Fourth Day

Fourth Day - The Day of Sex
'''Wendigo creates The Burai, devilish, formless, shadow-creatures that have the power to influence the minds of sentient beings. The Burai will those under their control to kill indiscriminately, take without reason or worry, shun those creatures who are of no benefit to them, and ignore all feelings of benevolence. Any creature touched by the Burai is left marked until they die. Those creatures that imbibe beer attract The Burai very quickly, as a beer-filled mind is something they find easy to corrupt. They live within the bodies of their victims, and control them until they either tire of their game, or the creature is killed. They can come and go at will, meant to cause only greater confusion among their victims and those around them. The Burai all know Wendigo to be their creator, and act as It commands them to without question.'''

''And the Burai come into being, and begin to do their dark work without thought or question. Those who are taken over by the Burai can sometimes fight the Burai's will, and then the creature is forced out again and dies. Those who lack that will, especially among the edited, kill mindlessly until they are killed. The Dwarves and Trolls slowly begin to lessen their contact with Beer, and fearfully move back into the Water, as they believe the Orbs of Dirt to be the cause of their grief and loss- though those with strong enough willpower stay and continue to happily edit their brains on the Beer.''

'''Karidan harnesses Purity and refines it, bestowing it upon those that are both Sentient and Living to allow them to better resist outside non-Godly influences on their actions. She calls this Pure pattern Behavior. For purposes of Order, she does not allow Behavior to resist alterations in a direction the Living being is already inclined (A violent Troll, for instance, could still be easily inclined to be more violent, but could resist influence to become peaceful).'''

''And so an alignment of Behavior, dictated by order and pattern, hisses over the Universe, settling down like falling light to infuse all living beings with it. Those Trolls and Dubharan who are violently inclined are the best targets for the Burai, and they revel in the possession, and the Burai are appeased. Some Burai still seek out inherently peaceful targets, such as the Dumplings or the Dwarves, but it is a great challenge for them to take over these Purer-minded creatures.''

'''[Wendigo] creates Modoc, a tall, slender wave of light and flame, and a face like that of Caethair with fiery red eyes. Modoc knows his creator to be Wendigo, and worships him. He knows all the gods. Modoc is bestowed powers similar to the late Okanogan. He absorbs creatures, plants, dirt, fire, and turns them into atoms. He too can choose to turn the creatures he encounters and touches into followers of Wendigo. Modoc is foremost a trickster, and uses trust and positive mind-editing "mental influence" to lure in his prey.'''

And Modoc lopes through the cosmos, and some beings turn to watch and listen to Modoc wherever he goes, and Modoc spreads the word of Wendigo, and he eats creatures, plants, dirt, and fire, and produces atoms.

'''Slèibhtean focuses on Life, excluding the Dwarves who may be only affected by Caethair, the Myrth who are not their bodies but the gems at the center, and all Plants. To any outside those three, she allows for some and limits for all Reproduction. To produce more of their kin, these creatures must have in their population two aspects, until now, only known by gods, Male and Female, and conduits, the Drittel. She offers no pattern to which individuals, quite suddenly, become which of the two Sexes.'''

''And new castes of creature form, some Male, some Female. The Myrth and Dwarves remain genderless and do not procreate, but the numbers of the Trolls, Krakens, Dubharan, Wolves, Vampires, and others, grow in number for the first time. Most (not all) of the Dumplings lose their ability to produce asexually, and must make Dumplings through breeding between a Male and Female. This helps immensely with their overpopulation, as they tend to be picky about their partners. Those very few who produce asexually do so with great pride, and the other Dumplings consider them to be Special, and often gather around to witness the creation of asexual children.''

''The beings of the universe cannot merely procreate, however. Those who do wish to reproduce must first find a Drittel, a special god-object infused by the essence of Slèibhtean herself. These glowing blue disks must be touched by a Male and a Female simultaneously, and a new lifeform would form from the union. The Drittel would lose its god-essence and fade to a dull black, and a new Drittel must be found for a new being to be created.''

Slèibhtean grants the Dubharan a greater resistance to the Burai and to mind-editing, an aid to keep them from mindless aggression and creating imbalance.

''The Dubharan, carriers of cool logical neutrality, feel their spirits bolstered by Slèibhtean to ward off the advances of Modoc. The Burai do not often care for the Dubharan, as their Behavior is neutral, and the Burai enjoy violent, aggressive minds, but those few who do attempt to prey upon them find it to be a massive challenge. The Dubharan call a rising, grateful song to their creator.''

'''Gastcempa shall create sentient, intelligent, and benevolent beings who take the form of himself, but are white, with eyes of blue, and smaller antlers. These beings shall congregate around other living beings and provide nourishment and companionship to them, as well as attempt to convince other beings to live peacefully and not to harm others. He shall call them Gastdéor, and they shall be above the influence of all other things except himself, Slèibhtean, their offspring, and Nagysten. So that they do not fear Death, Gastcempa also imparts upon them the knowledge that all things that die shall be Reborn.'''

''And the Gastdéor leap into being, elegant creatures with good hearts and knowledge beyond their ken. They know of the cycles of Rebirth, though they know not of the sleeping of sentience, and so they begin to tell other living beings that they will be reborn as this is what was taught to them by Gastcempa, though this is not the full truth of the Universe. They may only be influenced by Gastcempa, Slèibhtean, and their god-children, and as such they have an immunity to the Burai. They are known to many as Friends, though the Dubharan see them with similar neutrality as they see all things, and are not readily swayed towards Benevolence.''

