He y upon a see of white, cool sand beneath a red sky. The bck sun's shadelight blemished by the single tower of brutalistic metal dominating the ndscape. That was the first thing he saw when he woke, cold and weary.

  With that immediate image came three thoughts. Where was he now? Why was he cold? And most importantly, who built a giant fuck-off vilin tower here?

  Oh, and the fourth one. Who was that standing at the base of the tower?

  Temate was no stranger to weird dreams and mental imagery. Not that he ever remembered them but he'd always had a knack for visual imagination. It helped a lot with writing if he was honest.

  So here he was in a strange dream he certainly wouldn't remember. And nothing was happening.

  "Somethings supposed to happen in a dream right?" He muttered into the void.

  "Yes, but this isn't a dream." Said the void back.

  Wait a second. The void's voice shouldn't be a raspy, crumpling old paper sound.

  Temate tilted his head upward, grains of sand pleasantly rubbing along his scalp. There standing maybe 5 feet away was a man. His details were hard to make out, wrapped as he was in white silky robes. What Temate could make out was that he was incredibly tall, and wiry thin.

  As if the robes were wrapping around nothing but bone.

  "C-can I cut him?!" From behind the man another one stepped.

  "No, Saevus. I told you no harm shall come to the Source." The white robed man replied, a single hand shifting from behind his back to grab the shoulder of the other.

  Hunched and small, so very small, this man appeared almost malnourished. He wore naught but sandy colored rags torn by various sharp implements. Beneath the tears were several crimson, still seeping wounds. His face was covered with a grotesque mask of patchwork skins.

  Whether or not they were human skins was up for debate.

  "Awwwww, you're no fun! I never get to have any fun!" Saevus spoke with a whining, squeaky voice reminiscent of a caricatured mobster goon.

  "You have plenty of fun, now stop compining." The first man spoke with unconcealed exasperation.

  The white robed man stepped closer to Temate and leaned over him. One hand held Saevus away, which Temate was grateful for. Especially after the man conjured a cruel red bck bde of almost obsidian in his hand and brandished it towards Temate. The second hand the robed stranger held out in offering.

  Temate took the hand as he stood and was only mildly surprised to realize that it was, in fact, a skeletal hand. As he raise to his full height Temate looked the two figures up and down. The second surprise was that-

  "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name stranger I am Temate." Temate said shaking the strangers hands.

  "I am Osseous and as you heard this is Saevus." Osseous bowed slightly.

  -Osseous, that was his name, was almost as tall as Temate. In fact he was maybe only an inch shorter at full height. Saevus stood to the side brandishing the cruel bde at Temate, a good foot shorter. Temate concluded his examination with a nod towards the tower.

  "What's that?" He asked.

  "Uuugh, boring stuffy pce." Saevus groaned, prompting another rasping sigh from Osseous.

  "That-" Osseous pointed towards the tower. "-is where we are going. Now that you are here."

  With that said, Osseous began to walk.

  "Why were you waiting on me?" Temate asked quickly matching pace.

  "Well no decision can be reached without you, of course." Osseous replied.

  "Decision? About what?"

  "About what to do with all this!" Saevus gestured towards the sand at their feet.

  Temate stopped at that and took a closer look at it. It was brilliantly white, under a normal sun it might blind anyone trying to walk across it. Yet the bck sun here cast a strange shadelight upon this pce which seemed to prevent true reflection. It made everything appear washed out.

  "Sand?" Temate asked looking up and. "OH FUCK!" Falling ft on his ass.

  Standing bent at the waist looking right into his face was another masked figure. This one wore robes that seemed to swirl with every color, a brilliant contrast to the drained world around him. His mask had a single wide open eye with three long eyeshes drawn on it's top and a singur prism beneath.

  The man tipped his head ninety degree's to the side in a motion that Temate swore should have printed the words 'crack' into the air. It made Temate's neck hurt as he stood up, the new strangers face perfectly following his own up. Yet again Temate noticed that he stood eye to... eye with this stranger.

  Almost exactly.

  In fact this stranger was built in such a way that the two could be twins. Temate frowned but held out a hand towards the figure. The figure looked at his hand, then looked to the other two travelers and tilted his head.

  "Hello, sorry about that you startled me, I'm Temate and I- oh, where are you going?" Temate called out after the figure as it too began walking towards the far less distant tower.

  Disturbingly far less. They should not have made the distance they had. Temate noted that and his frown deepened. Then he jogged to catch back up.

  "Don't mind Oculus, he doesn't speak he's just kind of here." Osseous expined when Temate stepped back alongside him.

  "Oculus, Osseous, Saevus, all very strange names, where do they come from?" Temate asked.

  Osseous shrugged. "You tell me."

  Temate grunted and put a hand to his chin as he thought about that. He was pretty sure of what weird mindscape he was in. What he wasn't sure of was why this and not what happened st time? As he looked up to ask his next question Temate stopped.

  There, standing at the base of the tower they'd reached in absurdly record time, were two men. They stood amongst a few other structures, ramshackle or half built, but with great dignity and magnanimity. A presence of pure confident, unshakable faith in some unseen thing.

