The streets of a hazy vision of Namira stretched out before Ayla and I. She examined them wistfully, having been here a few times throughout her life, but never like this. Never as a heroine, and never so perfectly, painstakingly recreated in a dream.

I was beside her, but my mind felt like it was elsewhere. Because I was reading a notification that alerted me to a strange yet exciting development.

[Double Notification: New Species Knowledge Alert And Domain Centric Alert

New Species Knowledge Alert: Great Old Ones

Great Old Ones were an ancient species that existed during the Mythic Age. These entities were higher-beings, similar to gods, archdevils, demon lords, and more. They were worshiped by ancient, alien things like Mi-Gos, Gugs, Star-Spawn, the Great Race, Deep Ones, Secret Seekers, and other alien horrors.

These entities possessed immense power. They could forcibly reshape flesh, induce madness with a touch, and their proximity to planets was enough to drive entire civilizations to ruin.

They possessed power equivalent to half of the lowest tier of influence over domains and subdomains like dreams, minds, madness, stars, liquid, earth, air, fertility, and assorted other things. They were lesser in power than the Outer Gods, but their powers still brought ruin to worlds. They were commendably mighty beings.

Learn about them. Learn of creatures like Tsathoggua, Dagon, Hastur, and Cthulhu. In time their secrets will be revealed to you. When they are, remember this moment. Harness their power. Because your power is... flexible. It is... restorative. The domains are endlessly fascinated by you. They want to see you learn the secrets of those who came before. Maybe even master them. Keep it up.

Domain-Centric Alert:

We'll begin by discussing dreams.

Dreams:

The domain of dreams is one that grants you a number of different things. It grants you an idle skill that lets you phase into the realm of dreams whenever you wish, lets you see people's level of exhaustion, allows you to mutate creatures in a number of ways related to sleep and dreams, and allows you to create new types of creatures known as "Leng Abominations".

These "Leng" monsters are inhabitants of the realm of dreams who possess eerie shape-shifting powers and who shift between a satyr-like form and the forms of massive spiders. These creatures are natives to the realm of dreams, but they are among the weakest of the dreadful things found there. And they can and sometimes do escape to the waking world. But... under your leadership, who knows what they'll do.

There are other creatures this domain will allow you to create, but only in conjunction with domains and subdomains, you don't yet have influence over, or you don't have enough influence over. In time they will be revealed to you.

The domain of dreams at its lowest tier grants you a few active powers.

Dancing Dream:

The first active power is the ability to lock someone in a state of slumber for 24 hours. At this tier of influence, this power can only be used on someone who was already sleeping. But magically induced sleeping counts. If activated this can only be deactivated if you will it to be undone. No magical spell, potion, or even something like true love's kiss can undo it. It doesn't suffer from the limitations imposed on some active powers, like a cooldown rate.

Restorative And Restless Dreams:

The second active power you gain is the ability to affect someone's quality of sleep. For many, if not most mortals, sleep is when they regain their energy and when their magical energy is restored. This power allows you to amplify that, or disrupt it.

The restorative aspect of it doubles the rate at which energy is restored if someone sleeps, and disrupting it causes them to not be able to recover at all. This power aids armies when used restoratively and causes them to destroy themselves when used against them. It can be aimed at an area, or at specific individuals. This power is compatible with the Dancing Dream power, and also with magically induced sleep.

You have gained other ambient abilities because of this. You can now claim a portion of the realm of dreams as your own if you wish for it. This place would be your own territory. But to do that you have to venture into the realm of dreams once more so you won't be asked about it until then. You can also create portals into the realm of dreams.

Falsehood:

This domain and the subdomains of lies, shapeshifting, and illusion are all strongly compatible with each other. This domain is about more than just lies, illusions, and shapeshifting though, it's about all manner of misunderstandings and even the prevention of misunderstandings. It only grants you a few skills at the lowest tier of influence, but it does increase the stats of your followers who worship you as a god of knowledge, deception, or things of that nature.

This domain grants you proficiency with traps of all sorts. It grants you wisdom when it comes to things like espionage, and you can bless worshipers of yours with increases to their deceptive skills, illusionary abilities, and their own trap-making, and trap-detection skills.

False Pain:

This is an active power that lasts for an hour once used against someone. This power affects someone's mind and wracks them with pain. The pain comes from nowhere. It's not real. This power can be used on anyone as a form of torture. It is one of the powers that can only be used twice every twelve hours. It will be amplified as you gain tiers of influence over domains and subdomains of torture, evil, darkness, and corruption.

Lies:

The subdomain of lies is an immediately active and malicious subset of the domain of falsehoods. With it you can create pseudologi, spirits that embody lies. These are powerful beings that worship you as the lord of lies, and seek to bring people either to you in worship or to suffering through the telling of and belief in lies. You can mutate your servants and grant them greater deceptive skills.

Compulsive Lies:

This active power afflicts those targeted by it and forces them to tell lie after lie for an hour. They cannot tell the truth once hit by the power unless placed into a powerful aura of restorative magic.

They also can't ignore questions and stay silent. They are forced to speak and tell lies. This power can only be used once a day.]

This is a lot of neat, and dark powers. I thought, grinning as I read through all of it.

I may even need a playground with which to test these powers. A place to hone them. I realized, ignoring the huge smile on my face as I thought about the things I could do, even alone.

I examined the items on the floor. There was a grin on my face as I stared at them, studying them intently. Each one of them was a remarkable thing, an expertly made weapon or an artfully smithed piece of armor.

In all, there were three gigantic weapons and three suits of armor. One trident, two bastard swords. Next to them were three nets, built to be handled and tossed with skill by minotaurs. And three suits of armor, made of iron. The suits had helms made for minotaurs, the breastplates were large enough for their bulky forms, and I had even made iron clothing for their legs. I wanted them to be safe after all.

The trident and the swords had enchantments on them. They radiated mystical auras, strong ones at that. The air around them shimmered intensely, radiating a healthy red glow, indicative of potent evocation energies that permeated every molecule of them.

Today was a day wherein I learned a lot about myself. I thought, making a joke about my ability to use the skills of my worshipers effectively and thankfully, instantly.

I had gained the ability and skills needed to both craft things and enchant them because of the fact that I was a divine being. I didn't have to learn the precise calculations, be they in terms of temperature for forging, or the mathematics of the sacred geometry normally involved with enchanting things.

I know those things, but not because I learned them like my followers did. I learned them through absorption and through the memories of my worshipers. I remembered, recalling the ways I had gained the knowledge I used to forge the assorted items laying before me. I had all the knowledge they had, stored in my mind.

I could only craft the things I crafted using the skills I gained from dwarven worshipers, and I was able to perform enchantments because of dark elven worshipers who had skills and experiences related to enchantment. But all of it allowed me to pull off wild schemes like the one I was mere minutes from beginning.

And now the fun begins. I thought, grinning as three eldritch, dark-blue circles engraved themselves into the ground behind me. The three of them immediately began to radiate the bright blue energy of my immensely powerful soul abilities.

Here we go. A grin appeared on my face, as the same process that once formed my Mi-Go began here. But this time three beings were being created. Three hulking, loyal warriors who'd help me become an even more powerful devil.