BECMI Chapter 443 – Tek is Here

Jorg held up his hands in the face of her ire, placating her. “But… these gods would, in effect, be able to confront, control, chastise, and oppose the machinations of Immortals, holding them responsible for their deeds, because they are far more powerful, and… not even finite?” he had to say.“That is correct. The gods we seek to bring in are a Pantheon that dwells in Heaven. They are of the Silver, Gold, and Rainbow. And,” Lady Edge’s smile was cruel and cutting, “their Avatars are already in existence on the Other Shore, building towards the power required to step first into Eternity, and then into Divinity, without calling on the power of their greater selves from Outside this multiverse.”

Jorg exhaled sharply. He knew he didn’t really need to breathe anymore, but it was a human gesture, expressive, and hard to get rid of. “Wow. This is getting really, really big!” he had to admit.

“Before you make a decision, there are two things I would like you to do,” Briggs spoke up again, the massive man with the literal heart of gold even more overwhelming now that Jorg understood more of him. The ogrish brute was very, very smart, solemnly wise, and possessed of tremendous emotional strength and willpower… and willing to use it all violently to move his goals forward.

A warlord without being a petty conqueror, the figurehead leading the way to a better life for those who followed him, without desiring to crush down those who got in his way, only lift them up, too!

“What are they?” Jorg agreed implicitly, without even having to think about it.

“Travel around for a few days, with your active. between the cities and countrysides of this world.” He made a waving gesture, and Jorg looked down at the beep on his wristband, indicating a file had been downloaded to it. “Look at the Auras of the people of this world, compare them to those who are following us. Pay special heed to many of the churches, who ape their Immortal Patrons.

“Then return to us before dawn, and join us in the Salute to the Morning.”

Jorg thought that was a very small thing to ask of him, as he’d been doing a lot of that regardless, looking at the mortal societies of this world he’d found himself on. “I will do that… if I can take a turn at flying a Gunwing afterwards!” he had to add.

Briggs and Sama laughed with him, Lady Edge even managing to show some amusement.

Jorg’s knees hit the ground, tears coming down his eyes as he stared at the sun rising over the Dawnbreak Ocean from the walls of Eisfall.

He had never imagined such deep and wonderful benevolence could exist. It was nameless, formless, and it was so, so… .

It made him feel so small. So… mortal.

All three Eternals were there, breathing with him, eyes closed, savoring the moment, as were hundreds, thousands of mortals around them, all gathered to participate in the Salute and see the sun rise, feel that moment of grace cross their souls… and realize it really was a new day.

“Just a glimpse into the heart of Aru,” Briggs told him softly, as he tried to stop the tears manifesting on his face and could not. Instead, he found himself reveling in them! “So good for maintaining perspective.”

Jorg could not deny that. His ego, which he realized had been swelling mightily as he understood his powers and grew into them, was put back nicely in its place. “You have my willing aid in whatever you need to do to have something like that watching over us!” he agreed, a palpable sense of relief flooding through him.

“Excellent,” Lady Edge said in her brief, clipped manner. “How do you feel about becoming Tek, He Who Builds the Way to a Better Day?” she inquired of him.

Jorg thought to himself as he got back to his feet.

“Being a god who can raise his people to the point they don’t need Him all that much anymore sounds good to me!” he agreed cheerfully, and so his course was set.

By the standards of Immortals, the Churches of Tek just popped up overnight.

Suddenly they were absolutely everywhere in the Eismark Federation, and the unofficial Patron Immortal of the entire Federation. As the first Green Immortal, the former aliens flocked to him enthusiastically, and they had doctrine, stories, texts, parables, and prayers locked down and agreed to in massive group chats he contributed to right alongside them with enthusiasm.

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His holy texts read like spiritual technical manuals, no foolishness, no obtuseness, roads and behavior that would lead to better lives and relationships with everyone. People willing to work to raise the standard of living for everyone; technical, scientific, and mechanical knowledge that could be taught and passed on were mantras; and his holy symbol was a monkey wrench, of all things.

He fully empowered priests of the Philosophy of the Morning so they didn’t have to take the risks of the Ur Traditions, as well as quickly recruiting eligible followers, declaring himself and his people followers of the Morning and one with those working for those better days. His churches were more like advanced training facilities, his Priests as likely to be mechanics, technicians, electricians, plumbers, and smiths as teachers and programmers, and Artificers and Alchemists embraced him as one of their own.

On the practical side, it tripled the number of active Priests in the Eismark Federation within six months, giving Eismoor in particular a new cornerstone of Divine power that they’d been lacking, one which was very much appreciated by high and low citizens alike.

