For numberless aeons I have slumbered in my bed of rock and fire.
Now comes Man, and he is restless and disruptive. Like the ant, he scurries atop the surface above my dwelling place, moving and reshaping sacred rock many times his own size.
I care little for this Man. I would destroy him as I have destroyed others, as an unconscious reflex, but I suspect that he is [tasty]<tasty|.
It is possible that Man could come to serve me, but for that he must remain undestroyed. Humbled, but undestroyed.
=><=
[[DEMONSTRATE STRENGTH|Title]]
(click: ?tasty)[(append: ?tasty)[– his bones sing a sweet flavour that reaches me through the vibrations in the stone. While I have no use for feeding as do the foul sacks on the earth, the act gives me great pleasure] ]The universe trembles at my might. My mountain, so long dormant, awakes with a fury to embrace the lands with death. Forests and plains are engulfed, and life cries out in agony.
Man is cowed by my demonstration of strength, and comes to understand that he is not the king of all he surveys, as he had thought in his great and ignorant hubris.
(set: $offering to 0) Enlightenment crashes down upon Man. A pit is dug over my head, and his city is build around it. Man names me Ia, and he is reverent. Upon the nightfall of every New Moon, Man satiates my hunger with [??????]<offering|.
(click-replace: ?offering)[(display: "Offering Array Logic")]
(live:2s)[(if: $offering > 1)[ <center>[[RECEIVE SACRIFICE|Sacrifice]]</center> (stop:) ]]{(if: (history:)'s last is "Eruption")[(display: "Init Hungers")]
}(display: $hungers's last)
(display: $state of $manstates)
**I desire (print: $hungers.join(", ")).**
<center>[[OBSERVE MAN|Special]]</center>
(if: $state is 4)[<center>[[DISPLAY WRATH|Wrath]]</center>
<center>[[SLEEP|Sleep Ending]]</center>]
(else:)[<center>[DESIRE BLOOD]<blood|</center>
<center>[DESIRE CROPS]<crops|</center>
<center>[DESIRE GOLD]<gold|</center>
<center>[DESIRE LEARNING]<learning|</center>]{
(click: ?blood)[(set: $hungers to it + (a: "blood"))
(display: "Desire Logic")]
(click: ?crops)[(set: $hungers to it + (a: "crops"))
(display: "Desire Logic")]
(click: ?gold)[(set: $hungers to it + (a: "gold"))
(display: "Desire Logic")]
(click: ?learning)[(set: $hungers to it + (a: "learning"))
(display: "Desire Logic")]
(click: ?special)[(goto: ($hungers's last) of $specials)]
}The volcano erupts.
(live: 3s)[<center><h1>I HUNGER</h1></center>]
==>
(live: 4s)[a game by David Yates]
(live: 6s)[(goto: "Eruption")]Man provides a worthy feast. The strongest and healthiest virgin in the city is cast down into the pit to be devoured whole. I am pleased by this blood rite, and my mountain does not stir for another full cycle of the moon.(if: length of $hungers < 2)[
Man occasionally grows complacent in his observance of the ritual. After only a few hundred cycles, his reverence becomes insincere, and there is rumbling among the learned that the virgin sacrifice should be stopped. The educated peoples speak out against the destruction of the young and innocent, but in all their eloquence and careful thought they forget the consequences if this destruction is stopped. Man is foolish, and his opinion is swayed, until a ceremony is stopped just on the brink of my feeding. The peoples rejoice and the spared virgin cries tears of joy.
But then the mountain rumbles, and Man's city is destroyed and his children cast into lake of fire. Thus is his faith restored, again and again! Man is so forgetful a creature.]Man delivers upon his obligation with a bountiful harvest. The most tender and succulent of his crops are poured down to my chamber and I feast upon them heartily. I keep my mountain silent, honouring our covenant. There is great rejoicing among the people.(if: length of $hungers < 2)[
In time Man becomes weary of protecting his city in this manner. In the blink of an eye, the sacrifices around which he based the life of his city are diminished in importance, and become grudging obligations. There is restlessness among the people, and the high born covet my portion. They make impassioned pleas to Man's lowest, and say that I have robbed them who are starving of their nourishment. I see through their lies and into their gluttonous hearts.
The high born are eventually successful, and upon the day of my sacrifice they celebrate their victory with a feast. And when this happens, I unleash hellfire upon them, and all the noblity of Man are charred and ravaged by *my* bountiful fire harvest.
Man learns his lesson, and his rituals become respectable once more. But I know that in time he shall again forget: this is the eternal cycle.]The toil of Man's efforts at extracting and purifying the rare elements in the earth are succulent delights, enjoyed every new moon. I can taste the sweat on Man's brow, and the sorrow in his heart at the destruction of what to his small mind is such labour!(if: length of $hungers < 2)[
Man's greed waxes and wanes as the moon does, and barely slower. As he mines more gold, he wants for more gold, and when he cannot extract more from the earth, he looks to that which is mine with a covetous eye. He devises clever plans, and covers worthless rocks with yellow markings. And then there come times of great arrogance in which he attempts to skimp on his offerings, thinking that I will be fooled by his tricks.
And so there come also times of great devastation, when I pour the fires of my mountain down on his head. With this, Man remembers his place, and he remembers mine. When the temple is rebuilt, the yellow marking is rightfully omitted.
But he will grow slowly back to his old greed. Man's defect is his inability to remember.]Man learns many things about the world and about himself, and he sends me this enrichment upon every new moon. His work is inscribed on stone, on tree bark and in alloys and plastics of his design. My eternal mind delights at his progress, as an animal mother watching its child.(if: length of $hungers < 2)[
But with knowledge comes that old devil hubris, and Man ponders at his need for me, and for the sacrifices. Though knowledge cannot be lost or destroyed through these means, there are disagreements, and arguments, and those who say that the most ornate tablets, the most lucid representations, and the most concise and complete digests should not be wasted in the fire. These arguers are few at first, but they grow with time. Before long, Man misses an appointed sacrifice.
As with the mother of the animal, I must discipline my child. I rain fire upon the city, and destroy all of that precious knowledge they sort to hoard and keep for themselves. I burn off Man's leg, and I burn out one of his eyes.
But Man hobbles back, and he rebuilds. He has a renewed understanding of my power and terror, and from this strong foundation, he again builds up his knowledge. I feast again, but know that the cycle shall reoccur.]{
(set: $hungers to (a: ))
(set: $hungers to (a: $offering of (a: "blood", "crops", "gold", "learning")))
(set: $state to 1)
(set: $change to 1)
(set: $manstates to (a: "Reverent", "Pious", "Skeptical", "Unbelieving"))
(set: $cycle to 1)
}At present, Man is full of the knowledge of my power. His sacrifices are ceremonial and ever more extravagant. |name>[My name] is spoken only with reverence. Man has appointed priests among his number to divine my wishes by heeding the mountain's rumblings. Through this, I shall feed my hungers.{
(click-replace: ?name)["Ia – God of the Mountain"]}At present, Man attends to his duties. His sacrifices are well-observed and well-attended. |name>[My name] is spoken with great respect. Man's priests study the rumblings of my mountain to know my wishes.{
(click-replace: ?name)["The Mountain God"]}At present, Man grudgingly attends to his duties. His sacrifices are acceptable and regular. |name>[My name] is spoken with some doubt, and there are seeds of dissent among the populace. There are fewer priests than before to listen to my mountain, but those that do still discover my wishes. I hunger.{
(click-replace: ?name)["Ia"]}Man has forgotten his duties this cycle. The appointed time has passed, and I have not yet received my desires. |name>[My name] is derided among the people. Few priests of my order remain to uncover my desires, and Man believes himself safe from the mountain's fury.{
(click-replace: ?name)["The goddamn mountain"]}{
(set: $offerings to (a: "a virgin sacrifice", "the best portion of his crop", "gold ingots", "the product of his learnings" ))
(set: $offering to (it % 4)+1)
(print: $offering of $offerings)
(click: ?offering)[(replace: ?offering)[(display: "Offering Array Logic")]]
}Man has created a great empire, and this city is its capital. His armies roam the world, triumphing over all else(if: $state < 3)[, and all for my glory]. His armies and his civilian peoples are fed by the vast farm complexes developed for my appeasement. Every building in this capital city is plated with gold, and the many feasts and festivals are lavish and opulent.
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>(set: $ending to "Forgotten Ending")Man has forgotten his God below, and so I forget Man. I return once more to my slumber, to await the coming of the next creatures. Perhaps nature shall improve upon her formula in Man's successor, and create one not so susceptible to forgetfulness.
<center>[[THE END]]</center>{
(if: (count: $hungers, "learning") > 4)[(display: "Learning Ending")]
(elseif: (count: $hungers, "blood") > 4)[(display: "Blood Ending")]
(elseif: (count: $hungers, "crops") > 4)[(display: "Crops Ending")]
(elseif: (count: $hungers, "gold") > 4)[(display: "Gold Ending")]
(elseif: $cycles > 15)[(display: "Extinction Ending")]
(else:)[(display: "Reset")]
}You got the $ending!
(live: 2s)[Made over a weekend for Ludum Dare 33: You are the Monster. Created using <a href="http://twinery.org">Twine 2 (Harlowe story format)</a>. All text written by <a href="https://davidyat.es">David Yates</a>. Feedback very welcome. (stop:)]
(live: 4s)[Have you tried:
* Desiring the same thing over and over?
* Desiring a rich variety of things?
* Not desiring at least one thing?
(stop:)]
(live: 6s)[[[Start again?|Start]] (stop:)]
{(if: "blood" is in $hungers and "gold" is in $hungers and "crops" is $hungers's last)[
(display: "bgc")
](elseif: "blood" is in $hungers and "gold" is in $hungers and "learning" is $hungers's last)[
(display: "bgl")
](elseif: "gold" is in $hungers and "learning" is in $hungers and "crops" is $hungers's last)[
(display: "glc")
](elseif: "blood" is in $hungers and "learning" is in $hungers and "crops" is $hungers's last)[
(display: "blc")
](elseif: "blood" is in $hungers and "crops" is $hungers's last)[
(display: "bc")
](elseif: "blood" is in $hungers and "gold" is $hungers's last)[
(display: "bg")
](elseif: "blood" is in $hungers and "learning" is $hungers's last)[
(display: "bl")
](elseif: "crops" is in $hungers and "gold" is $hungers's last)[
(display: "cg")
](elseif: "crops" is in $hungers and "learning" is $hungers's last)[
(display: "cl")
](elseif: "gold" is in $hungers and "learning" is $hungers's last)[
(display: "gl")
](elseif: "blood" is $hungers's last)[
(display: "b")
](elseif: "crops" is $hungers's last)[
(display: "c")
](elseif: "gold" is $hungers's last)[
(display: "g")
](elseif: "learning" is $hunger's last)[
(display: "l")
]}(set: $ending to "Genocide Ending")As I gather up the energies necessary for eruption, I notice a quietude on the surface above. Man is silent, and I realise that he has been silent for a long time. His city lies empty, and I know the cause.
I have drank deeply from the well, and it is exhausted. Man has sacrifices his young and his strong to my hunger, and his old and feeble have died out. There is nothing left.
<center>[[THE END]]</center>(set: $ending to "Famine Ending")The volcano erupts, and death falls upon the lands. But there is little screaming, and less repentence. The farmlands that my fires engulf are already gray and empty of life, and the husk of a city is home only to an emaciated Man, tortured and glad to see death.
Man shall bring me no more sacrifices, as Man is no longer.
<center>[[THE END]]</center>(set: $ending to "Depletion Ending")Man repents loudly as my cleansing fire comes upon him, and swiftly his greed is forgotten.
But once he has rebuilt his dwellings and returned to his mines, he finds that no more gold lies here for him to unearth. His memory of the volcano's killing streams is still fresh, and he fears me. With no gold to sacrifice, he can only flee my domain.
Man's city is deserted. Slowly it returns to the earth.
<center>[[THE END]]</center>(set: $ending to "Godslayer Ending")I feel Man scurrying around the summit of my mountain. His presence there is strong, and this gives me pause. In the past, only the bravest and most foolhardy have ventured to the mouth of the sleeping giant that is my mountain.
The rumbling of my eruption begins, strengthened by my anger at the arrogance of Man for surmounting my volcano. Now Man sees his foolishness and rushes away from where he should not be.
(live: 4s)[But wait. He has left something behind. It is small, but I feel an energy from it that does not fit its size.]
(live: 6s)[The thing explodes.]
(live: 8s)[<center>[[THE END]]</center>]Man heads out into the world with his armies to conquer other tribes and cities, and he brings the strongest and best of them as prisoners back to his own lands. He does this so that he might not have to sacrifice his own to me. I do not begrudge him: what do I care for the caste of the delicious meal I am given!(if: $state > 2)[ As long as the sacrifices continue, I am well pleased.]
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>With great effort, Man extracts sustenance from the ground. He tills the earth and plants his crops(if: $state < 3)[, so that I may be satisfied with him]. He watches them as the summer months pass by, and reaps a harvest in the spring. He stores the crops for winter(if: $state < 3)[, and tightens his belt so that I may be kept peaceful](else:)[, and I detect a diminishing during these months, even while he eats as heartily].
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>Man toils in the mines all day and all night(if: $state < 3)[ to bring me the gold I crave]. He apportions it(if: $state < 3)[ to me, and then] to his statues, and then to his dwelling places, and then to bartering with foreign peoples.
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>Man studies all things and notes them down carefully. His alchemists search for ways to transmute all things to gold,(if: $state < 3)[ his priests continue their studies of my desires] and his medicine men strike down ailments of the flesh.
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>This city is a place of plenty. Man has harnessed the powers of the world to his advantage, using the very wind and light to serve his purposes. He is well-fed, and every building is ornately and lavishly decorated. Man wants for nothing(if: $state < 3)[ and he is well aware that all this results from my favour](else:)[ and grows restless with the one thing he cannot control].
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>Man has created an empire of technological splendour, and this shines in the world as a beacon of his mastery over it. All because of his obedience to me. His armies roam the world, crushing any resistance with superior firepower. Every building in this capital city is plated with gold, the people have purchased extended lifetimes and physical enhancements, and the many feasts and festivals are lavish and opulent.
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>I am fed a balanced diet of meat and vegetables, as Man's health priests might say. Man too grows fat on the product of the land and the tribute from his many conquests beyond the horizon.
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>Man dedicates much of his time and resources to mines below his own lands, but this can never be enough to satisify his need for riches. He sends raiding armies across the world to take the riches of other peoples and bring it back to the city, that he might (if: $state < 3)[provide an adequate sacrifice](else:)[further gild his domain].
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>Man wages wars across the lands, and devises new and more effective ways of winning these wars. In my consumption of his knowledge, I see that he is researching weapons capable of leaving this city as the only city. Should he accomplish this(if: $state < 3)[, it shall please me greatly](elseif: $state is 3)[ I hope he shall not give me cause to destroy this one as well](else:)[ I shall finish the job].
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>Man wants for little. He is fat with good and plentiful food and possesses all that riches can purchase. His very clothes are woven from golden thread(if: $state < 3)[, and he daily erects new statues in my honour].
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>Man discovers ever more effective and more efficient ways of growing food(if: $state < 3)[ for my pleasure]. He is condensing his sprawling farms into mere fields, which through his knowledge produce many times their area in produce.
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>Man mines deeper and longer, and for his efforts he is richly rewarded with gold. He sifts through the dirt he mines up more carefully, and for this he grows richer still(if: $state < 3)[ and I with him].
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>Man has learnt much and continues to discover. His lower classes are well fed and provided for, but in return are subject to many experiments on their persons, mutating them and costing many their lives. There are whispers of the pleasures of eating the flesh of men. I well understand the curiosity.
<center>[[CEASE OBSERVING|Sacrifice]]</center>(set: $change to (it*(-1))+1)
(if: $change is 1)[(set: $state to it + 1)]
(goto: "Sacrifice")(set: $ending to "Extinction Ending")I feel a great shaking all over the earth. A great invader from the empty spaces has impacted the earth, and I can feel the surface dwellers dying from the poisonous gases it emits. Man, for all his adaptiveness and spirit, cannot escape this, and shall not rebuild after it is over.
(if: $hungers's last is "blood")[Man cannot fight this plague. He has been fierce and ruthless towards his enemies, but all of his swords and guns and bombs(if: $hungers contains "learning")[ and deadly engineered diseases] will not defeat the very air. People of the city swarm outside their houses, waving their fists at the sky, even as their life ebbs.](elseif: $hungers's last is "gold")[Man sits and counts his money. The gas shall not cease to slowly erode his life, not for the entire measure of what he has brought out of the ground(if: $hungers contains "crops")[, nor for that which he has grown atop it].]
(elseif: $hungers's last is "crops")[The gases creep into Man's food, and as he eats he merely hastens his death.(if: $hungers contains "learning")[ There is know method he knows of purification.]](elseif: $hungers's last is "learning")[Man creates masks and airtight sealed homes. He sprays the air with agents to counteract the deadly gases(if: $hungers contains $crops)[ and razes his impure crops]. But the march of death continues for his race unabated.]
Man is extinct. I rest now, and I await the next tiny king of the surface.
<center>[[THE END]]</center>(set: $state to 1)(set: $change to 1)(set: $h to last of $hungers)(set: $hungers to (a: $h))(set: $cycle to it+1)The universe once more trembles at my great and terrible might. My mountain awakes with my rage and pours forth rivers of destruction. Man's (if: $hungers's last is "blood")[gladiatorial battles](elseif: $hungers's last is "gold")[stock markets](if: $hungers's last is "crops")[harvest festivals](if: $hungers's last is "blood")[scientific conferences] are interrupted by the anger of (click-prepend: "Ia, God of the Mountain, Destroyer of Cities, ")[the god] they had forgotten.
Man cries out to me for forgiveness, but I do not relent or show mercy. My course of destruction runs over all of his works, and the smoke blots out the sun.
In time, a weakend and greatly humbled Man rebuilds. He starts with my pit, and the temple around it. I demand a sacrifice of (print: last of $hungers).
(display: "Sacrifice")