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Once there were the Gods-from-Stone. When they were slain, so too was the Millions-Upon-Millions. But as long as there is life, the Cycle continues anew. The Millions-Upon-Millions feasted on itself, and gave birth to itself. Thus it escaped Nowhere, and found itself trapped in a prison.
===Appearance===
True to its name, the Millions-Upon-Millions manifests as an unending swarm of scavengers, blanketing the floor of the Wood. It might also appear as a great millipede, its legs beyond counting or reason. It has been depicted as a serpent devouring its own tail; as a dragon gnawing on the roots of the world; as one whose flesh and bones are that of the earth.
===Principles===
Grail, for blood and birth. Winter, for death and ultimate endings. Heart, so that the Cycle may never cease. The Many-Legged Worm stands alongside [[The Solemn|the Solemn]] and [[Abbess Sunset]] as an Hour associated with the Dead. The Millions-Upon-Millions takes the body, the Sun-Eyed Maiden the Soul, and at last the Gravedigger preserves the memories left behind.
Common rites include eating the dead, whether literally or symbolically; and self-cannibalism, also sometimes in symbol only.
===Mark===
# '''Temptation: XRenewal''': I have come to realise that death does not have to be an ending.# '''Dedication: XRenewal''': I have dedicated myself to the pursuit of new beginnings.# '''Ascension: XRenewal''': The Millions-Upon-Millions, who is the Cycle, has touched me. My vision has dimmed, and I know this to be the Third Mark.# '''Ascension: XRenewal''': Some days I am afflicted with exhaustion; others I hardly need to sleep. My hungers rise and fall like the sun. I know this to be the Fourth Mark.# '''Ascension: XRenewal''': I am sallow and pale now, and my breaths slow and shallow. When I sleep, I might be mistaken for a corpse. This is the Fifth Mark.# '''Ascension: XRenewal''':My heartbeats are sluggish. My blood runs thick, oozing out when I am cut. I feel as though I am on my deathbed. I pray that this is the Sixth Mark.# '''The Last Supper, The First Feast''': I live, I die, I live again! I have taken my final breaths, and at last my soul made its way to the Forest of Stones and to the Millions-upon-Millions. In its mercy I have been gifted a new body: my skin shall be as a beetle's carapace, my eyes multifaceted, my body flexible and my limbs segmented. I will die eventually. But my spirit will not forget who it was and I will once again be reborn. I shall never cease. I will walk the world in service to the Great Worm. Perhaps once day I will rebel. Perhaps I will rise even higher.
===Servants===
====Unas, the Gatekeeper====
==Relationships==
* [[The Piper]]: ""Will your stories ever end, oh friend of old?"
* [[The Firstborn]]: "Arrogant child. You must learn your place, or suffer."
* [[The Weft]]: "..."
* [[The Cantharide]]: "You idiot..."
* [[The Stillwater]]: "Sends a shiver down my spines."
* [[The Heart-Felt Fantasy]]:"A new beginning! A new spring!"
* [[The Gilded Insect]]: "Arsehole."
* [[The Mechanism]]: "What ''are'' you? You were never alive."
[[Category:Hours (Vol. III)]]
[[Category:Gods-From-Stone (Vol. III)]]
[[Category:Heart (Vol. III)]]
[[Category:Winter (Vol. III)]]
[[Category:Grail (Vol. III)]]
