SoK Chapter 188

Instead of merely channeling Stormcaller, TJ stopped even thinking of that Skill and instead lost himself in Meditation.  As soon as he did so, clarity of mind immediately settled over him. Without strain or conscious thought, his mind connected various different possibilities at the same time, flashing through different connection points in how his Divine authority swelled beyond “get stronger when there’s a storm.” Eventually, he would fall into focusing on one concept, and after a single second’s thought, he settled on one: domination of the storm. For now, though, he allowed the wide-ranging inspiration to rage through him. Flashes of ideas appeared one after the other, and he entertained each one.

Storms were a whole lot more than just rain, or clouds, or lightning. Each of those were a part of it, but the storm as a whole was a confluence of heat, atmospheric pressure, moisture, the rotation of the Earth, and each of those things changing, as well as dozens more of factors important and nominal. A storm was the planet, or at least a part of the planet, adjusting to change. As the temperature or moisture part of the world changed, a storm erupted, and the rage of a storm was merely the result and reflection of the changes wrought in the world as well as her complaints regarding what happened.

His mind flooded through the cause of various different storms, from mild showers to dust storms to blizzards to tornadoes. Hurricanes? Caused as warm seawater formed thick clouds as the ocean’s water evaporated under the sun’s heat, only for the clouds to then spin into larger and larger banks of moisture that eventually demanded to be released in torrential downpour and home-destroying winds. Tornadoes? As a thunderstorm dumped water on the ground that then warmed and attempted to cycle back into the air, where the cool dry air was, swirling, raging winds appeared and tore the terrain to tiny detritus. As the winds intensified from the constantly cycling moisture and temperature, the tornado erupted into existence. Gentle rainfall? Merely a result of moisture descending from higher in the atmosphere when it became too dense to remain in the heavens. Dozens of other causes of weather events great and small flashed through his mind.

All of this was information that was new to TJ, but was easy enough to learn about before the Integration. Regardless, he made the conscious decision that he needed to understand each of these conditions and how to intensify and weaken each. After all, he’d decided to become the Storm serpent. If he was going to rule over storms, he needed to understand them, because as he understood them, he could better twist them to his will. In this moment of inspiration, he could see that understanding and wisdom grounded any individual’s strength, whether they were gods or otherwise. 

As an example to himself, he’d been able to ground out the electricity generated in the storm he’d just created, but that was a force of effort. As his mind continued to expand and extrapolate meanings of weather patterns, he realized how he could have better sapped the formation of energy in the storm. Better yet, he could have stopped any notable electricity from being generated in the first place instead of having to pull it out manually. His mind moved to the next task, flitting continuously. The next revelation was that, more than being able to create storms, as he ascended through mere Copper, he should be able to control them even if the surroundings wanted something else. More, he should be able to do that without expending millions of his resources to do so. He was intended to be able to. The idea of a magma storm occurring was interesting, but if he could only ever create one when somebody else was making a volcano erupt nearby, then he was far from the lord of that storm. Instead, he would merely toss around the magma that somebody else had created and controlled.

Even though the thoughts were disparate and unconnected, TJ could understand their connections, and he didn’t need to delve deeper into them right now. Instead, he threw his consciousness into consuming as much of this enlightenment as possible. An understanding of how to create a storm effectively was translated into how to push the storm into his body, and his subconscious understood the connection. Immediately, he understood that his Skill, Divine Manifestation, was only a weak approximation of what he could do as his Divine Authority expanded. Perhaps Divine Manifestation as he had it now was limited by the tier of the Skill, but a mere Copper skill would not allow his body to truly become storm, but he could do that, with a better understanding. 

While in his tribulation, TJ destroyed the Lightning Dogs by creating a facsimile of himself from the lightning in the storm overhead. He’d thought it was miraculous at the time. He’d brought the storm down to smite his enemies! Now, he could see that such a performance was weak. That it was limited. As he understood his Divine Authority and its potential better, he realized with it he could make it so that if those thunderbirds tried to strike him again, their claws would find only clouds while his fangs consumed their lightning. Under the influence of the enlightenment, TJ considered what he could see his Skill and Authority doing with greater understanding and focus.

There was a brief vision of himself still in his human form and silhouetted by constantly flashing lightning, surrounded by the coiled mass of clouds that represented what made the Storm Serpent flashed through his mind. He could do that, if he only understood what his Authority could do.

Was it a sublimation of Divine Transformation to be able to do that? He intrinsically understood that while some higher version of Divine Transformation would make his flesh immortal and incomprehensible to what he was now, this vision also had nothing to do with Divine Transformation. No, this version of himself was something entirely unrelated to Divine Transformation. Maybe an evolved version of the Skill? He pushed his attention away from. Instead, what he could see was a manifestation of the divine, something that only a god would be able to do reliably. So, instead, he focused himself entirely on what would be in his reach right now—understanding the storms to better control them. While still meditating, TJ sent a part of his consciousness into the storm overhead. How had he created it? How had he grounded the electricity? How have he made this into something that would suit him? How could he improve his approach to ensure he didn’t struggle next time like he had this time?

