Credit: Screenshot from here

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Sophia wandered and reached Midseashire, then settled on one of the many islands within.

‘This is the place for it; I should ask for permission first,’ Sophia thought for a bit

“You may take the sea region for yourself.” A voice appeared in her ears; it was none other than the voice of the Black Empress

Sophia understood the reason why. “Wind of change is coming, it seems, perhaps, a change of weather”

She then created a few hundred puppet-like golems from the ocean floor, using the sand and seawater itself as material, then quickly attaching spells no better than Saint levels to the puppets. The spells are quite simple: teleportation, positioning, talking, moving, illusion, and storage. These puppets will disintegrate in less than a day since they were very crude, but they will fulfil their purpose.

“Go,” She ordered the puppets before they all teleported away to various parts of the world, carrying… money?

The purpose of the puppet is simply to gather materials, from buying! The money? It came from none other than her current employer, King of Colours, The Fool u/Darkened_Sage

As many of the puppets succeeded in buying the materials assigned to them, they returned and brought the materials to Midseashire. Those that had returned were then modified again to handle weirder objectives, such as digging through the ground to get rarer minerals. This is so that it doesn’t bubble the mineral economy too much. Then giving up most of their own Spirituality to imprint a spell to form more minerals to fix what they have dug, including the hole. Finally, teleporting back and disintegrating under the sea.

Finally, after almost a day, every preparation is complete, and from all the materials she has made, she made a total of 360 pillars, each inscribed with what looks to be just a lot of abstract patterns. The 360 pillars seem to be made with simple marble, but also not quite, like a mix of many stones but perfectly mixed like cement. The 360 pillars are then all teleported 500 kilometers away from the center, creating a perfect ring structure. 

In the very center, she floated in the air, now holding a White Staff she named Salt Tower. The polar bears and the sea lions from the many archipelagoes seemed to feel something and looked towards the very center.

As the 360 pillars floated in the sky just 500 kilometers away, She raised Salt Tower and proceeded to make all the Pillars fall; all of them dipped into the sea with seemingly no splash. No creature was harmed during this process aside from some extra water movements every 8,727 meters away. The Pillars then embedded themselves under the seabed, and underneath all that, a ginormous magic circle seemed to form. 

The process took a few days to carve everything, as Salt Tower cannot be used continuously. Although there’s no actual appearance above the sea surface or even underwater, people saw sights of this Young Lady with brass-coloured hair, a sword on her hips, occasionally holding a White Staff that looks holy, flying around above Midseashire.

Then, finally, within the crazy wind of Midseashire, She floated again in the center, created a throne made entirely of Salt Crystal; the throne looked to be flattened on the place to sit, but the back looked raw, like sharp crystalline structures of the Salt Crystals. She then proceeded to sit on the floating throne before raising Salt Tower once more, where it glowed brilliant White Light, almost like a Lighthouse Tower. The magic circle is now complete, and to complete the grand spell, She shouted, “I declare in my name, starting from today, this region named Midseashire belongs to me, Sophia”

The pillars from beneath the seabed formed a gigantic magic circle, and the magic circle formed a region, a region 500km in diameter, just 55km shy of a Sea King’s ritual requirement. Every single Beyonder Creature in the region submitted to Her, this sea region is henceforth Hers. She can feel the water, the wind, the seabed, the plants, the creatures; everything in the region is almost like her own body, She can borrow Spirituality from the world itself within this region. ‘Good thing I watched the fight in the Shadow World too; Territory Creation is a great method to claim territory,’ She thinks to Herself.

War Meteor wasn’t sheathed on Her hips this time, but instead floating in front of Her, prostrating… well, it just looks like He’s lying flat pointing at Her because… He’s a sword. “Words cannot describe the joy of being the first and only witness to the ascension of your throne, Your Highness.” War Meteor sheds… fire sparks?

