Dawn of Worlds - Actual play, Second Age

Around October/ November of 2019 our initially enthusiastic play-by-post game of Dawn of Worlds on the Garblag Games server fizzled out. I wrote up a fairly comprehensive report of the first age of play about a month later, which you can read here:

https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2019/12/dawn-of-worlds-actual-play-first-age.html

End of round 15, 1st Century of the second age.

 
Anyway, part of my "ringing out the old" of this self-imposed advent blogging challenge is revisiting forgotten drafts, including my follow-up report for the second age of that game. As stated, it's been more than a year since this took place so I may be a little vague in parts, but as before the purpose of this post is to "detail the manner in which the game's rules were applied, as inspiration for others intending to run a game of Dawn of Worlds online, and also to initiate some discussion about the game", or so I remarked back in 2019.

Overview

Dawn of Worlds is a collaborative worldbuilding game available for free download here:

http://www.clanwebsite.org/games/rpg/Dawn_of_Worlds_game_1_0Final.pdf

Players assume the role of competing/cooperating deities shaping a world in three stages: 

• 1st Age "Land "
• 2nd Age "Races" (perhaps "cultures" is better?)
• 3rd Age "Relations"

Players spend points to perform actions which shape the world they are creating, including creating geographic features, inspiring technological development or altering the climate. The point costs varies in accordance with the age in which they find themselves. Points are randomly generated each game turn.

This particular game was played online. I managed a map document using photoshop (for the layers) as well as a particularly comprehensive spreadsheet detailing what went down!

The previous post details the actions that five players (one of whom was me) took in the first age. In short:

• More than 7,000 years had passed on our world
• Three sentient species existed: 
• the rock-skinned, humanoid Hymlac
• the marsupial Macropustics of the north
• the dwarf velociraptors, known as the Ook. 
• In the southwest an enormous four-armed lizard, Magnificent-is-the-Dawn, loomed over the swamps, avatar of Worldbuilder101.

The Second Age of Creation

The second age began in earnest, 7500 years after the creation of the world itself. Each round now represented a century rather than 500 years, with the points cost of powers encouraging the creation of "races" and "sub-races" (though sapient species would be less problematic?)

Power to command (-order/avatar/city/race) were not fully detailed in the main rules tome, and we improvises a great deal. What follows is a summation of events as terse as I can make: italicised quote texts are taken directly from the discord thread.

A more thorough account is kept in the akashic records of google sheets!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Nepq4aj5BBtZFeY7TfArLdXAEc71aLSij0k6lEjEjr8/edit#gid=0 

Dawn of the Second Age

7500 Emergence of Berborn & The Pulse

In 7500 the Berborn race created, immediately struck by catastrophe when "a large earthquake that splits the land in half and major avalanches on the mountains causing a large section of the new Berborns to die setting them back a couple hundred years in terms of technology."

Around the same time, an event known as The Pulse takes place: Event - known by many as different things, but to the Hymlac it was known as The Pulse. As the Ascenders of the Sheer climb to the Second Cluster - the next passage of scripture on the face of the monolith - their reading of the holy words sends a magical shockwave across the lands. The wisest and sagest of all species are suddenly aware of The Sheer and that it is a magical beacon and arcane cypher sent from the strange god of magic known as Totenka Mor. 

Meanwhile, at the foot of Great Banyan tree:

...a new race awakens, the Ssiruss. The Ssiruss are a sentient reptilian species, humanoid in form, with large heads, barrel chested bodies and strong limbs. Their claws are capable of fine manipulation. The Ssiruss have three genders, crested males and rose bellied females both contribute seed to larger and more intelligent  jo-in, who fertilise the eggs and tend them in great crèches in the warm waters below the trunk.

The jo-in who are no longer able to fertilise join the Order of Nurturers, the ruling body of the Ssiruss, who dwell in caves burrowed into the tree and interpret the words of Magnificent-is-the-Dawn to guide their people.

Finally, the Order of Nurturers are commanded to raise a city built in, on and around Great Banyan to house the Ssiruss. The city will be grown and dug from living plants, growing in harmony with the people and the tree using vines, mosses and other plants wherever possible.

