A Solitary God In A Dark Multiverse

The silvery illumination that sprung into being around the G.o.d and the dragon"s head was beautiful. It was also incredibly powerful and forced the dragon to immediately accept the truth that Althos was a G.o.d. It was a simple, undeniable power that overwhelmed mortals with ease.

The dragon silently and swiftly came to terms with the powerful knowledge that seeped into its brain courtesy of the G.o.d. It wasn"t a scholar but that didn"t mean it was dumb. And it sensed the profound power that radiated out of the mighty G.o.d who stood before it.

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I looked at the dragon and stared silently for a few moments. I needed to get into the "proud" state of mind I had shown the other dragons if I wanted this exchanged to be as productive as possible. I took a deep breathe and then began to speak to the beast.

"Ygaynth, I am power incarnate." I began, speaking as arrogantly as I could. I channeled the divine pride that infused me into my voice.

"I am a G.o.d of life, death, time, and even dragons. Nothing can escape my influence." I told the beast in front, working to bolster the image it had of me in its mind. As I did that I thought of the significant powers afforded to me by the domain of dragons.

The system chose this moment to hit me with another notification. A brand new, special alert, which among other things detailed a brand new domain that I hadn"t previously seen or heard of before. That said, I didn"t hate what I saw.

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[Draconic domain details:

Dragons are the greatest and most powerful types of mortal lifeforms. Their strength is so vast that they and their kin, creatures like half-dragons, devolved dragonkin, kobolds, and other draconic creatures, merit their own domain and not a subdomain like almost every other mortal lifeform possesses.

Dragons are the embodiment of mortal emotions, virtues, and sins. They can personify greed, sloth, happiness, patience, and other emotions. They are incredibly long-lived, capable of living until they are several thousand years old before old age inevitably takes them, and their strength only grows as they age.

In the ancient past, the G.o.ds of dragonkind were a varied bunch. Good G.o.ds of dragonkind embodied justice, benevolent leadership, peace, and cooperation. Evil G.o.ds of dragonkind embodied greed, l.u.s.t, wrath, and conflagrations. The G.o.ds of dragonkind were immensely powerful dragons, creatures capable of singlehandedly combatting the populations of entire planets on their own.

As a lesser G.o.d of dragonkind, you possess powers over lesser dragonkin, such as kobolds and devolved dragonkin. You also possess the power to influence dragons but to gain true power over them as a G.o.d of their kind you must gain greater influence over the domain.

To gain more power over the draconic domain you must build up cults of draconic worshipers. These cults can be made up of dragons, or they can be made up of the lesser relatives of dragons.

Draconic domain pa.s.sive powers:

Knowledge: This synergistic power takes from the domain of knowledge and gifts you with an understanding of dragons and their kin. This knowledge is simplistic, for now, but possessing knowledge about dragons is a valuable and rare gift in a world like Torus.

This knowledge is both significant and generalized. It applies to dragons and their lesser relatives as a whole, and isn"t about specific members of any particular species. As an example of this, you now know that black dragons are earth dragons, powerful creatures with various powers over stone, soil, and the land itself.

Aura of draconic superiority: You exude an aura of power that renders lesser dragonkin subservient to you.

This aura turns lesser dragonkin, creatures that include beings as intelligent as kobolds, who are true humanoids and every bit as industrious as humans and dwarves, into your worshipers. It doesn"t s.n.a.t.c.h away their freewill but all but the smartest or most willful kobolds who learn about you begin to worship you as a G.o.d of dragons, greed, and something else you may decide later.

Dragon breath: This is a redundant power. It grants you the elemental breath weapons that dragons possess, which your powers over elements already granted you.

Dragon physiology: This is a synergistic power that takes from the domains of life and biology as well as the dragon domain. With it, you can give your worshippers parts of a dragon"s body if you wish through your transformational and mutagenic powers.

At will, you can now grant your worshipers" weak elemental breath weapons, dragon claws, dragon wings, and the incredibly hard scales of a dragon.

Draconic domain active powers:

Lesser dragonkind manipulation: You can induce emotions in any number of lesser dragonkin. These emotions are currently limited to simple ones, like desire, rage, happiness, or sorrow. This can be done up to five times per half an hour.

Amplification: Once per day you can target a dragon and amplify whatever they are feeling. You cannot change what they are feeling, only amplify it.

Draconic domain blessing and curse details:

By blessing a non-dragon with this domain you amplify the effects of their attacks against dragons and their relatives, as well as how successful they are in regards to non-violently engaging with dragons. The curse has the opposite effect.]

[Special dual alert:

In your decision to indiscriminately heal the inhabitants of the world you did a number of things that no mundane G.o.d had ever done before. One of the things you did that no mundane G.o.d had ever done before was healing living abominations. One of the other things you did was convert a considerable number of said abominations into your worshipers.

