ProjectGorgon:Fenna/Statehelm

Fenna
Objectively beautiful
Region:	Statehelm
Town:	Statehelm
Location:	Central Fountain
Anatomy:	Human
Species:	Human
Beast Speak:	?
Speaks With:	?

"

I'm glad to see you at our little party! I hope you enjoy yourself.

— ProjectGorgon:Fenna

Fenna is an avatar of the goddess ProjectGorgon:Fenna.

Location

ProjectGorgon:Statehelm

Found just west of the central fountain in the city.

Favor

Small Talk ^[view/edit]

Fenna/Small talk

Favor Rewards

Fenna rewards her friends with ?

Quests

Fenna does not offer individuals with [Neutral] favor quests.

Events

Winter Celebration

[Friends] Favor -	?
[Like Family] Favor -	?

Conversations

"

Hello! I'm glad you showed up! I've noticed how much you appreciate poetry, and I wanted to say thanks for that.

Um... you're welcome! I do like a good poem.

I wanted to share my most recent work with you. It's not quite ready for the public, I think -- maybe you can give me some feedback about it later. No pressure, though.

It's about my personal experience with the god of death. So I'm a bit too close to the subject matter to read it objectively.

It's an honor. Thank you.

(Pop-up window displays ProjectGorgon:The Sun Sets on Sachetar).

— ProjectGorgon:Fenna

"

Oh, did you have time to read my poem? I wanted to ask for your feedback. I'm still making revisions!

I'm sorry. Could you remind me of the poem?

I haven't read it quite yet, but I will soon!

I've read it! Sure, I can give feedback. Did you have questions?

Oh, good! I know you're an expert poetry critic so let me ask you a few questions. Please, I implore you, be honest!

This is a little embarrassing, but I want to know if the meaning behind the first part is clear.

I mean the part where the god of death tried to kill me, but he soon realized I was connected to so many places of beauty in the world that I couldn't be casually torn apart like that. Not without ripping apart the world too! Did that meaning come through?

If it doesn't read intuitively, I'm not sure that's even a bad thing. It might be better as a visceral feeling than a coherent message. But I'm curious!

Yes, I understood the general premise.

Okay, next question. The place names. I'll admit that in my first draft I didn't reference Povus -- I was thinking of the ProjectGorgon:Averechi Mire. The Mire of Anxiety? But I know the Statehelm crowd wouldn't know much about that. And Povus is also a very nice swamp.

And very importantly, it has far fewer syllables in its name.

So I guess my question is: did referencing the local swamp feel like pandering? I feel like it did, but it fit so much better in the line! What's your opinion?

The reference to Povus did feel a little jarring.

The reference to Povus was fine. Don't overthink it.

The only problem is that there's no will-o-wisp spirits in Povus. Or hawks.

(Fenna smiles slyly).

I'm not sure about hawks, but as for will-o-wisps, you just haven't found the right spot!

But yeah, maybe it's confusing to reference that in the poem. Thanks for the feedback.

No problem.

Okay, last question. This one's a bit more fundamental to the poem: the perspective.

The poem starts right out with "I am a god," which really makes the poem about me specifically. Sometimes it's nice to express myself that way, to be seen! But I also really like to read poems that are more open-ended, poems that could be about the reader. I wonder if mortals feel the same way.

It would take some editing, but I could revise the poem so that it might be talking about a mortal. Would that make this particular poem better?

I think the poem would be less interesting without your unique perspective. Leave it.

Okay. That's all my questions! Thank you for helping me hone the poem. I really appriciate your honesty.

It'll take a lot more editing before I'm happy with this one. The ending is a bit banal. I'm still mulling the use of section breaks here. (Did you like the section breaks? Nevermind, it's a tiny detail and it doesn't matter). What I meant to ask was: please don't share this flawed draft too widely. Or I guess if you do, let them know that this is early in the process. Maybe it'd be good for people to know that even gods have to edit.

Well, I do, at least.

You're welcome. Goodbye for now.

I think making the poem more relatable would be a good thing overall. Try changing it.

Hmm, I didn't quite understand your intent.

— ProjectGorgon:Fenna

"

I'm glad to see you at our little party! I hope you enjoy yourself.

It's nice to meet a god! You're the god of Dusk, right?

Well, I'm mainly the god of Beauty. And Dusk. Also Poetry. And various other things on occasion.

I'm most comfortable at dusk but I like other times of the day too. Dawn is very pretty.

You're the god of Poetry? Because it's Beautiful, I guess?

Right. Well, I'm not automatically the god of all beautiful things. I'm the god of Poetry because ProjectGorgon:Irhetsu wanted me to take it from him. But I could only take it over because I think poetry is Beautiful.

I've always been a fan of reading poetry, but I'm still getting the hang of writing poetry myself. It feels oddly nice to be a novice at something. It's a bit humbling that there are better mortal poets than the God of Poetry, right? I guess it's also nice to feel humble sometimes.

And you said you're the god of "various other things?"

Ha, I was being self-deprecating. I used to be the god of Innocence but I think that part of my saga is coming to an end.

The rules of godhood are very unintuitive -- at least they are for me. I don't know what I can do until I try it. And that can really put me into a fit sometimes. For gods, action is intent, or maybe intent is action, I don't remember how ProjectGorgon:Irhetsu said it. But basically right now while I'm still finding myself, I have to be careful not to take on domains I don't actually want! Sometimes I get stuck being the god of something else for a little bit. But I'm getting the hang of it.

