Kor

Epithets: The Nadir, The Earth Mantra, The Core

Kor Re Pa Ve Laak is the goddess of harmony. She resides on the Underside of the world, holding it aloft with her six arms and repelling the residual evils and deprivations of the broken planet Galbar. She calls these evils All-In-The-Darkness-Below. As side effects, her repelling of these evils produces virtually all gravity on the world above.

## Domain Description

Kor creates equilibrium. Every phenomenon that is met upon her, spiritual, mental, and physical, is countered by its opposite. This at once leaves each space around Kor at a collapsing spiral of peace while rendering her relatively passive compared to other gods. Her peers may aggress or consume, but she is powerless to do either beyond the base abilities of a deity.

As Kor has chosen to remain on the underside of the world, she repels All-In-The-Darkness-Below as it emanates from the remains of Galbar. This repulsion forms such a powerful acceleration in the opposite direction as to manifest gravity on the world above. This holds all things on the world down.

However, the gravitational acceleration is not the only effect of Kor's repulsion. If one meditates and chooses to listen, they can hear the calming rebuttal that Kor chants against All-In-The-Darkness-Below. This is a calming mantra that slowly repeats the words *Kor Re Pa Ve Laak*. The true power of this mantra is not the words themselves. It is the space between the words. To notice them and to feel oneself grounded to the earth below (to feel the gravity Kor induces) temporarily brings peace to one's spirit.

## Base Form

Kor's base form depends heavily on her surrounding environment, but her abode being what it is leaves little else in options for her except the form she assumes at the underside of the world. Kor takes the form of a titanic metal-and-carbon naked human shape with no hair, a tall head, a torso of no remarkable shape, two emaciated legs fused together below her and six long arms sprouting from her shoulders. These arms stretch up and gently hold the underside aloft by the extremities where hands would normally be. She has instead of hands writhing swarms of eyeless segmented metallic serpents that merge onto the underside's earth like inverted mountains of glinting insects at the end of each arm. These snakes repair holes in the underside with whatever material is available.

Kor's face does not express any strain at this ceaseless duty. Her dull grey eyes slowly blink observing the quiet universe around her, betraying none of her capacity for alertness should a new being come to visit.

## True Form

To see Kor's true form is to see one's exact opposite reflected before them within an environment exactly opposite to the one they stand in. A ruthless tyrant in charge of a cowed and clean kingdom would see a peaceful yet deprived beggar happy to sit in a world of chaos and destruction. Conversely, a hero on a battlefield would see a villainous demon passively standing in a peaceful garden.

The experience can be confronting, but whatever stirring in one's mind to make sense of the sight is buffered by a universal feeling of intimate peace, like pressing one's forehead against the forehead of a loving partner in a quiet place. It brings an awareness of the rivers of cause and effect flowing all around, and yet one is safe and calm in the moment, free from all anxiety.

When she is in her true form, Kor is the only one who sees only herself where she already is.

## Myth: The General

> There were no old men there. No hermits or grandparents or other fonts of wisdom. A camp for soldiers was no place for those that could not stand and fight. The men here were young, eager, energetic, and their nerves could not stop firing in their cores. Battle could come at any time. The sound of gunfire and clashing steel was as much at home here in drills as it was amongst its partnered screams of pain on the battlefield.
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> But that encampment was overseen by a general thought to not be fully of this world. He was human, but he did not behave like a young soldier. Rounds flew around him and dirt kicked into his eye, but he stood unflinching, hands clasped behind his back. He never showed his fear. But he was not a stone; he smiled, he sympathised, and spoke to the hearts of his subordinates. And his stability allowed him to pursue tactics that countered the most certain of defeats.
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> When his officers asked in candid moments how this general stood unshakable, he planted both boots solid on the ground and closed his eyes, as if listening.
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> "Do you ever notice," the general responded to them, "just how deep the earth is? Do you ever feel yourself pressed against it, drinking away the tightness in your chest? At any time, we could fall, and we can be certain the ground is beneath us. We can never fall further."
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> The general refused to give any less cryptic an answer, claiming he did not have the skill with words to do so. All the same, his behaviour gave off an air of invincibility which granted a morale unmatched amongst his cohort.
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> But he did die. One battle's morning, an arquebus ball pierced his heart and broke through the back of his ribs on the way out. He fell upon the ground directly on his back. He closed his eyes where he lay and smiled, listening. His soul left his body in such peace that his psychopomp stood waiting a while, thinking he was just asleep. Hearing of this manner of death, his soldiers knew their leader had remained unshaken to the end. They went on to win the battle.
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> This general, though his name is lost to history, was not the first to hear the Earth Mantra. He was merely the first to let the world know.
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