>>5435965
>Love - That which conquers all, the strength of humanity is together.
The real humanity was the friends we made along the way

>>5435966
+1
Get in the love boat we're going to conquer through friendship.

>>5435965
>Love - That which conquers all, the strength of humanity is together.
It's refreshing to go with the good feeling route, and seems like a good counter versus the harsh world outlined by the opening post.

>>5435965
>>War - The supreme authority, humanity will not go without a fight.

>>5435965
>Love - That which conquers all, the strength of humanity is together.

>>5435965
>>War - The supreme authority, humanity will not go without a fight.
MARS ULTOR HEAR MY PLEA

>>5435965
>Love - That which conquers all, the strength of humanity is together

>>5435965
>War - The supreme authority, humanity will not go without a fight.

>>5435965
>Love - That which conquers all, the strength of humanity is together.
LOVE WINS

>>5435965
>Love - That which conquers all, the strength of humanity is together.
Make love not war

>>5435965
>>Craft - Look upon my works, at the loom and the workbench and the forge, humanity's salvation will be made.

>>5435965
>Love - That which conquers all, the strength of humanity is together.

>>5435965
>War - The supreme authority, humanity will not go without a fight.

>>5435965
>Craft - Look upon my works, at the loom and the workbench and the forge, humanity's salvation will be made.

>>5435965
>Craft - Look upon my works, at the loom and the workbench and the forge, humanity's salvation will be made.

>>5435965
>War - The supreme authority, humanity will not go without a fight.

>>5435965
>Love - That which conquers all, the strength of humanity is together.

>>5435965
>>War - The supreme authority, humanity will not go without a fight.

The authority from which all others are derived.

Lot of choices made! Time to weigh in.

>>5435966
>>5435969
>>5435975
>>5435990
>>5435994
>>5436146
>>5436148
>>5436195
>>5436306
>Love - 9

>>5436321
>>5436250
>>5436213
>>5436013
>>5435991
>>5435983
>War - 6

>>5436221
>>5436218
>Craft - 2

Looks like there is a majority, although this is to determine primarily what sort of god you are, that isn't to say you can't engage in these other aspects as you see fit. As a deity your excellence in all things may as well be godly, compared with mortals...

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>>5436358
Though these are dark times and humanity faces death in every direction, the greatest comfort has returned before the end of all things. Love and beauty, fertility and health, the goddess Amut'ra Sedjet (or simply Sedjet) walks again. Disgorged from the underworld, you found yourself in that familiar and beloved homeland you once knew. The great Nyl delta and the pyramids as the mortals built them, all watched over by the almighty Eye of the desert sun.

What eons you spent imprisoned beneath the River of the Dead, finally free to bestow your favor upon the yearly harvest once more... yet the world is not as you remember it. Fallow fields and empty settlements, all overgrown and reclaimed by nature. A delight to see restoration of the wild, but a worry for the absence of all else. In your wanderings to discover how the world became this way, it seems you were not the only thing freed from the underworld...

~~~

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~~~

"Plague check!"

"Order yourselves! Men, women, families!"

Panic takes the passengers, finding themselves treated so harshly after leaving the ship, after such a harrowing voyage. The wooden dock awash with the tide and rain above, choked with cargo and people it's hardly the relief that had been hoped for these months at sea. Struggles here and there as people try to avoid being separated by the doctors and assistants in their fully-concealing clothes, but who can argue with such caution? Everyone is here to escape that plague of the dead, and you've all been led to believe this "new world" across the seas is free of the blight. How else could it be true if not for such vigilance, such as checking every arriving refugee from the homeland for the plague?

"Zafira, come with us. Don't be alone."

She grabs your arm, hoping to take you along with her husband and son. One of the families you became close with during the voyage, they probably assume you will fare better with them as a purported member of the family rather than alone. The look of these humans though, you doubt such a deception with their fairer features. Of course you long-since shed your godly, cultural attire, adopting the clothes of these northerners for travel but some things can't be hidden like your dusky skin and black hair.

Although by their eyes, these mortals wouldn't perceive your divinity, other than of course your divine beauty. You worry though for what else they might find... as you look and see people being robbed of their valuables while being checked by the plague doctors. Your ankh, kept as a necklace after its theft from the underworld in your escape, is sure to draw notice beneath your cloak. You're just lucky that you are wholly human, rather than one of your animal-featured fellow gods, otherwise none of this would have been possible in the first place.

>Take your chances on your own. If need be, you aren't afraid of wielding your divinity.
>Go along with the families. You'd prefer to maintain your mortal disguise.
>Rely on the crew. You suspect the ship's captain for example, may be able to bypass this issue.
>[Write-in.]

>>5436452
>Go along with the families. You'd prefer to maintain your mortal disguise.

>>5436452
>>Rely on the crew. You suspect the ship's captain for example, may be able to bypass this issue.

>>5436452
>Go along with the families. You'd prefer to maintain your mortal disguise.

>>5436452
>>Take your chances on your own. If need be, you aren't afraid of wielding your divinity.

>>5436452
The ship's crew will have no influence on local regulations.
I also see no advantage in revealing my divinity.
If there is no way to sneak off the ship unnoticed, i would stay with the families for now. I can still reveal my divinity.

>>5436452
>Go along with the families. You'd prefer to maintain your mortal disguise.

>>5436452
>>Go along with the families. You'd prefer to maintain your mortal disguise.

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>>5436546
>>5436532
>>5436503
>>5436476
>>5436466
>>5436458
>>5436569
>Go along with the families. You'd prefer to maintain your mortal disguise.

You suppose if you needed to, you could just jump off the dock into the waters, and try to escape notice that way. For the effort you've made to mingle among the mortal humans however, you'd rather not waste this chance. Especially not since this is the second settlement you've discovered since your escape, that actually was inhabited. And this one doesn't appear to be on the verge of collapse.

"What's this, is she Namari? We haven't seen any of them in a long time..."

"With the other women... please miss."

Expectedly you stand out among the others, even covered up as much as you are. Your features drawing immediate attention, one of the plague doctors and his helpers act to separate you from the families until the moment they get a good look at you. Aggravated by their work clearly, they act rough and impatient at first, but taking in your appearance disarms them. Still trying to do their jobs, but at your consent rather than dragging you off.

"-ah, we're a family." the husband speaks up, pulling you away from the workers to his side. "She's my wife."

"...and what about?" the doctor taps the actual wife with his long directing stick.

"His sister, and this is my son." she quickly answers, avoiding potential confusion.

Fortunately, between the hasty deception and your enchanting appearance, any trouble is avoided. The lot of you are accepted as a family, so all that's left is to be searched. Like everyone before you, there's upset and anger at the indignity as the doctors make a quick physical examination and cursory check beneath your clothes for signs of the plague. Like everyone before you though, the only choice is to go through this or get back on the ship.

"-hey, this is... doctor?"

"What, is her spit black on the cloth? Oh, well if you don't take it..."

No signs of plague, of course you are not at risk of such a thing, but your divine nature remedied whatever ills these people have after months cramped together on the ship. One of the assistants though notices your necklace while checking you over, and becomes uncertain of what to do. Anyone else, these men would have just torn the silver ankh from you, as indeed they take valuables from everyone else. But for you, there's hesitation to offend or upset as you look to them, swaying their hearts with a gaze.

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Something else as well, that concerns them in their search for a way not to upset you.

"Here's your drinks then, rations, but... don't join the others."

"Stand together, on that side of the dock when you get to the end."

Like everyone else after being checked, you're offered some relief (and pacification) after the voyage, with a dram of a strong drink and something simple to eat. Unlike the others however you and the family you're pretending to be with, get led aside from the other passengers. Something which causes alarm among others, thinking some of you are carrying the plague. The truth doesn't seem so worrying though, rather than steal your necklace it seems you've been handed over to the guards on duty for questioning.

"Don't cry, don't cry. It'll be fine, I'm sure."

"Why didn't they take anything from us?"

The husband holds their fearful child close, while the wife wonders aloud of the strange reaction the doctors had towards you. Though you did get to keep your valuables, and afforded the family the same benefit, you wonder if it was worth the trouble. Not for you really, it's no bother to you in the long run, but by your nature you worry for these mortals that stuck their neck out for you. What time you have before an official arrives down the docks, to see what's going on with your detention, you wonder what the best course is.

>Continue playing along, so far everything has more or less worked out together.
>You don't want to cause these people any more trouble. Not your disguise at least, but give up on the deception.
>With your divinity you expect you could beguile your way out of this matter together.
>Distance yourself from the family, and try to sneak off if you can. Now that you're off the docks you have options of where to go.
>[Write-in.]

>>5436674
>You don't want to cause these people any more trouble. Not your disguise at least, but give up on the deception.
Time to give people hope

>>5436674
>Continue playing along, so far everything has more or less worked out together
Not yet. We need to know more.

>>5436674
>>Continue playing along, so far everything has more or less worked out together.

>>5436674
>>Continue playing along, so far everything has more or less worked out together.

>>5436674
>>Continue playing along, so far everything has more or less worked out together.

>>5436674
>>Distance yourself from the family, and try to sneak off if you can. Now that you're off the docks you have options of where to go.
info is key

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>>5436678
>>5436684
>>5436715
>>5436739
>>5436765
>>5436823
>Continue playing along, so far everything has more or less worked out together.

By your very nature you desire not to cause trouble or harm to anyone or anything, but the way the situation has played out, parting ways with this family of mortals may cause more harm than good for the moment. So you resolve to see it through, and in the process expect to learn more about the way the humans of these times manage their troubles and laws.

"Forgive the delay, we're overrun with refugees from Kell Fen. Been more than a year since we had a ship from the east, didn't think anyone was left, so our concerns... ah, your name is..."

"Zafira. And this is about?"

Having to wait for a time within the open doors of a dockside storehouse, that's about the best the humans here can manage. When eventually the dock overseer comes to see you and the lone guard, once again another aggravated mortal is swayed by your beauty. Like the guards though, you notice this mortal bears many scars or even fresh wounds, from whatever conflict they face ongoing. In any case, along with the husband then (his wife and son waiting outside) you simply try to answer what you can to move along from here.

"-and you can assure it's nothing religious, not some cult icon?" the official asks, trying his best to focus on the customary lines of interrogation rather than be distracted by you.

"It's just a family heirloom, given by her mother when we married. Are you familiar with how the Namari are?"

In keeping with the deception, together you can set aside the worries of these locals. Obviously most off all your appearance makes them amicable towards your situation, but so long as you can convince them that you aren't bearing dangerous contraband (including of hostile faith) then they haven't any reason to keep or treat you poorly. Same as checking for the plague, there are measures they try to follow to ensure the doom of the homeland does not follow this new home.

"We won't keep you any longer then, just... when you leave for the encampment, make sure you get a tent inside the walls. Whatever it takes, say whatever you can to seem useful to them."

A cautionary warning from the overseer, his being enamored with you affording favor. Otherwise you're free to leave with your belongings, and the husband is eager to leave with his family as soon as possible, considering the rest of the passengers will have had a head start for finding shelter in the settlement. Though you wonder if you shouldn't take the chance you have with the attention of some guards and an official, to try and learn what you can of things. You're sure if you ask them anything, they will kindly answer.

>You're content with the success you've managed. Leave with the family to get settled.
>Bid the husband and wife well, but you repaid their kindness and are ready to set out on your own now.
>Having gone from mere dock workers up to the overseer, with some charm and a little divinity, how much higher can you get with these humans?
>Learn what you can, or seek help from the overseer or any guards. Even if it's just trying to fill in any blanks with questions. {Specify.}
>[Write-in.]

>>5436826
>Bid the husband and wife well, but you repaid their kindness and are ready to set out on your own now.
>Learn what you can, or seek help from the overseer or any guards. Even if it's just trying to fill in any blanks with questions. {Specify.}
The local faith, laws, customs, organizations, social ranks and the overall situation.
We can definitely mask this as refuges wanting to know about their new home so they can integrate.

>>5436826
>>Having gone from mere dock workers up to the overseer, with some charm and a little divinity, how much higher can you get with these humans?

>>5436830
Support

We begin with knowledge of the foundation, then work our way up it.

>>5436830
+1

>>5436830
+1

>>5436830
support

good

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Some big posts incoming. Forgive the length, a bit of a lore dump, but think of it as setting the stage for the quest now after the prologue of sorts before now.

>>5436864
>>5436935
>>5436947
>>5436834
>>5436830
>>5436981
>Learn what you can, or seek help from the overseer or any guards. Even if it's just trying to fill in any blanks with questions.

Although you are not in any way reduced in power than you ever were, you certainly are reduced in station. Having to hide among these humans and pass as a mortal, and abandon your dead homeland like the rest of them. No doubt you are a human goddess, sharing in their struggle and fate. Of course you intend to remedy this bleakness, but before you can assume your rightful place you must understand the world you now inhabit.

"I could... spare a little time, yes. But you aren't leaving with your family?"

"I'll rejoin them soon enough. First I hoped to learn what's most different between this new land and the old. It's been harder for me, you know, from Namar."

Having bid the mortal family farewell you remain behind to ask the overseer for some more time, that he might answer some questions. You answered his before, so it's only fair. And innocent enough to pass this off as concern for adjusting to your new home, a worried refugee trying her best for her family. Not that it matters that much, when your beauty is enough for him to stay, and your presence soon makes him forget about any concerns or responsibilities.

Although you would prefer to be dealing with royalty rather than lowborns, for such an unfamiliar hierarchy of the humans in these times, it seems wise not to skip rungs on the ladder without fully knowing them.

"Well you know what it was like before, where did you depart from?"

"Colibra... it was a nightmare."

~~~

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~~~

Of course you remember before, your time since reemerging into the "old" world and eventual escape from it. The despair at finding an empty world, devoid of people... living ones at least. Only endless lands withering to the taint of death, the slow march of the risen dead in their seemingly aimless hunt, save for one thing; the living. Ruin after ruin, civilization after civilization, it took three winters of wandering the decaying husk of the mortal world before you found a living person. To the north and to the west from your desert homeland, as far as possible from the spread of the plague till you reached the ocean and could go no farther.

The last few, doomed holdouts of humanity, a broken collection of a few cities along the coast. Drowning under the flood of the very last alive desperately trying to escape, and the oncoming tide of the dead. All your time trapped in the underworld could not compare to the pain and suffering you felt, seeing and going among that miserable chaos. The utter lack of love or hope, you tried as you might to save what you could, but even for a living goddess there was no saving that. Dead piled in the streets, rampant disease and violence every which way, fire and destruction spreading, and those few innocents cowering together in fear as the world ended around them. The saddest part of all, that all that suffering was not out of evil, but simply desperation. People trying to just to survive, as every day there was less and less to survive on. Long past a sinking ship, or even a sinking lifeboat, only the drowning dragging each other down.