That's fascinating. What else have you been the god of?

(Fenna Sighs). Well, it started with my first avatar. I was so beautiful that I made mortals weep to see me! I was so vain back then. And I had to learn that some forms of beauty carry danger.

Pretty early on, a mortal grabbed me and... forced himself on me. I was so stunned that I just let it happen. But when it was done, I felt so disgusted. He was already ugly in my eyes, but I wanted to punish him by taking all the beauty from him forever. And when I thought that, he turned into a roach.

Which sent me into a spiral of fear and confusion, as you can imagine! Because am I the god of Roaches now? And I was so angry that I started hearing the cries of all beautiful people who are maimed. I decided that if men took beauty from this world, they would lose it too, and I started turning a lot of guys -- and a few women -- into roaches. And then I realized: shit, I'm becoming the god of Vengeance. I could tell I was changing. I was losing sight of Beauty.

That's when Irhetsu found me and helped me out. He brought me to the ProjectGorgon:Aktaari people. I even made a new aktaari avatar, and I lived among them for years until I understood insectoid beauty more deeply. At that point I stopped thinking of roaches as lacking all beauty. they're not exactly in my Top 100 Most Beautiful list, but I'm not repulsed by them anymore.

So you can't turn people into roaches anymore?

Oh, I still can. But if you look carefully at the roaches I make, you'll see they're especially hideous by roach mating standards. Which is just silly. It feels so petty, you know? But I can't help doing it. So I don't do roaches anymore.

Overall I've cut way back on avenging. People were taking advantage of my anger, using me like a weapon against their dumb mortal enemies, and I was just playing right along. And even when they were truly worthy of vengeance, I just wasn't ready -- I'm still not ready -- to endure exposure to all that loss every hour of every day. I've tried turning offenders into beautiful trees instead of roaches, but it still hurts me to do it. Anyway, I've gotten off track.

I'm still discovering new things I can do, even after so many decades of experimentation. Irhetsu loves it when I discover a new domain. He thinks its really funny. He reminds me there's a reason no other god has kept those domains: stuff like Vengeance is low-value because it's nasty and a lot of work. Innocence is a little more valuable, but I find it too limiting.

I also keep accidentally splintering my domains. For a while i was specifically the god of Forest Glades With Pretty Little Waterfalls, but I finally managed to encompass that one into the overall umbrella of Beauty. I can still summon a pretty little waterfall though. No water source needed, either. It's pretty fun.

I'm a work in progress. I may end up with a few more domains eventually, but I want to take it slow. Even taking on Poetry was a stretch. I only agreed because Irhetsu insisted! But I've grown more appreciative of it. Poetry is a truce source of creative beauty! So it makes sense for me to watch over and protect it.

That's really interesting. Thanks for sharing with me.

How did you become a god? Is there a process?

A process? Like are you asking if there are any job openings? I don't know!

I'm a Rebuke baby, technically. I was just born later than the others. I doubt there'll be more gods from the Rebuke, but who can say for sure, you know? There could be more little soul lakes hidden in the earth...

A "rebuke baby?"

You know, a side-effect of the ProjectGorgon:Rebuke? ... I see. Okay, here's the world's fastest explanation: there's this god ProjectGorgon:Ilth Hale who stole a lot of souls and used them to create a massive avatar a thousand feet tall, and then she stomped on the cities of humans and dwarves and made a big mess. Other gods had to intervene to save humanity. That whole situation is called Ilth Hale's Rebuke.

The Rebuke made a LOT of different messes. For one thing, she poked a hole in the ProjectGorgon:Soul Sea. Lots of souls escaped and became gods. Most of those godlings were killed by ProjectGorgon:Vol, but some survived: Randolph, Janice, ProjectGorgon:Remga, ProjectGorgon:Paullus, and ProjectGorgon:Zare.

So that's the backstory. Thousands of years later, I was a young dryad -- a tree spirit -- and my roots found an underground lake. I was hoping for water, but I found an ancient pool of soulstuff mixed with Ilth Hale's blood. I foolishly drank it all and became whatever this is.

The first thing I did was search for my mom. That's what I call Ilth. She was elated to meet me! She let me live in her realm for as long as I wanted. Hiding there kept me safe from Vol until I could stand on my own. She even let me redecorate parts of her realm of angst because I needed to be surrounded by beauty.

I'd heard Ilth Hale was an evil god...?

Mom isn't evil! She's just had really bad circumstances. She DOES want to end all human life. And dwarf life. Elves too. Pretty much all the mortal races. Plus a lot of the gods. So I'm not suggesting you should hang out with her or anything. But if you look past all that despair and rage, there's more to her!

Once upon a time she represented all the best qualities of humanity. Now she's just a fraction of what she was, and she's understandably pissed about it. But she still has all that humanity... just not toward humans.

And as she'll tell you herself: there's nothing more human than revenge on those who betrayed you! Which... I can't say if that's true. But it's a good slogan.

Anyway, I'm not here to defend her. I know she's killed a lot of mortals, and I'm NOT following in her footsteps. But I don't like hearing people speaking ill of her either. It's complicated.

I see.

— ProjectGorgon:Fenna