by Ethan "JB" Goldman
A god has talked to me.
This is an oddity, Gaia simply passed over me as if I was phantasmal, and the Dark One, kind as Its mercy is, does not speak at all. It’s a kindness honestly, so that Its words will not be subtracted from the void and hung upon creation.
She has asked for my assistance, personally in fact. I will not fail. I do not fail.
But, that is my story, a small thread in a tapestry… we probably need to start at the beginning.
Everything started when King Tunoc walked in on a tournament 2 year… no wait, that’s not far enough.
Long ago at an event I never went to, Mathias was too close to an altar without a arcanic condom and caught a bad cause of demonic possession. Give a few years and when Mathias, like so many, was allowed to become a god, the demon took his place, sitting cozy up in the heavens. That demon was named Change and he was the god of corruption and chaos and generally “making things worse.”
A massive ritual was done to “purify” Change, to make him a god of Change in general not just corruption… but well theres two flaws with that.
These super handwave rituals that seal away memories of titans or change gods or finally get rid of greater entities forever for realsies… they don’t work. You are throwing intervention and a few dance numbers at existential concepts, reality isn't so frou frou as to be pushed around by a few pontificates with a stick. But that’s not even the most important part.
Did Change even want to be “Redeemed” did anyone ask? Good is not a FORCE you can’t just, irradiate someone with vibes until their personality is atomized. Morality is a forest with no paths, and you can guide someone along it, but if you just bash them in the back of the head and drag them out… they won’t end up where they wanted to go, and they’ll simply go back to looking.
So anyway Change had a relapse and is off the proverbial wagon.
Enter Domai. Domai is a mysterious alien place, with unusual magics based on elements and balance, with people who live their lives according to various precepts that change and adapt according to the votes of the council, enacted by a godly avatar…
And there is a reason for that. Domai is alien not because its a different place, but because it’s NOT a place. Its a realm, a godly demiplane where ritual is physics and prayer is practical. It is Edonae’s realm, it is drenched in her colors, it rings of her song… and it is ripe with her power.
Change saw a land entirely of a god, and realized that he could make that realm entirely of him. He took Titanx, a material created by the chosen among Domai’s people to be infused with the elemental magics of Edonae (Not that they recognize the gods influence, in the same way we do not recognize the presence of oxygen we just recognize the buildup of co2 in our body), and instead replaced that element with him. Enter Weirdstone.
Weirdstone is very simple, people try to elaborate on it. But it’s not. Weirdstone makes weirdstone, it makes it out of more titanx, it tries to make itself out of people, it does unto the others as the others unto you, until it breaks you, until you die, until theres nothing left of you in your corpse. Until even your elements and prayers become weirdstone, until nothing is left unChanged.
So, it's a problem. But it's powerful, and for the people of Spring, people who value change and innovation… it seems like this might just be that change.
And for some completely unrelated yet still unknown reason, theres this John guy just wandering around Domai trying to burn the nation down to build a new nation of the downtrodden, seemingly out of sheer coincidence. Because like, why let a chance slip away?
Frankly speaking I haven’t heard a peep from Domai in a year, not since its avatar was cut down by Change, I actually suspect the realm is dead… That having been said, The realm is Edonae’s realm, and when that ship went down, she started to fall.
Not FALL with the mad cackling and evil magics. No she fell, onto the ground, I saw the crater, it hurt. With Edonae’s fall, Change is now the biggest dog in town, and he was abusing that heavily last I saw, having corrupted the people of Blackwood themselves to serve his purposes…
Fortunately I created a sieve to undo THAT, but that doesn't mean Change LOST, he just hasn’t won yet.
What are we going to do in Feast of Blackwood, I don’t know frankly, I don’t know how to kill a god, I don’t know how to fix a realm. Shits gone sideways a while ago, and the quest promises danger. I don’t expect any of this to be easy, but I am going to try anyway.
Domai is intricate, there is an explanation for everything, not simply secrets to be revealed but deductions you can logically understand based on the random trivialities of the land. There is complicated runic mysteries, dark puzzles, things to do without simply swinging a sword, and few things are so armored that no sword will be useless.
My only advice to give is, last time I was there, the world was more open and complicated then people saw. Don’t get trapped on a road when you can simply walk on the grass.
Also I mean, I like the FoB appetizers, they have roasted grapes and stuff that’s fun… Not everything has to be dead gods… just most things.