opportunity: it would be possible to dome over parks placed around the central district. The parks have either rectangular or trapezoid layout so the dome would be of an irregular shape, but I think that it would still look pretty cool, sounds good?

>>4293593
awesome, that way we can have a climate controlled leisure location for a stroll or a picnic and we can even keep some birds there

Questions for angel girl

Ask her how she became an anges, not her specifically, but the general process and how they are picked.( to see how things work there) and how is her country, what do they say about people like Ag there and how is their relation with the other nations
Ask why the mortals are allowed to make such hostile actions towards each other too, what is her take on it, we may have some common ground there

If ahe ever came in contact with other sintethic enhanced humans like us besides the ones in her country

Answer any questions she might have of us, about our past too, but don't show her our pod or something like that

>>4295164
ask about the twin SGs who rule the holies, their powers, etc. How are they competing with Cano with only 2 SGs, versus Ceno's pantheon?

Also ask/remember about local settlements and outposts near us, cities near us, military forts near us, how Champions are selected, how well trained is their general infantry, and what are their general infantry are usually armed/armored with. I want to get a feel of their military capability and also where their zone of control lies. I don't want to spend two weeks building a mining outpost to find it just got burned to the ground.

Also brings up another issue, need to work on scouts or spies or early warning outposts. Farsalos could have had more time to prepare, and people could have been saved if we had something like that. Not urgent, but if we start expanding it's something we should have

>>4285295
After some consideration, you agree with the Crystal Spire proposal as well as the alterations to the road pattern design. You like the idea of a climate-controlled park, but it unfortunately won’t be possible to do it along with the spire itself. However, it might be possible to make several significantly smaller domed parks for the ones planned to be located around the middle of the city center. You relay these decisions through your oracle and in a couple hours Belkh’s message comes through: he thinks that it should be possible. The domes won’t really be round, but he thinks that the design of triangular or trapezoid base domes would be pretty interesting, maybe even some covered plazas or markets. He also says that he would contact you once everything is ready for the start of the forest clearing. Why not now is because he doesn’t want to swing around with his boys and girls while you’re having discussions with Holies representatives, but he claims that Yaw has sent some of his Cups to search the area for anything worthy of attention and to map the local geography.

With the plans for the city finalized for now, you turn your attention to your new guest. You find Tabita sitting at the table, waiting. She probably expected that you’d want to talk with her as soon as you finished with your immediate tasks. You ask her if she wants a drink and she surprisingly accepts the offer, so you pour her some of the dwarven beer that you’ve had. Honestly, you expected that alcohol wouldn’t be well treated in their land, but according to the angel herself it applies only to serious intoxications, you are allowed to drink in moderation for social matters, diplomacy and things like celebrations.

You ask her about the process of how angels are made. Not her past of who she was before she became an angel, but of how she was turned into one of them. She replies that she is not sure, she was not conscious during the procedure and thus doesn’t know anything specific. She knows that there is a certain caste of angels focused on assisting with the creation of new angels and that the Twins personally get involved at some point. Also, that angels are made out of exceptional humans which have never sinned severely enough, especially with the “mortal sins”. You guess that the process should be similar to the way Nike’ makes her cups, but you might be wrong.

>>4296690
Then you wish to know about their position on the Idols and pantheons. Tabby claims that it is widely known among HN citizens that all Idols are essentially ancient and powerful scholars who bent the nature to their whims through the imitation of True God’s power. It is in itself not considered bad, as like all the other people they were created in God’s image and thus they are allowed to shape the world along with everyone else even if their tools are much more powerful and effective. Their immortality means nothing as Icons can still die, and as everyone else they would be judged along with their mortal peers once their bodies fail and their artificial afterlives decay.