  The lesser of the two in stature was a dressed in the unique regalia of his homend. A bright golden yellow feather cloak with red embellishment extended down to his thick calves. A bright red orange sash wrapped around his waist and over one shoulder. A great club of bone adorned with hundreds of sharks teeth rested head first in the sand.

  The figure rested his hands on the handle of the club and spread his legs wide. His skin was a glimmering metallic gray which emphasized very curve of every muscle on his body. He was otherwise entirely naked, his cock covered by a single long rectangle of red-yellow feathers hanging from the center of his sash.

  Not that Temate needed to see it to know what it looked like, because this man's face also confirmed Temate's suspicion. It was his face, grinning broadly and confidently back at him. He let out a rumbling belly ugh as the group approached, reaching out to smack the other figure when they didn't join in immediately.

  The hit was ineffective, mostly because it was on the calf. Not due to a ck of trying, but just because this final figure was a colossus. Not a single other member of those gathered reached much more than his knee. He was covered head to toe in an amalgamate of iron and bone which replicated pte armor.

  "Welcome, welcome to our tower friends! Oh it is nice to see us all personified here!" The cloaked figure roared, and it was a roar. His voice seemed to make even the ground shake.

  "Yes. Welcome." The towering figure mumbled.

  "And you are?" Temate asked, looking the two figures up and down.

  "I am Dominari!" Dominary smacked one steel fist against his stomach setting the empty space ringing.

  "Turris." Turris spoke softly.

  "Right. So then tell me you lot, why have my Power's gone and manifested personalities in my dreams?" Temate asked pointedly as he crossed his arms.

  "I told you, this is not a dream." Osseous replied.

  "As for your other question-" Dominari began to ugh in response and then, with sudden acrity he was before Temate, club pressed to his chest. His face was no longer grinning, it was pointed and determined. "-Because you need to harden up."

  With a sickening crunch the club hit Temate's gut. He felt himself lifted from the ground and hurtled across the open space. Then he was standing there once more, Dominari's club pnted in his chest.

  "Put. The weapon. Down." Temate said, lifting his hands to deescate.

  "Not good enough. Make me!" Dominari snapped.

  An eruption of pain filled Temate's mind as the club crashed into his skull. He colpsed towards the sand seeing it as little grains of bone instead of rock. As he smmed into the world he found himself once more standing.

  "Stop that. We're all one person we don't have to fig-"

  A snap. More pain in his leg. The club crushing his knee. Standing again.

  "What are you doing to me, what does this accompli-"

  Crunch. Shoulder shattered. Toni dead.

  "Stop!" He snapped at that st image. His hand reached out and he grabbed the club from Dominari. "Let. Go."

  And he did.

  Temate took the club and hefted it to examine it's weight. It was honestly pretty close to the kanobo he'd made awhile back, good weight. He tested it.

  Right on Dominari's knee.

  The crunch shot out into the void, bouncing off the tower beside them. Yet Dominari did not scream in pain. He simply fell to his knee and smiled.

  "There we go. That's more like it." He said.

  "Yeah! Kill him! Break his fuckin skull!" Saevus practically svered over the sudden strike.

  "Rex Saevus, no one will be dying here." Osseous said, pcing one hand on Saevus' shoulder.

  "Awwwww..." Saevus slumped.

  Temate looked around at each of his weird, personified powers standing around him. Finally he nded on Dominari, on one knee and grinning with unchecked joy.

  "So what was your point." Temate snapped.

  "Stop pretending we aren't you." Dominari replied, his voice strangely quiet yet still rumbling. "Especially not me."

  "I use my [Authority] more than almost any-"

  "Not the [Power]." Dominari said, "The nature. You're their leader, yet everytime someone's not certain you do nothing."

  Dominari rose up to his feet, stumbling slightly on his wounded leg.

  "Leadership is unity. Cohesion. You are surrounded by those who want to be commanded and controlled. So stop trying so hard to not give them that out of a fear that you'll somehow break them."

  A hand pressed onto Temate's shoulder and he turned to see Osseous.

  "The dead obey mindlessly, the living do not. Trust that, and trust your desire for the best for them. Command." Osseous nodded and backed away.

  Temate stood there and looked around at the gathered [Power]s. Then he looked beyond to the simple structures erected around the tower here. Imagery.

  If he is the tower, then these structures are what others are trying to build around him. Never had he really let people in, for a number of reasons. Most often because they hated his ali'i, and tried so hard to get him to do the same. He never could. Sure, he'd had terrible things done to and by him for that man but...

  What his ali'i did he did for selfish reasons. What Temate wanted to do those same things for, was for others. But to do that he needed to be in charge. To hold authority. He didn't always have to command and order, sure. In fact there were many times when that wasn't he right move.

  But what about when it was? When someone needed that command to fall back on, or to push them forward. How often had he failed someone because he couldn't just give them the order they needed to hear?

  "Dominari." He said, turning to face the steel chested man. "I have always been afraid of becoming my a- my father. Of using people as tools for selfish reasons. So I have always shied away from you. I am sorry." With that he bowed.

