Pilgrimage and a Day of Prayer (Moross Crusade)

[Mercury Zealot]

Exocron, the Morossian Capital...

And so finally I shall peer into the heart of Moross, the heart of The Aesir Neth and his Godly Kin. Stone Hermes thought to himself as the shuttle touched down, rumbling his massive mechanical body. He stowed away his giant sword in a crevice on his back, near his spines. He had to show the Moross people whether or not they even knew he was here, that he and all Resu were their undoubted allies. He and the others had to maintain a civil image, despite their ruthless determination and dedication to the cause of Moross.

That was why he was here... to engage in a practice known as praying.

He lumbered off of the space vessel and observed his environment, before finally settling on an individual before him. He preformed the pointing, and then spoke an inquiry.

"Moross templeees? Where? Stone Hermes wishes to... pray?" He attempted to reduce the grimness of his voice, to induce a less... menacing tone to the aliens, now that he could tell the difference to a degree.

 

[Salina Aviner]

Salina had been mediating, trying to hone more of her powers. Her concentration and sense of peace involved humming the tune to a song she knew from when her mother would sing it to her to help her sleep. Her aphistaff, Xira, stood as a stick nearby as she did. For over an hour she'd been sitting and waiting, hoping to see some glimpse of her own future. Instead a sudden flash came and went through her mind, that of a lumbering shadow making it's way out of a ship. She gasped and opened her eyes a moment before Xira changed to a more serpent form and hissed as the sound of a shuttle landing could be heard.

Calling Xira to her Salina stood and changed the amphistaff to a spear form before looking up towards the source. The moment it touched down and the occupant exited she knew what the shadow she'd seen in her vision was. When @[member="Stone Hermes"] asked where the temples were Salina, blind but still looking up towards the source of his voice, said "Welcome....pilgrim. If it is the temple of the Moross you seek I can show you the way."

 

[Mercury Zealot]

Stone Hermes preformed, the nodding gesture.

"Good." He said simply to the figure before him. His lumbering body walked further into the spiritual capital of his new people. He would see now the majesty of the movement that he had introduced his people to as the First Convert. He hoped that he had made the correct choice, he hoped that he was correct in his assessment that exile was a worse fate than the extinction of his race, for that decision and that decision alone had made him move forward to the Great Demonstration of Neth. It was that single choice that brought him to this place, his faith in Neth's power, his faith in the words that the god spoke. How could something turn so quickly away from several thousand years of culture and over night convert the geopolitical structure of the entirety of his peoples civilization into the warrior zealots of an alien religion?

The Demonstration was the proof he needed of the rumored alien mystics of the galaxy, but they had never not even once, heard of anything the likes of which Hermes had experienced upon that Day of Divinity. He had no doubt that Neth was exactly as he said he was, and that the universe was organized in the way he described it. It would take time however, even with the Neth-borne Morossian Techno-virus converting the Resu, many of the converts will find it difficult to let go so easily their former cultural values. It was he and many of the other converts job to convince them that they were not letting them go at all, in joining the Crusade, merely expanding them. The fight was on going, but despite his peoples spirit they were fighting a battle they could not win... the more they fought and were injured the more of them were converted to the faith. The Techno-virus brought down a revelation upon the Changed Ones, it made them more susceptible to the Morossian religion, in the essence of how Hermes had converted so quickly. Some Resu were just notoriously stubborn despite the influence of the virus. Some of the Techno-Resu even fought against them at times, as only a partial convert fighting for the old ways. He'd like to say that Resu like those were easily handled, but honestly they were not.

 

[Cameron Centurion]

Temple

The Deceiver's Priest swept swiftly through the corridors. There had, apparently, been an issue last night between one of the newer Aatrox followers and that of an Ithari. Long story short, one had been deceived and the other wanted blood. One guess as to who was responsible for which part of the story.

As the large Sith rounded the corner with folds of his dark blue and grey cloak billowing out slightly behind him, his silver-green gaze briefly gazed out through the columns of the Temple at the gleaming capital below. Quickly, his gaze returned to the mostly empty corridor. Cameron took roughly another step and a half before coming to an abrupt halt. Slowly, he turned his gaze back towards the capital. Narrowing his eyes, the Sith Lord expanded his dark presence over the city, attempting to probe the very presence of what he was seeing in the Force. "What in the... You don't see that everyday...". Exocron was typically a very mellow place. While they did have a variety of alien followers, you didn't typically just see them cruising down the main street of the city. Oh and they didn't usually look like a big ass...serpent robot...or something.

Shaking his head slightly, the Sith Lord turned and resumed his original pace and direction. First, deal with dumb and dumber, then investigate the new arrival.

 

[Mercury Zealot]

While his blind guide seemed to become mute as well, the hulking metal Resu decided to press forward regardless. His thunderous feet pounded the softer earth as he marched slowly through the city, with a huge buffer between he and the surrounding populace. The Morossian people were not to be expected to be fearful, but even for a zealous citizen transfixed by the enormity of his religion, a pilgrim of his strangeness was simply something not ignored... but something one wish they could ignore. The very body of the Resu was a hazard, jutting of many sharp edges with an unnatural muscularity within the fabrics of his metal frame. He was an enigma, clearly inorganic yet clearly alive, clearly mechanical yet also of flesh. Irritable to the non-responsiveness of his chosen people and kin of faith, the Resu nearly roared his question.

