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Harmony Island
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>[[AUTHOR: Again, use the discussion thread if you're responding to another suggestion. Any player posts in this thread should only be directed at Saulanna. I can tolerate a little bit of banter if it accompanies proper contributions, but if I see any one person posting more than twice at most between quest updates, I'll set the mods on them.]]
Saulanna feels a few questions in regards the souls she's being offered by Peregrin, but decides to hold off on the whole subject of eating souls until after she's made her new deva. As such, she wonders if she could bring Wordblood out, to let him and Peregrin discuss things more easily. Or bring Peregrin in.
>"I certainly expect that you'll be able to summon me forth in the future, my lady; but for now, I'm far too weak to make myself manifest in the material world, nor are you strong enough to release me. As for bringing him in, I don't think your inner world can quite sustain him yet. For one, there's no air in here."
That's that, it seems. More directly on topic, Saulanna wonders about overlap. Horning in on occupied Elements sounds like a bad idea! But it would severely limit her if she tried to avoid them all.
>"Oh, of course. But Titans have shared Elements before: between different Titans, it would normally only be a problem if the Purposes are close as well. A warrior Light deva and a perceptive Light deva would still have clear boundaries where one has dominance over the other."
"It is a worry, but I don't think you should fret too much about it. The Neverborn are all dead and sealed away, and the Titans in Hell have severe limits on what they can do outside their prison, so they're not an issue unless you visit them or they escape. Gaia's not around and Autochthon's asleep, so the Dragon's the only one to watch. The gods are more of a problem, but aside the Suns, Luna and the Maidens, they're much weaker. And if push comes to shove, don't they have to obey what a Titan orders them to do?"
>"It's true. As for shared Elements within a deva, now, that's much more dangerous issue. Sharing Purposes usually causes war, but devas who try to share the same Element will always devour each other. They don't even need to fight: they will simply be drawn together, unable to assert themselves as separate beings. Even having Elements that are simply close to each other, though certainly possible, is dangerous: each Lord needs room for their Nobles to grow through association. For example, Gaia's Fire Lord, the Elemental Dragon Hesiesh, has Noble souls who expand his dominion through associated sub-elements such as Passion, Light, Pain and Energy. Or most conceptual Elements, for example, develop a material association, such as Adrián's Mercy with water. Only King or Queen souls will usually get away with pushing up even that close to their fellow devas' territories."
>"So, now: do you have any specific ideas?"
There are a lot of possibilities! Saulanna will try to go through all of them.
- Logic/Rationality
>"That's a little too specific. It would be appropriate for a Noble soul, under something like Order, or Thought."
- Civilization
>"It could cause problems with your Hero Soul: I don't know a lot about how they work, but your Moon Power has very strong resonance with the essences of nature and chaos. At the very least, a Feeding Soul with such an Element would be unable to help you regulate your lunar magic. It would also set you in contention with Luna, Gaia and other powers associated with the wild. It's possible that it might act as a form of complementary balancing opposite, but if it was my decision, I wouldn't risk it. The same problems would apply to Order, in case you were wondering about that one as well."
"I wouldn't have associated it with, uh, Feeding, myself. Though, as far as I understand, the Feeding deva will be a sort of energy regulator as well? Collection and redistribution? That might work. Still, I would think of it as more of a building or social engineering sort of concept."
- Thought
>"Thought seems to me an Element that would be more suited for other Purposes. I... would also feel a little threatened by it, my lady. One of my ancient self's Lords was based in Thought, and I was thinking of forming one of my Nobles from it."
- Culture
>"Some of the same problems as Civilization, and again, it feels a little too close to me. Language is a large part of culture, symbols and systems of expression and the context in which they have meaning. The collective voice of a community. I'd rather if you left it for me to handle, when I'm stronger."
- Desire
>"The Dragon's Shadow has a Lord of that Element, I believe. Not for Feeding, I think, but unfortunately, most Titans keep the Purposes of their souls a secret, so I can only guess. It's possible - Desire to generate energy does make sense. Such a deva would be strong-willed, though, and difficult to control. Unlikely to ever be content with anything."
- Light
>"Let's see... Light would put your weight on the toes of Sol, Luna, the Maidens of Fate... the Red Sun as well, almost forgot... two of Gaia's devas, a little, and Ligier. It's a versatile Element, my lady, suited to interaction with your Hero Soul, and could fit to several Purposes. Not quite sure how one would feed through it, though. Feeding souls are usually of more "receptive" Elements, while Light is more... "penetrative". Feeding on darkness, perhaps, but that would put you in an uncomfortable position with the Dragon's Shadow."
"This might be the influence of my own magic speaking, but I think we have too many big lights in the sky to begin with."
- Raccoons
>"..."
- Time
>"Interesting! Many Titans can influence the passage of time, my lady, but only a few Titans have had lordly Time souls. The Lidless Eye That Sees has it for a Seeing soul, but as you might have guessed, he has a lot of Seeing souls. He, erm, likes to watch things. Then there's Szoreny, I'm not sure what he uses his for. Oramus has one, I think, but he's strange. And Gaia... had one? I've actually been wondering about that. Two out of Gaia's seven seem to be missing from the knowledge of any of the sources we've consumed, and that's very basic information! I understand why Aa might be hidden, and she must be alright, but there's no mention of Haht'hek. Could you ask your vassal, actually?"