The issues start when an Icon decides that they want to be worshiped. With this act, they soil their own soul and the souls of anyone that follows them with violation of one of the Commandments. However, the God would himself decide what to do with these people once they truly pass from this world and thus while Holy Nation doesn’t approve their actions, it lets them be. Outsiders, while being of the same sort of being as Idols, don’t form cults and thus are more accepted in HN as the result, even if they are exceedingly rare. HN religion allows for people from other religions to convert to the state religion, however if they don’t, they are considered citizens of the second class, they are not allowed to be nobles and if captured in the war or in breaking the law significantly, they’d go into indentured servitude for rejecting the Holy Texts. Still, trade and travel through their territory is allowed, especially for Etheans who have an economic and military pact with Holy Nation. Regarding the individual Icons like you, Holy Nation has little experience. Most of them are positioned either in the poorly explored wilderness areas or on lone islands. As Holy Nation is a small country compared to its neighbors, it lacks any of these Hermit Idols nearby, even if they know of several much further away, such as the ones to the North from Ethea. So yeah, congratulations on being the closest lone Idol to Holies, Ag, I’m sure it’ll go swimmingly.

>>4296692
Regarding the relations with other nations, Holies have a tight alliance with Etheans. This is the main reason why they are capable of standing against their more imperialistic neighbors of Cenophila and Valistrat. Ethean pantheon assists the twins forming the power bloc that balances out against the bigger states. Ethean gods are still considered misguided, but they are said to be doing this for the sake of their people and being partially forced into that role instead of forging the icons themselves for personal gain. Ethean people themselves, while not being allowed to hold a noble title, have a higher status than non- baptized men and women of other states. Holy Nation fiercely defends its border from Cenophila and Valistrat invasions. While HN can’t boast the numbers of Valistrat or the numerous fleets of Ceno, they possess the heaviest regular infantry and cavalry as well as much bigger and more powerful ships.

You ask her about why the mortals are allowed to do such hostile actions, to which she replies that she doesn’t understand this completely, but from what she has been told, this is required for the secular part of every nation’s existence in this day and age. Resources, land and people are valuable and the trade is insufficient to fulfill the needs so every state needs to wage regular wars either to obtain these resources or to defend itself from those who want to take theirs. However, as it is the wars of mortals, one year they fight, the other year they trade peacefully. She knows that the Idols arrived from a much more peaceful time where more of the natural world was known and everyone lived like nobles and kings, but in this day and age, the wars are an unfortunate truth of life.

Then the discussion turns about the Twins. Their names are Ariel and Arael, and they are said to look very similar to each other which is why they are called Twins. They claim the titles of “Seraphs” as the most high-ranking angels sent on Earth and they are told to be capable of many miracles, from healing any injury and illness to decimating entire armies with holy light. They are also given all the wisdom in the world to help them guide the humanity. Tabby claims that as they are not Idols, their powers can’t be defined in similar way, even if that power is technically limited. You can’t manage to get anything more out of her on the subject, but it allows you to note that at least one of them is a biosculptor, an energy manipulator and a mind- aug.

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>>4296693
You ask her about more strategic details, which she resists partially. She gives you what she considers to be sufficiently common knowledge. Luckily, she was also well enough versed of the strategic situation with Valistrat, which she was more than happy to share. Using the map, she had on her, you’ve managed to update your own maps which should help you to make better strategic decisions in the future. She also had a copy of Holy Text on her, but you decided to ask her for it later, for now you found out all that you wanted, and you needed to discuss some stuff with Haven.

Haven really became more like an advisor for you at this point, and you decided to inquire about some form of scouting or early warning system to defend against any further attacks like the one that happened not too long ago. She replied that there are methods, such as the chain of beacon towers in elven territory that used to warn the capital within hours from the violation of borders, but all of the methods require spare people, which we don’t have. Majority of Farsalos population work as farmers, then there are some craftsmen and a very tiny militia force that is mostly required to keep people safe from the smaller monsters. What you’d want is a border fort staffed with regular military which would take dozens if not hundreds of people to man. We don’t have the manpower to partake in such projects yet. We could build a smaller watchtower and man that, but it would be a long way travel from the village which means a relatively higher threat from monsters. Plus, you’d need to get some horses so that the people in the tower could book it back home once they detect the invasion. Spies would be difficult since it runs into the communication speed again. The spy would need to get the information and to get all the way home exposing themselves to monsters and a threat of being discovered. Scouts might be better, but they won’t have tower’s advantage in view distance and protection from the monsters which makes them cheaper and more likely to be lost. She recommends you to attempt to request a ceasefire with Holies to get you the time in turn to get more people, which you plan to get from the elf immigration anyway. They’d solve both the manpower issues and provide you with the army to defend yourself with.

