Book I

~Seeds of a Civilization~

Prologue

A moment.

That's how long I hoped I had lost my consciousness for. I looked at the sun making its way downward and I sighed, I remember having made it here at dawn... If I didn't find a host for my soul, I would soon dissipate like the many wild spirits that had done so before me. Fate really wasn't of my side.

Then a flicker, a jolt of pain.

I realized that my time was limited, and the rage would only keep me awake and functional for so long.

I looked around the forest searching for the biggest creature around, but the myriad of plants overwhelmed my weakening senses.

A second flicker; longer this time. Curses! I needed to be faster.

I classified and analysed all the things I saw as I navigated through the labyrinthine complex of life. No creature here would do, I might have to make do with a tree…  At the very least I needed to find one that mortals would consider notable. I hadn't made this journey to die forgotten!

A third flicker and I disappeared from existence for a few seconds.

Fuck! My level of frustration was rising. Nothing would be perfect, I should have thought about that. I hastened.

I floated with urgency towards a mountain that had oak trees at its base. They weren't perfect but they would surely be noticed. A creek took its source from the nearby falls and even if they weren’t any traces of mortals around, they would surely stumble here at some point.

I picked the tallest tree around and I tried merging with it… No success, my power had already waned far too much.

I oscillated out of existence yet again, this time for around ten seconds.

Clearly, I had no time to lose being picky. I tried coalescing with one tree after the other however my efforts proved vain.

My energy... Had it been depleted this much already? The future would prove a challenge through and through… Good. The vengeance I would enact upon my uncle would only be harsher. I grinned as I stopped in my tracks.

I could feel another flicker coming and it had the potential to be the fatal one.

I looked around for options, but they were few, Insects? Moles? Flowers? Clearly all were unsuitable... I had no choice but to fuse with a young sapling that was right in front of me. It would be the second time today that my pride would take a hit.

I merged with my new host and consumed my mother's parting gift. My consciousness faded yet again, this time voluntarily.

~*~

Hours earlier, the lush gardens of my home had been shaken to their core. The marble and gold pillars that had lined the streets of my father's divine plane and the palace where I grew up had been overtaken by plant life, corpses had filled the aqueducts and the beautiful flowers and trees that had made this place famous even among the gods had been turned into murderous beings, blood had flown more than it had in millions of years. Even the cosmos, that could be seen from inside the realm through pristine panes of glass had been hidden away by gigantic vegetal appendages. The cause? A rebellion of overwhelming strength.

My uncle had decided that it was time to overthrow my father as the chief Deity of the Pantheon of the Celestial Gardens. While that had been expected since the moment my father had succeeded my grandfather after his ascension to an even higher plane of existence, the strength of the rebellion had been unexpected. Uncle was the deity in charge of plants. Not trickery, war, commerce, the underworld nor water, my father had been savvy enough to consult the Chiefs of other Pantheons on what to do about his brother, he didn't want his death. Father had always said that fratricide was for mortals and barbaric lower spirits, not for a spirit of his level. I would roll my eyes at that sentence as I already knew that this story could only end badly.

I couldn’t reprimand father on his foolishness though, while spirits that had reached the realm of major deities were unimaginably powerful, their traits, including personality ones, were amplified. Cruel ones would get crueller and kind ones would get kinder. Intuition had told us that the beliefs of mortals had something to do with that. Their perceptions would fuse with us as when we converted their veneration into power, the aspects they associated with us would reach heavenly standards while our other ones would simply plateau and let to fester until we ascended to an higher realm.

My father who apparently had been seen as trusting had that trait amplified several times turning him into quite of a fool sometimes.

The predicament we were in wasn’t one that we had not seen coming though, everyone knew that my uncle might come back from exile and raise hell upon the Gardens. Upon his departure my mother had sealed him in an unknown world, hoping for him to never return.

She had also planned for other countermeasures against my uncle’s ambitions, one of them being herself, the second deity in terms of powers in the Celestial Gardens. Uncle Gedrick was no fool though, even after a million years away he had chosen a moment where she had been absent to attack.

Mother wasn’t an incompetent adversary though. Countermeasures upon countermeasures, the celestial gardens had become true fortress before she took her leave. Guards upon guards, magic upon magic and quiet purge after quiet purge. All of that for a week of travel in the mortal lands where she would save her followers from an upcoming holy war.