And so when you could do no more, what admirable good you did, you manage to gain passage on one of the very last ships departing. Leaving the doomed old world for the new, taking chances with the cruel sea rather than that nightmare behind. You remember watching from the ship, divine tears in your eyes as the world you knew gradually passed out of view, on fire in the horizon.

~~~

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"-so the noble house keeps the town... functional, but anything beyond the walls isn't safe. It's why your family should try to find shelter within, however you can."

Having spent a time talking with the docks overseer, provided with more food and drink at his pleasure, you can gain a more complete picture of the way things are. Already you had some idea of the current state of the mortal world and their customs, how things have differed since the time you knew. Your time in the dying coastal cities to re-familiarize yourself with the humans and pass among them, and your time on the ship for the voyage to learn how to interact with them such as language and some customs.

Thankfully human civilization in this new homeland is not terribly different from how it had been before. In your time civilization was mighty and governed by a supreme ruler, in your specific case a pharaoh. In present times, civilization is smaller and broken between noble families, governing their own personal domains and populace. These concepts of "feudalism" and "chivalry" determine how humans live, as where you find yourself there is a ruling noble house and together with their privileged supporters they try (and seemingly fail) to protect and provide for their subjects. Perhaps this system would fare better under normal circumstances, but here in this new world the system is tearing at the seams from all the stresses upon it.

"But the other refugees? If they didn't come from across the sea..."

"This week? It's the damned long-ears. They tore through the outlying villages, and did what they always do."

By the sound of things, humans were not the only ones who fled the old world. Of course that makes sense if you think about it, not as though the plague would pick and choose victims. So with this mass exodus across the sea of several races fleeing for survival, the new world suddenly became very cramped and strained for resources, the closer to the coast the worse it is. Not to mention the native inhabitants, a brutish tusked people as the overseer describes them to you. If the circumstances weren't bad enough, humans have fared the worst of all in settling this new homeland. Partly for being among the last peoples to flee the old homeland, but mostly for the inability to unite. Attacked on all sides by hostile neighbors and plagued by instability and traitors within, what could be called the "human lands" of this new world are mostly just sacked and ruined settlements and battlefields of defeat.

File: meager human domain.png (763 KB, 880x495)

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Although the most personal matter concerning you, is that of religion. It seems that since your time, the majority of humans abandoned the ancient faith in physically divine beings, for that of more spiritual and enigmatic entities beyond the perceptible world. The idea of faith in a deity beyond what is knowable, rather than faith in a deity that physically walks around the world and interacts with things. In particular these north-westerners, the ones to have escaped the old world and resettled, have faith in their one god and make prayers and temples to it... although recently because of the suffering of these times, faith has understandably waned. This is not really a challenge or a threat to you, since as a personally and physically divine being, you don't depend upon humans or worship for power. Indeed, the humans seem to have even forgotten you entirely these past eons, but you are no less powerful than you were. It probably will become a problem if you hope for them to accept you however, and they have to accept you if you want to help them.

"Surely you... we can expect help, before long? From other noble families... ah, houses as you say."

"That would be a first, I think. They are facing the same problems we are, and no one has the people to spare."

All in all things are pretty bleak, but it wouldn't be the worst situation you've dealt with in your time... were in not for that most dire detail; there's hardly anyone left. The humans you've talked with thus far may not have been exaggerating when they spoke of extinction, for as far as the overseer is aware, only some few thousands of humans are left entirely. Each of the noble houses can perhaps account for a thousand or so subjects each (give or take), and the overseer can count on two hands the houses that remain. That many humans, left alive in the world as far as anyone is aware. Worse still that the differing groups, enclaves of humans, have become insular and begrudge helping each other.

File: defeated.png (576 KB, 951x411)

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Originally the plague of the dead took the greatest toll, upon all races in fact hence the exodus, but each year in this new land sees severely less of humanity than before. Before there had been many humans, survivors from the old world, but the ceaseless war both external and internal has taken a grim toll. So much that the other races consider humans to be a dying resource, to exploit as much as possible before it's gone.

"Well, I must thank you then. It isn't for much it seems, but it's still a help."

"You need not worry as much... Zafira. If you have any trouble adjusting, need any more help... I'm sure we can work something out, together."

Well as bad as things had been in the homeland before, it doesn't seem much better. Your own divine heart crushed a little, sold on the hopes for the voyage that you'd all be traveling to salvation in a new homeland. Now you can understand why the choice exists, between trying to help your fellow humans... or to just peacefully and mercifully put them out of their misery. In any case you've... somewhat depressingly learned of the general state of the world you've returned to, in this most dire time of need of your people. There's always more to the picture but you'll have to seek a higher authority than the overseer here, particularly because if you spend any longer with him, you can tell that your alluring presence is going to prompt him to seek more than just conversation with you.

>After such saddening news, you could use some cheering up. Get to work right away, finding the needy so you can start fostering love and bounty.
>You've gotten what you can from this mortal, but you need to find ones more eminent if you want to change anything.
>Maybe not that same family, but finding your place among the refugees may be for the better, so you can continue to adjust to this new life. At least for a time, and benefit of your divinity in the process.
>Retire from your dealings with these mortals, so that you can create a sanctuary for yourself and cultivate your strength.
>Enough disguises or subtlety, these people cannot afford it! Make yourself known, as you think best. {Specify.}
>[Write-in.]

>>5437003
>>You've gotten what you can from this mortal, but you need to find ones more eminent if you want to change anything.

>>5437003
>After such saddening news, you could use some cheering up. Get to work right away, finding the needy so you can start fostering love and bounty.

>>5437003
>After such saddening news, you could use some cheering up. Get to work right away, finding the needy so you can start fostering love and bounty.

>>5437003
>>After such saddening news, you could use some cheering up. Get to work right away, finding the needy so you can start fostering love and bounty.

>>5437003
>>After such saddening news, you could use some cheering up. Get to work right away, finding the needy so you can start fostering love and bounty.

>>5437003
>>After such saddening news, you could use some cheering up. Get to work right away, finding the needy so you can start fostering love and bounty.

File: within town.png (596 KB, 938x431)

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>>5437052
>>5437061
>>5437105
>>5437138
>>5437369
>>5437372
>After such saddening news, you could use some cheering up. Get to work right away, finding the needy so you can start fostering love and bounty.

As bleak as things are, your presence here finally can only make things better... you hope. For yourself at least, it's been too long since you were able to enact your godly responsibilities for mortal-kind. Holding to your divine nature and embracing what you are. No imprisonment, no plague of the dead, just people in need and the freedom to provide.

So for several days you come to adjust and familiarize with this new land, and particularly this settlement. The town of Eindward, a rough coastal settlement dominated by the big stone structure... castle they call it, some dense habitation within the wooden outer walls, and then the extensive camps of refugees beyond the walls. In coming to better know this place, you can find where people are in the most dire need of help, and there you can place yourself.

"Thank you, thank you!"

"A thousand blessings upon you, I'll donate at the church in your name!"

"Well... you don't need to do that..."

As to be expected the refugees from outlying settlements, raided and sacked, are in the most need. But not the only ones, notably the soldiers just trying to hold everything together, and even denizens with established lives here in Eindward for as poor as the quality of life is. At first you face difficulty as a stranger and someone who looks different, supposedly from another culture. After just a couple weeks though your presence is becoming known enough for people to come seeking you.

It's such a small thing, your presence here compared with the hardship and suffering of these mortals' lives, but you seem to give them the thing they needed most; hope. A belief that tomorrow will be better, something to live for. Your beautiful appearance, your enchanting voice as you sing while working, you soon become a beloved highlight within the community and just being here you bring a light to these people's lives that seemed long-gone. Gods know they need it, maimed by war and dying of starvation and exposure to the elements. More than just fostering love in people's lives though, encouraging the strength of bonds in kith and kin, your divinity provides tangible benefits as well. Regarded as a healer with arts from some strange foreign culture, the sickness and injuries of the community gradually pass away, both actively by your efforts and passively by your presence. Just like the voyage here, you can remedy what ails people by your divinity alone... and pass it off as those strange foreign healing arts.

File: encampment.png (567 KB, 720x444)

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And to think, if these people are so relieved by your presence in this way, just wait until planting and harvest season comes around!

"You helped my daughter to walk again, if there is... anything, anything we can do for you?"

"Just take care of yourselves, love one another. That's enough for me, if you want to help anyone help others around you."

Ironically your benefit here, the increasing hope, has led to an increase in faith as well. But rather in their own god, that of these humans. Thinking to have his favor for once, they fervently take to religious practice and attendance. If it helps and makes them happier then you don't mind, maybe just a little annoyed, but such is the price of concealing your identity and divinity. Although the truth may be more trouble than it's worth.

The biggest trouble you face currently however, is being noticed. By your presence and help, you're coming to draw attention as the days go by. Much of it good, but some of it bad. As much as you can try to help, people are still desperate and traumatized by all the suffering. It's no wonder then that by your beauty, more than a few persons have tried to control you or mistreat you. Such is the case for beautiful women even in the best of times. And while you can handle yourself against a malicious or lustful mortal, you find yourself challenged when the attention of authority falls upon you.

"People here need me, I can't leave them."

"It isn't safe outside the walls miss. His lordship would see you relocated within, your... services would be of better help within."

Some of the town guards, watched over by one of those "knights", a mounted warrior in service to the ruling family of Eindwald. You can only do so many good deeds before it comes to the attention of those in power. Already you were having difficulties with priests of the local church, demanding your fealty to their religion, and now the nobility are making demands. Naturally people around are upset, not wanting to lose their beloved Namari woman, and you foresee tensions with this situation.

>What do you do?

>>5437386
>>What do you do?
Go and meet his lordship, and we then ensnare him.

>>5437386
Go talk with the lord.

>>5437391
Support

>>5437386
>>What do you do?
Go see the lord. Best chance to see the state of the ones who remain, and to take control at the same time.

>>5437397
>+1

>>5437391
+1

>>5437498
+1

this guy gets it

File: a finer house in town.png (464 KB, 800x380)

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>>5437497
>>5437397
>>5437391
>>5437498
>>5437629
>>5437702
>>5437703

You don't want to leave behind the people you've helped, but it should only be a temporary thing you expect. As well, there's hope that you could further help the needy here in Eindward if you could communicate with the leadership in charge, and stir their sympathies. Accepting the summons of the knight then, you are escorted past the walls and within the town proper, afforded lodging in the family home of one of the noble house's bannermen. They probably weren't sure what to expect of some Namari woman staying with them, but by the end of the day your beauty and charm have earned your welcome.

Although in the physical sense you can appreciate the comfortable accommodations this lesser noble family can provide, it opens your eyes to the disparity between the privileged, and the common folk outside the walls. Well it's not like these people have some opulent palace, even the nicest residences you've seen here are relatively small and sparse, but the point is they have a house alone to their family and behind the safety of the walls. When humans both high and low suffer so much in these times, you would have hoped that everyone's doors were open in town to all those in need. If not for shelter or sustenance, then at the very least for safety from the enemies beyond.

But then, from what you understand of the governing system of humans in this time, part of the method of control is the stratification between high and low. If the people overall are used to, accept and support this system, then it doesn't seem much of your concern... as a goddess of love, at least.

"Goodness! You are a beauty are you not? They told me about the pretty foreign girl, but I had not imagined... manners, I am Lady Swifthawk, wife of the Lord of Eindward." an older woman, more finely dressed than others you've seen, makes herself known to you this evening.

"Zafira... I've got no reputation to speak of."

"No need to be modest dear, we have heard much of you these days passed!"

What follows is unexpected, but suits you just fine, as you essentially work your way up the chain of notice over the coming days. Not even by your choice or action, simply your enchanting nature. Although you had been led to believe that it was the local lord you would be meeting with, as you learned instead it was just one of his advisors first. Which makes sense if you think about it, gaining attention or not, it's unlikely that the ruler of these people would so easily or so soon meet with some lowborn foreign refugee woman. Each day though you are visited and investigated by someone farther up the hierarchy of the noble house, as more and more people come to either recognize your importance or are taken by your beauty. You even suffer a proposal or two of relations with admirers. Noble folks so enamored with you that they seek to have you for themselves, nothing new to you of course.

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Eventually though you reach the last stopgap before the local lord himself; his wife. As you come to understand it, this is primarily because of gender roles in the present-day culture of these humans, and what is considered proper. Already the ruling noble family and retainers seem certain that they want you incorporated into the noble house some way or another, but best left to the women of the family to determine that rather than the lord himself meeting with a stranger, a woman in person and in private.

"Why would you want me? What would you want with me?"

"You arrived here, by ship, not a moon since? You must know by now how... dire things are here, for all of us. More than my family, Eindward needs people of quality, whomever they may be. Think of the good you could do from under our wing!"

Of course if you now have the ear of his wife, then it wouldn't be any challenge for you to simply make the final step up to the ruler of this domain. Like everyone, she is so taken by your presence that you could manage a way of asking her for even a personal introduction to her husband. But as she already desires you a place in her house, and offers you access to the castle, you wonder if you wouldn't prefer leaving things at this level for now. After all, you're not sure you even want to go along with any of this, and risk giving up your helping those in need among the commoners. You'd surely do more good among them, than in the castle... right? But then, who knows what you could accomplish from a position of power...

>Yes indeed, you welcome the offer and of course look forward to meeting the Lord Swifthawk himself!
>Sorry, but the small folk need you. Although you're happy to work with the noble house, you intend to stay among the downtrodden.
>Perhaps a halfway measure? You'd like to continue dealing with her Ladyship personally, but prefer to stay in town for the time being.
>[Write-in.]

>>5437786
>>Yes indeed, you welcome the offer and of course look forward to meeting the Lord Swifthawk himself!

>>5437786
>Sorry, but the small folk need you. Although you're happy to work with the noble house, you intend to stay among the downtrodden.

>>5437786
>>Yes indeed, you welcome the offer and of course look forward to meeting the Lord Swifthawk himself!

>>5437786
>>Yes indeed, you welcome the offer and of course look forward to meeting the Lord Swifthawk himself!
Subvert. Unite. Overcome.

>>5437786
>Perhaps a halfway measure? You'd like to continue dealing with her Ladyship personally, but prefer to stay in town for the time being.
>"I've seen much suffering in my journey, I can't completely abandon the poor to their needs, specially after all the support they have given me. But I will gladly help you and his lordship if called."

>>5437786
>>Yes indeed, you welcome the offer and of course look forward to meeting the Lord Swifthawk himself!

Once we've got him we should be able to safely reveal ourselves.

>>5437786
>>Yes indeed, you welcome the offer and of course look forward to meeting the Lord Swifthawk himself!

>>5437786
>Sorry, but the small folk need you. Although you're happy to work with the noble house, you intend to stay among the downtrodden.

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>>5437851
>>5437920
>>5437940
>>5437994
>>5438014
>>5438088
>>5438238
>>5438239
>Yes indeed, you welcome the offer and of course look forward to meeting the Lord Swifthawk himself!