Hmm, all options are somewhat risky. You have no idea how to do the spying as no one here except miss angel speaks Holy language. You can look into the beacons or scouts though…

>Assemble the beacon tower that would alert you of incoming attacks
>Fund several horses for the scouts
>Note to argue for a ceasefire with Holies and wait for them
>Other?

>>4296695
And yeah, this is a high definition version of the map

>>4296695

>Note to argue for a ceasefire with Holies and wait for them

That warning system is cool and all but I don't think it's something for now, both options have massive downsides and are not that effective, while we are here, and I plan to stay here, we can take care of defense.

I can agree with buying more horses since that is a good investment regardless of what we do, but I would be more worried in watching Valistrat borders than Holy's

>>4296695

>Note to argue for a ceasefire with Holies and wait for them

>>4296695

>Assemble the beacon tower that would alert you of incoming attacks

>>4296708
>>4296712
>>4296726
Alright, writing

>>4296747
You decide that the best action you could take right now is to wait for the arrival of the envoy from the Holy Nation. There are only a couple weeks left and you are not sure that you could do anything that productive in that timeframe. But it is not like you won’t be doing anything at all. You have a guest, you might need to help Rheia to study and you have a bunch of stuff to look into, such as that Golem’s Heart. You also spent barely any time on yourself, and thus you start with reforging all of your steel gear and taking a long hot soapy bath. While according to the time girl the outcome of that fight was one of the best ones possible, you still feel like the fight could have gone much better, and your body still aches slightly afterwards, especially the entire side of your face and the back that was pierced by that spear. Maybe there’s some remaining neural aftereffects of rapid healing that need some time to settle, but you’ve just discovered that you can in fact give yourself a massage with telekinesis. Uhhh yeah… This is officially the best discovery of the year…

During the next couple of weeks, you didn’t manage to get much done with the Golem’s Heart, unfortunately. It kind of looks at you with its one remaining eye as well as looking around its surroundings. You think that it might be trying to communicate, but it doesn’t seem to possess hearing, it only immediately focuses on your mouth the moment you start talking and tries to wiggle in response, but you can’t decode anything. You might need to look into it further later, but for now you’ve decided to place it in the dining room on the shelf above the fireplace so it doesn’t get bored as much.

You also place the mechanical owl nearby who immediately becomes the center of attention of your small family. Rheia especially likes it and thinks that it is very adorable, especially when it fluffs up. Tabby is also fascinated with the owl, she somehow immediately deduced that it is Yaw’s work, likely because he is the main tinkerer among the Ceno gods. Apparently, Holies don’t have the understanding to create artificial life of that type yet. Still, the owl is basically a mechanical statue, it is not an owl’s consciousness in a robotic body, but more like a bot program. After about a week you could already see some patterns in what it did. You guess that’s probably because that would be exceptionally cruel to turn a living being into a statue like that. So, the owl would stay as a fixture in your home for how, watching the big table and hooting sometimes when spoken to.

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>>4297046
You also took a look at the Holy Nation’s texts wishing to learn more about them. You had issues with the language, but the angel girl was more than happy to read for you. In the end, you are both surprised and disappointed, it is basically a rewritten version of the Bible from your time, but with several significant alterations. For example, the creation myth is restructured to loosely fit the more scientific opinions on the universe’s origin: the God has created the universe and then guided it through various formational processes including the evolution which in the end culminated with the creation of something that resembled the Creator himself- humans. Interestingly, Earth is highlighted as a special place for this, but not the only place, as the “in his image” in this book has the meaning of “sapience” and not the form, thus any sapient being according to the book has a soul, no matter their form or origin.