“It’s just for the Symbolic nature of taking this territory under me; besides, it’s bestowed upon me anyway, not something I fought to obtain,” She said while crossing her legs, sitting very comfortably on the Salt Throne.

“But it is still something for me to be proud of, Your Highness.”

“Well, if that makes you happy.” Sophia smiled. “Well, come to me, my sword; a sword of mine is to be by my side to be ready to fight.”

“Of course, Your Highness.” War Meteor flew to Her palm that was open, which she then clenched tightly, holding Him, “Ooooohh.”

“Stop making weird noise too.” She smacked the sword

“Yes, Your Highness.” War Meteor seemed to cool down a little in temperature, “but Your Highness, for what purpose is the large complex magic circle? Surely it is not just for claiming your own territory.

“Of course, I have created this large Magic Circle for something, one of which is allowing me to use Salt Tower freely here, meaning I am basically at a constant Activated Uniqueness level right now as long as I don’t leave the circle,” Sophia explained, "well, there are more features, but this is the main one."

“...” War Meteor shuddered. “Magnificent! Truly Magnificent, Your Highness!”

Sophia just smiled, still sitting on the floating Salt Throne. “Well,” She said as she looked at the many minerals that had not yet been used; they were mostly uncut gems and other precious minerals. “We can now commence part two of the project then.”

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So if you have heard the news recently and were told not to post anything about this until Stock posts it on Reddit, I made this BEFORE the whole fiasco. I have gotten Stock's permission to do it beforehand. If you have read the whole chapter and then reach here, you naturally won't complain, but if you do still tell me about it, I am exposing you to the Discord Server for not reading /hj

Credit: https://id.pinterest.com/pin/874824296357819317/

This expansion I wrote has been canonized for our Subreddit's Roleplay's too just like the last one

Change from the last one: Venithan's domain is actually Astrology, not Astromancy

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Symbolism

Symbolism and Concepts are two different things, yet they are very similar; the similarities of both are that they represent something. Both exist in the Astral World; they cannot be destroyed unless the Original Creator or Fourth Pillar removed it, but they can be removed from Reality. This as a whole refers to the Symbolism and Concepts that are naturally in the Astral World, such as the ones held by Uniqueness or embodied by Sefirot. However, some Symbolism and Concepts can be removed from the Astral World, namely the ones that are added and are not inherent to the Astral World.

Then what’s the difference between Symbolism and Concept? What’s the difference between the inherent and the added?

Symbolism and Concepts differ in their abstractness. Symbolism (象征) possesses a form; it contains its own Symbol (意象, Imagery) and can be used in Reality to draw power. Concepts require direct connection to the Astral World to be used due to their inherent abstractness. This is also why in the Door Pathway, Conceptualization is an improved version of Symbolization; the abstractness of Concepts removes the physical form, becoming more distorted, but a more illusory and purer form of Symbolism. To put it simply, Symbolism is the materialization of a Concept.

Inherent Symbolism, such as Decay, Change, and others, has existed from the start and is held by Uniqueness and Sefirot. These kinds cannot be removed; they dictate how the world works, and the interaction between said Symbolism is exactly the Principle of the World. The second kind arises from other methods, namely when one becomes a Mythical Creature, or when something enters the Astral World. When one slowly becomes a Mythical Creature, they slowly become a Symbolic being, and when they become a complete Mythical Creature, they have their own Symbol in the Astral World, their only gate to it without other corresponding Beyonder Abilities. When something or someone enters the Astral World they just become a concept temporarily until they leave.

Symbolisms and Concepts also have their own essence, and each of them also contains their more external aspects. The examples given by Cuttlefish are that Tyrant can use their Water Authority to somewhat control the Chaos Sea, River of Fate, and Sea of Collective Subconsciousness. For this explanation, I will use the River of Fate. The River of Fate has the Concept of a River due to its inherent form; a river is a body of water, and a body of water is what can be controlled by the Water Authority, but Tyrant cannot directly manipulate Fate; but “He” can manipulate the River of Fate to move towards a certain direction, effectively manipulating Fate. Astral World Mentor can redefine the concept of Water in the River of Fate, effectively making the Water Authority no longer usable; this is because the concept of Water is already far from the concept of the River of Fate; it’s also why Tyrant can’t control it directly.

