41 A Miracle (1/2)
”Cosecha!” Said one of the encampment's inhabitants, a tiny, blue-skinned male goblin. He made eye contact with me, accidentally, and then hurriedly dropped his head. He was the same goblin who had spoken to his sister earlier, wondering about whether or not I could heal. I suspected I knew what he would have asked if he hadn't meekly lowered his head to not make eye contact with me.
I targeted him, by focusing on his face, and activated one of my mental powers, my ability to read surface-level thoughts. I envisioned his mind opening up to me, and a stream of consciousness slowly making itself audible in my mind.
I imagined the sensation of his surface-level thoughts being read off to me by someone with a voice like his. And I smiled as his words began to worm their way into my brain.
”Oops, I didn't mean to look directly into its eyes! Oh goodness, oh goodness, what if it turns me into one of those skeletons?” The little thing frightfully thought, his mental voice speaking manically. I chuckled and opened my mouth so that I may calm the little one.
”Yes little one? What do you need?” I asked, speaking slowly and calmly. ”I am not here to harm you. I will not harm you. Remember that even the goblins who opposed me and rose their weapons at me were just prevented from harming me.” I told the creature, reminding it of my neutral treatment of those who opposed me.
I waited a few moments, silently, as the creature considered what I told it. He took a few moments to gather his courage but he was able to successfully muster the bravery needed to look me in the face and begin to speak.
”Can you heal? I have a friend, his arm got bitten off by a creature a few days ago. He's sick. We... we think it might be infected, but we don't have a way to heal it or save him from the infection.” The goblin explained, clearly frightened and also tired. There was a weariness, one that felt born from fear and from exhaustion in equal parts, that hadn't been present in his voice earlier.
I smiled at the little guy and nodded. As I did so his eyes began to light up. They were deep brown orbs and were massive on his small face. ”Really? Let me go and get him!” The goblin almost shouted, excitedly before turning around and dashing towards a tent. As he took off, I received a message from my first and most consistent companion. The system.
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[Hello Althos. The domains and I have been talking.] My companion told me. I had always listened when the system spoke to me, and over the course of the last few days, I had grown familiar with the nuanced inflections of its voice. It sounded excited.
[Based on the work you've done and the ways you've managed to interact with people, animals, and undead without losing yourself or changing completely, we've decided that you deserve a reward. A real, substantial one.] The voice revealed. And now I understood and I even shared the thing's excitement. The single second or so it took the system to finish and send its next message felt like an eternity.
[To be clear, the tutorial isn't over. But we've decided that you deserve to be able to use at least the tutorial versions of the powers granted to you by your influence over the domains and subdomains that you came to life being able to somewhat control.] The system announced. And as it did so I felt something change within me.
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The sensation of some of my powers being unlocked filled me at once. It flooded me with confidence and self-assured belief.
It was odd to recognize that those two feelings were alien, or at least were hidden from me, but I knew they were. I knew this because of the speed of the two emotions. They weren't there one instant, and the next instant they came. They came the instant that I felt that the powers that had always belonged to me become mine to command.
I was smiling when the notification came. And as I began to read it, my smile only widened.
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[Alert: The system hasn't freed you from the tutorial but it has done something else instead. You have earned the right to exert your influence over the remaining domains and subdomains you hadn't yet been able to influence. Preparing the lengthy notification needed to break down what you've gained as you read through this notification.
Details about the chaos domain:
The domain of chaos is the domain of freedom, art, creativity, change, mutations, shapeshifting, entropy, and anarchy. To be a deity of chaos is to be a lord of mutations and rule over instability. It is to pierce through the facade of lawful, ordered societies, and see the fragility on which their so-called stability is built.
Gaining the first tier of influence over chaos grants you the power to change others, to shatter and replace order with something that is at once old and new; chaos. It allows you to see what has stagnated and give those things new life.
To gain greater influence over chaos you must bring together people and convince them to work towards undermining the law, and if you can convince law-abiding people to do so all the better, and to leave disordered, organic change wherever they go.
You must use your powers to spread change and free those who willingly bind themselves in the chains of order and law, as well as those who've been unwillingly bound and are manipulated by the forces that prattle on about law and order.