  "I'm gd, just make sure you don't get too used to people doing what you say. God I hate yes men." Dominari bellowed in return.

  "Osseous." Temate turned again. "Death has always fascinated me, and what happens to the soul afterward. I owe you no apology as I have always unabashedly loved you. So thank you for supporting me."

  Osseous said nothing, simply bowing to match Temate's own bow.

  "Turris." Temate turned to the towering figure who held one hand up to stop him.

  "No. Need." Turris said.

  "No. There is. I am big, I am powerful, and I owe that to you... Or maybe that's what made you, but I have always tried to make myself small. To be quiet. Not to be scary." Temate grimaced at that.

  "What that did was also made me not a shelter in the way I could have been for others. I realize that now, and I'm sorry, but I also thank you for all you did for me even before now." Temate bowed, and Turris returned it.

  "You are. Welcome."

  "Saevus." Temate turned and looked right at two middle fingers. Then he ughed.

  "Yeah yeah, actually being violent and aggressive can be really valuable and cool and you're sorry you tried so hard to starve and bury me and bh bh bh I don't care about that sappy crap, just let me kill some shit okay!" Saevus said and then as Temate started to bow shouted again. "And stop bowing it's weird!"

  Temate turned finally to the st of the five. Oculus. He looked directly into Oculus' eye and opened his mouth to speak. But stopped.

  The eye began to glow, and Temate looked through it to see a glimmering, glowing egg pulsing with Power. He could feel it, no, him. Temate could feel the creature within stirring, a thread reaching out. Temate could also hear voices.

  Sioh. "No! You new, chief sleep not make you chief!"

  "But there are no other bigs, so since chief is sleeping a long sleep we must take charge and we say go!" He didn't recognize that voice.

  Nor did he recognize the other voices that argued with Sioh. It wasn't clear to Temate what was happening, but he felt Oculus within his mind. This is it, this is the solution. The egg.

  Chiel.

  The one goblin he named big. A problem he would have to rectify upon waking but for now, Sioh needed help. So Temate reached out and grabbed the thread. The white sandy ndscape vanished and Temate found himself floating in the dark. All around him bright lights burst into and out of existence.

  In the center of it all was a small cluster of stars which Temate felt to be Chiel at his core. Mostly the same as every other goblin, with a few twists here and there. Goblins adapted to their chiefs, and even now Temate could see the start of small [Power]s tied to his own.

  All around the core sparks flew, trying to ignite and connect. The different paths Chiel's evolution could take. Temate saw that, and reached out to the core, it needed to wake up and soon.

  As Temate reached out he saw light extending toward the cluster, only realizing too te what was really happening. The cluster felt his lights approach, Temate could practically feel the panic from Chiel's soul. He could also feel when Chiel's soul recognized Temate, and let him in.

  When Temate's [Power] tied to Chiel's. When all other options were discarded for the chance to be closer to someone Chiel trusted and respected. To be more like his chief.

  Small lights fractured off of Temate, scattering around Chiels core. Here and there the sparks of simirity ignited into fmes. Those fmes cast out to catch new sparks and ignite them. Within moments of Temate's interference Chiel's core began to settle, and then stopped.

  "Chief?" Chiels voice came quietly to Temate. It was a strange voice, different in some ways. Deeper, a littler more gravelly and animalistic. Yet it was still Chiel.

  "Chiel, my big." Temate replied.

  "You're here!? B-but how?!" Chiel asked a question that Temate didn't think he could answer.

  "I don't actually understand it myself Chiel but I need you to listen." Temate stopped the questions immediately feeling this was important.

  "Yes Chief!" Chiel replied. Temate could practically feel the air pressure changing from the sudden snap of Chiel's arm into a salute. Not that there was a physical body to see do that, but Temate knew that tone.

  "We had a fight, we've incorporated a new tribe, but I am asleep." Temate began expining, "It probably isn't a normal one... All things considered I've probably been unconscious for too long. The new bigs are getting antsy and trying to force their own authority on my tribe."

  "What do you want me to do Chief? I don't know how long it'll be until I'm done." Chiel replied with a growl.

  "Oh no, you are done Chiel, I saw your evolution complete just now. I granted your evolution to you. You are mine now Chiel. You understand?" Temate asked.

  "I always was Chief, you command it and I shall do it!" Chiel practically howled that statement to Temate.

  "Good. Then I want you to hear me and obey. Go put those bigs in their pce and keep the tribe still till I wake." Temate said, continuing before Chiel could voice the question that Temate could already feel coming. "Now Wake up Chiel and Obey." Temate barked the order and it felt different.

  It wasn't just some simple order, it was no [Authority] it was... More.

  It felt right.

  And Chiel woke up.

  Character Update for Temate!

  Temate Temaku | Power Level 3Tier 1 Powers: Towering Presence, Magic Eye, Vicious StrikeTier 2 Powers: Bone Order, Attack Order, Ossification (Bone Salt), Jagged Bone, March, Spiral of Bone, Evil Eye, Oversight, Vital SeverTier 3 Powers: Dominion (Authority, Iron Order)