Abominations are horrifying, alien lifeforms that are or in some cases are descended from beings native to other realities. These creatures were warped by interuniversal travel, and transformed into hateful, misanthropic monsters who could usually only tolerate other members of their own kind.

Abominations were hated by the majority of the ancient, and mundane G.o.ds. The ancient and mundane G.o.ds formed the majority of G.o.ds native to this particular universe. The mundane G.o.ds ordered their servants to wipe out the abominations, and the resulting conflict has gone on between the two groups for so long that it transcended even the death of the old G.o.ds.

Abominations were only accepted by the great old ones or the outer G.o.ds, two particular families of G.o.ds who defied their kin and possessed distinct, horrifying, and reality-warping powers. Abominations served these strange, alien G.o.ds eagerly, grateful for both the power that such G.o.ds granted their servants and the acceptance of the churches of the great old ones and the outer G.o.ds.

You already had a few abominations as your worshipers, but they were undead: the gugs you have reanimated. Now you are worshipped by living abominations, and that has an influence on you. Namely, it has granted you power over the eldritch domain.

Eldritch domain details:

The eldritch domain is the domain that governs abominations, madness, eldritch energies, and other reality-warping things. This domain is the eerie domain which empowered the great old ones and the outer G.o.ds to the extent that they, a relatively small fraction of G.o.ds, could stand against the combined forces of the other G.o.ds.

The eldritch domain is primarily a power-giving and transformative domain, though it does offer influence over lifeforms. It currently seeks to leave the multiverse an illogical, sinister, and terrifying place.

This domain is a mysterious one. It is a relatively young domain that doesn"t a.s.sociate much with its fellow domains, and its goals are only known because it was highly influenced by the bizarre G.o.ds who once possessed power over it. Some extraplanars are susceptible to the powers of this domain, especially demons whose affiliations with both chaos and evil make them occasional allies of abominations.

To gain greater influence over this domain use its eerie powers to create and organize cults of abominations. Please note that in doing so you"ll begin to become more like the great old ones and the outer G.o.ds.

Eldritch domain pa.s.sive powers:

Abominable knowledge: This obviously synergistic power grants you knowledge concerning different types of abominations.

Madness detection: Eldritch beings and G.o.ds can detect madness and insanity. They are also potent manipulators of madness.

Madness manipulation: As an eldritch G.o.d you can manipulate madness. What you do with this eerie power is entirely up to you, but you can twist and distort the minds of mad people and bend them to your will.

Additionally, you can create madness energy and infuse objects with it. This energy warps the objects you infect with it and causes them to exude auras of contagious madness.

If used on weapons it makes them more effective, if used on armor it makes it more protective, if used on food it makes it more delicious but also addictive. This power increases an item"s effectiveness, but at the cost of slowly and steadily draining the sanity of any people brave enough to wield, wear, eat, or otherwise use them.

Maddening dreams: This synergistic power is an eerie fusion of the dream domain and the eldritch domain. It causes people to have dreams that lessen their sanity and render them more vulnerable to powers like "Madness Burst".

These dreams can be manipulated by you, and can still be restorative. That said if these dreams are twisted into restorative ones then the dreamers will awaken with manic energy and a frighteningly unstable, but thankfully temporary positive outlook. If this power is used on an entire community it can be part of a long-term a.s.sault on a community, driving people to chaos and madness.

Contagious madness: This disturbing power twists and empowers madness into something terrifying: something that can spread from person to person. It also grants you a few other abilities.

You can now physically attack someone and deal damage to their sanity instead of their body. If you wanted too, even an attack that ought to be fatal can be transformed into an attack that instead drives someone insane. People driven insane in this manner, by you or by an empowered abomination who serves you, begin to worship you as an eldritch deity of pain, pleasure, and terror.

You can target people who are mad and empower their madness. This makes their madness nearly incurable and allows them to sap the sanity of those who are influenced by them or who are in close proximity to them. This also increases their charisma. If you wish they can begin to worship you, but that"s up to you.

Maddening aura: At will you can project an aura that causes creatures in your presence to begin to lose sanity. Abominations who enter your aura immediately become empowered servants of yours and seek to enact your will. Eventually, even the sanest creature will lose the last bit of their sanity and become a maddened worshiper of yours.

Eldritch conversion: If you wish you can transform someone who is insane into an abomination. You can either transform them into existing abominations, like deep-ones, mi-gos, gugs, night-gaunts, or countless other types of creatures, and even into handcrafted abominations. If you remake someone into an existing type of abomination then they worship you in ways that fit their species.

Gugs worship you as an eldritch G.o.d of violence and dreams. Mi-gos worship you as an eldritch deity of transformations, and fungi. Deep-ones worship you as an eldritch deity of fertility and the ocean. And so on and so forth.