As humans create their children and mold them into adults through decades of effort, it is no much different to a sculptor turning the block of marble into a statue. Sapients were given the gift of sapience to use it to create as the Creator himself, which is how the book explains existence of elves, dwarves, golems and others, as it is widely known that they are a variation upon humanity. Also, curiously, it has the trials and tribulations of the world, but they can not only be completed through sole devotion, sacrifice and similar, but they can also be solved. That way, the illnesses, catastrophes and other nasties are more like puzzles for humans to solve, not just punishments for slights or devil’s games or similar. However, it is only about the life in this world, not after the departure to the next. There are still notions of sins and salvation, and it is stated that no matter what you can’t truly live forever in the mortal plane, and when you are eventually gone you would be judged like everyone else. So, in essence, it is a new branch of Christianity, plain and simple, just like Protestantism or Orthodox churches, which gives you a huge head start in understanding their culture.

>>4297049
The rest of the time is spent tutoring Rheia, flying patrols just in case, mentoring manufacturing plant workers and chatting with Tabita. After a couple days she relaxed more and decided to ask you a few questions. You replied to some of them to the best of your ability, leaving out things of critical importance or those that could compromise “state security”, aka the pods and the presence of Cup Bearers in the area. You mostly double down on more personal things like your experiences before the pods and soon after, how you saved and helped the village and so on. After hearing that you have an involuntary cult, Tabby recommends you to quickly prove them wrong by embracing the true religion while they can still be saved, but you won’t do that. You weren’t religious, nor were you an atheist before the pods. You didn’t really think about the question much, but you think the closest term you could use to describe yourself would be “agnostic”. Your mom was a Russian Orthodox Christian, one of the less loony types that could escape the country before it imploded into whatever that oligarchic theocracy mess ended up being. You were baptized by their standards and you think that you even had a tiny silver cross somewhere in your old home, but you didn’t take it along. You’re not even sure if you didn’t value it or just forgot, and it doesn’t matter now after 2000 years. Oh well…

The envoy arrived in the form of another group of angels and mortals led by a particular fellow with long brown hair, vibrant blue eyes and a face chiseled to perfection, as if he stepped out of a light novel for young ladies. He wears a mostly golden armor and he has a golden laurel wreath in his hair. His company consists of two other male angels in full steel armor that have their faces obstructed with helmets along with about a dozen Champions as well as over a dozen carts filled with something covered by a tarp. You walk out to meet him along with Tabby. This time, you wear your halo properly.

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>>4297050
“Greetings, my name is Virtue Timotheus Loubal, and you, fine lady, must be Agatha. It’s good to finally meet you. I was assigned by the Chorus to lead the opening talks with you. I must say, you look stunning, there is something in wearing finely crafted under armor to the talks, quite an elegant way to display your influence.” He says as he bends down and kisses your left hand…or well the leather glove on your hand. “I presume that you wish to discuss reparations, so I came bearing gifts that would hopefully alleviate some of the old wounds.” He puts his hand in one of the carts and pulls out a greatsword similar to your own in length. It is not made in the same way as the heat weapons of the angels and champions, instead it looks as if the steel is unnaturally light in color. It also has a pattern similar to Damascus steel. The hilt is heavily decorated with lines of pure white silver and gold and the pommel is represented by a large spherical agate gem. “I believe that you had issues with your weapon failing, this one should serve you more faithfully” he says as he slides it back into a similarly decorated scabbard of a fittingly large size and passes it to you. You instantly notice that this weapon has psi inscriptions along its blade and the central crystal which invite you to pour in more energy as you hold it. You wonder what effect it has.

“The rest of the carts are filled with Holy Nation’s golden coins fresh off the mint and golden ingots. I know that the lives that were lost are impossible to simply quantify and the plundered goods are way beyond saving, but the Choir assessed the documents produced as a result of the raid and concluded that this should be an equivalent to the market value of the lost goods and the “blood money” repayment according to the Holy law. While you are not subject to our law, I hope that you’ll find this as an acceptable substitute. Also, it has not escaped my attention that the… “tribute” is in the excellent health, you are indeed quite merciful. I’m sure that the talks would go smoothly.”