Other things  

• Civilisation advanced by Garblag (construction techniques)
• Civilisation advanced by Garblag (magic use/sorcery)
• Civilisation advanced by Flynn (construction techniques)
• Civilisation advanced by Flynn (mining)
• Berborn settlement (Ravinn) established by Flynn
• Ssiruss race created by Worldbuilder! (command Avatar)
• Ssiruss settlement founded at Great Banyan by Worldbuilder (command)
• Jungle Ook subspecies created by Sofinho
• Civilisation advanced by Sofinho (boatbuilding)
• Climbers of the Teeth of the Sea (order) created by Sofinho
• Civilisation advanced by Worldbuilder (herbalism)

Catastrophe strikes the Macropustic civilisation:

The Captain of the Macropustic fishing fleet, desperate to prove himself, guides his fleet to the very edge of the great vortex, knowing that only the largest and strongest fish can survive this close to the unforgiving torrent. In his arrogance and grasp for personal gain he missed the signs of the oncoming storm. By the time the Captain notice the storm was already upon them.  The raging vortex grew in strength and size pulling the unsuspecting fleet into its cyclonic maw! Only 2 small ships survived the ordeal but upon their return to port found their shore community wiped out by the devastating winds and rains. Half the population retreated further inland and were taken in by the river tribes.Half the Macropustics wiped out.

• The Children of The Tide (order) founded by Tagger
• Civilisation advanced by Tagger (ship/boatbuilding)

7600 - Complexity of the Ssirius

• Berborn city Bezdna founded by Flynn
• White-furred Berborn subrace created by Flynn!
• Civilisation advanced by Tagger (ship/boatbuilding)
• Calicortia city founded by Tagger
• Macropustics ordered to migrate here by Tagger
• Macropustics ordered to migrate here by Tagger
• Tagger created their avatar, Metropia!

At the end of the Century, Calicortus fulfils the great prophecy and Metropia is born. She will lead the Macropustics into the sea and on to the New World.

• First Jo-in dies, consciousness transferred by Worldbuilder
• Worldbuilder commands Avatar to create sub-race:Marine Ssiruss
• Sofinho created their avatar, Many-Armed-Mother!
• Settlers subrace created by Garblag!

Create Subrace - the Hymlac people break into two groups the Ascenders and the "Settlers". As the faith of the Sheer  takes over more and more of the culture of the people, some find it all consuming and fear that ignoring the wider world around them is foolish. They turn away from the Sheer looking to move out and settle the lands around them.

Command Race - the Settlers move across the Mirrormist (the lake in 146) and create a city in 145 known as Mirrormaw. They intend this to be a place of trade and commerce and nothing to do with the Sheer, which they feel has consumed the majority of their people.

Advance City - Mirrormaw develops Shipbuilding - the Settlers take the construction initiative of their forebears and begin to experiment with ways to easily cross the Mirrormist and to explore the new coastline they have found. Using the optics of the Ascenders they start to toy with navigation.

• Hymloac settler city Mirrowmaw  founded by Garblag
• City of Mirrormaw advanced by Garblag (shipbuilding) 
• Garblag creates the Gromp race!

Create Race - the Gromp - a muck dwelling fish people emerge one day from the Mirrormist as the Settlers begin fishing the vast lake. They respond in a very territorial fashion and exploitation of the lake is halted for a long time. Their shell clad, trident wielding WaveWalkers are too quick and devious for the poor fisherfolk of the Hymlac.

• City of Sheerfoot corrupted by Garblag

7700 - Fire in the Sky

"...bipedal sentient velociraptors. They live in small caves on the rugged coast of this 

mountainous region, wading into the tide pools to collect crabs and fish."

• Berborn settlement (Slozvia) established by Flynn
• Civilisation advanced by Flynn (stone masonry)
• Civilisation advanced by Flynn (ballistics)
• Civilisation advanced by Worldbuilder...

Having witnessed the creation of the Marine Ssiruss, the main Ssiruss civilisation Advances in their understanding of biology to master selective breeding, adjusting the plants and creatures of the marshes to better suit their needs. With domesticated and specially bred creatures, the Ssiruss breed a species of riding and hunting raptors ranging in size from dogs to horses.

Delving deeper into the mysteries of life, the Ssiruss Advance in their understanding of life magic, learning how to speed up, slow down and give movement to the plants of the marshes. This power is most common among the jo-in, but exists in a lesser form among some males and females.