You know mortals better than perhaps anyone, so it's not a surprise to you that even passively living among them, invariably exalted you among the hierarchy. Such is the way of beauty, along with the rumors and reputation you've gathered from your efforts. Still though, you hadn't planned to just abandon portions of the population based upon their privilege. Especially in favor of those who don't need you most, but you recall your failing efforts across the sea. Of course the situation is not as dire here, albeit quite awful besides, but trying to live among the commonfolk and personally help them on an individual basis... you can't be everywhere at once, and with enough hardship and suffering your efforts will inevitably be drowned out.

You tried it that way before, so you believe you could afford to try it the way the mortals want.

"I've seen much suffering in my journey, I can't completely abandon the poor to their needs, especially after all the support they have given me... but I will gladly help you and his lordship."

"Of course the poor, of course! You clearly know them well, who better to help us understand their plight from the castle?"

Lady Jane, as she insists you call her from here on, is delighted at your acceptance. Probably because she'll have something significant to show for her efforts when she returns to the castle with you. Though you try to make clear your position, of wanting to maintain your place with the needy, the noble lady seems convinced (at least internally) that you will come to change your mind once you find your place in the castle.

Although before you leave, there's some expected trouble, of the lesser noble family not wanting to let you go! Even in your short time, just a few days of living with them, they're all quite in love with you or at least your presence. Tempers flare and swords are drawn when Lady Jane tries to take you with her, and it's a conflict only you can defuse, although you leave the family with broken hearts at your departure... perhaps the same for the poorly and the refugees beyond the town walls, and you worry if their hope hasn't faded in your absence.

---

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---

Any mortal might be overwhelmed by the quickness at which you are hauled up to the castle, washed and cleaned, put in fancy clothes and fed, and then brought before the governing body of the castle. For you however, this is all simply a learning process and the chance to better understand these mortals you've found yourself among. You spent time with the lowest and gained some understanding of them, now for the highest.

Although if anyone is overwhelmed by the speed of this process, all of it having happened by nightfall, it seems to be the humans themselves. Advisors and some family members of the noble house gathered in the council chamber as they call it, all trying to decide what to do about you now that you're here. Clearly the desire was present for you to be brought under their charge, but now that they have you so soon, there's disagreement over what to do with you. Or at least, in what order and to what extent.

"How can we be sure of who she is, what she is capable of?" the head of finances argues, in an older language before the common speak of this new land was accepted. He echoes one opinion among those gathered.

"Please speak so that she can understand you, she deserves as much for coming here." Lady Jane speaks on your behalf, keeping you at her side through all of this fuss. Partly her concern for you as, what they believe, to be just humble lowborn foreign girl and newcomer to this harsh land and surely out of sorts in this noble environment. But also partly, her stance that the responsibility... and the credit for you, is hers.

Though of course you can speak for yourself, and very effectively could, but you gain so much just by observing that you ponder delaying any action. For one thing, as of yet you haven't seen the local lord himself, and part of this is due to the advisors deliberating what to make of you before presenting you to the ruler. As well though, you know that you will get a different reaction from these mortals as a foreign commoner, than what you truly are. They are showing truer faces to you now than they would otherwise.

However you must accept that it is only the truth to an extent; as always your beauty and presence has an increasing effect upon them. Some want to place you upon a pedestal as a treasure of the noble house, some want to tear you down so that they can have you to themselves as their own treasure. And of course besides this, you don't like wasting time with the intricacies of noble politics when there are people in need of you.

Not to mention, you especially don't like the deference that is expected of you as a supposed lowborn, to submit yourself beneath these mortals. Surely it benefits your disguised identity, but as a goddess in truth (even one as loving and forgiving as you) it invariably irks you some.

>Continue to play along. Let the mortals show their selves and intentions, revealing the field for you to see fully.
>Stand up for yourself, decorum or not. You came here because they asked you, but you're not their prisoner. In fact, you intend to be back among those who need you soon enough.
>The Lord present or not, you aren't going to get a better assembled audience than this. Reveal the truth, or at least demonstrate that you aren't just some lowly trickster with a reputation.
>Oh dear! This has been a trying day, this gathering is overwhelming, these clothes are stuffy! You may just faint, if you don't have some time to adjust to your environment... alone.
>[Write-in.]

>>5438248
>Stand up for yourself, decorum or not. You came here because they asked you, but you're not their prisoner. In fact, you intend to be back among those who need you soon enough.

>>5438251
As for a comment.
>If you are bickering among yourself, making demand and questioning me so soon, than perhaps I was not needed here after all? In that case I'll simply return to slums, were I can help othes, and have it appreciated.

>>5438248
>>Oh dear! This has been a trying day, this gathering is overwhelming, these clothes are stuffy! You may just faint, if you don't have some time to adjust to your environment... alone.

>>5438248
>>The Lord present or not, you aren't going to get a better assembled audience than this. Reveal the truth, or at least demonstrate that you aren't just some lowly trickster with a reputation.

>>5438248
>Oh dear! This has been a trying day, this gathering is overwhelming, these clothes are stuffy! You may just faint, if you don't have some time to adjust to your environment... alone.

>>5438248
>>The Lord present or not, you aren't going to get a better assembled audience than this. Reveal the truth, or at least demonstrate that you aren't just some lowly trickster with a reputation.

>>5438248
>Stand up for yourself, decorum or not. You came here because they asked you, but you're not their prisoner. In fact, you intend to be back among those who need you soon enough.

Seems like a three way tie, will give it awhile longer then roll if need be.

>>5438248
>>Continue to play along. Let the mortals show their selves and intentions, revealing the field for you to see fully.

>>5438248
>The Lord present or not, you aren't going to get a better assembled audience than this. Reveal the truth, or at least demonstrate that you aren't just some lowly trickster with a reputation.

>>5438248
>>Oh dear! This has been a trying day, this gathering is overwhelming, these clothes are stuffy! You may just faint, if you don't have some time to adjust to your environment... alone.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

So instead it reached a normal tie, will flip between the two majority.

>>5438532
>>5438309
>>5438259
>1

>>5438284
>>5438371
>>5438526
>2

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>>5438532
>>5438526
>>5438491
>>5438406
>>5438371
>>5438309
>>5438284
>>5438259
>>5438257
>Oh dear! This has been a trying day, this gathering is overwhelming, these clothes are stuffy! You may just faint, if you don't have some time to adjust to your environment... alone.

To have jumped up the ladder of power so quickly, you know you're on the right path when even the nobles who sought you out hadn't expected to actually have you so soon. Some trickster who fooled the ailing commoners with false remedies, a lively foreigner who lifted people's spirits with her strange ways, or even just a beautiful young lady who would make a better adornment to the castle than to be consumed by hardship beyond the wall. Each step of the way since first hearing of you, these privileged folks must have expected you to fail by their standards.

Instead, you exceeded all expectations and now they argue over what to do with such a treasure.

"If you are bickering among yourselves, making demands and questioning me so soon, than perhaps I was not needed here after all? Oh, this is all too much for me... this day, all of you, these clothes... it's so overwhelming I can hardly stand! Maybe I ought... to simply return to slums, were I can help others, and have it appreciated most?"

The benefits of your identity, along with the gender roles and social strata that the humans of these times have taken on, means you can act the part that they expect of you. A poorly common girl, dragged into this strange environment and subjected to attention and scrutiny? Why, it's too much for any lowborn woman to deal with! You're practically lightheaded, prone to faint if they keep this bother up!

"Oh poor dear!" Lady Jane hugs you close, lest you collapse from all the fuss. "Come Zafira, you need not be subject to all this. I should have known..."

Of course there is protest from the gathered mortals, against your enchanting presence to be removed from the meeting, but the noble lady calls for some maids to help lead you out of there while she deals with the upset. Of course none of this is too much for you to handle, there's no measure to the amount of attention and fuss you could endure.

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But you have a better estimation of the higher up mortals now, and you'd appreciate a time to yourself. Both to take account of your situation, and to let grow this seed of interest and wonder you've planted in their hearts.

"Expect some of them to visit, soon I reckon."

"If you need anything, just ask from your door."

The pair of serving girls show you a room, quicker than you'd have expected after being led away. But then, you were a little distracted by the interior of the castle as you were taken through. A construction to rival the pyramids of old, the structure is quite massive and impressively made, by mortal standards at least. It doesn't seem right for the ruling family and supporters to have such a mighty dwelling while the commoners are picked apart outside in meager houses and tent encampments, but faced with such enemies of the ongoing war, it seems the castle was the only structure of permanence the humans have been able to maintain and so they just kept building and expanding upon it.

Though you'd rather be among those in need and sharing your divine nature with the most people, you cannot lie about your appreciation for these accommodations the nobility afforded you as their guest. For the first time since your return to the world, you actually have some privacy and comfort, more befitting a goddess. And apparently this is just a lowly room for guests, compared with what the noble family are used to. Surely any mortal would value this as well, but the chance you have here to act unobserved... you could make use of your divinity without concern, if you so wished. Or simply, sneak off and explore this grand structure at your leisure now that they left you alone in their home.

Guest... or prisoner. They may think that, but one way or another you cannot be contained. Even if you so desired, to simply jump out the window, the fall which you would of course survive.

>With the chance alone, take account of things. Your condition, your belongings, and what you know.
>You can afford to wait now, in such comfortable conditions. Let your presence fester within the castle till the mortals are driven to action, on your terms.
>See if you can't find someone to call on. Like the overseer of the docks, a mortal you could entice to divulge what they know of this place and these people.
>Wield your divinity as you see fit. Either true to your nature, or beyond your repertoire. {Specify.}
>[Write-in.]

>>5438591
>With the chance alone, take account of things. Your condition, your belongings, and what you know.
Could help knowing our place on the old pantheon of fantasy egypt. We were the one of love, beauty, fertility and health, but did we have anything else? Family, artifacts, rituals and the like

>>5438591
>>You can afford to wait now, in such comfortable conditions. Let your presence fester within the castle till the mortals are driven to action, on your terms.

>>5438596
+1

>>5438591
>With the chance alone, take account of things. Your condition, your belongings, and what you know.

>>5438591
>>With the chance alone, take account of things. Your condition, your belongings, and what you know.
boom

>>5438591
>>With the chance alone, take account of things. Your condition, your belongings, and what you know.

>>5438591
>>You can afford to wait now, in such comfortable conditions. Let your presence fester within the castle till the mortals are driven to action, on your terms.

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>>5438811
>>5438765
>>5438719
>>5438704
>>5438657
>>5438607
>>5438596
>With the chance alone, take account of things. Your condition, your belongings, and what you know.

Ever since your wanderings and finding living mortals again, this is the first time among them really you've had a moment to yourself in privacy. And even that is a bit much to say, since you're within a human domicile and there's dozens of them within a hundred feet of you. Unlike on the ship's voyage or in the refuge camp however, you at least have a door between you and them now.

"This is what they wear in these times? So restrictive, and it must feel heavy on them!"

Amused at the fancy clothes they dressed you up in, you free yourself from at least the outer layers so that you can breathe easy and get to the few personal belongings you bundled up to carry with you. Laying them out on the bed beside the dress, you take account of things. Although being cast into the underworld as punishment, you don't have too much in the way of belongings.

>Your menat, an amulet necklace. An artifact of your own divinity, the other gods could not strip it from you before your imprisonment. With it you can perform rituals of your own divinity (though it is not a requirement), and it as well as others like it confer your divinity upon mortals.
>Your ouroboros, a pair of quartz rings. Symbol of matrimony, if given to another they would become your consort, divinely associated.
>The ankh, a talisman of underworld silver. Something you stole in your escape, the key of life as it is, represents your gained affinity for the divine aspect of death.

It isn't much, but these are all divine artifacts of appropriate power. Of course as a god yourself, you can create artifacts as well. Not a deity of craftsmanship, but iconic symbols of your original homeland, and the old faith. Crook and flail, tyet knots, scarab pendants and of course... the almighty Eye, these things and more you can fashion to divine results, if you have the time or care. As well of course, you know the divine script and can create hieroglyphs which confer the power of their symbols. Such as carving the glyph for "water" upon a container to have it ever-filled. Overall this is the case with anything you do, you will divinely excel at with the omni-competence of a god. Though your divinity is that of Love and similar such concepts, even things anathema to love, like combat you will surpass any mortal.

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The unaccounted factor though, relates to the last of your possessions, your ankh. From those eons imprisoned in the underworld, as a minor trait of your divinity you gained the aspect of death, for not even a god can leave the underworld without some effect. By no means is it an influence upon your nature or divinity, but death is now something you have godly familiarity with. Thus, you can understand and create texts of the afterlife, such as Books of the Dead as an example. These things would have little bearing on you, but they are another, separate divine toolbox available to you so to speak.

"Ah, if they could see me now... Usirin, Essat... Sukteth, Horan..."

In accounting for your belongings and some of your abilities, you come to reminisce of times past, and your divine counterparts... their names to your lips, brings tears to your eyes. For how long you had been furious at them for your imprisonment, eons beneath the underworld river with not but the passing dead for company. Your initial banishment to the mortal world for refusing to take on the aspect of an animal like the rest of them (they sought to give you the head of a cow!) and then subsequent punishment to the underworld for loving the mortals too much... begetting a demigod son, the very first pharaoh. How long you had hated them for this, but after your escape and inability to find them after eons, you now fear for the worst. The thought of their absence from the world, all that hate seems so petty and washes away with your tears. Only the longing to see them again, all that remains.

Ah, but grief is unbecoming of a goddess. You must be strong for their sake, and yours. Whatever became of your divine companions, you know they would never forgive you for letting humanity perish under your watch. In fact, past grievances or not, you don't expect the other gods would object to leaning on their power. I may be that you cannot call on them for assistance, but details of their divinity such as artifacts, may be an option for you. Strange to consider, distasteful even, for you. But until you find reason or evidence otherwise, it may be that you now stand at the head of the old pantheon... alone.

For now though you focus on what you know; your belongings, your capabilities, and your divinity. These divine tools for you to wield in the struggle the humans now face, with the hope of saving them or helping them find a noble end. Although you expect some difficulty with the present (and mainstay) opposing religion, their one god, it's not as though you seek to displace or usurp such a role in their faith... right? In any case, for all the faith that they have, how many of the mortals can deny the truth before them if and when you should display and wield your own divinity? In their time of need, they ought to reconcile any sort of religious crisis they may feel, if they want any hope of escaping extinction.

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>A better sense of what you are capable of, what do you now do? Since the immediate situation hasn't changed, you can refer to the prior choices of the previous post if you desire, and haven't any other options you'd rather do;

>>5438591

>>5439000
>See if you can't find someone to call on. Like the overseer of the docks, a mortal you could entice to divulge what they know of this place and these people.

>>5439000
>>You can afford to wait now, in such comfortable conditions. Let your presence fester within the castle till the mortals are driven to action, on your terms.
Me wonders if we are going to encounter some death-plagued gods at the head of this undead menace?

>>5439000
Cow head, and mother of the pharaoh? I thought the hathor image was just because she was also a goddess of love but we are going the whole deal.
>Wield your divinity as you see fit. Either true to your nature, or beyond your repertoire. {Specify.}
I wonder how the health aspect of Sedjet interacts with the death one she gained.

>>5439000