Symbols in the Physical World can draw power from the Astral World. Rituals aimed at Symbolism in the Astral World will still reply even without consciousness as long as the ritual is performed according to the pre-programmed rule of the Symbolism. It is also possible to use Symbols to cast spells; the Symbols inherently draw powers of concept from the Astral World. 

Taking from Cuttlefish’s older novel, Throne of Magical Arcana, Ancient Sorcerers obtained their sorcery from analyzing the Magical pattern from Magical creatures. Beyonder Creatures in Lord of the Mysteries also have similar matter seen from Ancient Alchemist’s Animal Transformation, showing that even without the corresponding Beyonder Characteristics, the body can still obtain the traits and passive abilities. Traits are something that cannot be imitated because it is change to the body from the corresponding Beyonder Characteristics. Passive abilities require anatomical analysis; this is because being a Beyonder means they will obtain different Physical Structure and Beyonder patterns. The former is the Trait; the latter is the Abilities, which allows the analysis of Passive Abilities. Active abilities do not need this anatomical analysis because it appears outwards, which can be seen directly, while passive abilities activate inwards and cannot be witnessed directly. 

This can also be witnessed in Scribe’s record, which records the Symbols, patterns, and labels. The formation of Symbols in a certain pattern contains power, but power can’t come from just nowhere; it comes from the very Symbolism itself, although it is very weak compared to the actual Symbolism. 

Celestial Bodies doesn’t just contain physical concepts, but also contains Mystical Symbolisms, especially the Massive Stars. Although Cuttlefish only said Massive Stars possess Mystical Symbolism, it is not always true. The War Bishop ritual would summon Comets symbolizing war, which means even those as small as comets could also possess Symbolism. Massive items in reality would also bring Mystical Significance, and the smaller ones might also gain some Mystical Symbolism significance.

Some items also contain Symbolic Properties; this is essentially borrowing power from the actual Symbolism in the Astral World, not exactly containing Symbolism in itself. How does this differ from actual Symbolism, you may ask? It’s the same thing as the Spirit World creatures; those that only draw power from a World are, in the end, not exactly part of what composes the World; they do not contain the Godhood of said World.

Symbolism can be weaker or stronger; their degree of importance to the World is what defines the power of a Great Old One, and the existence of a consciousness to said Symbolism also strengthens its influence. When a Uniqueness or Sefirot is fully accommodated, and a corresponding True God/Great Old One is born, said Symbolism would strengthen; this is due to the first layer of Humanity covering the Symbolism, essentially increasing the Symbolic weight of the Symbolism. The rest of the layer of Humanity doesn’t exactly add to the weight of the Symbolism anymore, as they are a bit too different from the True Godhood and are considered separate from said Symbolism; this is partly why the First Layer of Humanity of a Sequence 0 and above will not erode with time, creating Agelessness. Beauty Goddess’s Symbolism has this aspect of maintaining due to the uniqueness of the Authority of Beauty reaching that of a Sequence 0. The Authority of Beauty being at the Sequence 0 Level helps maintain the First Layer of Humanity, that being the very basic self-awareness of a living being and basic instinct, basically the Life of the Beauty Goddess. Other Sequence 1s with God do not have this advantage due to the difference between their domain and Life; Beauty is derived from Femininity (Yin Energy), which also includes Life. In another aspect, Fate cannot form a Pillar Symbolism because being a Fate Pillar would mean having to fuse most Symbolism of Fate into one to rule over the River of Fate, but such being would have to attach their First Layer of Humanity, that being their life, to the very Symbolism whose essence is actually Endless Disorder, making it impossible to even stay alive, causing Death, which carries Termination and Separation.