Command Avatar - Magnificent-is-the-Dawn leads the Marine Ssiruss to build the city of Hesh in 109. Hesh is partially submerged and built of stone from the mountains of 110.

• Global event Red Comet instigated by Sofinho.

If the Hymlac climbers were able to tear themselves away from peering at the Sheer, their telescopes might have noticed a previously unseen object in the sky, in the opening months of the year 7700.  At first it appears smaller than a star, but as the year progresses it gets bigger and bigger. By the end of the year it is large enough to be seen with the naked eye, a furious red star at odds with the cosmos. 

Still it grows, troubling the hearts of all simple folk across the world, but none more than the Ook, who had received no forewarning from their goddess. By the end of winter 7701 it appears to be half as big as the moon. The sea around the Ook's island home bubbles and seethes, but foreign waters remained untroubled, but around the globe the reds of dawn and dusk burn with a renewed vigour. 

Scholar's recall the pulse, and puzzle over whether the two are connected. 

The high priests and priestesses of the cult of the Many-Armed-Mother receive a vision: they are to build a city on the cliffs and in the caves of where the rocky hills meet the sea. There will be a great henge, an octagon of eight obelisks, all miniature versions of the Sheer, built out into the tide pools and at the mercy of the waves. Here is the holy site and city of the Ook: Seahenge. 

Once the city is completed, the seething of the waves dies down, though they will forever bear the name The Seething Seas. The strange red astral object fades from view, and the state of mild panic suffered by the simple folk of the world subsides. The Ook wait.

And finally, she comes. 

(She's a giant f*g octopus) 

(Event- comet thing; Command Avatar: Ook to build Seahenge)

• Avatar commands Macropustics to sail to NW courtesy Tagger

7800: It gets increasingly complex...

• Civilisation advanced by Worldbuilder (biotech)
• Rock Ssiruss subrace created by Worldbuilder
• City of Tharss founded by Worldbuilder

Advance Civilisation - The Ssiruss advance in their understanding of living things still further, learning the magics to control, change and create new animals. The marshlands now teem with life, all capable of being controlled by the Ssiruss. Their civilisation, despite having no metal or manufacturing has developed sophisticated biological alternatives to industry.

Create Subrace - To better understand the limits of their world, some Ssiruss undergo a voluntary change by the use of the new life magics. Their skin darkens and toughens, their claws harden and even their vestigial webbing recedes to better equip them for their new environment. These Rock Ssiruss move into the mountains of 067, the northern part of the range known as 'The Singing Bowl'.

Command City - The Rock Ssiruss raise the great monastery city of Tharss in 067 using specially bred armoured saurians as beasts of burden to both mine and carry stone. Tharss is both on and in the mountain and is lit by bioluminescent fungi and worms.

• "Avatar commands Ssiruss to found order (The Cult of the Green), 
• Avatar commands Macropustics to found city of Calicopia Tagger:

Command Avatar – Having delivered her people to the New World, Metropia, at the behest of Calicortus, creates the city of Calicopia. Several large huts are established for the hunters, farmers, and fishermen. A temple is created for The Order of The Tide to worship Calicortus and pass on their knowledge to the worthy. (225)

Event (282)– A great rumbling interrupts the daily farming of the Macropustic clans. The sun is stolen from the sky by an enormous black cloud of ash rains down covering crop and cart and hut. The mountain belches a hot thunderous roar as liquid magma spews into the air. Bubbling and churning out from new fissures along the mountain surface, the volcano consumes all in the path of the molten rock it excretes. A massive river streams out across the plains rendering the land barren. A small cluster of Macropustics escape with only their lives into the mountains to the east cut off completely from the west and the rest of their people. 

• Major event: Berborn discover ancient skeleton, instigated by Flynn.

Event (044)-- As the Berborn expand their mines and underground tunnels one of the groups of miners break open into a large cavern multiple Kilometers wide. Inside this cavern is a large skeletal bone structure with runes etched into ever bone that they discover half buried in the ground. The berborn begin to unbury it trying to discover what it is. Many of the populace start to believe that it is the mortal shell of a god that will be reborn.

