Welcome to Gaia! ::

"You know it's actually quite amazing..
Despite all its power, and despite everything its capable of doing, it's ever so fragile.
It's so complex..
Underneath this pillar is a seemingly endless abyss.
And in that abyss there is an endless chain of magical energies, all intertwining, and strengthening eachother..
And they all act so closely with eachother..
That one small disturbance can send the whole thing collapsing down upon itself..
You know, it's much like life that way..
We're all so complex.. So amazing..
Yet one little problem.." He looked at the sword in his hand.
"And death comes so easily to us..
Also like life the Relic can't live forever..
It needs a renewed source of energy every couple thousand or so years..
And we're dying, Rellik."

"Then why are you helping me?"

"You're hunting the Order..
Maybe we can help eachother.
Maybe.. The Order has something I can use.."
-The Lost Lord, Ruler of the Relic.

-Data entry 7.

[DATA EXPUNGED] Team, Dr [DATA EXPUNGED].
It wasn't as if anyone expected this.
Damn thing seemed harmless at first.
Researching that locket seemed like the first step towards unlocking the tomb.
It was simple enough: only open it under the most stringent safety measures, given what happened to the last people that found it.

They weren't enough, of course. When it opened, [DATA EXPUNGED] stains.
[DATA EXPUNGED] all over the walls. It seems to be growing eyes.
I was wrong; we all were. It was a key, it's true. But we weren't prepared for anything it unlocked.
I can't trust my senses anymore, with that hallucinogen [DATA EXPUNGED].

I hope cold, uncaring gods can make an exception, just this once.
That they'll take a hand directly. Destroy this place, and every man jack of us in it.
I--What was that. Oh. Oh dear.
[DATA EXPUNGED], don't open the door! Are you crazy? They'll get us all!
LeT eM, bRoThA. i'Ma GeT mY wIcKeD pEeP oN tHeSe MiRaCuLoUs ThInGs WhAt GoT bRaSs AlL uP aN sAlTy.
Crap. You're not him anymore.

-muffled struggling, grunting-
Call in the last resort. If you find this de--

-End of recording.

"I am Lucatiel. I beg you to remember my name. For I may not myself."
-Lucatiel of Mirrah, Dark Souls II

> be me, playing Arkham Origins Online
> playing a game mode where if you die, you stay dead.
> every few minutes, one of two gangs could capture a control point and, if two were captured, that team would win
> two gangs are Bane and Joker, for reference
> I was Batman, in all my dark Sinestro-y glory
> Jokers had one CP and had eliminated the Bane gang (batman has to die as well so that jokers could win by default)
> 2nd CP comes up, so I move to where they'd enter from
> one guy moves in, then another who I dispatch via Inverted Takedown (aka hanging the guy from a rope)
> last guy tries to kill me, so I Batclaw up to a perch and swoop down onto him
> by this point, first guy's capping the 2nd point and realizes what's happening
> KO second guy and flee from last guy
> 75% capped
> immediately swoop into a position where I could Takedown him and succeed
> Bats wins, I win
> feelings tantamount to happiness ensue

- A game of Batman: Arkham Origins Online, by The Assassin of Chaos

"The Noan Cores are just like any other Noan; elemental constructs artificially endowed with life.
However, there are two things that set them apart.
1: the Noans created them.
And two: their element is magic itself.
When people think of the Cores they probably think of the massive towers that sit amongst the Noan cities.
Or they think of the massive golems that fought against the Zulon army.
These are both incorrect.
The Cores are no more than small balls of magic, that can produce large-scale telekinesis, in order to give themselves any body they can think of.
To defeat them you must not strike against their bodies of stone and metal, that'll do no more good than attacking stone and metal.
Instead you strike the glowing cores, at their centers.
The Cores are not what are feared.
It is their bodies."
-Savior
(magic actually has been unable to produce telekinesis; instead Noan Cores (much like Rellik, who also has telekinesis) use the Inner Powers, a force in somewhat indirect opposition to the Magical Powers. The Inner Powers (often confused with magic) try to follow the laws of nature, and simply use them in extreme ways. Magic, on the other hand goes against nature)

(Hypothetical:
What happens when you give someone godhood?
What happens when the manifestation of that person's power is Life?
When they are a biologist, a person whose main expertise is organic life?
When that person's 'class', if you will, is the ability to use that manifestation as a sword and shield, to protect those about them?
A Knight of Life, given God-hood, you might say?)