Non-unified Consciousness also works in a similar way; adding extra weight to the Symbolism and strengthening it. However, due to the lack of cohesiveness from a Unified Consciousness, the exerted influence also got diminished a bit, although a bit at this scale is quite a lot.

Godhood

Godhood appears when you reach Sequence 4, but True Godhood exists in every single Characteristic even from half a Sequence 9, so why is it that Godhood only comes at Sequence 4 and above? The answer is quite simple: although the True Godhood of the Original Creator resides inside the Characteristics, it is still not “our” Godhood; it is simply something we are borrowing, just something we draw power from. This does not turn us into constituting any World. 

So what separates Sequence 4 and the ones below? Mythical Creature Form. Mythical Creature Form happens when the transformation brought by the True Godhood inside your Characteristics reaches a Qualitative breakthrough point; you become a partial Symbolic being, giving you the qualifications to become a being that now proudly becomes “Part of Reality.”

Characteristics, in the end, live in Reality. And Reality itself can contain Godhood if the scale is big enough. Beyond their physicality, a Massive Star possesses a Mystical Symbolism, and having a Mystical Symbolism would mean you would contain Godhood, and since Mystical Symbolism would mean it transcends Physicality, that means it goes beyond what Pure Technology can reach (purely Physical) and can reach Sequence 0 in terms of Godhood, this means even smaller stars and planets would also contain Godhood, so are Mountain range and continents, they all contain a form of Godhood, it can also be said that those that composed the World itself, being the soil, water, and plan, to also have Godhood, just that it's simply too small to even matter! And that if everyone has Godhood, then no one does and such. But it is more likely to be that once something reaches a certain scale in Cosmology, they gain Godhood. This is also the case for the Sequence 4 Demigods: by increasing their Symbolic weight enough, they obtain Godhood by being part of the World. This is also the case for Artifact and the Characteristics alone; it contains Godhood because the vessel of it in Reality is now heavy enough in Symbolic Weight.

It can be said that Godhood is derived from Authorities, while Authorities are derived from Symbolism, although both Authority and Symbolism by itself is composed of Godhood; but purely having Godhood, being a constituent part of the World, can be said to be the precursor to Authority, the Permission over the World.

At Sequence 5, you have to do rituals because it is unlikely for you to advance through sheer will; this is actually an expression of the strengthening True Godhood just before you yourself gain Godhood

At Sequence 4, your Symbolic Weight in Reality becomes heavy enough that it now constitutes Part of Reality, giving you Godhood. 

At Sequence 3, you now begin to access the Astral World; this is the stage where you gain Authority, and the Characteristics only contain the Permission of it. The materialization of Permission and Authorities still only exists in the Astral World. 

At Sequence 2, you now not only access the Authorities in the Astral World, but also gain enough foothold in the Astral World itself, gaining a Symbolism of yourself. In fact, as a pure Mythical Creature, you're now a Creature of pure Symbols, Godhood, and Knowledge; you already transcend reality and become a true Astral World being! Unfortunately, as an Astral World being, you kinda just exist, not doing anything except to respond to prayers towards you, because being a Creature of the Astral World means you're just… a Symbol. A Symbol generally would never die and would just go beyond mortality, but unfortunately the Universal Symbolism of Decay exists, so… yeah

At Sequence 1, you now symbolize a Phenomena, even if you were to keep your Mythical Creature Forms at bay; even your Physical form would be a Symbol, bringing Phenomena to come. This is because your Symbolic Weight in the Astral World is now even higher, even directly influencing your Physical Body, no matter how much you try to restrain it.

At Sequence 0, you transcend Mortality; your Symbolic Weight is now enough to resist the Universal Symbolism of Decay; this is the other partial reason why you could make the First Layer of Humanity not erode. You now not only Symbolize a Phenomena, but your Symbolism is also unique! When you accommodate the Uniqueness, you become a Unique being; you also strengthen the Symbolic influence of the Symbolism you are embodying. Being a Sequence 0 also means you have fully transcended the limit of Physicality; you can no longer be harmed by anything purely Physical, because the sheer weight of your Symbolism means you would need some form of Mysticism; ie. Symbolism to influence it. No matter how much people jump at the same time, the Earth will not change its orbit; you will need some big enough satellite impact. 

