Shentu Wo: 99 Power, 644Followers
Sima Wa: 298 Power, 959Followers
Lin Sun: 112 Power, 223 Followers
Con Lai: 284 Power, 339Followers
Battle Report: Technical Success?
Valkyries sent by Freyja joined the battle. They primarily engaged the Shinigami.
Vithanyalai, Co So, and both YuDai Nao and Shento’s original temples destroyed bombarded to pieces before the fight even started, due to the location of Sekai Taki Song’s forces could not move far enough south to protect it.
The plan changed slightly, or perhaps dramatically, when Dyaus Pita pseudo-incarnated using every ship in the fleet to transform into his body and create a super-ultra-mighty-morphin mech avatar of himself.
Carmilla and Sarnai took over a few Taiyo ships instead to try and sail to the northenmost point of the islands engagement and begin evacuation to the lengdonian mountain range.
The locustening Did a lot of damage throughout the course of the battle, constantly diminishing Dyaus Pita’s avatar but after Ryner and clan were beaten back by Sun Sanika Locust was injured in the ensuing skirmish.
Ryner and clan under attack by Sun Sanika, who were prepared for vampiric enemies. After Halima provided Ryner a shadowy form that could survive the sun weapons Ryner pushed back and fought along the coast to protect their assets from Taiyo and Sanika assault after rescuing Locust from the Sanika.
Kharis makes executive decision to reroute the Goethe clan to fly with her, part of major boarding team into the depths of Dyaus. Halveti killed in the process.
Song Yi’s ice plan went out the window the instant Dyaus incarnated. Taiyo military engaged her forces along the southern range of Lengdon, Song Yi held a defensive line to provide an evacuation landing point on the eastern coast of the mountains.
Ningi No Mikoto engaged Tsukoyomi, managing to barely win. Valkyries reaped him
Izumi a part of boarding forces on the Dyaus avatar, worked separately from Kharis to cause external damage by moving around the body in the moonlight.
Marshal Devada injured by nameless soldier who got a lucky hit in after Devada defeated Mara. Sanika suddenly pushed hard to retrieve their commander and retreat him before he could be finished off.
Izanagi and Izanami reaped by Shen Rai
Forneus killed by Ryujin.
Murugan defeated by Song Fang, reaped by Shen Rai
Shen Rai defeated by Dyaus Pita, respawned in Sthan Thi.
“The Heretic” appeared, shooting sea monsters that attacked it, Dyaus Pita, Ryujin, Abaddon, and Izumi indiscriminately.
Eret teleported to Carmilla and Sarnai somehow and helped guide them through until they were safe enough. Commanded Halima to assist Ryner. Disappeared before anyone could ask what the hell he was doing here.
Goethe brand fish food™ (killed by leviathan after an Akasiya tore his wings off and threw him into the ocean)
Teijin defeated by Wukong and reaped by Izanagi
Wukong defeated by Hotaru, reaped by Valkyries
Abaddon major part of fight against Dyaus Pita, but wound up defeated in the end and reaped by a shinigami.
Sea calmed long enough for boats to sail from Doi Cho Len to the eastern tip of Lengdon by Zeus. Who threw a hail mary lightning bolt from mount olympus right into Ryujin, stunning him for a week.
Eli Pierce appeared and caused a shitload of problems. Drove the Shinigami to chaos. 80% of all the shinigami dead. 70% of Valkyries also engaging them dead. Ningi No Mikoto has not moved, spoken, or blinked since the incident, was also stabbed and sent to respawn in Sthan Thi. Izumi has been curled up in a ball in Yaosai as well and killed the first three people to enter her room and check on her. Several hundred more afflicted by Eli, but Su Pinpua has been able to cure them.
Raijin and Song Y i engaged in duel, Raijin won and critically injured her. Raijin driven mad and killed by Eli, Song Yi extracted to Yaosai by Izumi.
Remnants of acidic blood ooze was in those ships when Dyaus incarnated and being present in an avatar of a god while it was both created and destroyed has given it sentience. It has fed and grown from the locust swarm on shore that fell when he did, providing it valuable metal. It then fled into the wild lands to add to the roster of monsters that lurk within. No one was really paying attention at the time but in hindsight it was noticed, Ra not happy about that.
The Heretic and the rest of Eli’s following disappeared to the south.
Sarnai “abducted” by Rei and moving south toward Divya Samrajya on an unwilling adventure.
Total count:
All of Fluffy and Kyle’s shit is dead with the exception of Tena Xueqin, who is now with Lengdon for the time being.