TJ‘s original connection to the sky was just through the limited Wind Manipulation that his Divine Transformation and Bloodline granted him. Now, only a couple months later, he felt that such a connection was weak and uninspiring. After all, he’d first used Wind Manipulation to pull something towards him from further away, more basic than anything. Then, when he’d actually chosen the Skill, he’d nearly lost his consciousness and his mind as the winds tried to speak with him. Now, he could stay in constant contact with the wind to hear about everything that was happening within hundreds of yards. 

With this opportunity, he would ensure that he was able to understand each of the weather patterns that could conceivably happen near him. And then everything else as well while he was at it. After all, if he had to fight against something like Acalan, he could do so with a storm. A dust storm would wash away much of the advantage that an Ahuizotl would have in the water. Now he was intelligent enough to not fight that monster in the water, and if one of an Ahuizotl decided to try to kill TJ, he wanted to be able to conjure a storm of sand that devoured moisture and stole from his enemies what they needed. His mind flashed through different ways he could fight against and defeat dozens of different types of monster and enemy.

After having indulged the frenetic jumping of his mind from topic to topic before, TJ finally forced himself to focus entirely on the mechanics of storms. Why the wind happened and when, what would cause stronger winds, how to ensure that the friction of the wet air on the dry air would or would not create electricity, and so many more things. His consciousness expanded through dozens of possibilities and ideas, though he forced each connection to remain within the “why” of weather and storms. Each thing he learned was something else that he forced himself to memorize to better strengthen himself and his people. Everyone of his devoted would gain an aspect of his own Divine Authority, and the better he understood his own aspects, the better he could bestow them on his loyal.

He couldn’t say how much time passed, but he felt his Skill-created snowstorm fade before his focus did. That meant it was at least several hours, but that didn’t matter. Each moment of enlightenment was something that strengthened his path towards the inevitable conclusion of divinity.

Winds.

Rains.

Snows.

Lightnings.

Hurricanes.

Tornadoes.

Microbursts.

Flurries.

Blizzards.

Thunderstorms.

Monsoons.

Sandstorms.

Haboobs. 

Each aspect of a storm in their individuality and then how they combined in nature and how he could combine it himself flashed through his mind, and before long, TJ felt the enlightenment push back from him. He tried to hold on for a couple moments, but as the feeling naturally slipped away from him, he relinquished his death grip and instead re-solidified his understanding of every aspect he’d learned so far. So many of his Skills would work together to ensure that he could have this experience again, and if he didn’t work to cement his learning, then when next he could lose himself in enlightenment he’d have to relearn all of the same things once more, cutting into his ability to grow further.

Once he was finally confident that he’d filed every bit of information that he’d gained away, TJ pulled himself out of Meditation and took in the world around him. Again, several System notifications flashed in his eyes, but he momentarily dismissed them as he looked up to the sky. The full moon glowed overhead, a beautiful gold that almost hurt his eyes after so long of being closed. The stars directly beside the moon in the night sky seemed to fade, but those further away shone just as brightly as ever, or even brighter than ever when compared to before the Integration. Clouds peppered the sky, remnants of the storm he created, but they were already fading, serving as obvious evidence that his storm had been forced, that he’d brought the moisture into the air of his own will, instead of allowing the sun and nature to do so.

TJ nodded his thanks up to the skies, knowing that, though there was nothing conscious up there, he’d made some measure of contact with the ineffable “presence” that existed and he’d have to gain the approval of to become a god with jurisdiction over the skies and storms. Reflecting on the tentative assent he’d gained from this presence, TJ remembered the demands of the lightning, of it requiring that he be struck again and again, and still not giving him anything. He respected the lightning more now, but that was not a respect born of fear as it previously demanded. Instead, this was a respect born of understanding, and of familiarity. Now, he would not be able to force his will on the lightning, but he’d be able to make the lightning do as he wished, because he understood what lightning wanted. With a small grin to himself, TJ opened his System notifications.

Skill: Wind Manipulation (Copper (I)) has been upgraded to Skill: Storm Manipulation (Copper (I)). 

Skills: Stormcaller (Copper (I)) and Storm Soul (Copper (I)) have merged and evolved into Skill: Storm Serpent (Copper (I)). 

Skill: Wind Scythe (Copper (I)) has evolved into Storm Scythe (Copper (I)). 

You have advanced two ranks in a Copper (I) tiered Divine Authority. Domain: Storms. Progress towards evolution to Silver (II) tier: 3/5.