Handcrafted abominations are usually influenced by the particular idiosyncrasies of their madness, as well as their personal vices and they worship you as an eldritch deity, their creator, and as a G.o.d of the truth. Creatures transformed by you are irreversibly transformed unless, of course, you decide to undo the transformation.

Fanaticism inducement: This power is a synergistic one that takes from the faith domain and the eldritch domain. It allows you to target creatures who worship you and transform them into fanatics. Such a transformation is immediate, and potentially destroys their sanity, but if not it definitely strains it. Fanatics worship you zealously and seek to fulfill your will.

Maddening touch: Your mere touch can sap sanity. This is an at-will effect. Your touch alone isn"t very potent, but if you do other things in addition to touch someone the effect is magnified.

Empowerment: You can empower abominations. Empowering an abomination makes it bigger, smarter, and more dangerous, as well as more hateful towards humanoids. Empowered abominations automatically become fanatics of yours and seek to convert their neighbors to your worship. They often attempt to become leaders of other, nearby abominations and form cults, communities, or even entire regions devoted to you.

Eldritch mind: You can project your thoughts into the mind of someone else and can forcibly alter their perceptions of reality. With this, you can trap someone in a prison of their own mind, or even a.s.sault someone using your thoughts. Additionally attempts to read your mind result in someone falling under your corruptive influence.

This is a synergistic power that incorporates mind-domain abilities.

Eldritch domain active power:

Subjective perception: This power is trapped in a weaker state until you gain powers over the art subdomain and the domains of emotions and reality, but in its current state, you gain a once-per-day power that further enhances your shapeshifting talent.

This power causes how you look to differ radically from person to person for two hours. You can take on a form that matches the most beautiful or handsome creature imaginable to those who see you, or the most terrifying thing imaginable to them. These forms can differ wildly and even be of different races or genders.

Eldritch domain blessing and curse details:

If you bless someone with this domain, abominations view them favorably and their sanity is constantly being drained. A mortal blessed by this domain will become an abomination upon their death.

If you curse someone with this domain abominations will detect your curse and will single them out. A mortal cursed by this domain also becomes an abomination upon their death.]

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"You will worship me. But I have a number of ways that I can induce this if you won"t worship me willingly. And your death is not an obstacle. Not to me, anyway." I told the dragon, my confidence empowered by the bizarre array of new abilities I possessed.

I immediately activated my newest aura and chuckled as I felt insidious, maddening energy begin to seep out of me. The power that I now radiated was dark and cruel, it was a mutative and corruptive font of power that offered those who partook of it eldritch might, but at the cost of their sanity. And if it were me, I could make people partake of the power regardless of their willingness.

"Ygaynth... Your actions have encouraged civilizations who live in this area to practice slavery. And that is an unforgivable offense." I calmly informed the dragon. This caused the beast to tense up. The dragon"s head reared back and then stretched upwards so that the beast could look down on me, as an emotional defense mechanism. I chuckled.

I placed a hand on the dragon"s exposed, elongated, neck and activated my "Maddening Touch" power. I felt unstable energy begin to manifest in my fingertips and seep into the dragon. The dragon hissed, but the sound wasn"t an uncomfortable one, it was one of surprise.

I calmly retreated into my mind. In the sanctuary that was my head, I was able to a.s.sess the situation I found myself in.

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Ygaynth was a cruel, powerful dragon. He was at the zenith of his power as an ancient dragon.

The gigantic beast was responsible for not only the destruction of countless human kingdoms, but he had also devoured countless sacrifices given to him. Not to mention that he was one of the forces responsible for ensuring the continuation of the practice of slavery in the world below Puerto Rico.

Ygaynth was believed to be, by numerous factions throughout this area, an unstoppable force of nature. And he was now my prisoner, helpless to resist my strange powers. But how to proceed from here?

I could kill the dragon. Doing so, regardless of whether or not I reanimated or even resurrected him, would truly cement my status as the lord of the world beneath Puerto Rico. Killing him wouldn"t even be hard. And that"s before considering the numerous voices in my head clamoring for the death of the dragon.

I could also convert the dragon. If I turned the ma.s.sive beast into a worshiper of mine, especially if I made it a fanatic, I didn"t doubt that my personal fame and the power of my worshipers as a distinct faction in the world beneath Puerto Rico would skyrocket.

There were also a few other possibilities. I could convert the dragon into an abomination and thus secure its worship, as well as test my eldritch abilities. Heck I could even infect the dragon with demonic infection, and thus allow the beast to become possessed by a praereptor demon.

So many choices, and one of the best parts of it all was that I had unlimited time to make a decision. I felt the beast"s sanity lessening by the second.