Abaddon, Halveti, Teijin, Forneus, Mara, Goethe, Song Leng, Song Shan-Tai, Izanagi, Izanami, Tsukoyomi, and Murugan dead
Fujin, Raijin, Ryujin, Dyaus Pita, Marshal Devada, Song Yi, Shen Rai, and Ningi No Mikoto defeated.
Raijin Izumi and Ningi No Mikoto driven insane
Song Fang and Kharis missing.
387,000 of Song Yi’s troops dead. 1600 Sanika Dead, 146,000 Rajput dead, 800 of Shogunate dead, 87,000 taiyo troops dead. 70% of Valkyries dead (roughly 80 remain). 80% of Shinigami dead (roughly 130 remain).
Special note: After nearly a decade and a half of constant campaigning as the brave and noble vanguard, this battle’s losses finally marked the end of a legacy. Coupled with emigration during the initial integration with the jade empire in Act I, 3% of the entire Lengdon population remains. All that remains is Song Yi, Izumi, Song Cao, Song Xiao, possibly Song Fang. A handful of citizens remain, and you guys are still kind of a part of it. Due to how close to home this battle was there were many volunteers to march to the battle. For the first time in 7,000 years, the sun-kissed forges grow cold, and the mountain city lays quiet.
Doi Cho len evacuated to Lengdon, but now near uninhabitable for black mages.
Final Summary: Objective completed, Doi Cho Len civilians saved. Cult of Shento not really losing too many members in the battle and one of the evac ships got dragged down, needs to pick new temple location though. Everyone on both sides just want to go home now. Except that one boat full of lunatics that charged off to the south.
Everything else:
Shento
With everyone being evacuated to the northern point of the island Dracula was able to peer into the many aspects of its people. It turns out the blood aspect is extremely rare (which explains why Shento is the only one with it), as are death ones obviously. He found some healers though that he offered to join, his sales pitch of them being needed in wartime went well, the cult now has more healers. He also found a few people with interesting aspects but they’ve so far proven not strong enough to matter even if they do use them. His most relevant find was someone with the aspect of water who he conscripted into helping the war time evacuation plan via boat before he got whisked away by Milenkosi to safety.
In deciding a new location, he is pretty sure Kagayakashi would be a good place. Its well defended, lots of production, and combining the blood and forge cults could allow for the city having a loooot of power to play god so to speak. Atop of that, with some help from Machera’s governance, a district could be made for the vampires. Only kagayakashi could build a city shrouded in permanent darkness without costing way too damned much. While this would make Kagayakashi no longer mono-religious it could stand to become the new face of the entirety of Si Da. Kind of like how no one cares about Albany compared to New York. Sure one’s the capital but everyone doing interesting shit was over in the other city. The problem with Kaga is that food is a bit harder to come by, its average citizens include Senshi. hard to feed on them.
So Sthan Thi seems pretty good alternative if feeding issues can’t be dealt with due to the oblivious nature of people in the multi purpose city. More food, more space, more protection for the blood cult to continue its strange work.
Alternatively, Dracula also really likes Yaosai. Its a city inside of a mountain. There is no sunlight there, and its population is now gone. Plenty of room to expand. That being said he wouldn’t dare ask to move a predatory blood cult into the sacred mountain just days after its queen lost almost everything.
The recruiter back with the Mao Yachi hangs out, Eret has gone “on vacation” according to Lin Sun.
Carmilla turns out to be a really good recruiter while everyone is gathered in one place and panicked. While several followers were lost in the evac attempt, the net change is +120 followers.
Ryner has gone to Yaosai after the battle and is currently a guest in Song Yi’s palace.
Lin Sun:
Vris was already hurrying back. Following increased due to PR effect of being the incarnated god on the throne personally. Tends to draw attention. Naberius wanders dream realm, Milenkosi has yet to find Abalam again, but someday maybe. Mao Yachi situation still kind of the same, while it looks promising they’re all still descended from the same mother. Without dracula’s help they will have to mate outside of the tribe to avoid incesting everywhere. Lykopis has been trying to consider what to do with that one.
Quan Yin arrives at the gates of Sthan Thi to everyone’s surprise. No army, no backup, just herself. She came to pay respects to the deceased Guan Yu and has requested that they give her his weapon to take home.