• Cult of M.A.M ordered by Sofiho to distribute eggs among Ook

Command Order: As the cult await the commands of the Many-Armed Mother, the Living Goddess delivers a clutch of perfectly spherical, gelatinous amber eggs. The Cult of the Many Armed Mother distribute these among all the Ook, and they are worshipped as idols.

Command Avatar: On the next full moon, when the tide is high, the Many-Armed-Mother wills her eggs to hatch. Emerging from each is an enormous , transparent-skinned, big-brained hermaphrodite octopus. Unable to communicate via sound, these creatures are able to manipulate electromagnetic waves to transmit their thoughts over short distances. Combined with their control of pheromones, they are capable of controlling non-sentient marine animals, plants and corals. They are also able to control willing subjects by touch: and by bonding with the high priests of each Ook community, they are able to deliver the will of the Many-Armed-Mother via their vessel's vocals.

This race are known to the Ook as the Watchers, on account of their religious role. Foreigners may later come to know them as Cephaloids, on account of their enormous visible brains. They individually occupy the largest rock pools in the coastal Ook communities, and the Ook build grand temples around them, open to the tides. This causes problems for the jungle Ook, living in the forested hills, and their culture becomes increasingly focused on transporting seawater from the coast to makeshift pools housing their watchers, around the base of their treetop homes.

• City of Firetop founded by Sofinho

Command Race: The Ook begin dreaming of a great volcano. The Climbers of the teeth of the Sea, after wandering for nearly two centuries, take this as a sign to build their Temple of Wisdom around a hot spring on the volcano's slopes. May Ook are drawn to it, and the city of Firetop gradually grows around it. The city is populated by jungle and coastal Ook, and even a Watcher named Mermalub is brought to the Temple of Wisdom. Mermalub dwells in a cavern beneath the city, submerged in a hot spring naturally salinated by the caverns minerals.

•  Gromp race enslaved by Hymlac (event courtesy Garblag)

Event - the Ascenders enslave the Gromp. It seems that their population has become obsessed with the powers and secrets they might learn from the carvings on The Sheer. So much so that all others, the Settlers have left Sheerfoot. The Ascenders realise after several years that there is no-one concerned with the upkeep of buildings, the cleaning of streets, the growing of food. So they decide to educate the Gromp in the ways of basic chores and using new mind magics from the Sheer. They enslave the lake dwellers with barely a concerned comment from the more liberal of their society.

7900 

• Civilisation advanced by Worldbuilder (microbiology)
• Civilisation advanced by Worldbuilder (hybridisation)
• Civilisation advanced by Worldbuilder (assimilation)
• Civilisation purified by Worldbuilder
  
  

Advance Civilisation - Hybridisation. The Ssiruss begin to modify living things and themselves in situ, to better adapt to the world around them. Limb and organ grafts from other creatures begin to appear in those Ssiruss who seek enhancement to better perform their jobs. The Jo-in start using vegetative implants to better commune with Great Banyan. The Marine Ssiruss develop a type of seaweed that produces oxygen quickly, enabling the to stay underwater for longer and explore deeper. Grown insect carapace armour appears among the Rock Ssiruss to protect them from storms and rockfalls. 

Advance Civilisation - Assimilation. Through continued use of magic and biology, the Ssiruss develop a strain of microbe capable of adjusting the biology of other creatures to render it compatible and rejection free for the Ssiruss. By injecting the microbe with a claw or bite, the Ssiruss are able to preserve and incorporate living tissue into their own bodies, allowing them to adapt in minutes what would normally take centuries. 

Purify Civilisation - After some Ssiruss use their newfound abilities for selfish and violent ends, the jo-in meditate and pray to Great Banyan and Magnificent-is-the-Dawn to unite them once more in harmony. They receive a vision from the tree - by implanting seeds of Great Banyan in their young, the Ssiruss will all develop a connection to Great Banyan that will ensure that malicious thought can be prevented in future.

• Octopus cult created by Sofinho

Create Order Amongst those few Gromp to elude enslavement, a new cult emerges worshipping an eight armed idol. They conduct lightning raids against the Hymlac climbers, hoping to recapture any enslaved brethren and 'deprogram' them. Attempts have so far proven unsuccessful, and any 'liberated' Gromp that didn't attempt to kill themselves remain slaves, but of their own species as opposed to the climbers. This cult has an unspoken truce with the Hymlac settlers. Their name is unpronounceable, but means something like "the Children"

• Many-Armed Mother commands Watchers to found The End
• Firetop city advanced by Sofino (fire magic)
• Cult of the Many-Armed-Mother Commanded by Sofinho
• Flynn created their avatar, Kamchatka!

