Chapter One Hundred and Three – The Map, II

-Mmm, only one continent. To be expected.- I immediately /doused them all. -A planetary map would have opened up some interesting possibilities.- I narrowed the /view down by drawing a circle around a specific point.

-This is Yle Tyorm, the center of a great disaster in centuries past.- To the utter wonder of all, they could see the lands surrounding that point in extremely fine detail, and catch glimpses of monstrous things and fallen ruins of extraordinary beauty there that nobody wanted to mess with. -Here, a Rift by the Warp Gods has been opened, and they are tossing out warbands every day, seeking to spread their influence and corruption throughout the lands. No current update, but we will have it soon.-

I /flicked up measures of the forces, numbers, analysis, and could feel waves going out through my Marked. There had been rumors flying of some disaster in the north, and some of the Marked in more influential positions knew that forces were moving to counter it. Now, they knew why.

And they knew that I was here.

-Based on the furthest these warbands have penetrated south, we can determine the maximum range of their travel.- I drew a second circle inside the first. -Kaldenheimers, they are going to reach you very soon. You need to whelm for battle.- I felt a fire light up among those with Marks glowing in the cold lands there. -A fair chunk of these are going to slam right into the Feral lands and get chewed up. However, we don't know what will happen to those that head further north into the wastes there, only that they must be chewed up and Fed to the Land, regardless. They cannot be allowed to take root in the Wastes… which they most certainly will do.-

That was intended specifically for the Void Brothers. They need targets to slaughter, Karma to gain. There was no way the Warped could flee from them successfully.

-Sentients, we have a Map. It will be updated in real time to show us our fighting forces, where we need to go, and how to get there.

-I should not need to warn you that you may wish to conceal your Marks. The fact that you are capable of speaking to others in the distance who are opposed to great and powerful forces makes you a target. As knowledge of the Marks spread, there will be those who will claim their Marks openly, to draw attention from others who also bear them.

-This is for your own protection, and other advantages that may rise up, of course. I am working here for the good of the world, and I do not presume that endless generosity is going to flow here to support our effort.- There was muted /laughter from behind many of the floating doors in my mindscape.

-Therefore, we will be expanding our presence on levels beyond just the military, in order to support what we are doing here.

-If any of you wish to join me in my efforts here, you know where I am and how to get here. It will be a pleasure to see you in Reality.

-If you would prefer not to indulge in the defense of the World, simply inform me and I will sever the Harmony between your Marks and mine, and you will be removed from the Markspace and no longer need worry about us.-

And if I sounded soul-chillingly scornful, it was not an accident.

-I will be speaking to you individually to round out our personnel assessments and to learn your plans and desires, and fit them into our overall purpose.

-This concludes our briefing. Please carry on with your real-time duties.-

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"Well, damn!" Briggs muttered, snapping out of his trance, and glancing at Sama, who had been running along, undeterred, the whole while.

The Map was sitting there, right on top of the mental door that led to Sama's mental Markspace on the other side. He could feel her mind sitting there on the other side.

"You were holding out on me!" he sniffed, and she glanced back at him with a laugh.

"You can take over once you get that Charisma up there, Mr. Source," she winked at him calmly. "You've several dozen Levels to gain before that, however!"

He grunted, and turned his head to study Estemar, who was trying not to gape at her. Trying to reconcile the short girlish murder machine with the awesome mental presence on the other side of his Mark was making his eyes twitch.

And of course, that Map.

The continent was bigger then Eurasia, which came as no surprise, as the flatter horizon basically indicated the planet was bigger then Terra had been. It was balkanized, just like Europe. Some areas had dozens of kingdoms and independent realms, at least four empires, massive feral lands where orcs, goblins, and anthros roamed in their tribes and endless wars. Great forests, inland lakes and seas, mighty rivers and falls, the crashing coastlines of the great oceans…

Briggs' heart sped up just looking at the thing, all the places to go, things to do, wonders to behold… and things to put to the sword.

Or Hammer. His eyes glinted as he surveyed the area around his home, drawn out in detail from his own juvenile wanderings. The Rockborn probably wouldn't like such an accurate map being drawn of their holdings.

Come to think of it, a lot of forces might not. It was a testament to the free will of the elven that so many of them had chipped into making The Map, bless their Chaotic Good hearts. As it stood, he could basically take a Google Tour of several elven cities without ever setting foot in them, and the elves seemed to be competing with one another over who could convey the majesty and grace of their realm better than the next person.

Nominally, he was worried about this level of information finding it into the hands of the wrong people. Thinking about it, he dismissed it. Sama wasn't going to have Marked people who she could not trust, and she was radiating Diplomacy and Intimidation at something like +40, at least. Even if you knew what those effects were and what they did, trying to not do what she wanted was like blowing in the face of a hurricane. She was a force of nature, completely overwhelming everyone and everyone, and he didn't doubt that some thought she might even be a goddess.