>>See if you can't find someone to call on. Like the overseer of the docks, a mortal you could entice to divulge what they know of this place and these people.
Play the out of her depth peasant girl and find someone to ask questions to. Maybe one of the higher ranking people who have visited you these past few days? Then again, some of them should be here soon, so let's maybe just get dressed back up and wait for them?

So far the path seems clear. Sway the ruling house to our favor, use our powers to create a few artifacts of healing and abundance to keep the people from getting whittled down further. Figure out what's roaming outside the walls and deal with them. Then travel to the other human enclave. Charm them all into unity, then crank your own Love aspect up, provide bountiful harvest and numerous and strong offsprings, since there's less than 20k humans left. At least it means most of them we can reach and maybe boost a little?
It's more of a support role, but we're not a god of war. Also, I'd keep an eye/ear out for any cases of plague in the port cities. Isolating a few on an island could give us a safe work environment to figure out just what on earth is going on with the whole army of the dead business. With any luck, we are anathema to it and can at least make sure it doesn't spread here. We were able to keep it off the boat.

>>5439000
>>You can afford to wait now, in such comfortable conditions. Let your presence fester within the castle till the mortals are driven to action, on your terms.

>>5439000
>See if you can't find someone to call on. Like the overseer of the docks, a mortal you could entice to divulge what they know of this place and these people.

>>You can afford to wait now, in such comfortable conditions. Let your presence fester within the castle till the mortals are driven to action, on your terms.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5439140
>>5439075
>>5439018
>1

>>5439012
>>5439080
>>5439040
>2

Looks like a tie between these two majorities so will roll to decide.

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>>5439175
>You can afford to wait now, in such comfortable conditions. Let your presence fester within the castle till the mortals are driven to action, on your terms.

Maybe not to plan, but you're fine with the efforts of the mortals so far. The better you understand them the better you can rule- ah, help them! And from your interactions before, it should prompt them to behave to your liking rather than petty and aimless squabbling. Having given them a taste of your presence earlier, leave them time for cooler heads to prevail... or chaos to break out, either way it's an outcome you'd rather deal with than indecision.

"You say such sweet things... but please Sir, I can't!"

"You do not belong here, a beauty like you deserves a better life than this! Come away with me, to the south, you would have a good life there."

How scandalous, the things you have to put up with these mortals! In the time spent waiting, through the night you get approached more than once in secret, but would-be suitors. A strapping young knight in service to the house, who actually tries to carry you off with him to elope before you can stop him. Then a visiting member from a rival noble house who offers you a way to escape all this trouble and enjoy a better life with her family, if you'll marry her son. Then finally the steward of the castle who merely offers you better accommodations... with him. Aside of these secretive attempts by others to steal you away, you also are visited by a group of the servants who, being commoners themselves are more aware of your reputation and hold the belief that you can help them with injuries and illness.

It's all quite amusing really, and all from the comfort of your own room! You always have loved mortals, and not just because of your divine nature. They are always a source of fun, and chaos in their unpredictability. In many ways you understand them as only a god can, your divine familiarity with the human condition... and yet, they still always find ways to surprise you. Most of the other gods of the old faith preferred to remain separate of the mortal world, but for you it was hardly a punishment being banished there in the first place.

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And even after eons away, and the grim state of the world, some things never change. Glad, that you are to be among them again and try to help in this, their twilight. Though they certainly make it easy for you, even on a personal and physical level. You must admit, though you don't approve of most of the changes in culture and custom of these mortals, there's no denying that their grasp of the finer things in life has advanced more than the mortals in your time and of your own desert homeland. Compared to living rough these last years since your escape, a cushioned bed and carpeted floor, with decent food and drink between... you're willing to accept a little indulgence for the physical aspect of yourself, and treat it as devoted tribute from these humans.

"Enjoying yourself? I am glad someone is, there is a sore lack of levity these days."

It's come the next morning though, while enjoying a breakfast with some servants and the guard from outside your room (all of whom you asked to join you in eating rather than what they would have had to eat otherwise) that Lady Jane comes to visit you again. This time with a noble-looking fellow, who remarks on your enjoyment with the commoner staff. For some reason the others with you though all become worried and rise from the table to try and hastily act proper.

"Who's this then, Lady Jane?" you try to speak between eating something you have actually never tried before even for your divinity, they call it a tomato.

"This is my husband Zafira, the lord of House Swifthawk. You can understand our seriousness for bringing you here, among our family?"

Well there you have it, just the man you were looking for! Admittedly not the circumstances you'd thought to be meeting him in, but by now the noble mortals seem to be better understanding and accepting of your perceived nature as a young commoner woman. Easier for you they must think, to meet in a less stressful setting than for example giving you audience in the main hall before the castle court. From what you know so far, you expect the head Lord and Lady of the noble House will try to accomplish what everyone has wanted to so far; to make a retainer of you for their family, so they can have better control of you and keep you out of harm.

Of course the weight of what some mortals want, even noble ones, is not the same as what a god may want.

>Indeed you are but a humble lowborn foreign girl! Show proper deference and play up to what the nobles expect of you.
>After the various others who sought your attention, this feels like just another ploy. Shouldn't this matter be conducted before others of similar stature, like that gathering of important House members yesterday?
>A goddess bows before no mortal. With the highest authority in this domain as your witness, let them all know what they are dealing with. {Specify.}
>[Write-in.]

>>5439226
>After the various others who sought your attention, this feels like just another ploy. Shouldn't this matter be conducted before others of similar stature, like that gathering of important House members yesterday?

>>5439226
>>A goddess bows before no mortal. With the highest authority in this domain as your witness, let them all know what they are dealing with. {Specify.}
A prophet

>>5439232
>+1

>>5439232
*prophetess

>>5439232
+1

>>5439232
Supporting

>>5439232
For clarity, do you want to present yourself as a prophet(ess) of Sedjet, or of this other god theirs?

>>5439408
Prophetess of Sedjet

>>5439226
>>A goddess bows before no mortal. With the highest authority in this domain as your witness, let them all know what they are dealing with. {Specify.}

Our divine beauty shall become a terror to behold!

>>5439408
Sedjet

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>>5439416
>>5439228
>>5439232
>>5439303
>>5439330
>>5439351
>A goddess bows before no mortal. With the highest authority in this domain as your witness, let them all know what they are dealing with. {Specify.}

Finally having an audience befitting you, the truth now seems appropriate. Or at least, more towards the truth. Unveiling your divinity entirely would surely frighten these mortals, and make things unpredictable. There is a time and place for that surely, but while you can accomplish what you need to without it, you consider it a worthy course of action.

"Seg-get? What did you say dear, Suh-jiet?"

"You said she was from Namar? That is not right, she is... what was it, pyramids you mentioned girl?"

"Menaj... and it was Sedjet, I said."

You answer along and continue to play the part as the ruling couple question and try to get to know you... although the lord doesn't seem too eager to be here, only at the insistence of his wife. When you do get the chance to speak for yourself though and proclaim the desired "truth" about yourself... you're met with confusion at first. The few servants present look utterly clueless, and with an education the lord only vaguely recalls your desert homeland from books.

Indeed, they think you're acting silly or some such at first, and try to see through whatever game they think you're playing with them.

"You do not need to behave this way with us, Zafira. You are safe and welcome now in our home, not surviving beyond the walls."

"Behave..." you groan in annoyance, remembering this aspect of mortals you don't like. "The safety and welcome is Sedjet's to give."

Rather than try to bandy your way through social etiquette that is unfamiliar to you, in order to convince these mortals of what you say... instead a demonstration seems in order. Seeing is believing for them, after all. Looking among the servants then, you settle on the guard who is blind in one eye from a Northmen raid. Asking for his cooperation and swaying him with your presence, you guide the man to kneel for your height, taking his head in your hands. Whispering divine words over him, you give a kiss to his dead eye and impart your favor, hugging him to your body after. All the while you keep your own eyes closed, to hide your divinity which would become obvious when your eyes started glowing with a godly light, upon performing this miracle.

All of this of course is watched by everyone present, to mixed reactions. At first your behavior is regarded is something strange and foreign, like you are, but eventually the tolerance of these people runs thin when your prolonged contact with the man is seen as inappropriate and unladylike. Disparaging comments uttered from those present, eventually patience wears thin and Lord Swifthawk moves to separate the two of you.

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Taking you by the arm, he asks his wife in annoyance over this time-wasting display, of distracting him with some foreign con artist girl when there is a war going on. The servants too, stifle laughter at the strange, failed display on your part.

You're content to let things play out however, as being pulled away from the guard breaks your influence over him, and by the time he's risen to standing again your power has taken effect.

"...see. I can see..." the guard holds at his face, words shaking even for a tough man like him.

"What? Speak up man."

"...I can see again, your grace. My sight has returned... from nothing, to good as the other now."

Silence takes the room, banishing the ridicule and annoyance that had occupied it prior. Quickly the lord unhands you, as the mortals look to you in worry and awe.

---

"A servant of the devil, I say! We cannot afford a witch in our midst!"

"She was brought here in the first place. She could have been left alone among the commoners."

"And spread her poison among them? We have enough enemies as it is!"

Well that's gone and done it. Your miraculous display was received well by some, badly by others, but all seem in agreement that your display of actual power cannot be taken as trickery any longer. Now you must be regarded as something serious... but a Prophetess to this "Sedjet" being? It might have been mistaken rambling of a foreign girl at first, but when you affirm your position each time, there can be no denying that you and your power are the cause of something... else. Something in opposition to the God that the mortals of these times hold faith in.

It's all a bit confusing to you though, as you sit restrained in a chair in a bleak room with barred windows and a locked door, overlooked by some gathered officials all arguing over you. Mostly religious figures, but not all of them, an advisor and noble or two of the House as well. In your time, many different faiths found place among one another, for all the gods that there were. Sure there could be tension and mortals don't always get along, but the homeland functioned more or less fine in the religious aspect for thousands of mortal years (or more, after your imprisonment). Now though, and here, the faith seems... a little unforgiving to say the least.

Partly out of desperation for sure, the struggle for survival each day is a heavy burden upon these people. As things get worse and worse, for many their faith gets stronger, which is admirable to you and something you love in the mortals. As well, their doggedness seems rooted in fear of the plague, the belief that the doom of the old world was due in part or entire to a lack of faith overtime. The only way to keep the blight from spreading, following to this new world then, is to remain vigilant in all ways including faith.

That, and a fear you can sense from them, over those people whose faith lessens from all the hardships and so would turn elsewhere for salvation. Less of the flock, means less control, and less power. Albeit less power, when the overall struggle is for survival against hostile forces. You don't appreciate the reaction of these mortals or their treatment of you (though they haven't harmed you at least, opposition to that for you being a woman), but you can understand where they are coming from and accept their fear and concern.

Whether you choose to sit and accept it though, is entirely up to you of course.

>What do you do?

>>5439626
>Sedjet is an old goddess, a foreign one. Forgotten by her own people, and awakened by the death and destruction of the old world. She wept for what she saw. She does not demand worship, or even need it. She does not want you to abandon your God and your ways. All she want is to for humanity to be healthy, to multiply and to be united in love for eachother. She does not want mankind to die, or to survive with the spark of kindness and hope that made her love it to begin with.
>And before you say anything about the love and fertility being depravity, it is not what she brings. It's the warmth of a married couple, the care of a mother towards their newborn, the comfort of a child seeks in their parent's arms, the trust of a friend, the solidarity of a neighbor, not the embrace of a prostitute of a wanton orgy.

>>5439644
without the spark
Or the wanton

>>5439626
Eh, expected. Let's see what they decide. If they want to spare us an let us do our thing, graciously accpet, and just break through your restraints.
But if they dare lay so much as a finger upon you, they have to go. The nobles, the church. All will go. Love and fertility looks like sunshine and rainbows until you don't play nice. Then you're going to realize just how precious a balance the human body is and how easily your gifts become curses. Whether that's through using another side of our power or just using edge cases in our basic skillset to cause harm instead of good.
Fortunately for them biology textbooks and virology/bacteriology isn't a thing. Imagine what would happen for example if the cancerous growth constantly cropping up in your body and being put down by your immune system just started growing 10, maybe 100 times faster. It's still growth, so we're perfectly in our domain! Would it really be so hard to cook up a plague that doesn't hit those we bless? Plans for later, no matter the outcome of this shortsighted dispute.

>>5439626
Let them ponder and discuss. Try to spread our influence subtly if possible and wait.

>>5439626
Wait it out

>>5439626
>wait it out.
we don't HAVE to do anything, they know we have the power to help them.

>>5439626
>Wait it out

Later than usual but will be posting shortly, sorry about the delay.

Separately though, I will be busy tomorrow and probably will not be able to post, or at least only in the evening around this similar time. So feel free to take a break, or if you have any plans, or even questions for anything you want/need to know, feel free to express them for when we resume.

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>>5439945
>>5439871
>>5439852
>>5439749
>>5439663
>>5439644
>Wait it out

You're certainly not happy about all this, being grabbed and dragged off and tied to a chair for interrogation. Aren't you supposed to be the guest of these mortals? They have a funny way of showing it. But, by your nature you have patience at least enough for this, for them. Especially when they are acting out of fear, an emotion to challenge even love.

So you can merely watch, and wait. Listen to them argue over you, make all kinds of accusations and excuses... and interestingly, watch for those who defend you and those who do not. Some of the mortals have seen you before, others this is their first time, but your appearance and your presence continues to influence even as you sit here doing nothing. Though... you're not really doing nothing. You look to them as a distressed young woman, in need of sympathy and protecting, evoking instincts and feelings in them that they try to suppress or hide while arguing about your fate.

"-and your coming here, this must be House Proudhound's doing! To sway the people away from the faith and weaken us all!"

"Sedjet is an old goddess, a foreign one. Forgotten by her own people, and awakened by the death and destruction of the old world. She wept for what she saw. She does not demand worship, or even need it. She does not want you to abandon your God and your ways. All she wants is to for humanity to be healthy, to multiply and to be united in love for each other. She does not want mankind to die, or to survive without the kindness and hope that made her love it to begin with."

"If that is true, then why call yourself a prophet? If you perform these... actions, as you have, worship from among the people cannot be avoided."

Given the situation, and the social customs for gender and noble status (or lack thereof) you aren't afforded many chances to speak, nor do these people have very much care for what you have to say. Some of them, particularly members of the noble family rather than the advisors and clergy types, try to give you a fair chance though and you speak with divine collection when you can. Something of a fair point is raised however, as to why you felt the need to expose yourself in the first place. If you truly have no will towards seeding a new faith for this Sedjet deity, then why not simply remain secret about it all. As far as they are aware (and correctly assume), you had not been espousing faith of some other religion when you were among the needy and the refugees. In fact, many of these noble folks took you for a con artist by what they'd heard of you. But here you are now, performing miracles and speaking as a prophet of a foreign god.

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Of course to you, who means nothing by this, it's hard to grasp why anyone would have a problem with your actions or position. But these mortals, governed by fear and desperation, are beholden to entirely different priorities that they believe in.

"Could she, this Sedjet, not be viewed as a Saint of the Almighty? It would not be the first time, for those heathen deities..."

"A saint?! The entity is not even native to our ancestral homeland! And to think, a being of carnality and-"

