"The dimension that is now known as the Wildlands is the birthplace of nature itself. Or at least it's this universe's birthplace of nature. It is a dimension that is the home and birthplace of two especially powerful collectives, the fey, and salvajes." Ariel revealed, causing my eyes to widen in shock. The angel smiled when she revealed this, smiling not in response to her own words but rather as a response to my physical response to her words.
"So I see those are creatures you've heard of." She said, somewhat jokingly. I looked at her and chuckled, before beginning to nod.
"I have heard of both fey and salvajes. I actually have the quest I need to complete to become an archfey." I revealed, speaking frankly to the angel. This time her eyes widened in shock. And I watched as the wheels began to turn, metaphorically of course, in her mind. In a matter of seconds her eyes narrowed and she began to nod at me, before sighing embarrassedly.
"I... had forgotten about your 'More Than Meets The Eye' trait." She confessed after she spent perhaps twelve seconds changing her facial expressions and recalling what she knew about me. I had been forthright with my angels, during the hours I had spent assigning angels to various tasks, telling them about the myriad cults I had founded, my vast ambitions, and even the strange nature of both my relationships with abominations and my extremely odd wild traits. At the time I had thought about the risks of revealing this to the angels but considered it a calculated decision on my part to ensure that we welcomed even the angels of destruction and eldritch angels who had come to serve me.
"So... You can already become an archfey? That's impressive." Ariel said, a few seconds later. There was a bright grin on the young angel's face. She was trying to hide it for some reason, but she was also deeply impressed. I wondered for a moment if she were trying to hide how awestruck she was.
For a second I considered how to proceed. I knew that I could act haughty and mighty and be arrogant, channeling my godly pride. I also knew that if I wanted I could simply be honest, humble, and pursue knowledge. I debated the two options, aware that others also existed but I didn't feel like mulling over every single possibility. Perhaps five seconds passed before I came to the conclusion that it was better for me to seek knowledge than to act proud. In response to that decision, I chuckled at the angel's remarks and began to speak again.
"Yes I can. But I am already an elemental overlord, and in all honesty I don't know a tremendous amount about the differences between say an elemental overlord and an archfey." I confessed, opting to take advantage of the nature of knowledge angels, particularly in regards to how they served their divine lords. Ariel's eyes began to glow with delight due to her sensing an opportunity to teach her master something new.
"Elemental overlords are manifestations of the classical elements themselves. Archfey are very different from them! Archfey are the lords of concepts, say for example... The seasons. In the ancient past archfey were the kings and queens of the seasons themselves, with lords and ladies of summer, autumn, winter, spring, and the seasons of droughts and monsoons." Ariel revealed, giving me a fantastic example of the differences between archfey and elemental overlords.
"One past archfey that my mother wrote about was the known as the duke of droughts. He was a potent archfey who lived in a desert and made a palace made of glass. He held considerable power over droughts, dehydration, sands, and erosion and ruled over a court of desert-dwelling fey." Ariel told me, potent pride emanating from her gaze. She was quite proud of her knowledge, and she was also eager to share what she knew.
"To further illustrate the differences between an archfey and an elemental overlord, an elemental overlord of the earth such as the long-dead elemental princess of earth named Dunya held powers over the earth itself but she wasn't a higher being who had influence over autumn and thus she could do little to manipulate a harvest." Ariel declared. I listened to her thoughtful explanation and was grateful to finally have someone who could teach me about other higher beings.
"So that's the difference! How amusing." I said in response to her words, grinning as I thought about them. I closed my eyes as I absorbed the ramifications of what I had just been told. I also thought about the seasons themselves. Autumn with its ties to the harvest, summer with its ties to growth, spring with its ties to rebirth and renewal, and winter with its ties to coldness and solitude. As well as the more direct seasons, the dry season and the wet season. Ariel studied me, curiously watching my reactions to acquiring more knowledge. After a few moments of shared, comfortable silence, the angel spoke again and added more to her previous explanations.
"Elemental overlords, though capable of creating spirits were real and solid creatures. They were material beings. That is... less the case with archfey. Archfey, like lesser fey, were both real and spiritual. That will mostly likely be the case with you when you become an archfey." The knowledgeable angel explained, studying me for a moment. I opened my eyes and gazed back at her.
I silently began to picture the Wildlands in my mind for the first time. I had yet to try and interact with any Salvajes, though a few worshipped me, and I had had exceptionally few interactions with fey. I knew, due to having taken knowledge from some of my elven worshipers, that some elves were once fey but weren't anymore. Some suspected that dwarves and gnomes also shared that unusual distinction.
Both dwarves, and gnomes, were now classified as both mortals and humanoids, which differed from the classifications of fey. After a few moments though I began to think of other things.
"What do you know about Infernius?" I asked her, curious as to what she knew about the home of devils, lawful evil extraplanars who I knew to be fixated on tradition and order. The part of me that was determined to build an empire was actually quite fond of devils and their penchant for structure, organization, and hierarchy. They reminded me a bit of hymenopteran insects. Ariel took another glance at her book, just as she had earlier, and began to speak this time keeping her eyes glued to the thing while she spoke.
"Infernius is an orderly world even now, in the wake of the catastrophe that it suffered in losing the higher beings who governed over devil-kind. The dimension itself is made up of an enormous planet and the planet's surface is just one small part of the entire dimension." Ariel revealed.
