sterngaze | kenos

[ If only Gray were stubborn enough to throw vials of her blood at him unsolicited. The sad reality is that she's polite to a fault...

She accepts his hand in rising to her feet, her balance lagging with a moment's wooziness as the blood loss catches up to her. Her cloak sleeve is probably a lost cause, but maybe she can have it tailored into a more summery sleeveless arrangement. She doesn't know much about fashion, but it would be a shame to throw out her cloak entirely. She hates to waste; growing up on an obscure mountain does that to a girl.

He says she doesn't have to worry, but worrying is her nature. And she has a lot of questions, besides. ]

Does animal blood work just as well as human blood?

[ Her curiosity overrides the possibility that this might be an overly intrusive question. She's seen all manner of supernatural being, but vampires (or half-vampires) are a new one for her. ]

[Liem helps Gray to her feet and makes sure she's steady on them, holding onto her for a moment as she straightens — then, they can set back off through the woods. It's probably for the best if they head back to camp for now, since it would be more risk than it's worth to continue scouting with an injury, especially since they're not under any kind of strict time crunch.

And once they get back, perhaps her cloak can be salvaged. Getting the blood out will be its own struggle, but the tears at least might be magically mended. He could even do it himself, and intends to offer once they've returned, as a preliminary thank-you for her blood.

Though he makes a mental note to keep her in mind the next time he has a chance to do any baking, since she specifically requested it.]

It isn't the same, no.

[Normally Liem is loath to discuss his eating (or drinking) habits with anyone, but if anybody has earned the right to ask questions like that, it's the young woman whose blood he just tasted.]

But it can help a little. I wouldn't drink from the monsters, but I do regular hunting sometimes, while I'm here.

[Part of the reason he'd gotten to such a bad state is that recently, animal blood doesn't seem to help his cravings the way it once did. He doesn't really want to admit that to her, though, since he promised that he wouldn't need her help again. That would be tantamount to admitting that he just planned to drink from other people instead.]

It ah... needs to be fresh from the vein, though.

[ So it needs to be fresh. There goes her blood cookie idea... Her mind floats as she walks along with him, doing her best not to look woozy. She can power through injury and pain, but she can't force her body to pretend it isn't missing a chunk of its blood. ]

Then it's like in the stories...

[ She isn't a vampire buff by any means, but she's been made to watch a number of horror films. She'd never find them very scary, but at least she'd politely follow along with the plot. ]

How about things like garlic? And silver and crucifixes?

[Gray is at least the second person he's known to compare vampires to something out of a story. Granted, that's all the familiarity that most people in his country had with them as well; it was highly unusual for anyone to actually encounter one and live to tell the tale, so vampires tended to be regarded as scary stories by most Taldans.

Liem just happened to have more personal experience with the monsters in stories than most did.]

I've heard that before — that vampires avoid garlic, and that they're harmed by silver weapons. Some other monsters where I'm from were vulnerable to silver, as well. But it makes little difference to me.

[Steel keeps its edge better than silver does, so if anything, he's more likely to be harmed by ordinary weapons than silver ones. Truthfully, garlic doesn't really agree with him, which was often a problem back in his home country — but then, many foods don't agree with him. Garlic isn't really special in that regard.]

I'm sorry though, I don't know what "crucifixes" are.

[It might be a weird thing for a man with such a convincing Italian accent to say, but he seems sincere.]

Are there vampires in the land you come from, Miss Gray?

[ It's nice to know that Liem won't get taken out by an extreme garlic allergy. ]

Ah, a crucifix... it's really just a cross. I think its power was supposed to come from its symbolism.

[ She forms the shape of it with her index fingers (and Liem miraculously avoids bursting into flames). She hadn't been thinking of the crucifix as a Christian-specific concept, but she quickly realizes her mistake. She can sometimes forget what's common, versus what was only common to her little village. ]

I was taught that vampires existed, but never met any... I think?

[ she did tho ]

But there are lots of stories about them. Horror stories, romantic stories...

[Liem nods slightly as Gray explains a little more about her world, its vampires and its relationship with them. What she relates sounds generally familiar; the existence of vampires somewhere in the world, and stories about them, but little or no actual familiarity with any. Even if vampires exist in her world, he is somewhat gladdened to hear that she has never had cause to actually meet any.]

I heard many such stories in my own country, as well. … Not romantic stories, generally, but horror stories, the kind meant to hasten the foolish indoors after sunset.