The sword:
>Accept the gift
>Reject the gift

>>4297051
I’m running out of time and won’t manage to post the next response today. To compensate, I’ll add one more post tomorrow. Until then, I encourage you to decide what your demands would be, here are some examples:

The talks:
>Demand the opening of an embassy of sorts similar to what Nike’ did, aka an Oracle, or at least a representative
>Demand a ceasefire and a NAP, no Holy Nation forces should attempt to attack Farsalos at least in the near future
>Propose a trade agreement, 2 days by horse is not much and you can manage to place a road leading to the HN territory
>Demand recognition as an independent entity, you are not a part of any pantheon and you intend to stay that way
>Demand a recognition of the claim for the region, you own the territory of the current wilderness, there would be no expansion into it
>Demand an angel to be temporarily assigned to you for purposes of assistance
>Demand increased compensation for the committed atrocities
>Demand personal audience with the Twins, how dare they send a completely random angel?!
>Other claims?

>>4297051
>>Reject the gift
I don't trust that weapon to not have some sort of magic to have an effect on us and I quite frankly think these guys are irritating at best, so better not get some presents

"I accept the reparations in name of my people but the sword that was destroyed was of simple steel and this is clearly overcompensating, thus I cannot accept, thank you for the offer."
Politely decline it

>Demand a ceasefire and a NAP, no Holy Nation forces should attempt to attack Farsalos at least in the near future
>Propose a trade agreement, 2 days by horse is not much and you can manage to place a road leading to the HN territory
>Demand a recognition of the claim for the region, you own the territory of the current wilderness, there would be no expansion into it

I believe these are reasonable and their merchants can make some coin and we would have someplace to dump some products too.
I specially don't want a permanent presence of them here, we trust Nike but I don't trust them one bit

say goodbye to the cute Tabby(I like we started calling her a nickname instantly lol) and tell her she can visit us if she so wishes, with some forewarning as to not trigger our future alarm beacon system

>>4297074
+1

>>4297053
>Reject the gift
Yeah....Holy's killed two dozen people from here, there's probably a conevtion with one of them with evert family that lives here, it would be pretty bad if we walked around with their gift sword.


>Demand a ceasefire and a NAP, no Holy Nation forces should attempt to attack Farsalos at least in the near future
>Propose a trade agreement, 2 days by horse is not much and you can manage to place a road leading to the HN territory
>Demand a recognition of the claim for the region, you own the territory of the current wilderness, there would be no expansion into it

I wanted to meet the Twins instead of their bootlicker here but I guess it's risky for them to come here in the open and it's very risky for us to go in there, without conections we could be kidnapped or worse so I guess we'll have to wait to meet them.

>>4297081
>>4297074
+1 to both, we'll probably meet the twins at some point in the future if industrialization goes well

trade is iffy, might get some proselytizers/cultural contamination, but it should be manageable, and more importantly, taxable :D

I have an important question for Tabby before she leaves....their prayers, what are the prayers directed to the Seraphs?
Nust to see how they harvest their psy energy.
>>4297081
We could meet them in Ceno as a neutral ground....but I guess Ceno is not exacly neutral as they are our allies, like we would not be confortable in meeting them in their merchant ally's domains too.

>>4297231
The "missionary" problems can be solved rather simply really. They do not allow other religions to be practiced or preached in their territory, so it's only fair we do the same to them as a neutral stance, if we found their merchants spreading their cult here we will close trade relations, fair is fair after all and no religion has a heavier weight than the other as far as we are concerned.

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>>4297053
You take a closer look at the new sword and this causes you to frown. While it is likely a fine and powerful weapon, you don’t trust its creators. In addition, accepting and using such gift could insult the people of Farsalos as its creators are responsible by deaths of many friends and family of your people. Thus, you pass the sword back to Timotheus. “I cannot accept this gift” you say, “I accept the reparations in the name of my people, but the sword that was destroyed was of simple steel and this is clearly an overcompensation. Thank you for your offer.” The angel looks concerned for a few moments, after which he replies “Very well, I can understand your reasons. Now, shall we discuss your demands and our requests?” You reply in agreement and direct this “Virtue” to your home and seat him in your study. His followers stay beyond Farsalos gates waiting for their leader’s return.

