Cloud Whale (1)
So, I took the newly named Yanluo up to the northern reaches of the world. He'd been promoted to god of death, sure, but his foundation lay in being an earth spirit and mountain god. Long-distance travel probably wasn't his strong suit. I transformed into my true form, set him on my claw, and flew north—delivery of the god of death complete.
On the way, I heard him freaking out as we soared through the sky, but I ignored it. It was probably just something trivial like carsickness from going too fast. Anyway, when we finally arrived in the north and I set him down in front of the gates of the Underworld, Yanluo dropped to his knees on the ground, bowing deeply with an expression of profound gratitude.
"I now understand the greatness of the earth. I now realize your preciousness. I see that all beings must live upon you."
"You're being overly dramatic."
Yanluo simply stared at me in silence at my words. Without a single reply, he kept staring for a good thirty minutes or so. And that's how I ended up passing through the gates of the Underworld with him, descending layer after layer. We met the shadow spirits clearing away the debris Talos had dug up, and I introduced him to Thanatos, who commanded them. Eventually, we reached Talos himself, who had dug out all seven layers and come to a halt.
"This is... incredible."
"Talos is pretty impressive, isn't he?"
He was a golem born from a momentary lapse in judgment, but his performance was undeniably top-notch. I praised my dutiful Talos and said, "Now that the space is ready, it's time to complete the Underworld."
Oh, right—before that. I needed to confirm if Yanluo had properly ascended to god of death. It was simple enough. After all, I had a way to check the roster of all gods.
GodTalk
Gods' Roster
I confirmed Yanluo's name had appeared on the list and let out a small chuckle.
"Becoming a god through unrealistic tales, a bit of rumor-mongering, and some opinion-shaping... This has gotta be the easiest era to become a god ever, huh."
God of Death
Yanluo
His name was fully listed there. Hmm. Should I just keep making gods to my liking like this? It wouldn't be bad if Thetis, Ifrit, or Sylphid became gods too. Well, Thetis and Sylphid would probably get deified on their own once seafaring really takes off. I just need to plant a few seeds. As for Ifrit... maybe give him a little nudge. An unquenchable flame would be a huge merit in this era, but his location was a massive demerit.
What if I distributed fragments of Ifrit here and there... or manipulated things so that burning corpses with sacred flames became a funeral rite... Ah, or introduce him to the dwarves as the god of flames and forges. Yeah, that sounds good.
While idly pondering such half-baked ideas and scrolling through the GodTalk list, a new name caught my eye.
Cloud Whale
What the heck is this? Cloud Whale? A whale made of clouds? But if it's on this list, that means it's a god receiving faith. Cloud Whale. What on earth? Humans shouldn't even know what a whale is. With their current sailing tech, they can't venture far enough out to sea to spot one.
Ah, wait—maybe dead whales wash up on shores, and that's how they know. Possible, I guess. Though not certain. And anyway, I'm not the only one who knows the word "whale"... I told stories about them to Shamash and the kids. Maybe those tales spread to others? Elves or dwarves, perhaps. We'd unified the language anyway, but did elves or dwarves actually hear the kids' words? Probably not directly—just vague meanings.
So where did "whale" come from? Ugh, no clue. Or maybe it's an insane coincidence where they ended up using the same word. Anyway, Cloud Whale—what kind of being is it? It's on the GodTalk list properly, so it must be a god... Hmm. Now I'm curious. Really curious.
I was in the middle of building the Underworld, but I couldn't shake the rising curiosity. Cloud Whale. Maybe humans saw clouds shaped like giant whales and thought it was a god? Yeah. Super curious. I need to wrap up the Underworld, but oh well—curiosity wins. I'll set aside what I was doing. Feels like I got sidetracked from hell-building by a newborn god, but whatever. Gotta check this out.
And that's how I went looking for the Cloud Whale. It turned out to be a massive, cloud-like entity drifting silently across the serene sky. It really was whale-shaped—like a humpback, even. But its essence wasn't some fluffy cloud thing. From afar, it looked like a hazy whale made of clouds, but up close, I saw its true nature.
The Cloud Whale was a god born from souls gathered in the sky—a clump of those souls I'd seen rising heavenward during my investigations of souls and shades. That mass had taken the form of a whale, floating through the heavens. That's what the Cloud Whale really was. The souls had clustered so densely that they became faintly visible to human eyes, resembling a massive fish in the sky—hence "Cloud Whale."
Truly, what a fluke. I can't control every human thought, so I guess I can't prevent gods like this from popping up. Anyway, I approached the Cloud Whale. As an aggregate of countless souls, it didn't seem to possess distinct intelligence. It just wandered the skies, scattering the souls that made up its body this way and that. And below the skies it passed, the number of newborn children increased—not by coincidence, surely.
Probably, in cases where conception wouldn't happen naturally, a soul seeps in, altering fate to allow birth... Something like that. Not certain, though, so I won't say for sure.
Watching the Cloud Whale drift blankly through the sky without any real intellect, I thought, Maybe I can use this thing? See, in the Underworld, we'd process souls into pure ones for reincarnation... but how to reincarnate them was a bit tricky. Just sending them skyward without thought was an option, but releasing them from the Underworld's depths wasn't easy. The layers were huge—even a human walking nonstop would take seven days to descend one. What if I connected the Underworld to this whale with some space? Soul processing would be a breeze.
Of course, it'd be nice if I could talk to the Cloud Whale first. While continuing Underworld construction, I kept trying to communicate with it. It only made animal-like cries, its intelligence no better than a newborn baby's—pure souls, after all. The souls comprising it were spotless, pristine ones not yet born. So it couldn't speak; that was obvious. If it could talk, things would be easier. But with beast-level smarts, no helping it.
I kept at the Underworld work while using GodTalk to talk at the Cloud Whale nonstop. Wait—no. Why am I the one yapping at it endlessly? There are plenty of other ways. This Cloud Whale is a massive soul aggregate turned god by human faith. And faith comes from humans. So if I steer that faith, couldn't I shape it into what I want?
For example... a god dwelling in the heavens, spreading new life across the world... Hmm... Zeus? Nah, too much. Comparing a whale that just scatters souls everywhere to history's worst playboy? If the Cloud Whale had intelligence and could read my mind, it'd grab me by the scruff—and rightfully so. The only similarities are being in the sky and spreading new life!
Anyway, I can probably tweak human faith toward the Cloud Whale as I like. Make it a god that blesses couples with new children. Way better than a mindless sky-drifting whale—easier to work with!