198 Curiosity, Experimentation, And Empire Building (2/2)
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Throughout the cosmos, the words of the powerful god entered the minds of over three hundred thousand angels. This number comically dwarfed the paltry host the god had assembled so far, but that was because the god had been small-minded before. He hadn't even spoken to all of the angels in the solar system of his birth, a number which was around twenty-five hundred. He had opted to recruit exclusively the angels of the world he came to life on and that had limited the number of angels he could reach out too.
The minuscule portion of the cosmos that Althos had an awareness of wasn't even one-hundredth of a single percent of the universe and yet in it, the number of lifeforms he had awareness totaled several septillion assorted entities. Incredibly not even one million of those lifeforms were angels.
Angels of all sorts received the notification. Angels who held powers over domains as great as death, and as minuscule as specific animal and plant subdomains, alike heard of the god at the same time. And yet that wasn't the only thing that happened to them.
At the same time as they were learning of the existence of a god their minds and hearts were under a certain kind of attack. Althos was unleashing his ambition and to do so effectively he realized that he needed the most powerful possible angels. To maximize the chances he had of recruiting the angels he had quietly unleashed a potent combination of abilities.
The first thing he did was utilize his powers over relationships to subtly make angels indifferent to those they had previously loved. The second thing he did was make each and every angel apathetic towards their existing responsibilities, activating dangerous sloth-based powers throughout the cosmos. And finally, he activated an old favorite of his, ”Religious fervor” in areas surrounding angels throughout the portions of the universe he was aware of.
The combination, put together, was an insidious psychological assault that made it impossible for an angel to resist the idea of meeting with a god. It caused the angel to feel apathetic and indifferent towards their lives as they were, and then made them even more suggestible towards meeting gods than they were innately.
Thanks to it the god's scheme was a grand success, and the skies above the tower were filled with angels within minutes, the creatures filling every available spot easily as more and more poured in and found themselves in the presence of an ambitious, crafty god. When every single angel the god's message had gone out too, night had fully fallen within his domain, and he began to feel well and truly victorious.
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As angels from almost every conceivable domain and subdomain filled the skies above my island home I began to laugh, the victorious sound filling the air around me as my own angelic host turned to examine their once lost siblings who had finally come home. I stood up and stretched out my arms as if for a hug, an enormous grin on my face as I did so. And then I began to glow a divine light, my entire form subsumed by the radiance I was emitting. At that point I spoke, channeling my divine power into my voice so that I could do my best impression of a god of old.
”Welcome home angels. I am Althos, your god, emperor, and the destined ruler of angelkind.” I said, speaking arrogantly as I once again channeled the pride that I had heard the gods of old possessed and was a quality I held deep within me myself.
”I am overjoyed you have embraced your destiny and have come to join me. Together we shall usher in a new, golden age, one that lasts forever.” I said, as I continued to channel that pride that I usually tried to keep hidden, out of view and notice from those who surrounded me. As I did that I took my first detailed glance at the creatures who filled the skies above me.
I could see good, evil, lawful, and even a few chaotic angels, in the skies above me. I could see angels of healing, necromancy, and other schools of magic, and even ones of time, disease, pain, life, death, all seven vices, and all seven virtues. I knew that these angels lurked throughout the portions of the cosmos that I was aware of, but to see them all gathered in front of me at once was a breathtaking sight. I was silent for a moment, a proud smile on my face and then I began to speak again, channeling the domain of law, as well as the sin of pride, into my words.
”Welcome to the Althonite empire. Together we shall conquer every corner of the universe and bring the glorious knowledge of my existence and my power to every single mind that exists. Every nanometer of this universe shall know my name and every lifeform shall whisper it in reverential tones or in fearful cries.” I told the assembled angelic host.
I felt more pride than I had ever felt before as I gazed at the sky above me. Seeing a force of mine improve in power so considerably and so immediately filled me with pride and with awe at my own powers. At the same time as I was gazing out at the crowd before me, I effortlessly filled them with love for both me and for the Althonite empire, the new and official name for the collective empire I was creating.
A second after I did that, I silently created a new language, words of which began to flood into my mind, and transmitted knowledge of it into the minds of every single angel in front of me.
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The vast and incredibly powerful angelic host the god had assembled in a moment of unfettered ambition had angels of nearly every single domain and subdomain. In fact the only domains that lacked representation were the domains of fate, reality, and luck, themselves the final three greater domains that Althos lacked access too.
The angels themselves felt replenished and renewed in the presence of their new god. Some of them were kilometers away from him, only barely able to perceive him, and even though distance weakened how strongly they felt his power it wasn't enough to completely nullify it. They too felt his power wash over and seep into them, restoring their own energies, lifeforce, and might.
For an angel, being in the presence of a god was an otherworldly, whole-body experience. Their souls were the souls closest to those of gods and so they resonated strongly whenever a god was close. And the more powerful a god, the greater the resonance.