As the Berborn miners finally finish up excavating the runic skeleton, the runes on it begins to glow a dull green as decayed materials begin to coalesce around it. This flesh begins to gain its color back quickly growing a thick coat of fur as the being stands up and shakes off the remaining dirt. After it stands up the Berborn get a full view of the huge bear-like entity being named Kamchatka.

• Kamchatka toughens the constitution of the Berborn
• City of Slozvia advanced by Flynn (fortifications)
• Metropia commanded to advance civilisation by Tagger (Water Magic)
• Civilisation advanced by Tagger (volcanic metallurgy)
• Morgopustic subrace created by Tagger

Sub Race (303) - Morgopustics - No longer able to survive by agricultural means the mountain bound Macropustics become ferocious hunters. They battle for supremacy amongst themselves, the shortage of food in the early days after the The Great fire diminishes their ability to hold to their customs of community. Only the strongest, fastest and most stealthy can survive in this climate.  Children born with fault or weakness are sacrificed to the fire in hopes of appeasing the fury of the fire. As the hunters have developed generations have lost density in their leg muscles and increased their ability to see in low-light. Larger ears have become more prevalent as they are useful in both hunting and sensing the anger of the fire mountain. 

• Hymlac (settlers) commanded to navigate coast by Garblag

Command Race (145) the Settlers, now confident in their shipbuilding techniques and not harried by the Ascenders (unbeknownst to them due to the enslavement of the Gromp) finally begin to chart the local coastline. Heading east it is not long before they see evidence of other peoples along the coast and witness strange unexplainable events at sea. It is clear that some powerful creatures tied to the sea dwell in the east.

• City of Mirrormaw advanced by Garblag (navigation)

8000 - Preparing for War?

• Civilisation advanced by Worldbuilder (sonomancy)
• Avatar commanded to found Order of Twilight Guard by Worldbuilder
• City of Sheerfoot corrupted by Worldbuilder
  
  

Advance Civilisation - the Ssiruss begin experimenting with magic of sound based on the sounds made by Magnificent-is-the-Dawn, developing the art of Sonomancy. This improves their ability to communicate at range using resonant harmonics, much like terrestrial whale song.

Command Avatar - Create Order - Magnificent-is-the-Dawn travels to Tharss to raise up a martial order called the Twilight Guard, warrior Rock-Ssiruss trained extensively from a young age to be martial artists. The Twilight Guard patrol the northern mountains from west to east and become aware of the Sheer from a distance. 

Finally (sorry @Garblag !), Corrupt City - Sheerfoot. The Sheer registers the proximity of the Ssiruss and the Hymlac interpret the signs in a negative light, becoming xenophobic and paranoid of outsiders having access to the Sheer.

• Avatar commanded by Sofinho to Advance Civilisation (biotech)
• City of Octopolis founded by Sofinho

8100 

• Civilisation advanced by Worldbuilder (telepathy)
• Avatar commanded to create order of the Sonomancers by Worldbuilder

Advance Civilisation - Telepathic. All Ssiruss and sub races develop a telepathic link, tied in to their Sonomancy and their implanted connection to Great Banyan. A low level sound fills the marshlands, harmonising with the waves in Hesh and the grinding of the rocks in Tharss and allowing group telepathic communication.

Command Avatar - Create Order - Magnificent-is-the-Dawn raises up an Order of Sonomancers, more powerful casters of Sonomancy, able to use the latent sounds of Ssiruss territory to disorient, confuse and even cause damage with the power of their songs.

• Quiet Folk race created by Sofinho!
  