'''Gairacht uses his connection to the Myrth to instruct them to build from what they had collected, to make things that were useful, and to make things the were beautiful. So that they might protect themselves, and one day meet the dwarfs and the trolls in the waters above.'''

''And the Myrth begin to experiment with their piles of Red Dirt and gems and metal, making huge towers and strange walls that glitter, though the Red Dirt would be invisible to other lifeforms, making it a bit hazardous for non-Myrth who attempt to traverse the structures. The Myrth build Red Dirt labyrinths leading to their less twisted structures, to deter the Dubharan from attacking, and in the center of their labyrinths, they build their piles ever higher, attempting to reach into Space to make their presence known to the beings whose memories they've seen.''

'''Caethair creates for dwarves their own reproduction cycle. It is based off Slèibhtean's method in that multiple sexes are needed. It remains different from hers in that instead of two sexes there are three. Male, female, and genderless. A genderless dwarf can reproduce with a dwarf of male or female sex, but not with a genderless dwarf. All pairings need a conduit. Triplings are possible as well if a male, female, and genderless dwarf all come together and find a Drittel.'''

The exact reasoning for why there are three sexes is that Caethair finds three to be a very pretty number.

''And the Dwarves are suddenly Male, Female, and Genderless, and they wave excitedly to eachother, and some grab a Drittel immediately to try this new thing out (all the other species were doing it, after all). Triplings are more common than Pairings, as Dwarves tend to be communal and friendly folk, and it is unique to them, and the avatar of their God made them different for a reason (and probably a great and unknowably complex reason, at that!)''

'''Gastcempa creates Fruit, which can grow on some Plants, including trees and flowers. They will grow at regular cycles, and can be eaten by all living things, and they will taste sweet. If placed in the ground and given Water, these Fruit will also grow into new Plants, so that beings may cultivate them and help them their numbers to grow and multiply.'''

''And more than ever, the Dwarves and Trolls and Gastdéor flock to the Orbs of Dirt, for now they can have Fruit to go with their Beer. The Wolves gladly eat the Fruit. Sometimes, even Vampires will eat the Fruit, so some Trolls have taken to trying to tame the atrocious beasts, but it is a dangerous profession, one fraught with injury and death.''

'''Muthab would create the cycle of the four seasons, them being named 'Winter', 'Spring', 'Summer' and 'Fall'. Within these periods, Muthab's and some other god's creations would go through gradual changes; 'Fall' everything slowly prepares itself for winter and everything begins to grow cold, leaves and plantlife changing into beautiful colors as they did so, 'Winter' when everything is filled with extremely low temperatures and all plantlife dies or goes to sleep, 'Spring' where everything begins to get warm, awakens and comes back to life, planetlife sprouting and blooming, being a time of beauty. And finally 'Summer' where temperatures soar high and life thrives. Each one of these seasons is made so that each as its has pros and cons, so I suppose this could be more than just a punishment.'''

''The changes in color come first, and the creatures are awed by the display, but when things shrivel and die, they mourn, as they feel they have done this to the plants. The creatures sadly flow away from the barren orbs of dirt in the Winter, but when the new Plants peek up from the mud, the creatures come back in the Spring.''

''Though they do not feel temperature as the plants seem to, they begin to treasure the plantlife more, and some areas of the Orbs of Dirt are allowed to grow wild, and the Trolls cease using the trees for boards and stop tying flowers to the boards, as they are afraid of killing off all plantlife by doing so. Instead, they use their old boards, and pass them down to friends and offspring when they die. The boards are decorated with carvings provided by the maws of tamed Vampires, and a new profession called "board-carver" develops among the Trolls, with the Vampires as their carving tools.''

Caethair gives Maru the gift of sentience so that he may fashion a new purpose for himself.

''Maru blinks a few times, looking around with true, sentient understanding for the first time. He nods to Caethair in silent gratitude.''

'''Karidan gathers individual motes of Light and creates spherical bodies for them out of grids of Order. She calls these beings Watchers and bestows upon them Life, Sentience, and Purity and allows only Caethair and herself to influence them. Their purpose shall be to observe Creation and each time something new is learned they will seek to pass through Memory to share it with the other Living beings.'''

''And the Watchers are born into the world, and they float through the Universe learning everything they can. When they learn something new, they rush off to pass through Memory and share it.''

Some beings do not take kindly to this, and will try and restrain the Watchers, though very few will harm them, as they have the aura of Purity about them, and many are superstitious about harming such beings.

One Watcher, who calls herself Opelet, discovers the tall structures of the Myrth, and hurriedly shares it with Memory, causing all non-Myrth to chatter with great interest about this new Life.

'''Gairacht made for himself a form. It was lithe and thin, with four arms, and two legs. It had a tail like that of Slèibhtean but longer and more narrow. It was the color of white gem with lines and spirals of blue etched over it symmetrically. The head had a snout like that of Skaar but shorter and more round. The head had four eyes, two of purple, and two of green. The chest and forearms are covered in metal and studded with gems in symmetrical patterns. Lastly he creates a cloak of red dirt that was held together by lines of order.'''

And Gairacht appeared above the Myrth, and they sang songs in his glory, and they loved his Red Dirt cloak most of all.

...And the Gods would again feel the weariness, deep to their core, and their power drains further...