What Mother hadn't planned though were the daemonic soldiers that accompanied my uncle nor him becoming a major deity in the hellish realm where he had been banished. Sadly, for all us he had gained vast powers beyond our imagination…

We had been dining when the daemons appeared.

My Father the High Spirit Lord might have been a trusting fool, but he was no coward nor weakling. His elements were nuclear energy, light and justice; brandishing his mighty halberd of radiance he made short work of the daemons.

One after the other the foot soldiers fell, the hits couldn't be seen, nor contained, a mere flick of his fingers was said to be as strong as the impact of a meteor. His full strength was simply unfathomable.

I didn't want father to take all the glory, I had been taught better.

“Father, a weapon,” I asked.

Unflinching he disarmed the cannon fodder that was keeping us entertained and he simply kicked a pike in my direction.

“Be careful with that one I might have kicked it too strongly,” his laughter echoed through the hall were moments earlier we had been having dinner.

The pike had destroyed a marble pillar and broken to pieces.

“Sorry about that,” he said with honest laughter while softly throwing another pike at me.

With the electric powers that had come from my mother I charged to the enemies that were back to my father.

Thrust, stab, electric arc. Father and son cooperating in perfect synch in a macabre dance.

The fun only lasted a few minutes, a mighty gargantuan dragon made of wood and plant material destroyed the facade of the palace, my uncle seating on its head.

I took a quick look outside and realized it had been a massacre. His plants had stabbed through the bodies of the guards using their bodies for nutrients and the magic circles that should have protected had fallen one after the other.

As for the rest of the pantheon...deity after deity had fallen, I could imagine the faces of the mortals down below losing their holy connections and becoming mad with worry. Chaos would surely ensue.

My home and family were almost gone. A volcanic rage erupted inside of me as my lightning flew everywhere.

My father stopped me from acting though, he knew I was no match for the leviathan-like creature that was facing us.

“Gedrick, it's been a long time. I almost thought you had forgotten about us.”

Gedrick's face showed no reaction as he attempted to stab my father with his abyssal vines. They quickly withered in front of his radiation.

I realized that I had become dead weight, uncle probably couldn't win against father, but he could easily end me.

I used a flash of thunder to escape from the ruins of the Palace. Shortly after I saw a mighty explosion trying to wither the dragon away.

I had to run; my father wouldn't be able to use the full of extent of his powers if I was nearby.

Noise!

A second explosion assaulted the dragon, but it had not fallen yet.

A daemonic patrol was approaching, and it seemed to be led by a daemonic general of great power.

I hid among the desiccated corpses of the fallen for several minutes before sneaking to the Gate of the Celestial Gardens. Under one of the slabs near the portal my mother had hidden some instructions and an elixir in case things got dire.

The explosions of my father were getting stronger and yet the dragon that was visible even from my position kilometres away didn't seem to falter.

I read the note. The instructions were clear, I was to take refuge with the pantheon of her sister, she would meet me there. No one would risk divine war for a worthless escapee, although I hated seeing myself as such.

Suddenly, I heard noises, voices and steps approaching.

Before I could escape or hide the daemons had me surrounded.

It was the only way of leave, of course a patrol would have been nearby...

This wasn't the group with the monstrous general, but the daemonic officers were clearly more than I could handle on my own, I could make it out of here, but it would be a close one.

Another powerful explosion!

After the initial surprise of someone having survived their leader’s initial attack the daemons had placed themselves into formation.

A trial before leaving… a pike wall advancing towards me. It seemed that at least I was meant to be captured alive. That was some luck.

A daring smirk from my part was shortly followed by a bright flash and then suddenly several illusory clones of myself appeared next to me in the middle of the circle of daemonic spears. Without wasting any time, we all jumped in different directions.

The order and calm that had reigned for a few seconds turned into a chaotic battle were my clones disappeared one after the other. The daemons flayed their pole arms in unpredictable ways, trying to hit us all.

I went to the portal and selected my destination only to feel my body being punctured.

My hand slipped while I dropped on the floor… the destination of the portal had clearly changed. It was a location among the unconquered world's and the portal was still set to erase my location once I went through the portal…

In a split second, a decision was made, if my father were to fall, I would have no choice but to ascend as much as I could before coming back here to send my uncle back to the Maker.

I broke the pike that had stabbed me and rose to my feet quickly backing to the portal.