  In the dense coniferous forests of a large island in hex 144, a new culture emerges. Rumoured to be the magical union of the arboreal apes and the forest spirits themselves, these creatures call themselves the Quiet Folk. Rarely exceeding three feet in height, these big eyed, big eyed bipedal mammals are entirely hairless but ginger tufts sprouting from the tops of their heads. They prefer to stay in the treetops, but some communities fish the shores of their island, and have traded occasionally with Hymlac settlers exploring the coastline. They society is a loose confederation of patrilineal clans, but all are untied by the worship of a lunar goddess, whom they call... mother... (no mention of arms)

• Marine Gromp subrace created by Sofinho!
• Avatar commanded to command Cult of Many-Armed-Mother by Sofinho
• Avatar assumes mortal form on island of Quiet Folk
  

Create Subrace Those Gromp loyal to the "Children" i.e. those not enslaved by the Hymlac ascenders have quickly evolved to be more adaptable to a change in environment, as their futile attempts to "liberate" their cousins prove increasingly futile. Wandering between spawning and feeding sites around lake Mirrormist, and moving further downriver as time wears on, they adapt to the more saline waters of the estuary, enabling to expand their range along the coastline. The marine Gromp continue to carry out small scale raids against the ascenders, but any captured Gromp continue to be kept as slaves.

Command Avatar The Many-Armed Mother commands the Ook's Cult of the Many-Armed-Mother to accept a new generation of Cephaloid watchers to all of their coastal communities. It is a time of great joy for the Ook, who have felt bereft for almost two centuries. Ook Tide Priests bond with the new watchers, and a new century-long cycle of of life and death is established between. Every 100 years, the Watcher will separate from its Ook host and return to the City of the End to spawn (Cephaloids are hermaphrodite but they prefer to fertilise each other rather than themselves). The following year, a baby Cephaloid will return to its parent's former home to take up the role of watcher among the Ook, and form a bond with a new Ook tide priest.

Avatar Mortal Action (no cost) The Many-Armed Mother assumes the form of a Hymlac settler wisewoman, and takes up a hermitage on the island in hex 144. Here she receives visits from Hymlac traders, Marine Gromp and the Quiet Folk

• Avatar commands city of Slozvia to seal itself off, at behest of Flynn
• Civilisation advanced by Flynn (black powder)
• City of Slozvia advanced by Flynn (cannon defences)
• Order Knights of the Fang created by Flynn

Create Order - The Knights of the Fang. This Knightly order is the main group of worshipping berborn of Kamcatka. They build up their ranks in Slozvia, with some minor groups staying in the capital. Here they protect Kamcatka with all their might, waiting to see if any enemies or demons come from the valleys below.

• Garblag took no action this round.
• Tagger retired.

8200 - New Arms Race

• Civilisation advanced by Worldbuilder (sonomantic WOMD)

Advance Civilisation - Ultimate Sonomancy - the Ssiruss learn to use sound as a weapon and can set up resonant harmonics that can destroy buildings, terrain or even individuals.

• Ssirruss commanded by worldbuilder to disperse
• Avatar commanded to found the city of Kresh
• Quiet Folk found city of Haven, as commanded by Sofinho
• "Avatar commands Hymlac settlers to create order: the Watchers of the Sky(Sofinho)"

Command Avatar - Create Order The Many-Armed-Mother, in her mortal guise as an old Hymlac sorceress, founds a magical order in the Hymlac settler city of Mirrormaw. The order is known as the Watchers of the Sky, in honour of both the Cephaloid Watchers and the Hymlac Ascenders of the Sheer. 

Ostensibly, this order represents Hymlac settlers curious about the magical practice of their  cousins at Sheerfoot, and seek to rebuild bridges between the divided Hymlac people. Additonally, they have a hidden agenda to steal the secrets of the Ascenders' magic, and their world-leading optometric tech, and disseminate amongst other races loyal to the many-armed-mother, including the Marine Gromp. 

As a mortal action the Many-Armed-Mother leads this order on a pilgrimage to Sheerfoot. What will happen at the gates, @Garblag ?

• Ook found city of Cape Fury, as commanded by Sofinho
• Garblag took no action this round.
• Flynn took no action this round.

Dawn of the 2rd Age, 8300 

• "Event - The blooming. Secondary Banyans grow in Ssiruss cities.
• Cities connected by magical transportation/ information network (Worldbuilder)"

Event - The Second Blooming. Great Banyan blooms once more, flowering and sending floating seeds far and wide. Below the ground, the roots of Great Banyan burrow through rock and soil, water and air, connecting each of the Ssiruss cities through a network of living tunnels, capable of transporting the Ssiruss at great speeds through them. Lesser Banyans grow in each city, conforming to existing developments, but uniting the disparate Ssiruss as one people.