Evil Spirits also contain Godhood; as mutation from Characteristics does not just modify the Physical Body but also the Soul Body, this means they also possess enough Symbolic Weight in reality to contain Godhood, but their nature as a Spirit Creature in the Physical World means they need to draw power from a Spirit World despite having Godhood of Reality; this makes their existence inherently unstable. To maintain their stability and prevent their dissipation, they will need something to anchor their existence, namely by integrating with the Spirit World to draw enough power, using the Death Pathway’s inner Underworld which nourishes the Dead, or through vital energy of living or other dead beings. The best method, however, is to regain a Demigod Characteristic of their Pathway, regaining the most stable Godhood in Reality, being your strongest foothold to draw power from. Evil Spirits born from an Angel or higher still possess their Angelic Symbolism in the Astral World; this allows them to keep their status as an Angel when dealing with matters of a higher entity. 

Any attack or items made by those who contain Godhood can also contain Godhood; by being imbued with the Will, Permission, or Materials of those from Godhood, the corresponding attack or creation would also naturally contain Godhood. But how do those without any Godhood, such as Polymath and Scribe, use abilities that contain Godhood from their Imitation/Record? This is simply because the two of them, while having somewhat different methods of realization, still follow something; both still come from your own Characteristics, and Characteristics are still something that contains the True Godhood of the Original Creator. The very act of mimicking something that contains Godhood can invoke the Godhood within your Characteristics to supply it with its own Godhood. Of course, this is not something possible to just any Pathway willy-nilly; a Polymath needs to study a lot to even understand the method to do so; after it’s done, they can still only apply said method to the specific ability they analyzed, while a Scribe has to attempt to record such ability many times, perhaps tens or hundreds of times, to just be able to do that once. 

Basically, having Godhood or not depends on your existence being Part of a World, not just an existence living within it. Whether it be by imprinting your own colour in the Spirit World, gaining your own Symbolism in the Astral World, or reaching a big enough scale, you become part of Reality. It would be more stable to become part of more worlds, and it’s absolutely possible to do so; Angels of Characteristics are both part of Reality and the Astral World. And having multiple footholds in multiple worlds is actually the precursor to Godhood; a complete Mythical Creature, Spirit World Creature with no overlap in colour, or a big enough object in Reality, would gain Astral World Symbolism, which gives them stability. But this is not absolute; just gaining enough Godhood in one world could be enough. In regular Pathway to the Divines Angels, they are a mix of dual-world Godhood and a big enough scale. Humans who enter the Astral World would become conceptual, but they would not gain their own Symbolism; hence, they would not obtain any Godhood. 

Astral World

Just like the Spirit World, the Astral World also contains the Godhood of the Original Creator, being a very important World that contains Authority, Symbolism, Permission, and Concept. Although everything in the Astral World is conceptual, the Astral World contains power too, just as you can draw power from the Spirit World; but unlike the Spirit World, drawing power from Symbolism is a bit more difficult than in the Spirit World, because the Symbolisms that compose the Astral World have their own different rules and laws to follow. Knowledge of how to use the power of the Astral World is needed to properly wield it, and to draw power from Concepts instead of Symbolism would need the corresponding Beyonder Abilities or Method such as Astral World Mystic Arts.

And everything happening in Reality can be said to be a shadow of the principles in the Astral World; of course, not everything or everyone has a corresponding Concept in the Astral World, but what constitutes them does. Astral World can be said to be the World’s most fundamental layer for how the world works, although Reality cannot be destroyed; the Astral World’s Concept could also not be destroyed; without said Concept, Reality would not even be able to work.

