Shattered Kingdoms

[Cen GOD] [DRUID] Ain the Eye, Lord of Order


Why a centaur? I've seen Ain..briefly.. in game when he ate a yigmass tree and scared my character for life. And he most certinly is not a centaur. Just fickle goddlyness maybe?

Yes, this isn't important, but I'm curious.

I guess I'm qualified to field that answer.

Truth is, I dunno. Maybe it's that I am fond of the centaur race on the mud personally, that my most notable (and pretty much only notable) character on the mud as a mortal was a centaur shaman. Perhaps it's that several imms in the past have been somewhat of patrons to different races, Sadr/Yenko being often a deep-elf and Meissa a halfling. Or maybe it's just my feeling that centaurs as a race are orderly and/or druidic in nature, both being factors I oversee. Besides, everyone else in the Pantheon is just a plain ol' boring Human on the list. How dull is that?

This isn't to say that Ain is ICly a centaur. I don't really think of him that way at all, and being that I can make him appear as any damn race on the who list, my personal affinity for centaurs makes it my first choice. Don't read too much into it, though. I just luff the horsies.

Honestly, I think its because Eur0 misses the spirit horsie (his most memorable character was a centaur shaman).

Ainites are sort of prideful, though, its a decent fit.

I prefer to think of them as Ainals, actually.

That explains a lot.

When I played Sargas v1, I had various descriptions of him in a variety of races. I started off with a dwarf, for RP reasons about where he had just come from, and went through the various other races, human, sprite, centaur, giant etc. Each description carried certain themes with it though, most notably the empty eye socket.

IMMs can be any race they want to be for what ever reason pleases them that moment. They can even be a non-race if that suits the player’s fancy and RP. One thing I kept pushing was that gods did not have to abide by the rules of mortals in form or raiment. I loved Yizashi’s look and used it as an example. (she was clothed in motes of light orbiting her body)

Since it is always wondered about, I’ll share the reason I had Meissa as a Halfling.

This takes place in the Zhang Usurper War in Zhenshi. When Tenkawa followed Zhang into the desert in the final battle, they came upon him in the shallow bowl altar dedicated to the dark gods (where Sargas made his appearance and killed Ariakas actually). Zhang was calling forth the power of the ancient evil in a bid to use that power to destroy Tenkawa and eventually, dare I say it? THE WORLD!!!! Muhahahahaha

Anyway, the last sacrifice that Zhang had upon the altar was a willowy halfling woman of silver hair who was a minor non-player character within the Usurper War. Her blood was shed, Zhang blundered on the invocation and the evil force he awoke turned upon him, destroyed him utterly, and raised the mesa that now stands in the sands of Zhenshi.

After a few decades, the sands kept flowing and the desert kept growing, threatening to continue their expansion until the world was covered. A few characters got together and went out to “heal” the desert. They called upon Shailan, the god of healing. Shailan looked upon the desert of the shifting sands and broke his being into motes of light, one for each grain of sand. He went forth and battled the desert to destroy the evil that was within the sand. During this battle, Sargas (v2) appeared and attempted to stop Shailan. Calrion appeared and protected Shailan. Sargas and Calrion battled for a long while. Calrion noticed that Shailan was losing the battle so he fed his energy into the Shailan to keep him alive in his battle against the sands. Sargas left the scene at this time, I guess because of honor, and his battle with Calrion ended in a technical draw. Calrion poured all of his energy into Shailan, whose life force had reached as close to an end a god can reach without being snuffed out. The sand was at last converted from its evil mission and the two gods were utterly exhausted.

Calrion phoenixes into Alshain and he helps pull the last energy traces of Shailan out of the desert and into a cloud. Shailan then is reborn into Meissa and takes the form of a ... Drum roll Please!!! A WILLOWY FEMALE HALFLING WITH SILVER HAIR!!! The last sacrifice whose blood flowed into the sands to bring about the ancient evil that helped the sands to continue their conquest of the world.

It had nothing to do with supporting halflings as a race, other then that I felt that halflings should have some sort of god form in the pantheon for once. Also for my twisted sense of humor given the halfling’s history within Pyrathea and why their race is spread through out the world, but that’s another story. When I last retired, I left it open for Meissa v2 to chose whatever form they wanted. Meissa’s form was sacrificed upon an altar to save Frollith and the faith of Meissa from the corruption and disease that had entered into it, but that’s another story altogether.

When last the faith of Meissa saw her (as I played her), she was just a nebulous gas cloud without form or containment. Thus clearing the stage for the next IMM to come along.

Just for fun, this is how Ain looked when he first arrived on the scene, and when he wasn't passing himself off as a leathery male dwarf, a graceful male elf, a bony male human, a curly-haired male halfling, a frostbitten male giant, or a gray male gnome (Zavijah):

> fastidious male god
$6Rivulets of $7$Isilver$6 hang orderly and straight from the mighty head
of a figure draped in robes. His $7$Iivory fingernails$6 are meticulously
groomed, and his posture is perfectly upright and rigid. The skin of his
face is smooth and free of both blemish and wrinkle. $2Green eyes $0$Isit
deeply in their sockets, burning with a carefully-measured intensity. His
gaze is unblinking and severe, and his bearing commanding and confident.
You detect little mirth underlying the aspect of this imposing figure.$A

Cheers,
Bux

Thanks all for comments, think it's facinating to learn some of these little quirky bits.

Buggy, your recap was spot on, aside from one thing.
Sargy (v2) actually killed Calrion at the end, before the return of Calrion as Alshain. Alshy and Sargy then went on a world tour of combat beating the crap out of each other for a while before parting honored foes. And during the battle, there were echoes from the desert, but we didn't really pay much attention, there were 2 deities killing each other in front of us after all....

Ainal! That's funny! It must have taken a funny and charming person to come up with THAT one!