I gave my father a signal, thunder.

The end of this fight was near.

I looked at the crowd that was once again getting into formation and with a smirk on my face I said, “If you survive tell my uncle that I send him my regards and that I will be back to take back what belongs to me.”

I jumped into the portal, while still facing the crowd. A defiant smile was on my face whose purpose was to hide the pain caused by my losses.

My father finally answered my thundering call with a goodbye of several megatons.

Style wise my exit had been excellent.

I didn't stick the landing though, I reached the ground and with enormous pain, my soul was kicked out of its shell and putting me into a grave situation… no one told me that falls could damage you in the mortal realms…

~*~

The elixir had acted quickly, within minutes I was conscious once more, the energy circulating within myself being way too strong to rest. Elixirs were rare as they required blood from a major deity to be brewed and very rarely would someone willingly give that much power to someone else. My mother's note did indicate that the effect could last two hours, maybe even three. For the whole duration of it, I should have a level of power only lower than the one of my progenitors. Being an unaligned spirit though there were probably no limits to what I could do with my powers…or at least that would have been the case had my soul not being tied to a young tree, I regretted slightly my exit right now. That would be a lesson, pick a smart solution not a classy one.

I had no time for further reflections as my time was limited.

The first thing I had noticed as I merged with the sapling was that my sight had been limited to a few meters above and bellow ground as far as my roots went, anything further than that would only be interpreted as amorphous blobs of colour. With the power of the elixir I expanded my roots to a range of around 3 kilometres in all direction I could have probably gone further than that, but I could only imagine the overwhelming headache it would cause once the power of the elixir went away.  The second step had of course to be to make me the tallest tree around, I needed the most mortals possible to take notice of me and as such I turned the small sapling I was into a mighty oak several tens of meters high. My leaves were given an orange luminescent glow and I attired them with an eternal autumnal coat so I could be easily identifiable. Then a thought came to me… not all mortals worshipped the holy and if I was to find another spirit I would probably be in trouble as well… Recalling the battle, I took over all the other trees in range leaving a fraction of my consciousness behind, I gave all the members of my new hivemind my mighty autumnal appearance and my new glow. Destroying a venerated portion of forest would be harder than destroying a venerated tree.

Recalling the affinity of mortals for water, I expanded my network of trees and roots a few hundred meters across the river. I decided to create a lush meadow on the riverside where the mortals would be able to create a village without wreaking havoc on my defence system. I had first thought about closing the field by surrounding it with the trees, but I had thought better of it. Having observed mortals from above I knew of how quickly they expanded.

Building my new "body" had taken a third of the elixir’s power. Time was ticking and I still lacked defences. I judged that armouring the whole forest would probably take too much energy and so I only armoured the trees closest to me, I was careful of not having my main body in the dead centre of the "steel" trees though, that would give me away way too easily.

I increased the density of trees around me to be as strong as steel and increased their water content as well. I didn’t know the development level of this world but that should be enough to keep most mortals away. As for defences against other spirits… I used my powers to search for animal life around me and I quickly stumbled upon a group of young owls. I tried giving one of them sapience, but it quickly died. Simply increasing the size of their brains wouldn’t do it. That could have been an easy way of increasing my power level… Well, never mind.

I greatly expanded the size of the owls giving them a fiery appearance and sharing my powers in the field of storms with them. I made sure that my magic would be embedded in their genes, I didn’t know how long I could expand their longevity for, so I wanted to make sure that the next generation would be as powerful as this one.

I created a psychic link with the newly created species and chose one in particular to join my immortal hivemind. I made her as big as I could while still allowing her to fly without the use of magic. I made her a house within my system of trees.

Time was fleeing and an hour had passed. I had some juice left. I looked around and spotted a murder of crows, I increased their brain density and they didn’t simply fall and die… wonderful. I gave them a prehensile long tail, it wouldn’t be as great as opposable thumbs, but it would surely allow them to make some complex tools down the line or at least that’s what I hoped. I increased their size, modified their vocal chords, made them as dark as the night and shared my power of illusions with them as well. A psychic link would stop them from worshipping me willingly and as such it would stop me gaining power from them, so I had to simply give them my trust.

With the remaining power I summoned a giant pillar of marble, like the one that had lined up the streets of the Holy place I grew up in. In it engraved were depictions of my family, I was in for long journey and I didn't want to forget them. I wrapped my roots around the pillar and applied blue bioluminescence to that part of my system.