"Where do all grovel, to the Gods?" His head search as the predator he was for one who could answer out of the crowd. Heat being no different between one another and no signal of electricity to distinguish themselves unique, Hermes found the group as a bleary indifferent barrier of strangely shaped fires. His sword hand flexed in an anticipation that would not come. To him, it was so much easier to solve ones problems by beating on them. Unfortunately his dilemma was not something one could cut and destroy with a sword, tusk, or tooth and claw.

@[member="Cameron Centurion"], @[member="Salina Aviner"]

 

[Ereza]

"A Resu," came the voice of a man who stepped out from a nearby store. He was of dark complexion and wore the robes of Ivory and Gold that denoted him a follower of Inari. Not that @[member="Stone Hermes"] could see this, but a holy man who once spoke for the betterment of Jedi was still a holy man, only now he preached that of Moross. In one hand he carried a wrapped parcel, in the other he carefully lead his youngest child: a girl no older than six.

"By the Gods, I never thought the day would come that I would see a Resu. Come Icza, let us greet the creature of Aesir Neth and show him the way..."

Wide eyed but trusting in his words, the young girl followed duitifully after her father, keeping a firm hold of his hand while ducking behind his robes when they drew near.

"Hello there!" the man called to Stone Hermes, "I am Priest Larue of Aesir Inari the Reviver. Welcome, welcome to the Capital City. You seek the Temple? I will show you the way. What is your name, Crusader of Neth?"

 

[Mercury Zealot]

Two forms appeared before the First Convert, one small, the other smaller still. It took him a moment to discern that they were two beings, with the child gripping so closely to her father. Though the mans admiration was... admirable, perhaps he should have thought more into the figure he brought his offspring to. A towering creature clearly alive yet clearly alien to that fact, clearly of metal yet clearly of flesh. A being of many jagged edges and menacing features. He was more than a soldier, he was a monster to deterred the populaces of conquered places from dissenting, to check the homeland in line that they never forget the power of their deity's. The level of trust of the child simply to approach him though was admirable, if he weren't so quickly irritable with impatience.

"Stone Hermes, First Convert. Zealot of the Crusade!" He felt the primal urge to hit something in the masculinity of his position (though for Resu, the position was equally feminine), he thrust his tusks in the air as he hit his chest. Once finished, he looked down towards the priest and his daughter more calmly than before, having replaced a degree of irritation with pride.

@[member="Amorella Mae"]

 

[Ereza]

Larue smirked at the creature's spirit, chuckling and giving an enthusiastic wave, "Very well received Stone Hermes, First Convert, Zealot of the Crusade. Follow me to meet the Reviver."

The procession through the city garnered far more attention than was likely necessary, but where zealots were concerned there was always the likelihood of ...zealotry. Any reason to expend and expand their faith. Curious devoted followed in the wake of the giant alien, drawn by the vision of the Reviver's Priest leading the way. Was there to be an audience with the Bright One? The chance was far too good to pass up. Soon they were crowd, and then an amassed following, driving along the main road to the steps leading up to Temple of the Divines entrance.

"Aesir Inari!" the Priest exclaimed as he entered her hall, "I bring to you the newest of faraway faithfuls. Allow me to present Stone Hermes, First Convert, and Zealot of the Crusade." The man gave a bow and motioned for Stone to step forth towards the end of the Reviver's hall. There at the end the Aesir roused quietly from her meditation, seated upon the raised dais of her altar.

"Welcome," the woman's voice gently echoed over the din of those gathered, "come forth and be received, Zealot of the Crusade."

@[member="Stone Hermes"]

 

[Mercury Zealot]

So then the beast would look upon the gods. The religious followings that preceded upon the news a priest would accept a prestigious warrior into the temple of a god hardly caught the attention of the Resu. They were but air, in the drive of his determination. The swelling heat of there bodies mingled around him and the tunnel vision he acquired upon gazing at the temple was enough to make him forget this world was populated. He felt the stirrings of his own religious fervor take him, stepping very near to the kindly priest. Way they stopped, it was all Hermes could do to keep from trampling over them. He was hardly able to contain himself.

To meet a being as close to kin as the Allgod Neth, was too much to comprehend or bare. He had feverish expectations and presumptions. He came here as a true archivist in search of knowledge, the knowledge of prayer. He came her not expecting any visitation, he was merely a warrior looking to see exactly what he was crusading for... other than the will of Neth of course. But to be brought before a God? Unthinkable. It made Hermes more animal than Resu, expecting instant gratification... though he would be disappointed in remembering he could no more make out Neth from the rest of the brew without his Book around his neck... he would have to procure a similar method, if it were compliant.

By the gods he didn't even know which god this was or what its gender was... did gods even have gender? He expelled this thought as he cleared his animal instincts to bow before one of his ten masters. He was told to be received, and thus he was. He removed himself from his bow and strode towards the God, to stand several meters away. Unsure of how close was "received".

"Name this God. I seek holy knowledge. I seek prayer." He bowed once more.

@[member="Amorella Mae"]