"And before you say anything about the love and fertility being depravity, it's not what she brings. It's the warmth of a married couple, the care of a mother towards their newborn, the comfort of a child seeks in their parent's arms, the trust of a friend, the solidarity of a neighbor, not the embrace of a prostitute of a orgy."

That's right, a little white lie never hurt anyone! In truth you are the goddess of Love, not sexuality or lust, leave that to lesser gods and goddesses. And yet... these aspects still hold their place under your domain, same as with fertility. In many ways you cannot have one without the other, and while your true godly favor is reserved for the divine love between people; romantic or platonic or in kinship... that said, even the embrace of a prostitute or an orgy still bear aspects of love, however diluted or twisted. It's like how your godly domain of Beauty isn't limited to just physical attractiveness, but beauty in form such as a graceful dance, or finely made architecture (hence your appreciate for the castle). Or how your domain of Fertility applies to plant life just as much as animal, and you wouldn't think to shun one over the other.

But from what you've seen and learned of these "modern" mortals, their society and culture, and even sensibilities are more reserved... restrictive, than what you knew in your time. For some people a goddess of Love would be an appropriately beloved and welcome thing, but for these people... probably because of these miserable times, a goddess of Love is seen as a danger. By her own nature, and because of any challenge to their chosen God. So for their sake and yours, you try to shape their impression of Sedjet to be more appealing, more tolerable.

You could at least not make things seem worse, in any case...

---

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---

"What now? More soldiers to- oh, poor thing! Come, let me see to that!"

Well, with everything said and done, that could have gone worse. It could have gone better too, but at least not worse. Through the interrogation and the fear, in the end you benefit from the mercy of the nobles and clergy. The biggest factors in your favor being your beauty and your presentation as a harmless foreign girl. Your claim though for being a prophet, rather than a god, is not a popular one but it works in your favor. Someone claiming to be a false prophet can be managed, but someone claiming to be a false god... trial by fire would have been the only option.

It goes without saying that you would be ejected from the castle, away from the ruling family. From what they know of you thus far however, you are considered both too valuable and too risky to let loose into the world. So in exchange for mercy, and a relative lack of persecution, you are permitted to remain within town and continue to help those in need. Under the stipulation that you keep your faith to yourself (with a paladin to supervise and "protect" you at all times), that you remain in safety within the walls, and that you see to the needs of Eindward first and foremost... which given the war, means soldiers first.

"You have my thanks miss, you saved my lads." a knight speaks, after you saved the lives of several dying men in the barracks with your healing power. "I am in your debt for this."

This situation imposed upon you, of course you aren't happy with it. But gods know the soldiers need your help... honestly, perhaps more than the needy and the refugees even, for it is these brave men who throw themselves into harms way to protect the others. In this regard you appreciate the work, but the conditions are still not to your liking. Required to live where they tell you, always under supervision, and they took your ankh on top of everything else! Your rings and your menat, even the clergy couldn't discern as divine objects, but the ankh clearly is a symbol and so deemed heretical. You would have snapped then and there when they seized it from you, if you weren't sure you could recover it later, and that you wouldn't have to break their mortal bodies to keep it.

All things considered though, indeed it could have gone worse. And it's only been a day or two since, you know that if you so desired you could change your situation as you saw fit, by will or by force. You accepted the situation for now, to reduce mortal hostility towards you, and because you've been returned to a position of helping people. The plight of the soldiers is dear to your heart, and it's not as if the poorly and the refugees can't still come to see you... they just have a difficult time of it, trying to get into town past the wall and gates. Much easier when you were living among them. But, there is no mistaking, that you are only a "prisoner" for as long as you allow it.

>Keep your head low and continue helping people however you can. At least until the negative attention on you dies down.
>From the restrictions the mortals placed on you, see if you can't sneakily act as you'd rather without their notice.
>Adjust to your environment, and when you have the chance in private, make use of your divinity. See what you're capable of.
>You can tolerate another couple days of this maybe, but then you intend to make some changes around here. {Specify.}
>[Write-in.]

>>5440098
>>Adjust to your environment, and when you have the chance in private, make use of your divinity. See what you're capable of.

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>>5440098
>>Adjust to your environment, and when you have the chance in private, make use of your divinity. See what you're capable of.
Kinda wished they had put us on an inquisition trial so we could prove our divinity to everyone.

>>5440121
Only because you are too pretty, and hadn't done something too heretical. Not to say you couldn't though.

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>>5440098
>>Adjust to your environment, and when you have the chance in private, make use of your divinity. See what you're capable of.
Test the waters and see what we can do. The inquisition will come later I am sure, and for that we need to be ready, nevermind the deathplague.

>>5440171
Well, on top of what you will find you are capable of, from now till next anyone can suggest what powers or abilities you may be able to perform. Within the purview of your godly domains, of course. Something to do, along with whatever else you care to occupy yourselves with tomorrow.

>>5440168
>Only because you are too pretty
I would think that being too beautiful makes the inquisition even more interested in us rather than less.

>>5440098
>Adjust to your environment, and when you have the chance in private, make use of your divinity. See what you're capable of.

>>5440179
More interested, but more sympathetic. The influence of your divinity tends to make mortals not want to upset or harm such an enchanting beauty. Usually.

It's why you're usually able to rebuke romantic advances, because most suitors value not upsetting you more than their desire.

>>5440187
Speaking of suitors, can we start identifying men worthy of our full love? A goddess of love cannot remain on her own. She needs partner(s).

>>5440188
If you choose to, sure. Not to get into a dating sim, but you can determine what would make for a good partner. Or not, if you're more freely giving of your affection to whomever or whatever.

Whatever you decide is for the best in your course for trying to save humanity.

>>5440098
>Adjust to your environment, and when you have the chance in private, make use of your divinity. See what you're capable of.

Wonder if we can do something like a hate plague wherein we ramp up everybody's emotions to kill each other. Or invoke certain emotions such as the thrill of battle or the love of one's family/god/country to make them fight harder. Sounds a bit like a War god ability, in my opinion, but love and war have always been intertwined in deities.

>>5440188
Gotta find us a true hero to fall in love with. That or forge a hero and bestow our favor upon them to make our champion in saving humanity. Wonder if we can dig up any of our old divine Egypt pals.

>>5440192
A hero or someone with the potential to be one.

>>5440176
Depending on our understanding of the finer points of human and plant anatomy, I'm thinking selective use of our growth powers could be easily weaponized. Creating a plague of our own would maybe be possible, but would push the envelope on our domain. Obviously cranking up the goddess charm could disable most opponents in sheer awe or suddenly finding out they have more important need sin life than to run us through with a sword.
We're good at short range and for self-targeting effects, but we probably won't have the range of an actual god of war with divine weapons.

>>5440098
>You can tolerate another couple days of this maybe, but then you intend to make some changes around here. {Specify.}

Play the game for awhile, but with a stern warning: all that lay a finger to harm us or stand in the way of our Good Works will die. Simply drop dead, and bloom with all the things of nature: flowers will bloom and insects will spawn, die again and whither away. A goddess walks where she will, and her "prophetess" has such divine protection.

We have the aspect of death, and of fertility. Two sides of the same coin really. That which dies becomes food for the earth to grow bountiful and bloom. Just as blood fertilizes the Earth, the flies find fecundity in rotten meat. In fact, the walking dead are an abomination of this: no longer allowed to love, or rest, or give themselves back to their earth who wishes they too into it's embrace, to rejoin the cycles of death, rebirth, finding a mate, loving and creating.

There are many forms of love. The love for a lord and his subjects, the love of the Church for it's flock. They should be ashamed of themselves to twist a greedy desire for us to do their bidding instead of allowing us to walk our path to help their subjects, asking for nothing and giving everything. We can be the herald for a prosperous golden age, and their petty desires cannot stand in the way of a living goddess.

>>5440098
>From the restrictions the mortals placed on you, see if you can't sneakily act as you'd rather without their notice.

>>5440176
I still want to see how our original domain of health interacts with our new one of death.
Maybe we could cure this deathplague and undeath

>>5440098
>>Adjust to your environment, and when you have the chance in private, make use of your divinity. See what you're capable of.

Being able to charm people and invoke emotions is an obvious one. Mind control? What about being able to gather energy from strong emotions and direct it in the form of bolts or blasts?

By nature of being able to heal afflictions, I wonder what other physical manipulations we are capable of? Overloading a life force perhaps?

>>5440188
>>5440220

Waifu war shit would be lame, but a goddess of love could well take advantage of the codes of chivalry and have knights competing for her favor, having martial followers is something that I'm sure we'll need.

>>5440315
>>5440296
This matter of the death plague is naturally important to you, so you surely will remain on the lookout for any signs of it, to experiment with. Just keep in mind that the aspect of death is something unnatural, and lesser to you. If you think of Love as your prime domain, then Beauty, Fertility, and Health as greater domains, and Death is a lesser domain. Still a part of who/what you are, but you shouldn't consider it on the same level or weight as your other aspects.

A comparable example would be if you'd instead been imprisoned in a glacier, then Cold or Ice would be a lesser domain you incur.

>>5440296
>>5440282
Fertility also applies to microbes and bacteria, something that eludes mortal understanding but not that of a god. Able to cultivate them as sure as you can a plant or animal.

>>5440220
>>5440332
The extent of what is possible by your domains can be explained by myths about you, in regards to the old faith. If you, the player(s), can come up with or describe some appropriate mythological account of Sedjet which would explain a power or ability, then that may be sufficient.

For example, the myth of your meddling among the mortals and banishment to the underworld, explaining how you obtained the divine aspect of death.

>>5440346
Well, she is related to fertility, and therefore harvest. Therefore, she needs to somehow be related to the cycle of seasons, or since it's fantasy egypt, the nile's cycle of inundation.

Once, the land was fertile and green. However, an unending drought came, turning the forests into plains, and the plains into deserts. Sedjet, seeing the suffering of humanity, was deeply moved, and began to cry day and night, until a great lake formed underneath. From the lake, a large river was birthed, cutting the desert in half, giving succor to the people with sweet water and shade from the sun. The goddess weeping became lesser then, but humanity still starved. With the river retreating, the holy water left behind a fertile mud, that could feed all. Seeing the people's thirst and hunger satiated, Sedjet no longer weeped, and the great river dried, until the cycle stated anew.
And that's why the crying eye of Sedjet is the symbol of fertility, why she is the mother of the Nyl, and why the Pharaoh, her descendant, can order the river to flow and wane.

>>5440346
Hmm, then having our own version of the plagues could work.
One for microbes and bacteria, and one for the El Cancer special.
In both, mortals denied Sedjet's message of love and marched against her followers and priestesses. As punishment, Sedjet brought life against them. In all of their kingdom, water source went opaque as toxic plants and critters reproduced in the water. Silos were taken over by ever-breeding masses of rats, and the rats' pests soon became a plague on nearby villages.
But the worst fate was reserved for those that dared defile Sedje't temples and priestesses. Wherever the Eye of Sedjet came to rest upon these brutish mortals, their bodies would grow and distort in a thousand painful ways, growing in unnatural ways until their whole life was spent.

It's all about knowing where to apply a bit of a boost. Cancerous cells are as simple as they are dumb, it's only a matter of boosting them instead of the immune system. Doing so with no contacts, on multiple people would require artifacts like the ankh or them coming into one of our temples or places of power.

Another small one:
It is say that any who saw Sedjet and had ill intentions towards her and her followers immediately dropped their weapons, for when looking at the goddess, no man could find it in his heart to fight her Love or to mar her Beauty.

Probably would feed well into the competing champions some anons are pushing for. Sedjet as an unreachable goal for her male priests and some of her warriors? I say some because we need them to still have kids.
Honestly our real power will be a few generations down the line. More children, healthier children, less child death, almost no death in childbirth because of our Fertility domain. We could gain a better warrior base by just breeding better, almost fine-tuned humans to resist almost any disease and hardship. Hardier people to work the fields better and faster, and a thousand more ways to make our people better. Not changing humanity, or what's left of it, but making sure it grows healthy, like one would crossbreed plants or trim a tree. That is our real power, I think.

Thinking about a champion of humanity, we can probably have a child who is one since, in the past, Sedjet gave birth to the first pharaoh, a leader of men. Huh, wonder if our past civilization, the pharaohs, would claim legitimacy by citing their familial relationship to Sedjet.

Back now, will try to post in awhile.

>>5440410
>>5440514
These are fantastic examples, and wholly appropriate!

Furthermore because you are immortal, with countless years to your name, you are likely quite capable of fostering the humans as you see fit. Because there are so few of them, your efforts will surely have a greater impact, compared to your own time when mortals were already too numerous to hold such a direct sway over. At least, within the confines of divinity that the gods imposed upon all of yourselves. To remain distant, rather than personally and physically ruling or leading mortals.

Though it seems now, any such "rules" are long since irrelevant.

>>5441062
That may be possible, and you wouldn't have to worry about being punished for it now.

>>5441062
Sure, let's find great heroes and designate our offsprings as rulers of this world.

>>5441076
Nice, with the powers to curse with flood and sickness we have atleast some weapons besides our divine nature

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>>5440118
>>5440121
>>5440171
>>5440185
>>5440220
>>5440296
>>5440305
>>5440332
>Adjust to your environment, and when you have the chance in private, make use of your divinity. See what you're capable of.

Because of the value you provide to the town, you are afforded accommodation in a decent home. That of non-noble retainer family to House Swifthawk, and though it is the lord's order for you to stay with them, you immediately earn your keep by helping their son maimed in battle. Again, you aren't too happy with the conditions imposed upon you, but you are allowed and encouraged to continue helping people however and whenever you can... all under the supervision of the paladin of course. A noble son of another retainer family, Sir Tyne is sworn to the church and is supposed to protect you and to make sure that you don't do anything heretical.

"But Sir, you can't abandon your vows!"

"For you my lady, anything..."

Of course the mortals underestimate you, because the poor fool falls in love with you soon enough, like so many others. Though it is amusing to see a supposed champion of their faith fall sway to your influence all the same, you'd hate to cause the poor young man trouble or guilt. Besides, it's more useful that you instead make use of his being enamored with you, by allowing you to sneakily avoid some of the restrictions placed upon you. A good example, being able to sneak outside the walls sometimes and return to the helping the needy.

At least when you're not so busy helping soldiers, which is most of your effort spent. However it's for a good cause, because in just a week or so you're hearing stories of Eindward starting to hold its own against the enemy for once. Not just a constant loss of territory and life, the soldiers being kept in good health means fast recovery from battles and the ability to patrol the region and strike back against hostile forces.

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"This kind of accuracy, I'm not used to seeing it from morta- humans, I mean... that's what I've heard!" you comment, having to deal with yet another soldier dying from many arrows bristling precisely from his body.

"It's the damned tall ones, too cowardly to fight us so they stand back and let arrows fly." the injured man's commanding knight grumbles.

"...elves, my lady." Sir Tyne further explains.

The particular challenge House Swifthawk faces, is from the northmen and their elven masters. The notorious traitor humans, hated by all others, it was the northmen who first discovered this "new world" for which the knowledge of came to spread through the old. Rather than help their fellow humans however, the northmen helped the race of elves (who are poor seafarers) and transported them to this new homeland, in exchange for a subservient role. Now they act as the naval force for the elves, and raid up and down along the coast as well as acting as muscle in the land conflict. Some few among the northerners, their "sons of the storm" of fearsome power, make a formidable frontline followed by ranks of elven archers.

Such a formidable enemy, it's no wonder you are so busy with trying to save people from violent deaths by the dangerous foe.

