Animus Side

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The Animus
a group of mysterious spirits who will be your guides to the evening


When the experiment to compress time failed (or rather, succeeded in a spectacularly horrific way), it wasn't just humans and animals and other small lifeforms that were drawn into the place eventually known as "Adstringendum."

There were gods, lesser spirits, elemental forces--beings unable to resist the pull of time, but who were too large, too powerful to arrive intact. Pieces were torn off, stitched back together to form a writhing, knotted mass of deities, driven insane by incident, trapped and aggressive and spiteful.

Their personal names lost, they picked a new name, "Animus," to represent their unwanted condition.

Unable to return home, or maintain any kind of individual awareness, the spirits lashed out against the city, inflicting shifts of reality to reflect their own unstable nature. Above all they desired the suffering of the scientists who had brought them there, taking what opportunity they could to harm them, despite the humans' relative protection within the Inner City.

The other residents of the Safezone--those pulled from other worlds, much like the Animus, but intact--shared in this wrath, for all that they had nothing to do with the cause.

Years passed, and a slow, slow stability formed. The events continued, but the Animus reached out, speaking to the trapped citizens from time to time. Their communication skills were disjointed and often sparkling, but a line had been opened. Likewise, the scientists offered reluctant messages to their unintended captives, and even if trust was low (a raid on the Inner City certainly didn't help--), everyone had the common goal of leaving.

But the human voices grew quieter; the spirits, louder. Something happened within the Inner City. A pact gone awry, the scientists vanished, the walls quietly lost their guards, the place left empty and silent. It took another expedition to realize they had vanished, without warning or explanation. Signs of violence littered the abandoned streets, but there were no bodies.

Where there had once been a small building "claimed" by the Animus, where communication with them was easiest--the influence spread, the entire Inner City claimed by the spirits as their own.

It was then that separate identities emerged--voices within the godly mass that offered names, a semi-consistent nature. Even within the tangled quilt, like calls to like, some of the spirits managing to find enough of themselves in order to maintain their own minds, even with the constant battering of voices around them.

These are their stories.


Thalatte
"the infinite ocean"

A little fish. Many little fish, in fact. So many fish it's hard to count them! Thalatte seems to have an affinity for water, and has the form to show it. She's not picky though, and is just as comfortable swimming on land and air, and is the most inclined to come out and say hello to people. Curious and friendly, she's one of the easier Animus to talk to--if you can keep her attention. That's not to say she's harmless, and like the other spirits, has her own sets of rules and ethics. Still, any harm Thalatte causes is usually accidental (people don't like it when the city's flooded?), and not out of any kind of spite. She has a preference for "landscaping" events.

She has an odd fascination with "cool" lingo, and will respond (poorly) in kind whenever someone uses it with her. Thalatte is also a little protective of the city, and its people, though she has yet to go against any of the other Animus. But unlike many of the others, she is primarily content with the city as it is, and has no real interest in returning home.

Whether one fish or many, they are all "Thalatte"--not parts of a whole, but an infinite number of identical tiny goddesses. There was once a time when there was only one of them, but it was a lonely existence, so she broke herself into bits in order to have company. It spiraled out from there, to the point where she's not sure how many of her there actually are.


Aion Teleos
"the changing colors of a perfect expanse"

The dragonfly cat. Egotistical and cruel, Teleos plays himself up as the new lord of the setting. Coming from a world where he was the only deity, he only grudgingly works with the other Animus, and has yet to come to grips with not being on top of the natural order. However, despite his disgust for the people within the city, Teleos is both cynical and pragmatic, and his dealings with them are relatively straightforward.

He's very casually petty, and has been known to curse residents with minor ailments just for bad-mouthing him. And while it's sometimes possible to search him out to beg for help, the cost for any such assistance is high. Stubborn to a fault, he even refuses to refer to anyone by name, describing people as vermin. If you find yourself as one of his numbered rats, it's practically a sign of favor.

As Teleos has something of an obsession with order and structure (and tradition and roles, etc.) he's also especially suited at giving judgements. Primarily responsible for the revival of residents after incidental deaths, he's also usually the one deciding what penalties to give.