Mental tabs: Well Rei lost Eret on day 1, and the last vision you had of him was him traveling with Sahar and her friends…onto a ship. A big ship…with black sails and Eli’s personal pirate flag. Once he set foot on it you could no longer keep track of anything thats going on with him. he would be detectable again DURING THE BATTLE OF DOI CHO LEN, as he was put on one of the ships to use his visions to help steer the boats away from disaster. He almost got eaten 6 times, and then disappeared again. He would later reappear in Divya Samrajya, right there in the middle of eastern enemy numero uno’s territory. He has apparently become some sort of eco-terrorist lately. Its getting harder and harder to keep track of him though, Eli’s ship has made things a bit fuzzy when trying to scry on him. She may have dragged him into one hell of an adventure, the likes that could rival even yours in life with your adventuring party.
The elves are doing alright but most are still too young to say much about. These updates haven’t been skipping time very much recently.
Naberius after about a week or so did actually come across Abalam with Milenkosi’s help. He took the madness from Abalam to try and help his master return to normalcy. This worked but Naberius went instead insane. In his conversation with Thandar, Naberius said he was of sound enough mind, and he did indeed hold a conversation without problem. He killed himself two days later. Abalam is back though, more on that in the general section.
Vris actually knows a loophole into freeing Sahar. Even if Eli has her sword, Ifrit is the king of Djinn and the only entity in the world that can break ownership. More so he frees Djinn from their artifacts permanently though, this turns them mortal. Effectively she would become a person with a mana pool and a lot of crazy abilities, but she’d never be able to replenish it again and could be actually killed.
Despite being on an adventure Eret is still a high prophet and still was able to tell you an omen that in ten years “Something big is coming.” He cannot tell what it is though because without Naberius he can’t see that far into the future and is relying on his non-prophet ability of vague sensations and omens to tell you that information. Whatever “something big” is, its not a god or his abilities wouldn’t have worked. Do with that information what you will.
Shady shit:
Lucifer points out that humans historically blow things out of proportion and sensationalize local news when they have nothing else to occupy their minds. With the war to the south east and west not touching home anymore, the people of Sthan Thi have become too complacent and don’t really have a common focus of the enemy as much as they should. They are living normal civilian lives, and normal civilian lives gossip and retell stories again and again. The entire Aetas could have collapsed if what Eret did got out, especially that early into your temple’s career. Besides, you demanded the aetas have a diet of at least 60% people. Those people have to come from somewhere. He’s done this three times so far and learned from his failures each time. While humans are the key to their own evolution, that key comes in the form of destroying each other. Nergal’s work cultivates human evolution carefully instead of letting the nation devolve into a state of total anarchy as people just try to eat each other left and right. That is also what the Aetas do with Eret’s help, they take out problematic people before they become a problem and time it to manipulate public perceptions. The last time he let them run free, Mankind discovered black magic and definitely didn’t help the propaganda war when they started wildly jumping on anything they could. If Nergal hadn’t removed those people, people might have demanded or attempted to eat Eret and gain his immense power. Without Nergal, the illusion of civility within a nation of cannibals would fall apart. Without him, the nation becomes small teams of cults trying to eat each other all the time for more power just like the pagans in the wild lands.
There is a vague hint in his tone that this demonic method of social stabilization goes deeper and darker, but investigating any further would not be beneficial to your ability to sleep at night…well if you slept. There is also a subtle mention that you should probably not talk to Song Yi or Izumi about this if you want to prevent the country from falling apart overnight, especially just before the paladins invade.
Con Lai:
The people of Thykenae that get caught in the dreams do seem very intrigued. As the exodus begins towards the north many do seem to intend to seek out the offered sanctuary.
Alice finally reached the Divus imperium Sticking to her current orders she targeted smaller churches to avoid it being too busy to avoid killing priests. After summoning Baridi and destroying one she disappeared into the night. Within a day She had to summon Milenkosi and warp out. Sarah flew over the Imperium until she was found and then she and Athalia just ganked her. Alice is currently incapacitated as she was stabbed clean through by Athalia before she could escape and is barely still alive.
So far despite An Lahn’s bait, no paladins have actually crossed the border into Si Da yet. They seem curiously patient for how fanatical they are, it is likely they have a calender plan of some sort. Especially with how currently the bulk of their focus is on the Thykenians.
The temple is expanded to be even more massive as ordered.
Blood vault stuff is really just a room that sam blesses yes.
It turns out the dream realm is host to a lot of strange native denizens like Baridi and Milenkosi. Some weird, some wonderful, some bizarre, and some horrifying. Though they are closer compared to animals then anything else, sentients like Baridi appear to be rare. Some dwell within the temple, others roam the realm. But none have enough power so far to pull off the stuff Baridi does. So far you’re not really sure what causes something to be as powerful as Baridi and further investigation might be needed to cultivate your own breed of creatures within the realm.
Jin zhang’s powers awaken after being force fed power by his mean and uptight boss of a god. He’s also added some more recruits to his little team.