---

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---

As a goddess you do not tire from days full of work, but to keep up appearances (same as eating, a choice rather than need) you act as such. Mainly so that you can get some time alone to yourself, because as much as Tyne is supposed to supervise you, he wouldn't dare to intrude on a lady's quarters... unless she wanted it. With the privacy though you can re-familiarize yourself with what you're capable of. Namely the way in which your divinity functions.

>As a goddess, you can wield your divinity to do most anything you desire or could imagine. With the power and competence of a deity, you can roll a 1d100 to do something, when you feel that something is worth divine effort. Even things which are unfamiliar to you, such as combat or skills you have no experience with, you still should outperform any mortal. As for things which are familiar to you, like your godly domains of Love and such, you don't need to roll and automatically succeed as you have seen thus far. Only by choice, could you choose not to triumph in these regards, such as choosing to withhold love from mortals and halt their succumbing to it.
>You yourself, and your divinity, will always be stronger when you personally embrace your own domains, such as being in love yourself. Conversely you will always be weaker when not embracing them, like being in poor health.
>Be aware that actively wielding divinity (excluding your own domains) does actually tire you, and as well that doing so will naturally reveal you to be divine, without proper precaution taken. Your "disguise" isn't actually different from your true form, just that mortals wouldn't perceive your godly nature because you don't gleam and glow with divine light if you aren't wielding it.

So as you know, you of course aren't limited to efforts of love and beauty and such. If you so desired to take matters into your own hands, you could wield your divinity to sneak out with the stealth of a god, acrobatically maneuver your way into the castle with the grace of a god, talk your way past guards with the charisma of a god, and then fight your way out after with the martial prowess of a god... though with the possibility to fail any of these things, albeit unlikely. Of course it may be easier to rely on your godly domains for which you cannot fail, but not all problems can be solved with just love and beauty and such.

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Part of why, because of your helping efforts of late, you have some desire to sally out with the soldiers. To be able to help and heal them on the field of battle and directly save more lives, but also to assist them in the battle itself, such as helping transport supplies and the injured, offering tactical decisions and strategic command, influencing the environment or even personally fighting yourself... or just simply compelling the enemy to lay down arms by your Love, unnerving them to harm you by your Beauty, overgrow the battlefield with verdant life by your Fertility, or offer to heal them of their ills in exchange for peace. Or of course, withholding your godly domains from the enemy and causing them ruin for the utter lack of love, beauty, fertility and health. Not to mention of course, that being among the fires of this conflict is as sure a place as any to find a worthy hero, that you might favor.

Although, a particular motivator for you wanting to do this, is because after some weeks of your efforts the soldiers are so grateful for your help that they are starting to view Sedjet as a patron saint of soldiers. Something which hasn't grown strong enough to be noticed by those in power, but something to be aware of yourself. Ah, but in any case you've better adjusted to your position in Eindward now, and feel better suited to act as you see fit in the ongoing struggle.

>What do you do?

>>5441134
>Seduce Sir Tyne and secure his loyalty once and for all.
>Encourage the soldiers in their worship of Sedjet. Make a special effort to support them in their fights against the enemy. Reignite their love for those they fight for (and for Sedjet of course).

Goals are to properly subvert our paladin and to improve the state of the warriors.

>>5441145
I don't think it's necessary to seduce the lad. He's already helplessly in love. We could inspire in him a courtly love situation, though.

>>5441134
>go to the front and compel the enemy to lay down arms by your Love, and then heal any injured on both sides
There are far too few humans left to be wasting their lives on some pointless war and every second this elf driven nonsense continues more men are dying.

>>5441145
Supporting

>>5441209
+1

>>5441209
Because of their control over you, it's one thing to sneak outside of the walls for a little while, but there's no way you'd be able to follow troops to battle without being noticed, with effort to stop you of course.

>>5441263
Try asking nicely, if that doesn't work just sneak away. The fighting must end and sooner is better than later.

>>5441209
I'll support this to counter the other vote.
I'm bad at coming up with ideas at open write-in options.

>>5441145
>>5441209
I support both. Try to get the conflict solved bloodlessly if possible at first.

>>5441209
Hmm, you may be right. We are fighting fellow men, if mislead. Showing them that there is a power out there more powerful than their long-eared masters could have interesting repercussions. Either they renounce their cowardly ways and we help them independence, or they cower in our shadow instead of the elfs'.
Or we krump all of them, but let's give love and beauty a chance, yes?

>>5441586
The northerners call themselves the sons of the storm, and storm was one of the options for the god.
Could it be there is another one around, so we can start making a new pantheon?

>The poor people outside the walls already see us as a savior
>Soldiers are beginning to view us as a living saint
>The man sent to be our handler has fallen hopelessly in love with us
Honestly at this point taking over wouldn't be much more difficult then introducing the idea of Sedjet to the population at large and then asking everyone nicely to let us be in charge.

And while we might not proselytize it'd be bloody difficult to stop a gallant paladin from gossiping with the soldiers who probably do want to know more about his ward... And once that cats out of the bag it'l spread like wildfire mark my words. People do like to talk. Especially if we encouraged dear sir Tyne to do so.

>>5441586
Lets not fight, not now. Not if we can avoid it. First we need to fix everything wrong with this place, give people something to aspire towards and once our people have it better then any other city state people will come. Some for a better life and some to burn it down, but they will come.

We don't need to conquer, and I'd argue it doesn't sound like something Sedjet would want. We just need to help them.

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>>5441538
>>5441464
>>5441265
>>5441247
>>5441246
>>5441209
>>5441145
>Encourage the soldiers in their worship of Sedjet. Make a special effort to support them in their fights against the enemy. Reignite their love for those they fight for (and for Sedjet of course).
>Go to the front and compel the enemy to lay down arms by your Love, and then heal any injured on both sides.

Encouraging worship among the mortals of a different, foreign god, yourself no less? If their superiors ever find out, what trouble that would be! Though you have no need of worship, some amount of pride or vanity is present in every god, so devotion is pleasing to you much the same as a compliment. Personally though, it also feels like a little way of getting back at the mortals who thought they could impose rules upon you, by acting in ways they wouldn't approve of and sowing dissent in their faith. Just a little fun, as far as a goddess is concerned.

As for your dutiful paladin, you're not sure you need to seduce him for loyalty, unless you further desire him as a lover (or simply wish to make use of him that way). He's already loyal enough that he aids and abets you in breaking the rules, and he'd do most of what you asked him. Only when faced with direct opposition to his faith would he waver, so to cross that line seduction may be necessary, but you're not sure you'd ever need for him to cross that line. Thus far there hasn't been anything that a touch of the hand or a kiss to the cheek couldn't accomplish, with good Sir Tyne.

Though seduction or not, you'd hoped he would have been able to help you with your desire to reach the front line of the war.

"Please allow me to accompany the soldiers, I could do more good with them beyond the walls."

"Sorry miss, but you're too important. Think if anything bad should happen to you out there... no, we can't think of it!"

"-but all the lives I could save..."

Well you tried asking nicely, and Tyne even tries to speak in your support, but in disappointment you are refused. From both noble and commoner alike. Naturally the ruling House doesn't want to let you go, much less risk your life. But the soldiers as well, have too much appreciation and fondness for you to risk taking you with them... as much as they would love to have you along. Like their own little saint, surely the morale you bolstered would collapse if you were wounded, captured, or killed.

Of course you know that no such risk exists, but the mortals continue to assume you are just another mortal woman, in danger of such things. Perhaps they would have Sedjet along with them to battle, but surely not Zafira the Menaj girl. And though it pains anyone to deny you, no one's wish to cause you upset, the love for you is outweighed by the worry for your safety. Or rather than outweighed, that worry is out of love, so it's a case of your own domain getting the better of you!

---

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---

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the need to sneak out never comes to be needed. About another week, and the war comes to find you.

"Hold the gates! Hold 'em!"

"Remember the infiltrators! Keep the guards to their duties, we must defend without them!"

"Anyone who can't carry a spear or a bow, have them ready with water buckets!"

In these last few weeks, the improved fighting capability of the troops has not gone unnoticed by the enemy. One foggy morning Eindward is jolted awake violently by screams, war horns, and fire. Having run out of minor, outlying settlements to pillage and raze, an assembled force of the enemy are making their attack now on this last holdout. The town is a panic of people between fleeing civilians and mustering military, and already injured and dead are being brought in from the encampments outside the walls which were hit first.

It's difficult for you to get a clear sense of what is going on, but by the sound of things a combined force of elves and northmen are attempting a joint attack from land and sea. You don't expect you can make much difference at the harbor, but surely you can save the most lives where the most people (and killing) are gathered; the camps outside the walls and gates.

"Please my Lady, I must see you to safety."

"No! I won't abandon those people to be killed! Not when I can stop it!"

By his duty Sir Tyne attempts to take you to safety or at least dissuade you from getting involved, but his objection can't stand up to your determination. So you try to navigate your way through the chaos, the streets swarming with people rushing both to and from the attack, panic heavy in the air from some of the buildings nearest the wall starting to burn from flaming enemy arrows. The hardest thing of all for you is to reject those in need, the injured and the dying, some of whom even directly seek you out for help. All your will and strength to deny them in this dangerous time, but you know that you can save all the more lives if you can stop this conflict altogether.

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So then you can eventually reach the nearest gate, and elude guards and soldiers through the panicked crowd. Following the soldiers to the conflict once you get outside, and finally the sight of the enemy... the traitorous men of the old north rampaging through the ransacked and burning camp, and their eerie inhuman allies from afar. All you need is to find a place you can make yourself known, visible from and address them all. A collapsed watchtower, should do the trick.

"...STOP! Hear me! Hear me... men! Good men of the north, strong men of the north! My fellow humans, hear me! Hear me now, stop this madness!"

It's not perfect, but then you aren't a goddess of charisma or leadership, and of course you're also presenting yourself as a mere mortal woman and commoner. A foreigner too, so your eloquence would be limited. But you still make an appeal from the heart to all those who will hear you... without divinely projecting your voice, the sounds of battle overtake your voice past a distance. But many soon catch sight of you, as much as you stand out with your beauty and darker features (compared to the fairness of these humans), not to mention the sheer strangeness of a woman amid the field of battle trying to beseech all who will listen. And for those who do notice the strange sight of you, they come to stop fighting, then hear your words which in turn causes others farther away to stop fighting and notice, and so on and so forth.

You don't stop the battle entirely, but the conflict in and around the sacked encampment outside this gate comes to a lull. Of course the soldiers and people of Eindward already familiar with you, heed your words. But the northmen as well, eventually lessen in their rampage and come to stand in awe of the display you make. Maybe less from your plea... you're not sure if they even speak the same language, but certainly the sight of you is strange enough indeed to halt the violence, especially when all the other humans (enemies or not) similarly show deference. You'd heard that the northmen were quite superstitious so this may be a contributing factor.

Either way, you can't help but smile with some hope for your effort, and the response of the humans.

"This... this fighting, this bloodshed, we cannot suffer it any more! All of us, mankind is too few left to make war with one another! If we could just- agh!"

At your call, some of the people nervously start to gather, to hear your plea. Before you can really get into it though, you're cut short when the strike of arrows knock you off the vantage point you'd had. You hit the ground with a shock, your physical body struggling for breath through the pain of multiple elven arrows jutting from your body. One through your heart, another through your eye, these were loosed with precision.

"-my Lady! Zafira!"

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To his credit Sir Tyne throws himself to your aid, taking another few arrows in the back by protecting you. Taking you in his arms, he struggles to carry you through the battle which has now resumed, and with intensity over your fall. The soldiers and even civilians of Eindward possessed of a fury at the attack on their beloved Menaj healer woman, a vicious counterattack to at least clear space for the paladin to carry you back to safety. And even then it is no easy feat, as a northman or two manage to break past on your way back to the gate, seeming that they want to capture you such that poor Tyne has to try and fight them off to keep you in his arms.

And all the while you remain in shock. Of course no mortal attack, elven or otherwise, could truly harm you let alone kill you. Although a mortal could run up and stab you with a sword for example, and wound your physical body, it is nothing of permanence. So the pain you feel, is more just a persistent reminder by your body that it has in fact been harmed, rather than any indication of danger or risk of death. When you get the chance, you can just rip the arrows out and restore yourself to health.

So pain, you can deal with, and wounds too. But shock, something beyond the physical, is a blow you very much do suffer fully if not worse than a mortal. It's been quite some time since you felt pain, that it's hard for you to even believe what is happening at the moment, as you feebly feel at the arrows sticking out of you. Even more than the shock from actually experiencing pain though, is the shock from the... sheer impudence, the disrespect of any mortal to harm you like this. Your benevolent effort out of love, to try and stop the violence and bloodshed, only to be met with an attempt on your life. You imagine if you weren't a god, but just a kind and loving mortal attempting the same thing... that you would be dead now.

It's no wonder that humanity is gradually being exterminated.

>Return to safety, then see what help you can provide... from behind the walls. You need time to think about what happened here, before you do anything too hasty.
>Try to have Tyne find a safe spot you can restore yourself, but remain on the field. Your plea for peace didn't work, but you can still do good here.
>Divine fury! You are no god of war, but even the goddess of love can become enraged! Seek revenge on he that would put out your eye and pierce your heart!
>[Write-in.]

>>5441661
>Try to have Tyne find a safe spot you can restore yourself, but remain on the field. Your plea for peace didn't work, but you can still do good here.

>>5441667
>>5441665
Linking to the new post just in case it's needed

>>5441665
>>Divine fury! You are no god of war, but even the goddess of love can become enraged! Seek revenge on he that would put out your eye and pierce your heart!

I mean... That's how stories go. And I might imagine a goddess vain enough to be locked away in the underworld for refusing the head of a cow might be a tad ticked off hat being maimed like this.
Even if it can be fixed rather easily. And that's not accounting for the whole "Rampant murder, butchery, rape, arson" and all that good stuff going on all around us. If she isn't angered by this I can't imagine what would.

>>5441665
>>Divine fury! You are no god of war, but even the goddess of love can become enraged! Seek revenge on he that would put out your eye and pierce your heart!
Fuck elves.

>>5441665
>Divine fury! You are no god of war, but even the goddess of love can become enraged! Seek revenge on he that would put out your eye and pierce your heart!
It seems diplomacy has failed. Now that negotiations have fallen through, it is time to unleash both barrels of a god anger,

>>5441665
>>Divine fury! You are no god of war, but even the goddess of love can become enraged! Seek revenge on he that would put out your eye and pierce your heart!
Poor Tyne, try to stabilize him first though.

>>5441708
>>5441693
>>5441675
>>5441672
>>5441667
Supposing that engagement is the choice you settle on, you can go ahead and make a roll (1d100) for the effort since combat is not your godly domain, and the battlefield isn't the ideal place for a goddess of love.

Rolled 46 (1d100)

>>5441714
Where's Bast and her second personality Sekhmet when you need them?

Rolled 64 (1d100)

>>5441714

Rolled 27 (1d100)

>>5441714

>>5441714
Oh and of course, if you have any particular ideas of how you want to engage the battle. You don't have to if you're fine just furiously throwing yourself into the fray with divine wrath, but if there was any specific effort or plans you had in mind you can make them.

Rolled 15 (1d100)

>>5441714

>>5441729
I don't supose there are any rivers around?

Rolled 19 (1d100)

>>5441714

>>5441750
There is a river which Eindward is along, but on the south side of town, while the land attack is coming from the north.

Rolled 82 (1d100)

>>5441714

>>5441764
Well, then a flood is not going to help

Rolled 90 (1d100)

>>5441714

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Rolled 2 (1d100)

>>5441665