With mental Stats at 30+, she certainly wasn't a normal human anymore…

There was a slight shimmer as The Map adjusted. A bright line came right down through Yle Tyorm, and just glancing at it informed everyone of what it was… a Greenwich line, the arbitrary starting point of a world-wide map, signifying the baseline for the start of a day.

The line was bright, and he glanced over just as the first rays of Aru broke the horizon. On The Map, a thinner bright line began to sweep west, pegged exactly to people's awareness of Renewal.

She was giving them a clock. That meant she could give them latitude, more accurate then any clock once it was established. Of course, there were things like seasonal tilt to take into account, but all in all, it would represent a clock.

"One Caster with Detect Time going at all times can basically set a counter for the whole world," he said, and saw her wink at him as a clock appeared on the side of The Map. There were calculations going on around it, arcs and times shifting as The Map bent and fit itself onto a sphere. Access of rotation settled onto the empty grid of the rest of the planet, lines radiated out to chop it up into longitude from the core, the positions of sun and moon were set as the planet rotated between them, Shoul's position beneath Sylune was pointed out, and the sparkling train that followed the Silver Queen resolved into countless numbers of asteroids, spinning in space behind Her.

Ah, yes, high magnification Clarity Mask at work…

She outscrolled the area around the planet, leapt right out into the solar system here. Ranks of Navigator and Astronomer placed other planets in their proper orbits with precision, and then her memory washed across the skies, placing the stars in their places, the great constellations that divided the night into the months of the year.

He imagined what intellectuals and Casters she had Marked erupting into an intellectual tizzy over this, adding their own observations to things, filling in details, minor stars and lesser Constellations, Naming them, and filling in other things, while other areas were huge and empty.

Gods. So much to see, so much to do, the potential, the size of it, a whole magical solar system…

And there was a flicker over it, something cold and detached, effectively giving the impression of 'All this is way cool and for reference, but don't even THINK about going Out There until we've got Down Here taken care of.'

He pulled back with an audible snort, Estemar kind of laughed behind him, and he could see a smile curl up at the edge of her lip.

Latitude and longitude lines were carving up The Map with tentative phantom lines, degrees one way and minutes the other.

"So, how many people are just desperate to fill in all the empty places?" he had to ask.

"Lots of them!" she half-laughed back. "I may have started the great Age of Exploration…"

Briggs glanced at Estemar. "How you holding together, Paladin?" he asked.

"I… seem to have touched on both what it means to be an ant, and to have the wide view in perspective…" he replied after a moment. "I had not thought… the world to be so large… and what I had thought so great and mighty, to be so small…"

"Mmm. Then remember this: the entire solar system is just a mote in the eye of the gods who have dominion here." Her voice was grim. "That's why our efforts matter. If they actually paid attention, and exerted any real power, we'd all be wiped away, like footprints on a beach as the tide comes in. The reason the gods don't save us is because saving us would destroy us all."

Estemar tilted his head back to look at the sky. "And yet, they take note of us?" he wondered aloud, deeply shaken.

"The currency of the hereafter is souls. The belief of souls is the strength of the Profound Alignments. Thus, every source of souls is a resource. To the Powers That Be, an individual source may be nothing, but together, they are a force the gods themselves bow to. The fight over souls is a fight over the direction of Creation itself. The gods take this fight very seriously, regardless of all other matters. But using their own power would destroy the very thing they seek to claim.

"Thus, it all devolves down to influence with mortals and espousing the ideals they believe in. Mithar picks the mortal souls that are like Him, that do as He would do, to lead people to the path He would take. Other Divine forces do the same, and so their influences contest across the world."

"Then, what of faith? Why do we pray? Is just living a life in tune with the principles of the gods enough?"

"To do what?" Briggs interjected.

"To… live and die?" Estemar replied after a moment.

"All you want to do is live and die?"

"Well, I should think not…"

"Faith is power." Estemar turned his head back to Sama. "Belief… is power. It's not a power that can be used by mortals, but it is power nonetheless. The Faith and Belief of mortal souls gives Divinities power to work with, above and beyond their own, and as it is the power of mortals, it is easily used on the mortal plane.

"You, a Paladin, are the recipient of that power. The abilities and gifts given to you by Mithar are outgrowths of that power. You may think your ability to Smite the wicked is a blessing of Mithar, and indeed it is a sword refined and forged by Him… but the ore it came from is the Belief of those faithful to Him!" Sama stated with no reverence or piety, just cold, hard fact, belief beyond Belief.

Briggs chuckled. "I always pictured a Smite as a thousand good folk pointing at some total asshole and saying, 'Eat this, you shithead!', by way of Mithar."

-I begin my day with the Salute to the Morning. You do not have to join in if you do not wish to.- Without skipping a beat, Sama began to sing, and the conversation of the two faded away as she, Tremble, and Stand began to recite the traditional Salute to the morning for Aru.

QL 40 Minstrel music check. All across the face of the continent, people went still in awe…