10 minutes maybe even 15 left. From one of my roots that was touching the river I let a healing sap flow slowly. The hope was that mortals would see my usefulness and not destroy my newly built garden.

9…I added some light tin and copper minerals reserves to the rocks near the falls, at the very least if I wasn’t considered interesting my minerals would be.

8…7…6… 5 minutes, a fox approached my grove and it was added to the hive mind.

4… 3…I added heather and white lilies to my meadows. 

2…I spread more moss around the trees.

1… I caused a mighty storm to mourn the lost, I didn't have tears nor any other way of honouring them, so it would have to do.

My consciousness was spread thin as the waters started to pour, my defence system was completed though, I would be safe for a while.

 ~Shavo~

According to my grandfather the world had been much different in the time of his father. Mighty cities had dotted the riverbanks of the southern reaches and the desertic kingdoms that ruled them were well on their way to forge empires. Mankind had been thriving, conquering, dominating and then came the Tempest… 21 days, 21 nights it rained and stormed. Cities were flooded, crops were destroyed, a lot of the dynasties that had ruled since man discovered metal and agriculture were gone. New kingdoms would rise but they would pale against the glory of the kingdoms of old. We had to be glad though, we had been one step away from becoming like the tribes of centaurs and lamias of the east, barely better than wild animals.

It wasn't only the south that was affected, the North, were the northern tribes of Man, as well as the jötunn and the elves had been fighting endless skirmishes saw their forests change, giant trees crowned red started to grow and glow after the flooding stopped, with the trees came murders of terrifying nightcrows a new species of small people that were vicious and clever. Fields of healing moss spread around creating a new resource to fight for and centralizing the power of the many northern tribes.

The western islands had also been affected, the strange new birds had been causing migrations from many tribes causing clashes on the coast.

The known world had completely changed and my family that had been boat makers in the south turned into explorers and later traders.

Our current expedition was mainly to trade hardwool for tin, the kingdom of Garka was preparing for war with its western neighbours and they lacked the bronze necessary to arm all their soldiers. Dwarven metallurgy would probably still make the war difficult but the bronze would probably give them more of a fighting chance.

Our sheep nourished by the Holy River were said to have wool as soft as water yet as strong as metal. It was a very valuable resource. Much like anything else that was grown next to our precious river.

The creek had been the cause of many wars and many people had unsuccessfully tried to search for its source only to meet their demise lost forever in the heart of Everfall forest.

I had been distracted too long, by my estimation we were within the border of the Algal tribe of elves an annoying bunch that would surely demand a heavy tribute if they found us here. We could probably go a little bit further, but I preferred to not sleep surrounded by everfall oaks, they had always given me the creeps.

“We will stop here for the night,”

I gave the order and all my men rowed to the riverbank. Among the gigantic firs and leafy trees, we made a camp in the military style of my country. Four tents in a square formation, with a fire pit in the middle.

“Karlow, can you set up the sigils?”

The old druid nodded as he took out a stick and he started drawing on the uneven ground.

When he was over a barrier of soft light would rise whenever insects came near us,

I went next to the firepit and sat on the stump that I had chosen as a seat.

My men had hunted two boars earlier in the day and they were finally preparing it.

From my chest that had been set up next to my tent my wife took out an old flask of wine.

“Do you think we could stay for my sister's wedding? father had the scribes emphasize the need for our presence.”

I was suddenly startled by a booming and yet soft voice.

I looked at my wife lovingly, her incredible stature and ivory-like skin as well as her fiery red hair and small antlers made the half-jötunn woman hard to resist, despite her wearing makeshift armour and carrying a large axe on her back.

“I guess so, depending on what trinkets we can get by staying, people from the Midlands always like trinkets from the land of giants.”

She smiled and my heart melted.

“Great!”

The woman as tall as a man and a half went to eat with the rest of my people. Crude jokes as well tall tales of before the storm were being told. The laughter of my crew increased in volume as the wine started to flow.

I had wanted to plan our itinerary for tomorrow but there was simply too much joy around.

“Bryn don't forget that the best part of the boar always goes to the chief of the expedition,” I teased my wife.

Laughter filled the forest, I was sure that the elves would soon be here, but whatever I could afford to pay.

~*~