>>Divine fury! You are no god of war, but even the goddess of love can become enraged! Seek revenge on he that would put out your eye and pierce your heart!

Enough of this charade and these impudent mortals, damn knife ears bringing out the worst in everyone

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>>5441718
>>5441719
>>5441721
>>5441732
>>5441757
>>5441766
>>5441829
>>5441838
>Divine fury! You are no god of war, but even the goddess of love can become enraged! Seek revenge on he that would put out your eye and pierce your heart!
>90

True to your nature, you are ever so loving and patient with mortals. Perhaps because more than the other gods, you could see yourself in them and recognized their plight, the human condition. Your divine companions might take on animal features and distance themselves to rule from afar, but you recognized and accepted the similarities, for how alike you are to any other woman or man you might bump into on the street. Of course you are "more" than them, but not unimaginably so, when you can experience and think and feel the same things.

But the abhumans, those wretched things... the elves, the dwarves and others, you hadn't dealt with them in your own time but you were certainly aware of them. Once they had been humans too, in time before time, but they broke their covenant with the gods to distort their bodies from the ideal; humans made in the image of the gods. These abhumans found some benefits in diverging from the norm, like longer lives, keener senses, tougher bodies and such. But no gods would have them, so they labored under delusions of faith, creating "gods" out of faith rather than actual definite divine beings like you are... not unlike the faith of these modern humans in their one god, but at least you could accept some weight there given that these are still human believers.

For a mortal to harm a god, that is a grievous thing that you would be in the right to punish. But for an abhuman to harm a god?

"...they shot me in the eye!" you angrily proclaim, as if needing to hear the words actually spoken for them to be real.

"Please Zafira, we have to get you to safety."

"They shot me in the heart!" you more angrily proclaim, starting to throw a fit as you struggle in the paladin's arms.

"You are severely wounded, you could perish if we do not-"

"-no! NO!" you roar in fury, your eyes blazing alight with divine power as your voice resonates through the area much louder than should be possible... for a mortal young woman. Not that he could physically restrain you now, but in alarm Sir Tyne lets you down, shaken to his core by your godly voice. The fury at your earlier impotence to do anything, the shock from being attacked, you fume and stomp and clench your teeth and pound your fists in godly rage. Your divine nature of love and beauty weigh heavy on your conscience, but the divine wrath burning up inside you demands recompense for this blasphemous act.

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Feeling once more at the arrows sticking out of you then and noticing the same for Tyne, you pull him by the hand after you to find a place of temporary respite.

"Bite down, this isn't ideal but I'm not leaving you like this."

Having found a collapsed stable outside the wall to use as shelter amid the battle, you first yank the arrows out of your own body, your gleaming divine blood scorching the ground where it falls. It's easy enough to restore yourself, but helping Tyne will be more difficult. He tries to stop you and speak some nonsense about needing to push the arrows all the way through, but you simply tear them out of his back to his agony, and perform a healing effort on him. Impressively he keeps his composure through it all though, and by the time you've spoken the divine words over him and blessed him with a kiss, his wounds are all but healed. Better than your own in fact, but after about ten minutes to yourself (while he stands guard) your eye has regrown and the grievous wounds from the arrows no longer marring your beautiful body, just as it should be.

"-no, no! What are you doing?" Tyne grabs you by the arm before you can run off, himself exhausted after carrying you back injured and then your... admittedly rough healing effort. "I am... not sure, what has become of you... but you must find safety, do not throw this miracle away!"

"You go find safety! I'm going to find the ones who shot me!" you yell in anger, not for him but your wrathful voice again shakes the mortal man to his very soul, that he cannot maintain a grip of you as you break off into a run back towards the fighting.

---

The tide of the battle is strange this day, for what should have been a one-sided raid on behalf of the attackers, an easy victory for the combined might of the northmen and the elves. Instead though, well it had been rather one-sided up to a certain point, but eventually the field starts to change and victory with it. Tough human warriors backed up by peerless elven archers, an effective strategy that had triumphed every time before, but in the heat of battle a strategy unable to change is a liability. And seemingly not a strategy fit for such an unexpected foe.

That of a singular unstoppable foe amid the chaos of the battle, wildly rushing from one target to the next. A god on the field, not a god of war, but a being beyond that of any mortal.

Where's a good khopesh when you need one?

An approximation of just one thought, among many that race through your mind, in the frenzy of battle. If you had bothered to prepare things would certainly be different, but as it was you basically just ran at the nearest enemy with only the clothes on your back, and didn't stop from there.

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Hardly a display becoming of a goddess and definitely not a beautiful effort, but there's an understandable awe to witness what may appear to be a young Menaj woman randomly throw herself screaming at a northern warrior in a mess of violence. Driven by your rage, each enemy puts up a worthy fight but no mortal can withstand your godly strength and speed and such, even as uncoordinated and inexperienced at fighting as you are. Impressively some of your opponents even manage to land a blow on you, chopping into you with an axe or stabbing you through with a spear, but none of these can put you down and they only serve to further fuel your rage. Wild swings and kicks and headbutts, with divine might, quickly leave you standing battered and bloody but triumphant over each foe you beat down. Panting with steady breath, steaming from the godly blood exposed to the air, eyes wild for the next target to tackle to the ground.

It's a perplexing sight for any mortal, but they invariably know they are dealing with something... more, when they see your glowing eyes bearing down on them, and your mighty voice shaking them through their armor. All the worse for them because as well as the fear, there's the reluctance and guilt to attack a such a divinely beautiful presence such as yourself. In fact many opponents simply yield outright, falling down in fear or awe of... whatever they believe you are. That doesn't save them from a good punch or a kick, but it's better than those whose fear or resolve overcome your enchanting presence, and they fight back at least in self defense or a desire to capture you for themselves.

Ah, but they are only human after all, mortals. Roughly beating a path through the field, as much as you punish the enemy, is as much as you inspire your allies. The soldiers and desperate people of Eindward, who'd risen in anger at your initial wounding, now have... well they're not sure what to make of you either, but you certainly are inspiring! Something to rally behind, as they follow in your wake to counterattack the enemy and dispatch those you already beat down. A definite turning of the tide of battle, but your truly desired foe, the elves still wait beyond the now-routing northmen.

"...you're still with me, Albert?" you stop during a temporary lul in the fighting while the northmen retreat, looking around for more enemies but noticing the paladin close behind. He and a few brave others, seemed to have kept pace with you in your haphazard assault through the enemy lines.

"Always, my Lady." he answers, a few of the others offering a similar cheer of support, as the lot of you stand amid the smoke and ruin of the exterior of the razed refugee camp. Though, as mortals they don't have your endurance and are clearly quite exhausted, most of them injured... in fact you expect the ones here following you are the only ones who weren't so wounded that they could continue after you.

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"Maybe... maybe we should pull ba- oof!"

The momentary lapse in your rage, your benevolent nature makes you consider withdrawing and regrouping, maybe seeking an end to the hostilities after having put up a fight to repel the enemy. Before you can act on it though, you find yourself sideswiped by a mighty shield bash, knocking you down and sending you tumbling across the ground. A mighty northman warrior with speed enough to catch you off guard, Tyne and the others yell in anger to avenge you but the fierce red-headed warrior batters them aside with seeming ease, between his shield and his huge sword. All of them armed and armored these northmen, but this one looks comparable to the noble knights of the humans you're familiar with, his equipment and clothes finely made and decorated.

"You put up a good fight, woman! Are you one of the war god's own? Ah, it's no matter... we'll just sit here you and me and have us a nice rest, while my brothers regroup." the warrior speaks in triumph, walking over to plant his boot on you.

Though you're winded from his attack and struggling to breathe, to be able to offer a proper response. Groaning you feel the ache to your side, you recognize this as an injury different from any thus far. Unlike even the most grievous wound a mortal could deal to you, which you wouldn't suffer in any significance, this blow from this man by contrast isn't something you could just restore yourself from. It's a genuine injury to your being, which of course can only come from a divine source; only gods can actually harm one another. Given his physical might and combat skill, you expect the reason he didn't kill you with his attack is because there's only some partial sense of divinity about him. So because of this, the attack was certainly harmful and definitely a genuine painful shock to you, but it wasn't a risk to your life.

Still, you can't help feel a little worry. He would have to put a whole hell of a lot of effort into it, if he even could manage that much, but it is within the realm of possibility that he could kill you unlike the mortals thus far. Surely as a goddess truly, you could right yourself and wrathfully defeat him same as any other foe lesser than you... but then, he carries his partial divinity as a warrior, while you are the goddess of love. You would never doubt yourself, but rage can only make up for so much...

>He got a lucky shot on you! Now it's your turn, to fight back for real. And then after him, whoever is left... if they haven't retreated by then.
>You'll fight back, sure... but this one warrants further understanding. See if you can't capture him, even if it means giving up on the battle.
>You don't have time for this! The elves are getting away, and as mortals they need to be punished. Throw this warrior off and resume your pursuit of the enemy.
>Since he hasn't tried to attack you further, is there something he wants? Maybe he can be reasoned with?
>[Write-in.]

>>5441965
>You don't have time for this! The elves are getting away, and as mortals they need to be punished. Throw this warrior off and resume your pursuit of the enemy.

They have marred our divine visage. This blasphemy cannot be left to stand unanswered without full recompense.

>>5441965
>You'll fight back, sure... but this one warrants further understanding. See if you can't capture him, even if it means giving up on the battle.

>>5441965
>Since he hasn't tried to attack you further, is there something he wants? Maybe he can be reasoned with?

>>5441965
>He got a lucky shot on you! Now it's your turn, to fight back for real. And then after him, whoever is left... if they haven't retreated by then.
He's a threat to the humans, he actually inflicted a minor wound AND he's getting in the way of our elf murdering. He needs to die.

>>5441965
>>He got a lucky shot on you! Now it's your turn, to fight back for real. And then after him, whoever is left... if they haven't retreated by then.

>>5441997
Not to mention if we do not he is likely to carve his way through Tyne and the others who followed us. That would be a poor recompense for trying to keep us safe

>>5441965
>>He got a lucky shot on you! Now it's your turn, to fight back for real. And then after him, whoever is left... if they haven't retreated by then.

Just a notification that I've got another busy day tomorrow so probably won't be able to post until later in the day than usual.

Until then you can continue to determine your next efforts and goals, and in the moment if you decide to act in combat against the warrior you can go ahead and make one more roll for the effort.

>>5441965
>He got a lucky shot on you! Now it's your turn, to fight back for real. And then after him, whoever is left... if they haven't retreated by then.

>>5441965
>>Since he hasn't tried to attack you further, is there something he wants? Maybe he can be reasoned with?

Lets play to our strengths, lay on the charm

>>5441965
>>He got a lucky shot on you! Now it's your turn, to fight back for real. And then after him, whoever is left... if they haven't retreated by then.
Well this was something to behold! Shame we haven't really worked on our powers, these elves should be in range. I don't think we got the ankh back, so anything that isn't an on-contact effect is probably difficult. As for this guy, screw him. No one hurts us and gets away with it. We can grab another of these souped-up viking wannabes whenever we want.

>>5441965
>Since he hasn't tried to attack you further, is there something he wants? Maybe he can be reasoned with?

Alright I'm back now, will try to post in awhile.

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Whew, some delay but it was a long post! Also since no one rolled, I went back to a previous set for it.

>>5442493
>>5442310
>>5442224
>>5442140
>>5442091
>>5442082
>>5441997
>>5441994
>>5441977
>He got a lucky shot on you! Now it's your turn, to fight back for real. And then after him, whoever is left... if they haven't retreated by then.
>82

Now that's something you're not used to feeling... fear. Not seized by terror and unable to think or act, but some instinctive fear for your life as you look up to the warrior while he keeps you in place with his foot. It's only a little feeling, that instinct, since the actual danger to you is not terribly great. But you're so unused to the feeling... when was the last time you were afraid of anything? That it grips you stronger than usual, enough that you scramble to make sense of things and what to do for some long moments.

"...please sir, you have me at my worst and I-" you stammer in his language, familiar with it like many others, from hearing enough of the dead during your time in the underworld river.

"-by thunder! You are... a beauty, aren't you? What have I found, in battle this day?"

You simply try to plead for a moment to recollect yourself, but now that the mighty northman has the chance to properly look at you, he is swept up by your beauty like anyone else... more so now that you present the pitiable sight of a scared and injured woman. From afar he saw what others did, just some foreign girl madly running across the battlefield and hardly a clear look at her. Now that he has you under his boot though, your attractiveness becomes fully apparent and his disbelief at finding such a treasure in combat comes to bear. His own moments of hesitation, if this isn't just a dream, before he takes his foot from you. Stabbing his sword into the ground and hanging his shield on it, he leans down to pick you up and easily enough takes you in his arms, all amid the battle.

So taken with you is he, to let his guard down enough to bring you so close to him... he probably fancied to enjoy your beauty more, to feel you and smell you and kiss you, before carrying you away with him. And as formidable a man as he is, you must admit you're flattered and your heart rises. But your motivation in this whole situation doesn't leave you, and as soon as you get the chance when he holds you close enough cherish, you lunge in his arms against him. Aiming for his head and face with your hands, you scratch and try to gouge his eyes and even bite at him like a wild animal.

"-AUGH! You bitch! I'll have your fingers for this!"

The warrior howls in pain and anger as you defend yourself ferociously, and he tries to fight back. Your effort isn't at all coordinated and admittedly a little pathetic if not desperate, but with the strength of a god you aren't just some helpless girl he found amid a raid.

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By the time he throws you off of him, well if he hasn't lost his eyes he certainly can't see from all the blood in them and the harm you dealt. He hazily grabs for his sword and shield but before he can properly defend himself, you rush for him and throw yourself at the man in an attempted tackle. Though you're not big or strong enough to just knock him down immediately, the two of you grunt and struggle as you eventually manage to pull him down to the ground. A violent and uncoordinated mess as your bodies are tangled in a desperate contest for dominance over each other, through the grunting and yelling and blood and sweat. Rolling about on the ground in the struggling grapple, it is as evident as before that the man knows how to fight and has experience, meanwhile love and peacefulness are your nature.

But for all his might and skill, he is only partially divine while you are a goddess truly. As such, even the divinity in him was that of war or strength, despite your utter lack of those things your inherent divine power can just barely match him. You don't really know what you're doing other than amateurishly trying to subdue him, yet each time he skillfully grapples you into some hold, by your godly strength and dexterity you manage to escape his control. Here and there the two of you exchange blows, from a punch or an elbow or a headbutt, attacks which actually hurt you for real (alarmingly so) yet he surely feels yours worse.

"Zafira!"

"Get at him! Help her!"

It can't have been more than some minutes, if that, but by the time the two of you are battered and bruised and exhausted from your struggle with still no victor, your mortal allies have recovered from the warrior's attacks. Eventually noticed among the ashen remains of the camp where you and the warrior tumbled in your struggle, Tyne and the soldiers call to regroup and hurry to your side. Though their first instinct is simply to try and free you from the fight and just pull the two of you apart, a stray kick from the warrior breaks a man's leg. After that they don't bother taking chances, and carefully as they can they attack into the fray with weapons. Mostly directed at the warrior, though some inevitably catch you, but Tyne and the others stab and swing repeatedly.

And even if you suffered half of the attacks it wouldn't have mattered, because now the clear advantage is to you; mortal attacks which cannot truly harm you, but the warrior is himself mortal. He roars in bloody fury at the fight so dishonorably turning against him like this, but a bloody fury it is as the attacks increasingly wound him. As mighty as he is, the man can only take so many stabs to the torso and if it weren't for his fading strength, you would not be able to restrain him in his final mad burst of power. Like the dying effort of an animal, it takes all your strength just to hold him for as long as you can...