Well, Saulanna asks Peregrin, then.
"I've... never heard of any Elemental Dragon by that name. I only though there were five of them?"
>"That's... very worrisome. What happened to the Dragon of Time? I'm sorry; you wanted to know about Time for our purposes. I don't have personal experience, but from what I know, it's risky but powerful. As long as we refrain from interfering with causality, however, it should be safe. A Feeding deva based in Time could manipulate the rate at which we gain power, help speed the work of its fellow devas, and perhaps reclaim expenditures by undoing them. You can't easily spread its influence, and there are one or two other Purposes it could be put to, but overall I think it would be one of my personal recommendations."
- Will
Saulanna actually... doesn't like that, herself. Or... well, not that she doesn't like it - the concept of Will actually seems very appealing! But the thought of making a deva based in that Element feels distinctly uncomfortable. She's not sure why; but she feels a little insulted by the suggestion, somehow. She feels an implication in it that she's deficient in terms of willpower, herself. She'll manage it eventually!
>"Will is the basis of all Titanic power; the foundation of reality itself. I think Oramus has a Will soul, though again, we're all unsure about him. It would be very, very powerful! But I'm not actually sure if we can produce a deva whose Element is Will. The deva is being born through the use of will, so it has a certain recursive absurdity to it, like a carpenter trying to make a tree out of wood. And it would be a difficult deva to control, in any case."
- Souls
>"My lady, souls are just fragments of Titanic Will that have been shaped into various forms for various purposes. Human souls collect excess energy from their surroundings, refine it into aether, and channel that in turn to the gods through prayer, or to the world of dreams when they sleep and when they die. That would just be Will. Or perhaps you mean something like Self, or Identity? Those have both been done before, and they could work. They could try to assert themselves over you, however, and I think they could be used better for protective Purposes."
- Unity
>Much the same problem, I'm afraid."
- Love/Compassion/Bonds/Connections
"Ugh. You might need to excuse me a moment while I throw up, mistress."
>"Hmf! I think Love a very noble concept, my lady. Such a Feeding deva would draw strength from and through all manner of benevolent bonds, and would be a force for the benefit of all. However... this is a dangerous world, born from conflict and marred by strife. A Feeding deva formed from Love would have difficulty helping you in any endeavor that could involve harming anything; and as I can personally attest, your Hero Soul was created as a weapon. A soul formed from the broader concept of Bonds would not have this problem, but it would be difficult for you to maintain dominance, and I think it would serve better for social Purposes."
-Maternal/Nurturing
>"Those are Purposes, not Elements."
- Determination
>I think this would be expressed as Will, my lady, if I understand the idea you're aiming towards."
- Evolution/self-perfection
>"There's a certain element of limitation to those words; perhaps Growth would be more apropos? A positive Element, and one that would help us gain power; perhaps help others gain power, too, if we wish. The only problem I can see is that it would produce a deva who's difficult to contain; like with Desire, they would never be satisfied. It also sits on a rather grey area between Purpose and Element."
"I think Luna and Gaia both have a strong connection to the concept of evolution, and the Unconquered Sun to growth."
>"Indeed, yes."
- Knowledge/Truth
>"An Element I like; a deva formed from it might give us access to information we would otherwise have no access to. However, if it were my decision, I would save it for a Seeing soul."
- Strife
>"If you were willing to feed from Strife, it would certainly serve well enough. It might be a troublemaker even within your inner world, however."
"You'd be setting yourself directly in the territory of the Maiden of Strife. Uranus isn't even a goddess people usually want on their side, so setting yourself against her might be a bad idea."
- Balance
>"I'm not sure how you'd use that for Feeding. Creating and spreading balance, I suppose, but balance isn't necessarily a good thing, in my experience. I expect it would also produce a very passive, inactive deva."
- Restraint
>"That seems like it would be an odd Element for Feeding purposes. It would help prevent loss of power, and probable be good at efficiency, but it wouldn't be very good at producing gains in the first place."
- Rebirth
"That doesn't sound very sustainable."
>"I think that would be more suited for a healing Purpose."
- Heroism
>"Another one that could be hard to control, and unlikely to ever sit still. It could have insights and influence with the various champions of the gods, like yourself and Peregrin, but that's not exactly a quality in line with the Purpose of Feeding."
- Darkness
>"A powerful Element, my lady, but one that the Dragon's Shadow has always been a bit territorial on; I remember him having issues with Gaia over dominion of the Darkness under the Earth. You might also think of saving it if you had ideas on making a deva for Stealth Purposes."
"Darkness would give you influence over a lot of malevolent forces. The biggest problem, though is that you'd be setting yourself in direct opposition to the Unconquered Sun. It'd be officially unholy under the laws of Heaven, and you'd be vulnerable to certain weapons and magical powers used by his servants."
- Death
"Oh, no, that... Don't. Just... The Dragon has a high-level soul associated with death, and... ugh, all right, I can't say why, it's the oath again. But don't make yourself a soul based on death. It wouldn't be good for you."
- Life
>I don't see any particular advantages or disadvantages to Life as an Element. It's in Gaia's territory, but I don't think she'd mind; and you could consider leaving it for a deva dedicated to healing or creating."
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