Again I awake, my irrational senses returning to my disembodied form, as I seem to both float within a dark rotting forest and a vast kaleidoscope of maddening colors and patterns of pure chaos that I knew would turn me into a raving lunatic were I still human, but yet somehow made me feel more comfortable than I had ever felt in my entire life, as if I my muscles had been permanently tensed my entire life, and I had only just relaxed. Like I was finally home after a long, long time away. As If I had always belonged here, and simply been born in the wrong world.
I also noticed that I didn't seem to actually exist in the forest, at least not like I did in the strange realm of chaos, I didn't see from a central point, I seemed to see from everywhere all at once within a 1 meter radius, as if I was everything in the radius, while also simultaneously being none of it. Not that that meant I couldn't see beyond it, it was just, less precise, more normal. And I knew instinctively that this area was where I could manipulate things, how I knew this I was unsure. And I really really wanted to know why.
But now wasn't the time to reflect on that, no matter how much I wanted to simply float there and relax, no matter how much I wanted to know more, I had more important things to do, and everything else could wait, my eons had made me nothing if not patient, so I stifled my epistemophilia, and focused on my current predicament, and most important of all, the system notifications.
The game system and its information was no longer presented to me as a floating hologram in front of my eyes, no. Now the knowledge and information was simply injected directly into my consciousness, and similar to how I found myself capable of perceiving both realms simultaneously without losing focus on either or struggling, like I had multiple minds despite very clearly being one.
Again I forced down my thirsting desire for knowledge, making a conscious effort not to experiment until I understood my position.
Entertaining the system prompts, I began to read. Well not really read considering the knowledge was already at the forefront of my mind, more so… recall? It was strange, but I will refer to it as reading, since that is the most apt description for this strange phenomena.
-Welcome (Please set name) to the world of Yggdrasil! A great land of magic, sorcery, gods, and monsters!-
-You have arrived in the world of Helheim, one of the 9 surviving realms, it is the home of monsters, death, and chaos.-
-Congratulations! You have chosen the race ERROR-
-Interference detected, welcome administrator.-
-Congratulations! You have been chosen as a candidate, and as such have had your race updated.-
-Congratulations! You have been granted the legendary race -Formless-. Spawn of the beyond, the formless are a species of primarily non sapient creatures of pure chaos. Yet to establish their first manifestation, they are creatures of no affinity. much like the slimes of material realms, they have no set evolution, their form, abilities, and affinities to be decided by their first manifestation.
the equivalent of embryo's for most races, they are incredibly weak lifeforms, only capable of interacting with the material world through the manipulation, consumption, or collection of chaotic energy. using their Nascent conceptless reality warping abilities to weakly manipulate basic concepts of reality, or mimic other abilities.
As beings of the beyond who live outside of destiny, the formless feed upon the energy of chaos, a primordial energy formed in the presence of uncertain or disturbed fate. due to them existing outside of fate, any and all interactions with the material world will cause the disruption and fraying of destiny itself, generating further chaotic energy for the formless to feed upon. the greater the divergence of destiny and probability, the greater the energy produced.
A formless is considered a newborn, commonly referred to under the umbrella term Monoform, when they successfully establish their first manifestation, a form capable of directly interacting with reality. No two manifestations are the same, and their shape, abilities, and form of existence are all determined by the actions of the formless thus far. At this point, all beyond diverge, and begin following their own paths.
There is no set evolutionary path beyond this point, as the possibilities are genuinely infinite, determined only by each individuals manifestations and abilities. most entities will never form another manifestation, however this does not make them weaker than those with many, only less versatile, as ones manifestations can also evolve and grow along with them, however the majority of the most powerful entities in the beyond have at least a few manifestations.
This is also the stage when the entity begins to form an ego, although they usually do not become sapient until later, their sentience, or lack thereof, is influenced by their first manifestation, otherwise known as their primary manifestation, as it will become the basis of their being as they progress.
Little is known of the later stages of a formless's development beyond the stage of a Monoform, as few survive to reach this stage, and starting at the stage of a Monoform, all entities of the beyond are unique, no two beings the same.
Luckily for the formless, they have few predators, as they are far too weak for most entities of the beyond to care, and when inhabiting a manifestation, they are effectively invisible within the beyond.-
-Note from the administrator. I wish you luck in your journey godling, you will need it.-
Well then, what a cute little eldritch horror I am.
I'm sure most would be terrified given my circumstances, especially knowing that I could die any moment to a bored entity of the beyond deciding they wanted a midnight snack, but I couldn't care less, this was all so god damn interesting, and I just knew, I would never be bored again.
-Please choose a name-
Very well, I know just the name, the perfect name for a newborn eldritch horror, especially given the path I wish to take.
-Please choose a name-
Very well, from this point on, I will be known as Nyarlathotep.
-A worthy name for a worthy soul indeed.-
(an: It's been a while huh… sorry for being gone for so long. I kinda just shut down for a few weeks, and even then I wasn't really focussing on this novel, but I got struck by inspiration, and I saw that some of you were getting impatient, so here ya go, I'm pretty happy with this chapter, even if its just lore building, and I hope you enjoyed it, I'm really happy with the power system and race I came up with, so I hope you guys enjoy. Also thanks for the mention that my race concept sounded similar to Nyarlathotep Fount_Of_Wonder, I was already planning on going the eldritch horror direction, but thinking of Nyarlathotep and the outer gods and other cthulian shit gave me some inspiration.)
(edit: changed some of the species lore, I decided I wanted Omniform to be the Mc's unique race. so I decided to make it so that all entities of the beyond begin their lives as a formless, before separating into their own unique races upon achieving their first manifestation.)