[He supposes there are probably romantic stories about vampires as well, told by the storytellers favoured by the more fanciful members of Taldor’s gentry. For people who have little to fear from anyone except sometimes each other, perhaps the evils of the world seem more like curiosities than threats.]

Is the crucifix a religious symbol? Properly made holy symbols have the power to repel vampires, where I am from. But I don’t know of any gods who are represented by a simple cross.

[ Oh no, she has to explain Christianity. She feels like a poor representative, but she visibly pulls herself together to try not to misinform Liem. ]

Um, well, it was an important symbol in my people's religion. There was this fellow... ah, I should say he was an important prophet. He died on a big cross, so a crucifix represented his sacrifice. They'd usually put his body on it... It was a little morbid.

[ It crept her out more than made her want to worship, honestly. ]

What kinds of holy symbols did they use in your world?

[Liem is already misunderstanding the point of this religion just from this brief description, but at least he seems genuinely interested about it. The subject of religion is always intriguing to him, regardless of how much or how little it happens to align with his own.]

Oh, many. More than there were deities in the Outer Sphere, and there were certainly hundreds of different deities that presided over Golarion — possibly thousands.

[There were entire continents that Liem knew very little about, after all; they certainly had their own local gods, even if some of the oldest would have been worshipped across the globe.

As they walk, Liem holds out his hand, showing Gray his palm. Just visible in the low light is the shape of a key, branded into the flesh there.]

Abadar's most prevalent symbol is a gold key, often depicted with a city engraved on the bow. It represents his domains of wealth and cities, and his status as Master of the First Vault.

[ "Outer Sphere" makes her think of outer space, which in turn makes her think of vampires in space. But Liem doesn't seem like he's come from that type of society... Maybe it's because she has vivid memories of him shooting arrows at that ridiculously gargantuan dragon that one time.

She peers curiously at the key branded into his hand. She isn't well-versed in many different religions, but this one is already quite different from anything she's used to. ]

There were that many deities... and some were actively ruling? Wasn't that dangerous?

Well… it could be. Some of the wars in the region where my country was located were religiously motivated.

[Certainly the gods do have an impact on the wars that humanity tends to wage on itself. He thinks of Rahadoum, where religion has been banned entirely for centuries as a result of the bloody religious wars that once ravaged it. He thinks of the wars that shattered Cheliax after the unexpected death of the god Aroden, which resulted in the nation’s current worship of Asmodeus instead.

He holds his hand still for a moment to let Gray get a clear look at the mark on it, before finally lowering it again and continuing on.]

Some countries in my world did enjoy the patronage of specific gods, but most recognized and worshipped a number of different deities. My own country had not had a patron deity for a long time; Abadar’s true realm is in the city of Axis, which most are only lucky enough to visit in death.

[ What a rich history. It sounds like Liem's world was dense with bonds to its gods, which played a tangible role in the lives of its people. Very different from the relationship between Gray's people and the Christian God, at least in her experience. She was never a true believer herself, but after meeting gods in the flesh like Set and Quetzalcoatl, she can't say that gods didn't walk Earth at some point in time. Maybe back then, things didn't look so different from Liem's world. ]

If your world had so many gods, where did they come from? Was there a higher god that made all the rest?

[Initially, Liem’s only answer to Gray’s question is a thoughtful hum. This subject is one that has often been on his mind over the past several months; after all, those of Zenith desire to birth a new Creation of their own design. He has often wondered if such a thing could really be possible, and if such a Creation would truly be better than the ones they’ve all left behind.]

The history of the Age of Creation is not well documented, at least by mortals. After all, there were many, many years between even the birth of the first sapient races and the current age. And the Age of Creation preceded even that.

[Perhaps somewhere in the Outer Sphere, records existed of that long-lost time when the planets were first created. But he certainly hasn’t read them.]

I have read that Pharasma, the goddess of birth, death, and fate, was the first deity, and the one responsible for the creation of the current reality and its first gods. The details and interpretations of that myth are not especially well known to me, however; a member of her church could likely have told you more.

[ So even Liem's world of modern and plentiful god interaction doesn't know the exact truth of its creation. Maybe Gray was trying to cheat for answers like a schoolchild taking a peek at someone else's exam. ]

In my world, there were so many different gods that were said to have created the world... Ah. [ Suddenly, she remembers. ] Miss Quetzalcoatl was said to be one of the ones who helped create our planet.

[ Weird but allegedly true. Does the hard presence of Quetzalcoatl automatically disprove every other Earthly creation myth? ]

Have you had the chance to meet her? She's only arrived recently.

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