“Now, first of all, I would like to establish a ceasefire and an official Non- Aggression pact between the Holy Nation and my people. The aggression of your state was unprovoked and has led to the deaths of twenty-six of the civilians, psychological damage to thirty-four others and widespread damage to my personal property and village food production. My reaction was focused solely on recovery of captured civilians and minimization of possible casualties. I’m sure you have no pretenses regarding my capabilities if I decided to retaliate in kind. I haven’t signed the accords that would limit my personal involvement, and even in case if I did, I could still personally force project all the way towards Holy Nation border according to the specific wording of the treaty that I was informed of. Thus, won’t it be better for everyone if we stop the further bloodshed? In case we can’t reach an agreement on the matter, I will pose an ultimatum that I would destroy any Holy Nation military force that attempts to breach into my territories, personally if the situation demands so along with all of the fallout that would entrail to our relations” The angel listens to you attentively and after a small delay replies: “I can understand your position on the matter, and my superiors are open towards enacting a holy order that would prevent the use of the newly accessible territory for military actions of any sort. This order would have a limited timespan of a decade until it is replaced my a more complete treaty, is renewed upon an official request or expires. This applies to the mortals exclusively. Regarding the Chorus, we will form a non- aggression treaty with you. Please take a look at these conditions…” he says and pulls out a pair of documents already prepared and written on high quality paper with the omega cross, the symbol of their government and religion, etched into it.

>>4298412
After carefully examining the document, you note that it is more… “personal” than you expected, not like an agreement between states. In essence, in very precise language the document states that The Chorus (HN pantheon) will not partake in hostile actions against you, your personal assets, your “servants”(Cups) or your “followers”(civvies) unless you, your servants or your followers directly commandeered by you or your servants partake in hostile action against The Chorus, critical HN assets and no on. The wording technically allows your army to invade HN and vice versa as long as you don’t intend to conquer anything significant. Wiping out villages or a minor border fortress or two would be allowed, but if, supposedly, your army marches and successfully sieges a major town or a city, the Chorus would get involved. You are allowed to intentionally unsuccessfully siege the cities, which is amusing and honestly pretty useless. This does not apply to forcefully getting into Holy Sites and it would be an immediate breach of the agreement. If you or your servants find yourselves in HN territory, you would be allowed to engage HN people without the breach of the contract if it is not sufficiently big to warrant the response. In other words, you can beat up bandits, guards or even army soldiers if they stand in your way and that would be ignored if the transgression is sufficiently small and people are sufficiently insignificant.

When questioned on the reasons for this, Virtue replies that this is a more or less standardized document used with minor alterations by all four states in relations with minor factions. The loophole is open specifically to allow for mortal conflict that is required for current society’s successful function and doesn’t punish the parties for the behavior of their followers that can’t be controlled sufficiently well to allow for this risk. The loophole technically also allows for a mortal proxy war between the states which is still not closed by either of the factions. These wars have limited utility as once the mortal army gets close to anything important it gets devastated by pantheon forces, but it doesn’t happen often, or more accurately almost never in the last hundred years. Timotheus also notes that in essence this document in addition to the holy order should shield Farsalos and you from any sort of military aggression from the Holy Nation. After another careful review, you don’t find any further loopholes and agree with the terms placing a signature on both documents. They came pre- signed by Ariel, Arael and followed with a stamp of Higher Chorus. One copy stays with you, the other one is retrieved by the angel.

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>>4298413
For the second course, you pull out a political map that you’ve plotted from everything that you know about the four states. “The second demand that I have is regarding the recognition of my claim over the wilderness territory where I reside. On this map you can see the most recent state of borders that I’ve managed to acquire. I wish to lay claim over this entire wilderness region stretching across all of the unclaimed space between the Holy Nation, Valistrat and Cenophila borders as my domain. You are unable to expand into the region due to the monster population; however, I intend to slowly clear out the area and I would prefer not to engage in any border conflict initiated by the landgrab of recently cleared territories.”