He also has a bad habit of absorbing other, weaker, Animus as a way of consolidating his own power. As a result, he's both structurally unstable, and extremely dangerous.


Esoteria
"one-as-many; the historical record revived"

A coalition god, the product of necessary cooperation. By far the most capricious, they're as likely to help as harm, and with little warning. Their primary voice is a bit sharp and often exasperated, and of all the Animus is the most amiable to gossip about current events. Lower in the rough Animus hierarchy than the others, Esoteria is often a messenger or organizer, the only one who really keeps track of what's going on. As a result, they often feel a bit overworked and under-appreciated, and have little that's positive to say about the other spirits.

They have a strong appreciation for sound and music, and use a harpsichord melody to help keep themselves organized. Hearing the song, even in parts, leads to the worst kind of earworm in mortals.

"Esoteria" is a title rather than a name, as each part of the whole has their own personal one.


Ekpyrosis
"the sword that sundered nature / the fire that burned at the end of creation"

Ekpyrosis is cursed with a dual existence. Its real form is that of a clock, one that counts down to a time unknown. Like a slumbering volcano, it is an event more than a deity. As such, it has little personality of its own, and is at once both passive and destructive. It is not cruel nor merciful; it is an act of nature given consciousness.

Unfortunately, it is a flame that draws more than moths. Other gods swept up in the Animus mesh are pulled by Ekpyrosis' fire. Primarily gods of war (who are often flame inclined), they both take over the clock's function, and are in turn destroyed by its heat. But there are countless more gods to take their place, nameless deities both aggressive and insane, fighting themselves and the world around them. This corrupted Ekpyrosis takes the shape of a useless sword- a weapon so gilded and decorated, with so many thorns and curves and edges, that it would be impossible to hold. Not that it needs weilded in order to cut, and if not contained, it would rend the city into pieces. It is currently kept "stabilized" by Aelia, who allows it to stab into her own body. Sated by defeating a "monster," it doesn't seek to cut elsewhere. If Aelia is unavailable, Thalatte and Esoteria work together to contain it. None of the Animus seem to have the ability to destroy any part of Ekpyrosis; small defense is the only thing possible.

In the center of it all, deafened by the fighting, Ekpyrosis can't hear its own clock-tick, nor remember its own name. Until the multiverse runs out of gods, or it develops a strong enough personality to withstand them, this seems unlikely to change.


Aelia Laelia Crispis
"body without a tomb, the flower that would swallow the stars"

A puzzle, a poem--Aelia is one that the other spirits fear. Though she usually uses orchids as her avatar, she may also appear as a blond woman, her lower half a dragon made of crude rock. Polite and respectful, she has still caused the city to burn down, to be plagued by despair-filled Witches. She is at once both open and deceitful, and despite her kind words, is far more dangerous of a creature to bargain with than the directly unpleasant Teleos.

Though pleasant, Aelia shows no strong emotion, and claims to be entirely indifferent to the fate of the city and its residents--and everything else, for that matter. Her nature is everything and nothing, all forms, all possibilities, every stage of life. It is uncomfortable to look on her directly, as it feels like watching rapid movement, a constant shift, for all that she remains still and unchanging.

One of the easiest Animus to seek out and talk to, her presence is about as bad an omen as you can get. Aelia seems to have something of an aversion to illness and true names, and a fondness for metaphor, allusion, and shoving a spear down your throat.

Her tea parties are pretty good, though.


Saeclumda Cinis
"the hands unfolding time / the world dissolved by ashes"

Angry and confused, Saeclumda Cinis was brought back into being when Teleos lost his altercation with Aelia and shattered. Freed by the Orchid's lance, the god of ash and time rose from the dust of the Cat's fall. A conglomeration of many of the gods Teleos had consumed on his rise to power, this newly birthed Animus was mad with hurt pride and the wounds of subjugation that they had nursed for what felt like an eternity. After so many centuries of disgrace, it was finally their turn to look in from the outside again, and wielding the hands of unfolding time, they unleashed their wrath and judgement on the city, its citizens and their 'gods'.

Under the combined efforts of the remaining Animus and their pawns, Cinis was frozen and defeated, broken into shards of ice that melted away into nothingness, yet can time really be frozen forever?