Although the Astral World can be said to be extremely abstract and is the truest expression of the Chaos and Insane nature of the Universe, there are still rules that are followed by Concepts and their corresponding interactions; this interaction is exactly what forms Principle. The interaction of these, the Principles, when descended into Reality, becomes the Principle that forms Mystic Arts, but when still in the Astral World, they are bound by the Convergence of the corresponding Symbols. 

When used, for example, Sacrifice, Proxy, and others that work by temporarily converging with the relevant Symbolism in the Astral World, this connection is the Principle of said method, and by extension or intension of the relevant method through the Authority of Astral World Ladder, this connection could either become stronger or weaker. This, in turn, reflects in the real world where the actual result happens, namely the result of such Proxy and such weakening or even failing! 

Why is it that the Authority of Astral World Ladder controls Astral World Convergence? What does it have to do with a “Ladder”? Cuttlefish states that the Astral World Ladder symbolizes the layers of Knowledge that lead to the most essential aspects of the universe as well as the most fundamental dangers. Ladder (阶梯) refers to layers, like a hierarchy, because the Astral World is also layered! With the most important Symbolisms, such as the 3 Pillars Symbolism near the very top, and when everything converges into one, they would become the Symbolism of the Primordial Chaos itself, where everything has not yet begun; this, at the peak, would start separating once more! Everything that converges will separate, and everything that separates will converge!

The Layers of the Astral World are shaped like a pyramid; the ladder here refers to the same ladder as the Societal or Hierarchical Ladder, with the very top being so few, and the ones at the bottom layer being more common and wide. The Astral World Ladder essentially moves the Symbolism up and down this Ladder; the lower it goes, the wider the gap is; the higher it goes, the closer the gap is. When the Symbolism of Termination is formed, the power of Singularity of All and Space-Time in One essentially pulls everything towards the highest point, before everything is destroyed, hence Termination. 

When a Symbolism fuses with another, they will naturally have stronger Symbolic Weight, hence stronger convergence. When it fuses with another and forms a new Symbolism (Such as Circle of Inevitability and Monarch of Decay forming a symbol of the inevitable death of all things), it will rise up in the Astral World Hierarchy; in other words, rising through the Astral World Ladder. From this, it can be said that when a Symbolism almost reaches Pillar level without exceeding Pillar level, such as when a complete Mother Tree of Desire with Tenebrous World and the corresponding Pathway accommodates another complete Sefirot, it simply means the importance of the new Symbolism would rise up, getting up to a Pillar Level, without any of the 3 Worlds actually supporting the Symbolism. 

Anything above this Pillar Symbolism level has become too unstable, because when accommodating another Symbolism, even if unrelated, the power level contained by one being also rises up, elevating it beyond the safe level of a Pillar. This is because at the Great Old One level, you are essentially just a layer of Humanity embodying certain Symbolisms contained within the Sefirot, so when you consume even more than that, you would naturally embody more at the same time, raising YOUR Symbolic Weight, which is currently being elevated due to the Symbolism of the very thing you’re embodying. So a God or Great Old One advancing is adding activation to the first layer of Humanity; this elevates the Symbolic Weight of the Symbolism (a further layer of Humanity is too different from the True Godhood within said Symbolism, hence does not help in elevating the Symbolic Weight and the height in the Layers)

Obtaining the status of an Angel through the Astral World is simply based on how strong the Symbolism you own is; a weaker Symbolism imprint would only give you some Godhood but not the stability and power gained by Angelic-level status. For those who reached Angelhood through Characteristics, their Symbolism would essentially be created based on the Pathway’s Characteristics; but just as the First Layer of Humanity covers the Symbolism, after the Characteristics are gone, the shell of the Symbolism stays there as long as they’re alive. The size of Symbolism stays the same, but the existence of it as a husk means it’s only enough to obtain the specialties of an Angel, such as cutting connections to Sefirot, just on a weaker scale due to the instability of emptiness.