“Now…” he starts, “I couldn’t fail to notice that Farsalos is a Cenophilan border village, and that you possess a halo of clearly Cenophilan pantheon’s designs. It is quite obvious that you’ve opened the relations with Ceno pantheon before you’ve contacted us. Our country’s fortification network is sufficient to overcome the possible threat from that direction; however, the region has strategic significance for us. While we don’t have the region ourselves, we cannot allow for any Cenophilan expansion into it. Since you mentioned claiming the region as your domain, I assume that you intend to form a new minor state in it instead of just protecting Cenophilan expansion. My superiors are currently engaged in debates over this topic, but the current consensus seems to be that they would allow for you to exercise your domain over the region only if you become an independent entity.

In addition, we have certain claims that we would have to compete for with you for their extreme strategic importance. In particular, it is the territory placed in the shortest border stretch between Holy Nation and Cenophila. The large hill positioned between Farsalos and the border fortress that you’ve visited is planned to become the perfect spot for the border fortress to safeguard against Ceno invasions and to project out influence all the way towards the western side of Farsalos river and up to Ceno border. As you can see, the region was plagued by monsters making it impossible to hold territory while barely allowing for military actions. Now as the area is cleared, we intend to cease the region before Cenophila does.

>>4298417
This would technically place our border right on the river making us very close neighbors. Border patrol would be capable of waving to Farsalos farmers across the river. I can already tell that this is unacceptable for you, it would cut you off from the sea and place the border uncomfortably close to your core assets. However, new claim draft is not yet ready and the hill has a strategic value that is not easily dismissed. I hope you can understand that. Still, the Chorus is open to accept your domain over the majority of the mentioned territories, unless you have something substantial to change the status quo.”

You think for a bit, you technically could mention the fact that you indeed planned to found your own country and the majority of its population would consist of the underground elves which could sway the opinion on the claims, but should you is the real question. The information is precious, but they are claiming a significant chunk of the territory that you’ve planned to take. If worst comes to worst, you could always just push Holies out of the contested area with mortal army, the NAP surprisingly would allow that…

This is a vote in the middle of the post so that the subject won’t be lost under a mountain of text. There will be another two voting blocks further on
>Share the information about the dark elf city project
>Refrain from sharing that information, but lay a competitive claim over Holy Nation’s claim. If you need, you’ll fight for it
>Support Holy Nation’s claim of the region
>Remain neutral on the claim, either Holies or Ceno can have it
>Support Ceno claim of the region
>Other?

>>4298420
You decide to change the topic off the subject of territory and on the subject of trade. You propose a construction of the road connecting Farsalos with HN which would allow for a trade route. However, you do intend to potentially tax it and there are certain questions regarding religious freedoms. Holy Nation doesn’t allow for other religions to be practiced freely on their territory, so it is only fair that you’d reply in kind. As far as you are concerned, no religion has a higher weight above others. Thus, while merchants would be allowed to practice their religion in your territory, missionary efforts would result in limitations or even complete withdrawal of the trade agreement.

“This is a complicated subject, miss Agatha. We agree that two hours of travel would be safe enough for the commercial connection and we see no downsides with it. We also would not partake in missionary activities on your territory. However, that can only apply towards Chorus initiated missionaries, it is possible for mortals to decide to spread our religion with their own efforts either in organized fashion or not. This is not something that we can control, so if you wish to limit such activities, maybe you could consider fines or legal restrictions?’

>You’ve made your terms, trade would be limited in case of missionaries
>Very well, you’ll explore fines and taxes for the mortals
>Other?

“Now that we’ve finished with your demands, could you please look over the following proposals. First of all, the Chorus suggests that to help you in gaining recognition as a sovereign nation it would be useful to gain an embassy. We request for you to allow for one of our servants to remain in your domain to provide the rapid communications between you and the Chorus. An… Oracle equivalent, if you will. A true embassy can be established once you found your domain. Secondly, we request for you to remain at least neutral regarding the pantheons. Please note that if you join one of the pantheons, the personal agreements would be annulled and the treaties signed with the pantheon would apply. Thirdly, we would like to offer you a Guarantee of Independence agreement. If you wish to accept it, the Bloc of Holy Nation and Ethea would support you in case of an external pressure from a larger entity. Smaller states should support each other. And as a final point, the Twins expressed the wish to converse with you personally and thus they are providing a formal invitation into the Caiy a’r Aghors to be utilized at your leisure, no date was specified.”

