In the wee hours of the morning on the first full day I was going to be in Ta Hendo I found myself seated in a comfortable room and in the middle of a conversation with Leon. He was seated across a table from me, and on one side of the table, the one to my right and his left, there was a mirror he occasionally looked at.
"So Althos... you are an emperor yourself?" He asked, looking at me with awed eyes as he spoke. He had been feeding me pleasantries up until this point, so his choice to ask me something substantive was a nice change of pace. I smiled at him and nodded.
"I am the emperor of an empire known as the Althonite Empire. We are an empire located... far from here." I told him, chuckling as I said "far from here". His people had no knowledge of just how vast existence was. This civilization, indeed the overwhelming majority of people in this entire world, had an extremely superficial understanding of existence. They hadn't even yet figured out the general nature of stars.
I didn't want to overwhelm them. I would slowly and gradually expand their understanding of the world.
"I see... Well, we are grateful for your assistance. And for your protection." The sorcerer told me, speaking honestly. I sensed his gratitude, and his awareness of the fact that tonight, for the first time in weeks, a skirmish ended without losing a single Terran warrior to Atlani raiders. I quietly planned to resurrect all of the warriors who had perished at the hands of the Atlani, but not yet.
"I am still processing the reality that you're a god. Is your true form the one you're wearing in front of me?" Leon asked while admitting that he was still adjusting to the new reality he found himself living in. He looked at me and studied my enormous form. I smiled at him and shrunk myself down to the point that he and I were about the same height.
"I can fully control my physical form. I like to be tall and I tend to walk around in a human-like form." I explain, speaking somewhat casually to the sorcerer while explaining the creative choices I made regarding the form I had taken on while first appearing to the Terrans.
It took his eyes a second to adjust to my new location. When they did they widened in shock. I had shrunk by almost half of my height. I did it to help him, but I also didn't mind being this short for a moment.
"I have a number of potent abilities at my disposal. I can do a lot more than shrink or grow. And I intend to grow stronger in time." I explained, cryptically. There was a glow in my eyes as I spoke. Leon shivered as I spoke, and I sensed his considerable curiosity regarding my powers.
"I am a deity of many things. In time you will get to see more of the strange and powerful abilities I possess but for now..." I told him, replying to his words with a single wave of my hand and filling him with knowledge of some of my abilities, especially my powers related to magic and war. Those were the powers that I knew would be the most relevant for him and would do the most to convince him to worship me.
As the knowledge I implanted into Leon's mind was consciously absorbed by the man his eyes widened. I had to stifle a chuckle as he began to digest just some of my powers. As a god of magic, I could do things beyond what other magic users could do, such as create spells and perform acts of sorcery that were impossible for mortal magic-users. I wasn't the most frequent user of magic, though over the course of the past three years I had begun to use it more routinely.
On the other hand, Leon used magic for everything. He had served in the empire that he was a part of's military as a magic-user and had retired years ago before joining one of the ships that were part of the expedition that had led Terrans to this part of the world. And Leon now found himself face to face with a powerful god of magic. That said, I kept my most fun powers a secret. And lately, I had acquired a good number of truly fun abilities. Some of which I planned to use here, on Ta Hendo.
In time I would show off my newfound powers as a strengthened god of chaos, nature, and even dragons, but for now, I was content merely knowing that I had more powers than I revealed. I had no reason to "show my hand" as it were. Especially since I usually embraced evil followers and did things in an overtly evil manner, but here, on Ta Hendo, I was trying to, at least outwardly, stick with goodness and justice.
The next few hours passed in a blur. Once the sun was truly up, and the day legitimately began, I was introduced to the leadership of the Terran colony, who upon realizing that I was a god were quick to give me the freedom to do as I pleased, so long as I protected the colony, especially after I proved that I had an intimate knowledge of the empire's legal system and customs, thanks to powers from the domains of law and knowledge as well as the memories I had copied from Leon and other soldiers.
I was then introduced to the people of the colony since I was their savior, and I took that chance to earn some goodwill by thanking the soldiers of the colony's military for their dedication to serving and protecting the people and then going and healing the warriors who had that been injured in past skirmishes with the Atlani and were recovering from their wounds in the colony's barracks. I also mentioned the barrier for the first time and upon learning of it local scholars were quick to go and investigate it, even though I had honestly stated its powers and origins.
By the time I was done meeting people it was mid-day of the first full day I was going to be living on Ta Hendo. I hadn't really needed to use much of my powers aside from those that were related to healing. I found myself alone on the beach, near the same spot I had first appeared at.