• Civilisation purified by Worldbuilder!

Purify Civilisation - All Ssiruss are moved by the Second Blooming, feeling a greater sense of harmony and connectedness with all life. Their telepathic link to one another through the implanted seeds gives them a cosmic moment of oneness that is felt in the Sonomantic Song. Rivalries and jealousies are swept aside by this moment of union.

• Civilisation advanced by Garblag (Star Magic)
• Civilisation advanced by Garblag (Metallurgy)
• Civilisation advanced by Garblag (Siege Engineering)
• Event: gromp slave army raised by Garblag!
• Event: War declared on Settlers!

Advance Civilisation – Star Magic – by now the Ascenders structures have reached the seventh cluster on the Sheer, reaching closer to the summit and reading more of Totenka Mor’s arcane scripture. This magic deals with the communicative and destructive powers of light. The knowledge they unlock and their skill in optics allow them to capture advanced star magic in a handheld device. The Hymlac develop the WarShard, a short stave weapon with a refracting crystal in the end and powerful magical runes along the haft. It spits blasts of red star magic.

Advance Civilisation – Metallurgy – as their technological base grows and their engineering requirements increase the Ascenders develop advanced metal working.

Advance Civilisation – Siege Engineering – the Hymlac and their Gromp slaves build large defensive structures around the Sheer and the city of Sheerfoot. Their insular and jealous nature making them paranoid that all others want what is theirs.

Corrupt City – Suspicious and Sinister Sheerfoot – their advanced technology and their magic makes the Ascender Hymlac conceited, arrogant and paranoid. Hiding in the mountain fortress of Sheerfoot they clamour eagerly to unlock the secrets of the Sheer so that they might rid the world of anyone that might threaten their self perceived right to dominate all life.

Event – Gromp Army - using their enslaved amphibious servants, newly formed Star Magic weapons and new armour fashioned from metal around the Sheer the Ascenders build a vast Gromp Army. These Gromp are brain washed masses bent and bowed through powerful magic to serve none but the Ascenders until death.

Event – War Declared on the Settlers – not happy with the Settlers gracing their gates with their presence or more importantly gazing once more upon the Sheer, the Ascenders declare war on the Settlers. They care not that these followers of some strange mystic are leaving Settler society behind. The Ascenders are now assured that the teachings of Totenka Mor are theirs and theirs alone. They begin construction of larger siege weapons powered by star magic….

If that's a bit subtle, I think the Ascender Hymlac might be the bad guys.

• Civilisation advanced by Flynn! (metal weapons and armour)
• City of Ravinn advanced by Flynn (polar culture)
• Command Avatar: Scout (and settle?) hex (Flynn)
• Command Avatar: Scout (and settle?) hex (Flynn)
• Command Avatar: Scout (and settle?) hex (Flynn)

Advance Civilization - Advanced Iron Working - As the Berborn advance with their understanding of smithing, they find a new practice of bending and layering metals over itself to make it stronger, they begin using this method while creating their weapons and armor. 

Advance City - After a very long struggling of surviving in the tundra, the Berborn of Ravinn become masters of ice fishing and living on the tundra, using igloos and snow houses. 

Command Avatar - Kamchatka commands a small group of the dedicated knights to begin scouting missions into the valley. The scouts begin the scouting of the valley and surrounding mountainsides.

• Command Order: WotS begin warmongering (Sofinho)
• Command Avatar: Command race. Gromp war (Sofinho)

So we can envisage the order of the Watchers of the Sky (being an order of Hymalc settlers led by the Many-Armed-Mother in disguise) set upon by the Ascenders' Gromp-Slave Army at the gates of Sheerfoot. The "battle" is bloody and decisive, and of those few settlers able to escape alive, many more are either rounded up or killed while making the long journey back to Mirrormaw. 

The Many-Armed-Mother rues her own naivety, but her defeat only increases her covetousness. She sheds her Hymlac form and prepares to foment further chaos. 

Command Order: Warmongering. The handful of Watchers of the Sky who survived return to Mirromaw and push for an aggressive assault against the Sheerfoot. They have popular sympathy, but the opinion of the Settler leadership is as yet opaque. 