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...till he does eventually rear up and slam back into the ground against you to escape your grip.

Struggling to his feet in a delirium of pain and anger though, he blindly swipes about for unseen enemies and staggers aimlessly for some paces and moments longer before collapsing in cinders and dirt of the burned camp. Tyne picks you up to safety, as you watch the soldiers gather after the downed warrior and repeatedly attack him to deliver the killing blows.

"Come, let's... let us return..."

"...no. I'm not finished yet."

The paladin would have carried you back to town, the soldiers to follow after finishing the bloody work, but you struggle to free yourself from Tyne's arms. Bruised and bloody, some actual injuries to your divine person rather than just fleeting "wounds" temporarily dealt by mortals... it's been an age upon an age since you were brought this low. The unfamiliar sensations of uncertainty and divine pain, are strange and scary to you. But for all the exhaustion and injury, your resolve still burns as strong as it ever had.

You still have something to do, still have a wrong to right...

---

...on second thought, maybe it could be wise to know when you've done enough? Unable to be dissuaded by your allies, you gathered what strength you had left and continued your pursuit of the elves. Although the enemy forces were in retreat now and there weren't any northmen left to impede you from getting at the long-eared abhumans, you ran up against an obstacle you hadn't anticipated.

"-agh... this is a bit much... even for me..." you mutter to yourself, bristling with many arrows.

"Let's go lads! To her!"

"We are coming, Zafira!"

The good news is that because of your relentlessness, you were able to catch the enemy before they could retreat from the field entirely. The bad news is, that they are covering their retreat. Withdrawn from the sacked encampment outside the town walls, to the fields beyond and eventually the forested outskirts, you pursued the elves and paid for it with an arrow for each step of the way. Of course none of these can truly harm you like the partially-divine warrior did, these are mere mortal (and abhuman at that) attacks. However just on a simple physical basis, even if the arrows can't kill you, having them lodged in your body between muscles and sinews and bone... not to mention through your head and eyes... it's becoming increasingly difficult to keep up the pursuit. Less and less are you chasing after the elves, and more like struggling to stagger after them.

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The obstacle you found, is that these enemies are more disciplined than the northmen, and strictly keep to formations and strategic troop movements. During the raid outside the town walls, you were able to triumph in your furious assault upon the enemy in divine wrath, because it was indeed a raid. The northmen were scattered about and often alone in their pillaging, so through the fire and smoke and chaos, you could rush randomly from one man to the next and put him down without much challenge from any other. Trying to rush at a column of troops all together though... the northmen together could have held you at bay with massed shields and spears, the elves are doing it by arrow volleys. Especially worse now that you are reaching the forest, and they can spread out through the trees and start firing from multiple directions.

If only you could get closer, that they could properly see you and succumb to your beauty like others... well, as beautiful as you can be while grotesquely wounded and covered in blood. But if they insist on keeping at range and relying on archery, you don't expect to get the chance. Worse still, you don't even think it's a case of them being aware of your enchanting effect and trying to avoid it, but simply these elven cowards by nature try to keep their distance whenever possible. Even from a harmless young woma- well, maybe not, considering they would have witnessed you fighting your way through the northmen raid to reach them.

Still, despite it all this it isn't enough to hinder your divine wrath or desire for revenge. As they cannot truly stop you, you would be willing to pursue them to the ends of the earth, even through all the obstacles they may put in your way. The other problem though are your allies, dutifully following you all the way even off the field of battle in pursuit of these elves. The mortal men are too devoted to you to turn back, but for their efforts already most of them have been shot with arrows and some even killed. Just because you're the (relatively) closest to reaching the elves, doesn't mean they don't have arrows to spare for the others. So you would continue, but by the time you manage to reach your targets, you don't expect you'll have any allies left.

They are only mortal lives, all of them both ally and enemy at the end of the day, but having gone long enough without a victim to sate your divine wrath upon... some clarity returns, and you consider if maybe you've gone far enough? Then again, justice hasn't been yet dealt.

>No! Damn the consequences, you will see this through till the end! You cannot stand returning home without.
>Regroup here, perhaps find a better spot, but hold out for the time being. It's a flimsy hope, but maybe you can catch any elves on the return, if they send scouts back to oversee the battlefield.
>You've come, and done far enough for one mortal battle. Cease the hunt, gather your comrades, lick your wounds, and head back.
>[Write-in.]

>>5442729
>>You've come, and done far enough for one mortal battle. Cease the hunt, gather your comrades, lick your wounds, and head back.

>>5442729
>You've come, and done far enough for one mortal battle. Cease the hunt, gather your comrades, lick your wounds, and head back.

Chasing the abhumans to the ends of the earth sounds fantastic, but we can't lose many people as there aren't many left on said earth.

So perhaps we can settle for hurling a divine curse upon them. There has to be some magical link since they took out an eye and heart. Our symbol is a crying eye, and the heart is a sign of love. Perhaps something along the lines of any crops they shall raise will turn to rot, all who look upon them shall feel an inherent disgust, and in the moment of greatest need, their body shall fail them.

>>5442745
+1 support. Liking the curse idea.

>>5442729
>You've come, and done far enough for one mortal battle. Cease the hunt, gather your comrades, lick your wounds, and head back.

>>5442729
>>You've come, and done far enough for one mortal battle. Cease the hunt, gather your comrades, lick your wounds, and head back.

>>5442729
>>You've come, and done far enough for one mortal battle. Cease the hunt, gather your comrades, lick your wounds, and head back.
>Curse them with crippling sickness
It's one of the myths that anon made, so we should be able to, right?

>>5442729
>>You've come, and done far enough for one mortal battle. Cease the hunt, gather your comrades, lick your wounds, and head back.

>>5442864
>>5442760
>>5442745
A curse upon any who would mar your beauty? If anything that is too lenient of a punishment for any who would harm a goddess! But you always have been so loving and forgiving, you could settle for that for starters.

Therefore, any who would willingly and knowingly harm you, will be automatically stricken blind. Whether a scratch to the cheek, or what would be a killing blow for a mortal, it will come at the cost of their eyes.

A more comprehensive result (and a better sense of your powers) can be determined in time, in fact I may try to today, later on after posting, which should be in awhile from now (II have to step out for an errand). For now though, many elves will be leaving the field this day blind.

>>5443068
Good curse Eye, it's quite fitting. *wink wink*

>>5443068
Alright back now, posting shortly.

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>>5442731
>>5442745
>>5442760
>>5442791
>>5442835
>>5442864
>>5442941
>You've come, and done far enough for one mortal battle. Cease the hunt, gather your comrades, lick your wounds, and head back.

Against the apparent futility of pursuing these elusive enemies, overtime the anger in your heart driving you on has given way to upset. Frustration at not being able to catch them and deliver a true punishment. Of course for the heinous crime of harming such a beauty, divine or not, their sight will be forfeit. In fact your godly senses can hear and catch glimpses of the difficulties the elves are having in their retreat, as each arrow that hit you blinded another of them, causing some panic but also the trouble of others having to help the blinded in need and slowing the lot of them down.

Perhaps in theory you could simply pursue until they understand the error of their ways or just blind all of themselves against you. But how long would that take, and how far would you have to go till then? When there's wounded and dying humans in need, and Eindward still burning. So you'll settle for a curse upon their blasphemy, and the upset that comes with conceding, in order to focus on what matters more than your anger.

"...Zafira? There you are, my lady! Did they fully retreat? Craven wretches..."

When eventually Sir Tyne does manage to find you, limping through the fields from his own injuries, he's the first to reach the treeline where you gave up on the hunt. Sitting against a tree beside many of the arrows you did already remove from yourself, he's relieved to have found you... yet surprised, alarmed at your response.

"Are you...? Weep not my lady, the battle is ove-"

Of course he's caught off guard when you throw yourself against him in embrace. Less for any special affinity for him, and rather you just really could use someone to hold onto right now, to lean on for support. Some strength and comfort in dealing with the troubling feelings roiling within you. Though it doesn't help much in the way of your crying, as everything really comes undone and you find yourself sobbing for a good minute or two. A shameful display if you must admit, but you do feel better for it after. Able to breathe more easily again, feeling free of some tension and weight as he holds you against him, his strength giving you strength.

A goddess truly... but a human goddess truer still.

"It's not that, it's..." you whisper against him through ragged breath, "I acted... improperly, today."

Sedjet, goddess of love. You ought to be relaxing on the banks of the Nyl river in the desert sun, benevolently watching over mortals to encourage them to love one another, and guiding them to healthy bountiful lives. Not here in this gods-forsaken "new world" beneath a dreary sky, engaged in bloody warfare against your own beloved mortals, submerged in conflict and drowning in suffering and trauma...

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...separated from your divine family, alone.

These tolls upon the delicate psyche of a divine being... you thought you could take them in stride but their pressure has been amassing, until finally unleashed like the flooding Nyl, when that elf first put an arrow through your eye during your effort to bring peace. It's no wonder you lost your composure and became a madwoman, driven in a divine fury like some god of war to destroy your enemies, all. It felt good and it felt right at the time, and for sure it was a righteous cause. But with the battle over now, all that righteous rage subsides like the Nyl, leaving the guilt and despair of your loving nature having to face and make sense of your actions.

Actions terribly unbecoming of Sedjet, goddess of love.

"There! There they are!"

"We done it! Sent those skinny bastards fleeing home!"

Tyne had brought up the rear, but the other men are not long behind him, eventually sighting the two of you and hurrying to catch up albeit waylaid by their own injuries.

"Don't let them... I don't want them seeing me like this..."

You clutch the paladin tighter, worrying about the men finding you in this state. Not after the battle, and the victory they are expecting. Thankfully Tyne seems to understand and removes his cloak to drape it around you, sparing the indignity of exposure since through the battle your clothes have been reduced to rags and falling off you. After this, he turns to address the approaching soldiers, keeping you behind him.

Well it was a lot to deal with for sure, and you're certainly not over it all so easily, more than a few things to brood on later. But for now you're feeling much better after a good cry, and given the chance to messily spill your emotions to Tyne rather than trying to navigate them alone. Even without his input or cooperative support, just having him with you provided the strength you were struggling for. It could have been any man, or woman for that matter, you just needed a mortal counterpart to remind yourself of things. As it was though, it ended up being your dutiful paladin.

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So, taking some deep breaths and wiping your eyes, you're feeling well enough to face the others. Tyne only stalled for some moments, but that's all you needed, emerging from behind him with the loving benevolence the mortals expect of you. Though you hadn't expected their enthusiasm, as you quickly find yourself swamped by the men. Crowding around to get a look at you, offer praise and celebration for the victory, and plenty of pats on the back and taking of your hands. Even through their wounds they maintain their reverence of you, their own little battle saint, knowing Sedjet's favor brought triumph this day. Even those among them unable to walk or dying, being dragged and carried to you to similarly offer their thanks and praise.

The consistency among them though, same for Tyne, is confusion about what to make of you. After your display earlier and actions in battle, prophet or not, you cannot simply be just a young lady in service to Sedjet... right? Something you expect you'll have to explain, as you see to the wounded.

Though whatever stance you take here, is sure to follow you back to town.

>Can you hide it anymore, should you even bother? Reveal the truth, as best as you can explain it, or as best as they can accept it.
>Try to maintain the deception longer, indeed you are still just a mortal woman... but some crazy excuse will be needed for them to believe it.
>Offer no certain answer, let them believe of you what they will. It's for them to make up their own minds.
>[Write-in.]

>>5443217
>Sedjet blood's flow through our veins. The prophets of Sedjet have always been demigods, her descendants. In old times, they were Pharaohs, rulers of the land, but now with the religion and culture lost, we are nothing more than a preacher. That's why we revealed ourselves, to be treated nobly as our ancestry demand.
>Express surprise that they didn't know, and question if their God doesn't do the same. Afterall, it was a common practice, since the northmen in the raid were also led by a demigod.

>>5443223
This is the best explanation I could think of give. My true vote is for
>>5443217
>Can you hide it anymore, should you even bother? Reveal the truth, as best as you can explain it, or as best as they can accept it.
I personally think this whole deception thing is not really working out.

>>5443223
+1 support. I'd prefer not to cast away our mortal disguise juuuust yet.
Also loving Sir Tyne, what a sweetheart!

>>5443217
>Can you hide it anymore, should you even bother? Reveal the truth, as best as you can explain it, or as best as they can accept it.
Might as well just tell them the truth at this point.

>>5443217
>Can you hide it anymore, should you even bother? Reveal the truth, as best as you can explain it, or as best as they can accept it.

We can't hide it anymore. Even demigods would find it hard to do what we did, decimating a large chunk of raiders with naught but bare hands unless they were Achilles or Hercules grade.

>>5443225
>>5443248
>>5443265
You don't have to keep hiding it if you don't want to, but the concern is in what way you want to be truthful with the mortals. Whether you perhaps work your way up to the truth along the lines of;

>>5443223

or simply be out with it. But then the question is, exactly how would you think it best, or want to let these people know that you're an actual deity walking among them? How best to say that to them, by your thinking? You've never really done it before, and even when banished to live among the mortals originally, you were not open with them about the truth;

>>5443230

although of course, the situation now is different from back then, when it made sense to maintain your disguise indefinitely.

>>5443217
>>Can you hide it anymore, should you even bother? Reveal the truth, as best as you can explain it, or as best as they can accept it.

Enough games, besides we have the men at arms in our hands none can realistically oppose us. Not that they truly could anyways.

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>>5443356
>>5443265
>>5443248
>>5443230
>>5443225
>Can you hide it anymore, should you even bother? Reveal the truth, as best as you can explain it, or as best as they can accept it.

Although you appreciate the attention and praise from all the men, you have to keep their victorious enthusiasm in check to be able to focus on the more important matter at hand; seeing them all well. There isn't a person here who isn't injured, and several of the men are dying. Without enemies to occupy your attention, now you can perform your more worthy duty instead of combat.

"No miss, take care of yourself first!"

"It's not so bad, really miss. I can take it!"

"Shush! Enough of this, let me work."

By their devotion the lot of them demand and plead that you help yourself before any of them, as you're still covered in grievous wounds and blood, and even have a few arrows stuck in you here and there. They can't understand that none of these things are any threat to you... other than the injuries that one mighty northman dealt to you, and you can't just heal that away.

No, you'll heal each and every last one of them to full, before you take care of yourself. An act which only further increases their awe and devotion towards you. Invariably though with the fighting over, they have the chance now to observe you and your condition and start to wonder and murmur among themselves about... well, exactly what you are. To further distract and keep them occupied then, you decide to be truthful with them, trying to explain while you work at healing one man to the next.

After all, you might lessen their trust in you if you try to explain away your glowing eyes and the feats you accomplished earlier. Plus it can serve as test to see how these mortals, of these times and this culture, take the news.

"A god? Come off it, miss!"

"First a prophet, now Sedjet herself?"

Even Tyne has difficulty understanding or accepting it.

"I didn't think it important to be fully open with the truth earlier, but now it is important... is it really so hard to believe? Doesn't your God do the same? It can't be the first you've seen something like this, what about the leader of the northmen earlier?"

Ironically enough it sounds like their God did send a descendant to the world, something like that they try to relate to you. But an actual god, kneeling among them and tending to their wounds? The men gathered about in skepticism, scratching their heads and conversing among each other. Their devotion to you isn't any less... but they wonder if maybe you hit your head in the battle, or that they are misunderstanding what you are telling them. Being that you are a foreign woman so maybe there's issues with the language, or your accent.

The blinding our enemies reminded me of the Basil II story. I guess this also means the love god can't get hickeys without blinding lovers. Though she can probably fix their vision afterward.