Accept/Reject:
>The Oracle proposal
>Promise of not joining other pantheons
>Guarantee of Independence

___________________________________
And on this note I have to wrap up for this week. Sorry for an extremely late post, the day was a nightmare. I hope you’ve enjoyed and I’ll see you next time. Feel free to ask questions, give suggestions and discuss.

>>4297303
Holy Nation, as other christian religions, devotes their prayers to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus (although now read like Hesus) hasn't changed much at all in his depiction in the new texts. Rarely prayers are also directed towards Saints, but there doesn't seem to be prayers directed towards the Twins or their angels, at least no official ones. Tabby doesn't know anything about the process of harvesting psi energy through prayer, but she claims that if someone woudl do it, it would have to be Valistrat or Ceno as they have cults of personality for their member Idols.

>>4298420
Tell him we were pretty much planning on making our own nation here, and would like claim of the hill mentioned
>Share the information about the dark elf city project
We don't have the force available to take it or hold it now. You're welcome to it at the moment, but we intend on taking it sometime in the future. Make sure to mention we were the ones who cleared out the monster presence in the area, and feel we have a claim to the surrounding area based on that.
>>4298422
I don't care that much as long as they're mortal initiated missionaries. If it becomes a problem, we'll fine or tax them. (we might want to start supporting our cult solely as a means to combat Holy religious pressure)
>Oracle proposal
Sure, handy for diplomacy
>joining other pantheons
We don't plan on it, for now. If anything we're creating our own independent state out here.
>Guarantee of Independence
Accept this, although we're unsure when or how we would use it. Ask what our obligations would be upon agreeing. At this moment the only external pressure we're worried about is external pressure from you, since we're on good terms with Ceno, but it might be useful if Valistrat starts pressuring us somehow.
>meeting with Twins
mention citybuilding contract, would probably have to happen after that

>>4298420

>Refrain from sharing that information, but lay a competitive claim over Holy Nation’s claim. If you need, you’ll fight for it
And mention that we bet Ceno would be more than happy to support our claim since it would deny the Holies of the strategic position

>Very well, you’ll explore fines and taxes for the mortals
Buuuut, if the problems becomes too great we will look over these conditions again
We can also issue trade permits to whoever comes to our territory, and those permitd would be given tp those who promise there will be no missionary efforts on their parts.
Those found without a permit will be fined, have their goods apprehended and fined if religious activities are to be found.

No to oracle, that is basically a spy
No to promise since this is all new to us, but make sure to say that we do not intend to join a pantheon as of now
And accept the guarantee of independence.

As for their invitation we accept and we will visit them when we finish setting up our region

>>4298422
>Refrain from sharing that information, but lay a competitive claim over Holy Nation’s claim. If you need, you’ll fight for it
but tell them we are planning a new city and that we will have means to populate and secure the territory so they don't need to be worried about it falling into someone else's hands
>Very well, you’ll explore fines and taxes for the mortals
but if it becomes a problem we will
>trade would be limited in case of missionaries
our dark elves are kinda lost in religious terms and they can be easy prey to the holies hawkish missionaries, I don't want to lose our population by religious pressure.

>The Oracle proposal
Refuse
we have a very close relation with Nike and I don't want them knowing that and seeing her walking around here with us, and if their oracle was present Mina would probably not be able to return, and she did very well for us and should not be turned away.
as a compromise, we say they can set an oracle on the closest fortress or town to our borders and we will make sure to visit it when we need to talk to them and at the same time they can message us and we will pay the oracle a visit when they need to communicate with us, there travel should be relatively quick so it's not really an issue.

>Promise of not joining other pantheons
Do not make promises but guarantee that we are not interested in joining a pantheon at the moment and they will be warned if that stance changes
>Guarantee of Independence
graciously accept, we have a similar agreement with Ceno I imagine so this way makes them both mutually locked in the question. not that we believe ceno would make a move on us but its nice to keep up the appearances I guess

>>4298746
+1