Neruul's ascension was... jarring, to say the least. From what the Guardian had told him, simply dying in this precise location magnified his abilities by several times. He half-expected the plants beneath his feet to begin growing all over. It was a relief to see that they did not. No, his power was not within, or so went his thought pattern.

When a Cyclops popped up behind him, the biologist reacted without thinking. His arm, weapon unequipped, shot out. The hand had morphed into something resembling either a blade or a hook. Whichever it was, it pierced straight through the poor creature's eye, the socket, and anchored itself upon the back of its skull. He twisted his... Well, appendage, and it spun out, shredding the things head as it withdrew.

As it drew back to him, it dragged the organic components of the being with it. To his amazement, it was absorbing the creature. The grist was still building up, but he was receiving new genetic material.
...That was actually a bit gross. Eew.

He took a closer look at the appendage. It resembled the tail of certain arachnids, or perhaps a cephalopod, really. ...If anyone had taken the time to graft blades onto the end of a tentacle. With an agonizing wrenching feeling, it began shifting form. One more twist indicated that his other arm was doing the same. Soon enough, he was in possession not of 'hands' per se, but of talons made of biomass and knives.

Perhaps the humans had come up with a fictional character that displayed similar bio-shifting abilities. He might ask the Prince of Light...

(Yup. I kind of thought that it would work out like Prototype.)

(Standing in the Well of Souls, after finally opening it, and defeating those who closed it. You're confronted by a reaper-like man, made of black rock, who you've seen frequently throughout your adventure. You begin speaking)
"What are you doing in here?"

"Why wouldn't I be here, friend? I said I would be with you until your journey reached its end. And now we're standing so close, but the end is still a little ways off, isn't it? I am simply here to guide, as I always have."

"You have more part of this than you've told us, don't you."

"Yes, my friend. Power must be tempered with ignorance, until light shines forth from your being. I trust you will not turn on us like those before you. After all.. You've come so closr to fulfilling what we've wanted you to."

"..And what is that?"

"This road we're standing on, friend, may look like it leaves one path to go down, but there are two. Forwards, and back."

"There's something back there?"

"You tell me. Perhaps you haven't done all you've wanted, and perhaps there is more to do.."

"..And forward?"

"Renewal. At the end of this road lies a portal, to expunge the wicked souls you've gathered from this land.. Though also yourself.. Our world is one of many, friend, and when you died in that town I am confident you truly did that; die. Go through that portal, and likely you will find yourself awakened in a ruined town, though all your powers intact.. Your journey will begun itself anew. Like none of this ever happened."

"Wait; I thought the Well takes souls, and recycles them! Why are we sending these ones through a portal!?"

"..There is a third path, friend, I didn't tell you about, for I know you will not choose it. Power taken is not easily given away."

"What is it?"

"Absolution. You cast yourself into the well, and all the souls you've gathered will go through the Well, and reincarnate, in the cycle that has been going on for millenias."

"..What will happen to me?"

"Your soul will be clensed of sin, and your body drained of life. You will die, and be birthed anew. Like all souls that pass through the Well."

(here you are given 3 choices; forwards, backwards, or into the Well.)
Choosing forwards/backwards:
"I will go forwards/backwards."

"You need not tell me, friend. The road to both paths is beneath your feet."

Choosing absolution:
"..These souls must be reincarnated. It's not right for me to choose."

"..A soul purer than any other. For few would sacrifice themselves for this cause.. I salute you friend.. And will mpurn for your death. Cast yourself into the Well." (start cutscene)
-Me, in an idea for a video game I came up with