He got to fly a Gunwing whenever he wanted, as well!

Even as his faith and followers grew on the main timeline, on the Other Shore, the influence of Doro, Spock, the Master Shef, and the Postal Guy were also growing, if more quietly, planting seeds for the Church of the Morning whose main center was now firmly ensconced in Brightmoor.

While their adventuring days were anything but over, they were building their kingdom with energy and enthusiasm now. If clusters and groups of people from the more barbaric or poorer people of the Delphan empire were popping up to help with population expansion, that only helped matters as they began the slow and constant process of increasing their population, clearing and securing more land, and laying down an institution of laws and the physical infrastructure that would one day turn a kingdom into an empire.

If the Immortals sponsoring Sythia looked to their north and west and didn’t like the sight of a rival rising there, they said nothing for the moment, although the copper-skinned tribes of the River Myah were looking askew at the pale tribes of the mountain lands, and the ominous Dragonfangs and the Ring of Fire rising like black spears pointed at heaven behind them.

After all, no dragons of the Rings of Fire ever flew forth to bother the lands of Brightmoor, although that didn’t stop dragons from other locations from winging in and trying to establish their own lairs and domains. Generally speaking, they did not last very long.

But the land was good and the soil rich once the forests were cleared, and the farms went in along the great Moor Lake that gave them all the water they could possibly need. The Kingdom of Brightmoor grew, slowly and steadily as populations of such were wont to do.

Across the continent of Olos and beyond, the Gallivants adventured, the oceans of the world not impeding their travels much once their magic was high enough to across them. Their legends spread, as champions of the Faith of the Morning, and the simple Salute that promised a new day spread with them with almost alarming speed in the eyes of watching Immortals, who could only wonder at its power and efficacy at finding followers.

They didn’t believe, and thus experienced nothing when the dawn rose if they but repeated the words of the Salute, after all, despite all the claims of mortals at the refreshing touch, the invigoration, and the sense of a mighty benevolent hand passing over them.

One thing they did was find a pathway through the mantle that was not the polar opening, allowing them to right up to the edge of the Hollow World’s magical field. This was important because this world had dormant Annelids sitting around in torpor, abandoned without being forced back to their extraplanar homes, and the hundreds of creatures were FINE Karma, Immortal Beasts that could help power Named Weapons to Artifact status, and allow them to tap Immortal power that then allowed them to circumvent Immortal limitations on mortals.

Like, the magical field down there that didn’t allow the natives to use any form of magic that involved dimensional travel, movement, or Summoning of creatures.

There were hundreds of the things to kill, enough Karma to raise all of them to the Apex, and for each one that died, I rose a Pyramid in place of its corpse, disguising the fact that it had perished and replacing it with something of my own design and power.

I had ambitions on the surface, and down here in the Hollow World. They were going to take centuries to unfold, and they weren’t going to do much better on the Far Shore, either.

It did help that many of the moves and cultures of the Hollow World simply weren’t there yet in this timeline, as their empires had not fallen (had never existed yet!) and so their cultures had not been moved there. This in turn actually made it easier for the Gallivants to undertake their missions of Annelid-slaying, as there were fewer eyes to track them, and the native tribes had very little interest in messing with obviously flashy outsiders.

Given it was a dangerous land with dinosaurs, primal Immortals with utterly distant motivations unconcerned with mortal souls, and daylight all the time, yet locked into cultural stasis where veneration of said Immortals was basically hard-coded into them.

Ruining the cultural stasis and allowing these mortals to evolve and grow like their fellow mortals on the surface world did was another ultimate goal of mine. I simply didn’t care about the Immortals using the place as a museum. Mortals deserved the right of Free Will, not to be constantly brainwashed and compelled to act certain ways, basically locked into a level of cultural and mental development and not allowed to evolve or grow past that point… at least not without outside pressure and paying a karmic price to do so.

Yes, I was doing the same thing on the Far Shore, as Sama and Briggs were also taking out about an Annelid a month, and I was replacing their vivisized and concealed corpses with Pyramids to continue the charade.

On both Shores, Nown was quite happy to let me do this, not wanting the parasites around at all if it could help it, and their destruction and dispersal of Immortal Power was quite a tidy little meal for the megalith.

But things on the Other Shore were going to take time to develop for myself, the Gallivants, and Sif and Thor’s Brightmoor. The Other Shore was still digging itself out of the consequences of the Doom of Darkmoor, and would be for decades more… but all that meant is that we had plenty of opportunity to lay down a foundation that would be nigh unassailable.

Getting it on the Far Shore, however, was going to be trickier.