Chaos domain passive powers:
Identify mutations: This power allows you to see what, if any, mutations someone has. Mutations are more spontaneous and less ordered than templates are, and their effects tend to be more diverse and less common than those of templates.
Entropic manipulation: This passive power allows you to manipulate entropy, energy which disintegrates, decays, and disrupts that which it touches. You can infuse your fists or weapons with entropic energy, you can disrupt technology and shatter buildings with entropic gazes, and so much more.
If you wish, you could also do the opposite and halt entropy, preventing things like aging, or even reverse it, granting you an incredibly potent tool in manipulating mortals.
Manipulate shape: Using this allows you to modify the physical forms of your followers or objects. This is one of those powers that increase in potency over time, eventually allowing you to curse your enemies into forms you desire them to possess. This is an upgradeable power that grows stronger as you gain more influence over the domain of chaos.
Alignment detection: This power allows you to detect someone's alignment. Since you already possessed a way of doing this, this power is redundant.
Chaotic aura: This protective aura breakdowns structured things that are hostile to you, like arrows fired by foes of yours when they reach a meter of you, and can even weaken spells, serving as a magic mitigation field with regards to enemies of yours specifically.
Chaos kinship: This unique passive power makes other chaotic creatures view you more favorably. You can also detect chaotic creatures more easily and are more attuned to their desires and needs.
Inspiration: You can inspire creatures, causing them to feel a burst of creative fervor. This improves the quality of the artwork they create while causing them to fall under your influence. This power applies even if they don't know the source of the inspiration.
Chaos domain active power:
Chaos inducement: This active, once-a-week, power allows you to afflict a lawful foe with an urge to behave chaotically that lasts for a full day. This power can result in an alignment shift if used in schemes to nurture chaotic tendencies within lawful people.
Chaos domain blessing and curse details:
Blessing someone with the chaos domain improves their luck, nurtures things like creativity, and improves their ability to react to chaotic situations.
Cursing someone with the chaos domain causes them to experience more chaotic situations than usual for where they live, reduces their ability to adapt to chaotic situations, worsens their luck, and saps them of creativity.
Details about the nature domain:
The nature domain governs the natural world. It governs animals, plants, habitats, the relationships between living creatures, and elemental forces.
This domain is a powerful one that bestows those who can influence it with abilities that have massive range. Some of the powers this domain grants are powers over environmental disasters, and the ability to induce rapid changes to the weather.
To gain influence over it, gain the worship of nature spirits, animals, and plants, protect nature, and build cults dedicated to your rulership over nature.
Nature domain passive powers:
Disaster generation and control: This is an upgradable power that for now is limited to earthquakes and famines. You can cause minor earthquakes and create and manipulate famines.
Terrain control: Another upgradeable power that allows you to manipulate the terrain. As of right now you can manipulate stones, rocks, and soil, and can modify the terrain by affecting how fertile it is, therefore canceling out famines, or causing them.
Weather control: You can't use this power yet, at least not meaningfully. When you gain the ability to influence the subdomain of liquid, you'll be able to cause rain and snow. As you gain influence over the subdomain of air you'll be able to create clouds, and eventually thunderstorms. Other subdomains and domains may grant this power a wider range of usages.
Nature domain active power:
Charm the environment: This power temporarily grants sapience to five nearby plants or animals and dominates them to stand by you and fight as your warriors. This is a once a month power, at the moment.
Nature domain blessing and curse details:
Blessing someone through the domain of nature causes plants grown by them to speed up their growth, improves their relationships with animals, and grants them improved resistance to the elements.
Cursing someone with the domain of nature causes plants nurtured by them to suffer and be damaged while in their presence, worsens their relationship with animals and makes animals aggressive towards them, and weakens their ability to endure the elements.
Details about the civilization domain:
The civilization domain governs the sort of societies built by all manner of creatures, leadership, social behavior, culture, and architecture.
This domain is a highly influential one, though it isn't a greater domain. In the past, this domain had been used by gods to construct all manners of societies and to aid their mortal worshipers in a creative range of ways.
The powers granted by this domain are related to social behaviors and the easy construction of societies and communities. To gain influence over it, create or modify civilizations, create or modify buildings, and build cults that fuse religion and society.
Many powers this domain grants are positively influenced by the domain of creation, which in time will boost the overall quality of the things you build.
Civilization domain passive power: