🍁Nine Ancient Obelisks

—Only if I don't run into bandits on the way! —he draws the edge of his palm across his throat. —Tch, you're not supposed to gesture that on yourself. See you then!
To tell the truth, he felt genuinely sorry for the grandfather, who was left completely without family, and not just for him. Some in Onkaikh eased their loneliness with a pet, some with romance novels, some with memories of the past; not everyone is naturally comfortable in their own company.
Having exhausted his social quota for the day, the guy decides to take a walk to the observatory — out of curiosity.

Alas, the house of telescopes and other specialized equipment for observing space did not become a place of respite from social interaction for the tourist. Located at the highest point of this mountainous region, the establishment greeted him with a new acquaintance.

- O-oh! Are my eyes deceiving me, or do we truly have a visitor? - The girl standing near the entrance to the observatory tore herself away from idling and hurried over to the guy. - Hello! Welcome to the Onkaikh Observatory! My name is Aya, I am the director's student! Here we study space, other worlds, and celestials. - Without waiting for a response, the young scientist grabbed the guest's hand and led him along. - Few people know, but all of this can be seen, studied, and understood simply by observing the sky! - Taking advantage of the fortunate turn of events, she filled a clean mug with freshly brewed tea and placed it into Asmidul's free hand. - Many think that celestials came to us only through sorcerous teleportation and similar methods of travel, but that is actually only a small part of the alien and otherworldly guests! Five thousand three hundred twenty-seven years ago, when the first celestial invasion occurred on Anuzish, they came to us from the sky! Or, to be precise, from space, crossing vast distances from other arms of our galaxy. Alas, that is no longer possible now - according to our observations, due to the actions of the last empress of Velfern a quarter of a century ago, any cosmic objects that enter Anuzish's sphere of influence are immediately dematerialized! Well! I suppose that corresponds to Anuzish's main element — emptiness. Even though we live as if nothing is wrong, for the rest of the universe we are akin to a black hole, one that is best not approached! - As the girl recounted this fascinating information, her eyes burned with inspiration. - Of course, it's a bit sad that we will never again meet inhabitants of other worlds, but there is a silver lining to this state of affairs. For example, life forms on many planets were destroyed in collisions with other cosmic objects, but we are no longer threatened by that... Hm? Are you asking how light reaches our planet? - Aya thought up the question herself, deciding that this was what was on the listener's mind. - That's a very good question, but alas — science has no answer for it yet! Perhaps it has something to do with Aconia being the goddess of light? Who knows, maybe the orange ball we see in the sky is not the sun at all, but Aconia herself? There's food for thought there. But for now, let me tell you about the celestials and otherworldly deities.

	Arteria Once — the chief deity of the world known to us as Visteria. Unlike Anuzish, Arteria was not originally the embodiment of the planet itself and instead attained her divine status in the course of a fierce struggle with the other gods of Visteria. In that era, mortals lived in independent city-states, each with its own patron associated with some attribute. Well, for example, just as we have Sylphida, Moen, Terron, and Rufus — the embodiments of air, water, earth, and fire — for the Visterian gods, these were even more diverse in nature and, besides natural phenomena themselves, could also pertain to character traits, emotions, crafts, and many other things. Accordingly, the culture of the inhabitants of a given city-state largely depended on what aspect their patron was a god of — those who worshipped the god of smithing could be expected to be highly skilled in that craft, and from those living under the god of war, war was what one would expect. Arteria, also known to the inhabitants of Visteria as the goddess of the sun-colored sea, was the goddess of love — not only romantic love, but any kind. This made Arteria a just, gentle, kind, and caring ruler, which in turn contributed to her attractiveness in the eyes of the inhabitants of other city-states. In the end, it was she who united the world in which she was born, but this did not save her from destruction several thousand years later. Cosmology Quest: find the heart of Arteria on Anuzish and found an order in her honor, having no fewer than five like-minded individuals. Reward: unique abilities.		Sophia An aristocrat from one of the countries of Visteria, who first managed to become queen of her country, and then a celestial, which she achieved by murdering the goddess of her own world — Arteria. This incident marked the beginning of Visteria's destruction, but for Sophia, no longer burdened by the limitations of a mortal body and the boundaries of only a single planet, this no longer meant anything. If the stories of refugees from Visteria who witnessed Sophia's lifetime are to be believed, she set out on this path driven by a mad love for her one and only beloved. It is believed that she is the patroness of couples in love. Cosmology Quest: complete the labyrinth of fate. Reward: the character is not generated randomly, but by the player themselves.
	Rinze A mortal who managed to become the goddess of her own world, now known as Reim. Being the daughter of the emperor of an influential country, Rinze was not a powerful warrior, a brilliant military strategist, or a mighty enchantress — she achieved her status through all-encompassing charisma, an unyielding will, and absolute certainty in the uniqueness of her destiny. Rinze is the patroness of the beautiful and wages a holy war against everything ugly. Cosmology Quest: raise beauty to 7 and learn some cultural skill. Reward: immunity to mind-affecting effects, the ability to receive one item from each shop for free.		Risha A nomadic goddess, traveling across the universe and interfering in the natural course of things on every planet where the heel of her boot lands. It was Risha who brought magic and intelligent beings other than humans to Anuzish — the pointy-eared lunarites, skrymes, and various monsters. Cosmology Quest: unlock a talent for magic and do not join any guild. Reward: the player can create three unique spells for their character (must be approved by the GM).
	Miss Cosmos One of the Saints of antiquity, who defended Anuzish from celestials and at the same time was a patroness of aliens — before the isolation of the world from the rest of the universe, she gave inhabitants of other worlds a chance to live a second life on Anuzish. Cosmology Quest: explore "The Storm". Reward: the player can create three unique abilities for their character (must be approved by the GM).		Gnosis A celestial who is, in essence, the embodiment of the activities and ideals of the guild of erudition! Like the members of this organization, she is engaged in collecting and analyzing various information, only she does it on a universal scale! Cosmology Quest: explore three dungeons. Reward: the player can invent a unique item (must be approved by the GM).
	Teuta The cosmopirate Teuta, like Risha, leads a nomadic existence, but unlike her, she does not interfere in the natural order of worlds but simply plunders them, draining a wide variety of resources from them. Cosmology Quest: rob 10 characters. Reward: +2500 rem.

- And that's that! I hope you find this information interesting!
Asmidul loses 2 hours of time.

Cosmology — a conviction; one character can complete only one of its quests.