"The surface is covered in technology that was automated long ago to access to deeper portions of the enigmatic dimension. Devils lurk only underneath the planet's surface, hidden away from prying eyes that would disrupt their plots. That said, they are suffering from their own unique circumstances. Archdevils, the lords of their home dimension, served a unique and irreplicable role in the lifespan of a devil. And since there are no current archdevils... Well life in Infernius has been different since the end of the mythic age." Ariel explained, mysteriously. There was an annoyed look on her face due to her own knowledge being incomplete.
I chuckled and soothed her, using my powers over emotions to calm her down. I could sense legitimate annoyance and surprise coming off of her. I knew even without prying that her own knowledge was incomplete. This information, incomplete as it was, was still quite informative and deeply intriguing to me. I now knew of a mystery that was evidently even a mystery to at least low-ranking angels of knowledge. Impressively, even in the wake of my powers the angel managed to still be frustrated. I could sense it in her body language.
I studied her for a few moments and then I realized I could try something that for me might have been a bit out there. I could use my words to comfort her! I knew that she'd listen to the advice I gave and even if I failed I could try a different route without much worry. So I spent a moment silently wondering what to say, before composing something that I thought struck that fine line between profound and stupid.
"It's okay to not know everything. I am a god of knowledge and there is... so much that I do not know. I do not let that hold me back. I use it to fuel my search for knowledge. Do not let ignorance, even your own, weigh you down. Be motivated by what you do not know, and seek to lessen what is unknown to you." I told the angel, utilizing my words to try and comfort her. I watched her size up my words and after a few moments, she began to relax. She looked at me and smiled, almost glowing as she was visibly heartened by my words.
"Thank you. It is a bit hard to not get frustrated when I come across something that I don't know, but at the same time you are right when you say I should be motivated to uncover what is beyond my comprehension." The angel told me, smiling more and more as she spoke. Each word that left her lips was spoken with more motivation and heart than the last.
I grinned at her, excited that my words had had their intended effect. And so she and I began to converse even more.
For the next few hours we'd exchange information. I'd spend the rest of the night learning from her, as much as she'd learn from me. And when day came, at least for the world above, I opened a portal back home for the knowledgeable angel and wished a good day with a bit of sadness.
She was perhaps the most knowledgeable creature I had met to date, and in speaking with her I gained a healthy amount of needed knowledge about the universe I lived in. Even though I was fond of learning from her, I knew she had an important task to do and I was determined to not get in the way of the very task that I had assigned her. She respectfully departed from the mortal plane, and stepped through the portal back into the angelic city I had created to house her kind.
A few minutes after the angel departed from my home, or at least the home I possessed in this world, I floated silently through my temple. I was alone again, but I wasn't idle. I was deep in thought. I was musing over Ariel's feelings.
"So that's what an angel of knowledge is like huh?" I asked myself, rhetorically. I could sense her passion and her curiosity, but interestingly only when she came across something she didn't know. I had quite liked helping her without my powers. It felt... good to help her, to console her in her moment of frustration.
"I wonder if the old gods of goodness ever had to do such things..." I mused, amused at the thought of a being as powerful as a god consoling a mortal in a moment of weakness or defeat. I could see a weaker, more local god doing such a thing for a close worshiper but I struggled with the thought of a powerful deity taking time to comfort a lone worshiper of theirs, even though such an action would probably have been the "right thing to do".
Deities were, and in my case are, entities that existed on a scale unimaginable to mortals. Only the very lowliest of us had not been perpetually aware of quintillions of events going on at once. Even ones as comparatively weak as I must be, as a mere lesser deity, were still capable of a truly staggering amount of feats and could in one breathe lay waste to entire civilizations, while in the next usher in a new golden age for countless others.
In the rare moments I stopped to think about what real power, the power of even an intermediate god, must be like I found it almost unimaginable. From time to time I did think about what it must have been like in the distant past when gods freely roamed the cosmos. Imagining the raw intensity of their powers was challenging for me, because I possessed influence over numerous domains and subdomains but only the first tier of influence over them and was already so powerful.
Morehammer was my hated foe but he was also once a greater deity and the overgod if, or at least maximally powerful deity of blacksmithing. At my current level of power I could instantly make every suit of armor and every weapon an army even billion's strong could every need. And I possessed the lowest possible amount of influence over the subdomain. I shuddered at the darkly curious thoughts I had about the limits of Morehammer's former power. And he wasn't the only vestige in existence either.
Somewhere in the universe or maybe in the multiverse lurked vestiges who were made from the leftover energies of gods of chaos, destruction, creation, and other truly terrifying domains and subdomains. It was entirely possible that some of them were even made from former overgods, and in a few cases maybe even true overgods who lorded over an entire alignment.
I wanted to experience such power myself, even if the thought of it was scary. I wanted to know what it would be to have total control over a domain or subdomain and to stand atop the hierarchy of the gods. Who knows... such power could be great enough to grant me the ability to create and destroy entire universes.
However for me to reach the mighty and distant pinnacle I wanted to reach I would need to focus. I would need to work hard and I would need to be smart. I realized that and focusing on it helped me clear my mind. I knew what I needed to do next to continue to inch towards the pinnacle of power that I wanted to reach one day. To begin to inch towards that goal I focused on one of the more important domains I held influence over: the domain of magic.
Completing its quest would no doubt prove to be a challenge, but one that I believed I could achieve. To begin to complete the quest I opened a one-way portal in front of me with a special destination: the home of Saoirse Finigan, a member of the Finigan family and a worshipper of mine. I would need an educator on my side if I were to complete the quest to gain more influence over the incredibly mighty domain of magic.