Althos was a lesser god, but in his divine realm his power was comparable to that of an intermediate god and it suffused the very air in the place, filling his worshipers and servants with greater power than they'd feel elsewhere. In his presence, it was impossible for the angels to be filled with anything but awe and loyalty to the god who was giving them purpose again.
What's more, is that Althos' angelic host included angels of all levels of angelic might. Althos had recruited three thousand seraphim, the strongest possible kind of angels aside from the mythic angelic-kings, higher beings who had served as the second-hands of gods themselves. He also had regular angels, the lowest members of the hierarchy. He also had members of every other segment of the hierarchy. Althos, of course, knew this and it filled him with joy and pride. This knowledge made him lose any shred of doubt that he had made the correct choice.
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I continued to glow but I finished speaking. As I did, I created a simple throne behind me by combining my powers over blacksmithing and creation. It was a beautiful, but an easily replicable thing. I sat in it and smiled at the assembled host, but I also knew they couldn't see my face.
I was, basically, light itself at the moment. I had shed my usual form so that I could take on a form that conveyed my all-reaching might. And in doing so I was also able to be easily identified by my servants. And as I sat down I studied more of them, looking for the more unusual ones.
Some of them stood out physically. I had thousands of angels of disease at my disposal, and they had a number of forms. Many appeared as obviously diseased men and women. Others appeared as diseased animals, or even blackened clouds representing various plagues.
Thousands of angels of life served me as well. In truth, I had thousands of angels of every domain and subdomain I could influence, and beyond. The angels of life in my service all had the forms of idealized humanoids, with a number of wings that corresponded to their relative level of power. The greatest angels had six wings, like my angel form, and the least powerful had two wings.
In some cases, angels of domains and subdomains that were opposed to each other flew in different parts of the skies above my tower and island home. Angels of truth and angels of lies ignored each other, and angels of life and death occasionally glared at each other. Angels of creation and destruction didn't seem to mind each other, curiously. Angels of nature and angels of technology were visibly tense around each other, but they didn't seem to hate each other like angels of truth and angels of lies did.
I studied the relationships between countless types of angels for a few moments before raising a hand and transforming my island home into something new, instantly.
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The instant after I rose my hand my island home was totally reshaped. The island widened, becoming several hundred times wider than ever before and filling with new things. The biggest of the new things was a massive city, or rather a massive fort. It was the easily biggest thing I had ever created, and I created it effortlessly thanks to the amplification to my own powers I received within my divine realm.
The rocks and earth that formed my island home and then extended it came from nothing and easily allowed the widening of my truest home. The materials used in the construction of my fortress were simple things like iron and silver, divinely empowered to withstand any blow. And at the center of it all sat my tower.
I incorporated existing features such as the prior biomes that had existed atop my island by creating parks for them, parks that would also house angels of nature, animals, plants, and elements. I also incorporated the horde of the undead and their odd city that had been destroyed within the island itself into this new design.
To do so I simply created a grander city of the dead then they could, warping reality around them and creating my vision for a city of the dead effortlessly. This caused them to fill with awe towards me, even more so than they usually did. I also extended my tower again, extending it underground and in doing so nearly quadrupling its height, though above-ground the tower looked unchanged. In doing so I connected it both to a hive of The Swarm and to the undead city that existed deep beneath the surface of my island.
The final thing I would do for the day, the thing that would take the longest, was that I divvied up the fortress and assigned angels to their respective areas. I would do this by speaking telepathically to angels of each domain and subdomain, commanding them to go to their new homes and then await orders from myself or an angel of nobility.
The fortress-city was built with this order in mind. It was admittedly unusual for me to do something like that but for angels, I felt like it was necessary to create an orderly place where they could be the best possible versions of themselves and that required that I create areas where their talents could be allowed to shine.
Examples of these areas included vast and empty archives where angels of knowledge could sit down and fill tome after tome with their shared wisdom, barracks for angels of war, orderly apartments for angels of law, vast forests for angels of nature, chaotic slums for angels of chaos, maddening sewers and asylums for eldritch angels, monasteries for angels of goodness and darkened temples for angels of evil. Every single domain and subdomain, even animal subdomains, had a place in the fortress-city I created with but a commanding thought.
Finally, in creating a home for my host I had created something unanticipated: a home that may actually have been worthy of a god. No longer a tiny tower more befitting a magician, but a glorious demesne that was truly godly. A place inhabited by angels, the lesser beings most close to the gods, where they wandered divine streets in the thousands.
It was when I was finally done assigning angels to their new homes that I received an abrupt notification. One that caught me off guard and filled me with delight.
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[Alert:
The domain of nobility is a special domain. It is like the domains of luck, fate, and reality, in that it has quirky conditions before it can be unlocked. You have just earned the right to begin to rule over the domain of nobility. You have been awarded the first tier of influence over the domain of nobility and all of the pertinent powers that come with it.
To do so you must have built a realm worthy of the god of nobility, earned the loyalty and service of a worth-while angelic host, and have ambition befitting someone who deserves to rule over nobility. All of which you've done, handily. Congratulations.]