*Note to self, insert kvetching later*
Do you even calculus bro?
Calculus is an elaborate lie made by a made alchemist/coin maker and perpetuated by Mathematicians so they can have all the
real math to themselves.
Well, I don't honestly know enough to specify some of these. Besides essence, what are some other viable power sources? Could calling portals use up the wizards lifeforce? Perhaps portals could be powered by sunlight? Blood? Precious Metals? Could portalwizards choose to sacrifice memories to make portals?
Anything you could think of. !SCIENCE! will have to be done to see what works best, of course, but non-direct sources of energy usually are cheaper and work better then direct essence spending. Just try whatever you think is cool.
Ease of access, making it harder to access would decrease essence cost right? So could do something like make the ease of access "only creatures specifically adapted by godly design, can use portal magic. Even if they can use other magic, if not specifically adapted, cannot use portal magic."? And then go "my ants are designed to be able to use portal magic". Could I be more restrictive and go "only the ants I specifically designed for it are able to use the portal magic, no one else can"? Or going in the other direction "even creatures not capable of using other magic can use portal magic. It is freely available to everyone"
First question: Kind of. Restricting it to "only people who worship me", for example, would cost more. "Only creatures specifically adapted to use it" would make it cheaper, but then you would have to pay essence for each race you want to use it (defeating the point). Ease of access simply refers to how easy it is for the average mortal to get to, how wide spread it can easily be. In the other direction, you could try, but it *might* not be a good idea to grant random deer, bears, and bees the ability to make portals and it will no doubt spread the energy very thin.
Strength of the magic. I don't really know what I should specify here. Stuff like "temporary portals can only be kept open by continuous effort, and not longer than a hour"? "Temporary Portals cannot have a radius larger than 500km"? "Permanent portals take longer to construct the larger they are, ranging from weeks to months to years to decades, with a max size of about 100km radius, but requiring several decades to construct"? "Constructed portals require rare reagents and materials to make"? "Summoning up or constructing portals uses up the lifeforce of the caster"?
Strength is more "What can be done with this magic by the average user?", and is generally much more abstract. The general effects will very from user to user in most magic systems unless specified otherwise. A novice will be able to do less then an experienced user who will be able to do less then the archangel specifically designed to use the magic who has trained for centuries.
Is "above ant intelligence" smart enough that I can get essence from them worshipping me? As long as I can get essence from them worshipping me that's sufficient intelligence for me. Also, would having them have ~century long lifespans effect that essence cost?
Yes, the worship is enough. No, it is generally assumed that Sapients live about a century unless stated otherwise.
$$$ANSWERS
Glowing asteroid belt: 3E~ (Creation, same bonuses as other planetary bodies)
FArgHalfnr's Spiral Sun: +0-5E from a normal sun (Creation, etc etc) (20-35E total)
EDIT3: Stirk, if I used power to rip holes in the fabric of space, would the holes themselves be permanent?
Didn't I answer it already? Oh. I thought I did. "Shrug".
What about soulless creatures, e.g. golems of some sort?
Looks like I missed that one too. Souless creatures are under the same rules as the ones you quoted, on a linear scale. They are essentially puppets unless there is reason for them to be otherwise, and cannot reproduce unless specifically designed in a way for them to make more of themselves.
$$$ANSWERS KEVAK+
Essence eating Gravity things: 7-8E (eating essence probably won't end up as you hope~)
+intolerance: Just not liking it or having minor physical reaction to it is free. Having worse reactions counts as a weakness, and would likely cost somewhat less. The ability is assumed to go away when they die.
Torus planet:20-30E, same as a normal habitable rocky planet, assuming it is relatively the size of Earth. +4-10 for every extra "earth" size. (Etc, etc bonuses)
Extending: I am assuming that the drawing isn't perfectly to scale. With semi-realistic planet to sun size, you could fit a hundred earth size rings around it without effecting too much.
Normal Sun (Like Earth's): As stated before, between 20-30E.
This laser but with more power - enough so that the laser is as big as this one relative to its size.
We should get this out of the way now, references are a horrible way to price check anything. I have not seen either of those movies.
So how would we actually go about creating the council? Do we just go "Let's make a council that's X powerful and works like Y!" and then we have the Ye Gods council? Does everyone need to agree? Does a majority? A mere plural amount of gods? A single god?
The gods that agree will form the council, unless otherwise stated. Trying to force the other Gods into it is possible, but a single God could form his own council that doesn't effect anything if he really wanted me to try my best to get him killed. Basically, you make rules that the members agree to via Celestial contract, then the council performs whatever purpose it can.
While it's a very interesting concept, I'm going to have to -1 for two reasons. The first is that it's needlessly complicated and my own personal preference lies with a normal solar system. The second is that while we won't have to make any new stars, we will have to spend Essence every time we want to extend the sun so we won't be saving any money there.
I think this is a good time to remind everyone of the typical size comparison between planets and stars:
Unless the planet is huge, or the sun is particularly small, there is plenty of room for plenty of planets if that is what everyone desires. With the spiral or otherwise. I mean, we have multiple (potentially) habitable planets in our own solar system, there is nothing preventing a dozen planets existing in the same one. Space is a big place.
NOTICE:This would be a good time to point out that I plan to relate the cost of planetary bodies to how many planets we start with. If we end up making one or two planets to start with, making a third will be an impressive feet with a suitable price tag. If everyone makes their own planet, then it will not be a major change in the game and will be comparatively cheap. This is one of the reasons current planetary bodies are tabled with "At Creation", as the price will change after "Creation" is over.