Sima Wa:
Its only been a week since the last update, Lo’c has yet to make any progress on determining individuality that can be reported with significant results.
When is the city not ready for a siege?
Valks flew off to DCL, Freyja and the vikings are still settling in a bit.
Machera has been working poor arachne overtime and instead of arming the city is arming the land surrounding it. If the paladins come, the steel city has no walls. She prepares instead for a guerilla campaign the instant they enter the borders to harass their numbers down before they actually reach the city.
Bad news is SOMEONE (Eret) taught Eli how to incarnate himself. The good news is that he now refuses to take his godlike form again. So basically he has willingly weakened himself because he hates his god form. On the other hand, now people can talk to him directly without going insane so he can communicate without Sahar.
Asmodaeus reports that Altepetl is up to some shady shit. He’s gleaned they’re intending to do something with a mass sacrifice, like a sacrifice on an unprecedented scale. That thing they were building last update? Its a giant ziggaraut for this ritual and only for this ritual. He’s not totally sure but it seems like the gods of their pantheon themselves are involved in this plan. Giving Ishtar’s recent increase in power he suspects that they are getting desperate with Thykenae and Ofrior basically falling apart and are scrambling for something to keep them from being the next in line as an already weak nation. They’ve probably got about a year to go before the ziggaraut is done at this pace, and he’s not sure what ritual they’re trying to invoke, but the scale of this is just impressive. He recommends sending ambassadors if you have no plans to stop them, because whatever it is you don’t want to be on the receiving end of a dark ritual of this magnitude.
Abalam’s reappeared in Sthan Thi. Amaterasu was in for quite a shock when he walked out of her bookshelf and just shuffled off to the main city. When asked about what he was willing to talk to about he declared that he could not remember what he learned since Naberius took it from him somehow, which is strange given that Abalam should be a god. He worries he might have died too many times while he was locked away and reverted to a demigod state. Though he as also stated of what he could remember, he could only remember that Eli showed him things that weren’t maddening because it was grotesque, but because it was like an alphabet of a language far beyond even his comprehension. Eli is trying to tell people something, but no one can understand what he’s trying to say. Even Sahar who can withstand the madness cannot comprehend the alphabet he’s trying to show people. He also remembers, Eli didn’t just come and drive him nuts. Eli took a book before he left, but only Naberius would know which book that was since he took Abalam’s memories. The black library’s doors await at the crossroads for any who would like to go, he will let them be able to find it. Abalam says he won’t be going back himself for awhile though, too many bad memories. That and the paladins are still lurking around the area. Abalam has taken to residing with Milenkosi in the dream realm for now, as he still has the heeby jeebies and would like to spend time with the cuddly lion to relax for a bit.
Vris has been working on some side projects and come across very peculiar information. In almost every culture there is a legend of a fire breathing dragon. We have otoroshi the death dragon, shenlong the storm dragon, Ao Kuang and Ryujin the sea dragons, Bahamut the earth dragon, where is the fire dragon? We already uncovered that Ifrit is actually a Djinn and he’s a decent stand in for a fire dragon but there should be an authentic one somewhere right? However, this is mostly historical stuff and is just a curiosity of hers. But if some heroes were to be interested in an expedition to the black library to do some research, that’d be super cool too.
After Zeus threw the lightning bolt across the world, well Divus noticed. Thykenians are scrambling to cross the wild lands and make it to Si Da’s borders before the inquisitors and templars arrive. Machera pointed out this means that the paladins, while powerful, aren’t going to take on an entire army, their gods, and their heroes at once. So they at least have some upper limit on how dangerous they are. Abalam has noted that Thykenae would reach the crossroads long before they reached Kagayakashi, but evacuating them with the black library could give away its location to Anahita. If Divus discovered the way in, they might also discover how to use its vast resources against the black pantheon. Nergal points out that Song Yi is broken and will not be back in Sthan thi for some time. If she were here obviously she would demand the library be risked for the people who risked premature exposure to help win the war in Doi Cho Len. But she’s not here, and the votes could be collected by Amaterasu anonymously.
While nothing big has happened yet, the Jade emperor seems to be under some degree of suspicion and observation since he didn’t lend any help to the battle of Doi Cho Len. Yuwen Hu points out he had rallied troops but the emperor insisted they stay out of this one. If they become too much more suspicious of him there could be problems. Aphrodite notes that if we extract him now we have a piece of propaganda, we would have the jade emperor publicly known to have joined the black empire. But if we do that we would definitely lose his help in the Jade Empire which has already been crucial, despite the risks of him being discovered.