Command Avatar -> Command Race Returning to her Kraken form, the Many-Armed-Mother leads an army of free (mainly marine) Gromp in an aggravated campaign of terror against any vessels loyal to Sheerfoot on the Mirrormist, civilian or otherwise.

• Ook commanded to found city of Westreach by Sofinho
• City of the End raises Army (Sofinho)

Command Race Meanwhile, down in the south Ook explorers have founded the city of Westreach in hex 130.

Command City The city of The End, home to the octopoidal Cephaloids, raises a sub-aquatic expeditionary army. They patrol the waters around the island of Ook.

 

8301

• Kresh commanded to raise an army (Worldbuilder)
• Kresh commanded to create huge fortified earthworks
• Kresh commanded to create huge fortified earthworks
• Magnificent-is-the-Dawn raises a second army
• Kresh advanced by Worldbuilder! (sono-masonry)

Command City - Kresh, having witnessed the actions of the Hymlac towards the Gromp and the Many Armed Mother begin to prepare for war. An army is raised within the city.

Command City x2 - huge bowl shaped earthworks are dug into the mountains in 106 and 127. These are defended by Ssiruss Warriors.

Command Avatar - Magnificent-is-the-Dawn raises a second army of Sonomancers in Kresh.

Advance City - as the Kresh Ssiruss build their mountain structures, they become more competent stone workers and engineers, specialising in the resonant properties of worked stone.

• Free Gromp commanded by Avatar to found city of Khul.
• Khul commanded to raise an army.
• Mirrormaw commanded to raise army.

Command Avatar -> Command Race The Many-Armed-Mother commands the Free Gromp to establish a permanent base at the bottom of Lake Mirrormist. The city of Khul is founded. 

Command City The city of Khul raises an army. 

Command City The warmongering influence of the WotS (wizards of the... soast?) encourages the Hymlac settlers to raise an army in response to the threat of their cousins, the ascenders. The Mirrormaw Expeditionary Force is now mobilised.

• Westreach commanded to send diplomatic envoy to Hesh.

Command City Meanwhile, in the south, the Ook denizens of the settlement of Westreach send a diplomatic delegation to the gates of the city of Hesh. This delegation travels overland across the mountains, yet elect to carry one of their ships with them as a symbol of the Ook's greatest achievement (marine engineering).

Many of the expedition die. The surviving delegation consists of:

• the expedition's leader, consisting of the coastal Ook Mkrkrkrk and her physically & psionically bonded cephaloid symbiote, Melalalalalambala. 

• 11 female jungle ook warriors

• 4 male and female coastal Ook warriors.
• Several crates of dried shelfish, wrapped in banana leaves (this is a gift to the Jo-in)
• an elderly fire mage from the city of Firetop. He has a bad flu.
• Vast array of highly polished sea shells (this is a gift to the Jo-in)
• A beautiful pearl the size of an Ook egg (this is a gift to the Jo-in)
• 6 high quality Jungle Ook males of breeding age. They are disheartened after bearing the brunt of the losses during the journey (they are also a gift for the Jo-in)

The delegation make these offerings in the hope of establishing friendship, trade, and cooperation. They are captivated by the cultural and biotechnological sophistication of Hesh, but seek reassurances concerning the welfare of any raptor like creatures used as beasts of burden, since they view these as mentally deficient people rather than animals.

Oh they also make a presentation of the ship, which is approximately eighty feet in length, with two lateen sails fashioned from giant bats' wings. All the marine engineers died in transit.

• Haven mounts an expedition to the west.
• Many-Armed-Mother assumes mortal form and mounts an attack against Sheerfoot.

Command City The city of Haven mounts an expedition to the west. Their objective is to establish contact with the Berborn, and confirm rumours that they have developed firearms technology. 

Finally, as a mortal action, the Many-Armed-Mother assumes a form mirroring that of Magnificent-is the-Dawn, except she is a forty foot high, four-armed Gromp. 

She rises from lake Mirrormist , followed by the Army of Khul, and launches a Kaiju style assault on the city of Sheerfoot. 

...we could have been friends...

...and that's where we left it: a world on the brink of catastrophic conflict. What a great time to zoom in on an area and begin an entirely new campaign?