At the moment I looked like a human, albeit a fairly tall one. I stood around two and a half meters tall, which allowed me to tower over this world's humans but not be so tall that I was basically a small giant. I was walking, barefoot, on the beach and allowing myself to take in the sensations of this world's sun beating down on me.
It was pleasant to go for a walk on my own at the beach and enjoy the sight of gentle waves lapping at the shore. I liked the feeling of sand under my feet, and I was giving myself a short break before returning to work. I planned to continue my habit of having temples that were affiliated with water, but I wanted a short moment to myself.
At the moment I was feeling the power and piety of new worshipers surging into me. This was always a pleasant and intoxicating sensation, so I was content to allow it to wash over me while I gave myself a moment of quiet peace. That said, my mind wasn't still even as I soaked in the adoration and worship of thousands of new people.
A small part of me decided that now was as good a time as any to go ahead and begin the less obvious parts of my offensive efforts against the Atlani. I didn't need to do anything too obvious at this moment but I would have a little bit of fun at their expense.
I accessed my not-so-mini-map and began to look at the Atlani villages away from the colony. There were a healthy number of Atlani villages, and in total there were around two million Atlani people in the world. The total number of Terrans was over twelve million, though the overwhelming majority of them were located thousands of kilometers away from where I was at the moment.
I focused on the Atlani villages furthest away from where I was at the moment and internally chuckled. None of them were anything like a capital, as the Atlani were not unified like that at the moment. Instead of being a unified nation or a united civilization, they were a civilization that was warring with itself and its closest neighbor: the Terran colony I now lived in. That was, unsurprisingly, advantageous to me.
I utilized powers over nature to create innocuous-looking clouds that formed over the distant villages quite speedily. They were each puffy white clouds that looked as though they would do nothing more than provide shade which Atlani farmers would be grateful for as they worked their fields.
I sensed the distant Atlani feel a bit of joy as the clouds appeared above their villages. They had no idea as to the true origins or purposes of the clouds. I smiled as I willed the clouds to begin to drop a strange, unnatural deluge upon the Atlani villagers. The liquid that began to pour out of the enormous clouds superficially resembled water, but most assuredly wasn't. I had created a sort of wicked, but not fatal, poisonous rain and given it a false look.
The "water" that poured out of the clouds I had created was a sort of slow-acting poison that killed crops and weakened humans, though it'd take days before the Atlani people realized what I had done and I doubted that they'd ever realize it was me, partly because they had no idea that I existed. The distance between these three villages and the one I had gained secret, hidden followers in was enormous and I was careful not to overplay my hand.
The real purpose of my actions was to begin to test the Atlani. For now my moves against them would be subtle, but they'd be moves that were felt by the people posed to attack the colonists I had decided to protect.
Another subtle move I made was to reach out to some animals throughout the region and awaken or bless them. I sent fragments of my mind out across the vast wilderness my people had inhabited, and awoke creatures such as lions, zebras, rhinoceroses, and elephants. My power reached into their very souls and touched them, leaving them forever altered and empowered by the touch of a god of nature and other domains and subdomains.
I also did that for some of the drakes and wyverns, giving them enhanced intelligence and auras of nobility that would allow them to become leaders of their kin. I was ready to fully use them, and reward those of them who had proven themselves to be especially capable or clever.
If I wanted... I could allow them to evolve into true dragons, thanks to the litany of powers I possessed synergizing and boosting each other, but at most I'd do that for two of them. I didn't want this region to be crawling with dragons, though even if it was I knew I had the power to keep them calm.
That said, the animals in this region were part of a scheme that was quietly formulating in the back of my mind. A scheme I already knew I'd use to rid the local Terrans of enemies, in a way that left me empowered and made them feel powerful. I could have coddled them, but I didn't want to do that. All I wanted was to be in control of events and to slowly begin to understand this world, while gradually empowering the Terrans and uniting the various peoples in this region.
I refocused and rose my left hand. It was my hand that was in the direction of the shore. As my hand rose a small temple began to materialize to my left.
The small temple arose right on the edge of the sandy beach. The temple was made from light wood, and was much brighter and more aesthetically pleasing to look at than many of my temples were. It was supposed to be a temple for a good-aligned faith so I made it bright and welcoming.
I watched as the temple solidified and became fully real, a bright smile on my face as I did so. When the temple was finished coming into existence, a gentle, perpetual, song began to emanate from it. I approached it and placed a single hand on it, feeling the warmth of the wood.
I studied the temple, and allowed my non-physical senses to allow me to sense the interior of the temple. Unsurprisingly the temple was larger on the inside than on the outside, thanks to my innate powers over physics and the eldritch domain. I began to decorate the temple with my thoughts, creating statues and more to furnish the temple.
