IN THE BEGINNING
From the sea, Atlantis arose. Crafted by the gods themselves, it was a paradise for men. The sons of Cisharn, the eldest god, ruled over the island in their immortal wisdom. They were not satisfied, however, by the island that Cisharn and Sind, his brother, had created. Armies and fleets from Atlantis crossed the seas, and conquered the lands and created for themselves an empire that stretched across the seas. Egypt was the first to fall to the armies of Atlantis, and one of the Cisharni became the Pharaoh. Carthage fell next, then Greece, and then Rome fell. All the lands around the Mediterranean paid tribute to Atlantis. The island became a great city , and the seat of the empire. Ships and goods flowed into the city, and it became the greatest among men.
But Sind was not pleased with what he saw, the greed and the hubris. He argued with his brother that they should destroy the island with a great wave, or a volcano, or just sink it into the sea. Cisharn resisted, for he loved his sons and daughters, but soon he too grew sickened by his children’s excess. He gathered the eldest among them and warned them that unless they changed their ways, he and his brother would be forced to destroy them.
The Cisharni panicked. They had no desire to die, but would not willingly relinquish their power over the mortals. They went to the Tower and with their combined power, summoned Sind. There he was assailed with all of their might, and was rendered into pieces. His self shattered, his power scattered, Sind fled, a bare remnant of his self. Cisharn was devastated by his brother’s death, and withdrew from the world in grief.
Many years passed, and Sind gathered his strength. In a small temple in the sands of Egypt, he appeared, and made the first Sindari of his few followers that remained.
His power washed over them, transformed and renewed the,. For a year they underwent their first Rebirth, and when they emerged, they were no longer human. But this used up the last of Sind’s power, and he faded. But he left one last command in the Sindari’s minds. Destroy Atlantis.
What is this?Sindari: Immortals is a sandbox game where you play as an immortal demigod seeking to subvert and destroy a magical empire which is dominating the ancient world.
The biggest difference for this game is that turn take place over decades or centuries, and since you are immortal, you have the freedom to make plans that might take generations to fruition, subverting institutions and dynasties from within.
Or use your powers to kill everything in your way.
But you start off little stronger than a regular human other than your special abilities, but you gain attribute points as you age, and of course you can train far more than a limited mortal can. Within a century, there will be little a mortal can do to harm you. But they are not your main concern.
The Cisharni, your cousins, have similar abilities. Difference is that they have had many hundreds of years to mature and dominate the ancient world while you were yet unborn. But they are not expecting you, and have grown proud of their conquests. They won't throw their full might at you. Well, at least hopefully until it is too late for them.
A Sindari is what you will be playing as. You are human in appearance, can't die of disease or old age, and have special powers. You could compare yourself to one of Tolkien's elves, or maybe a world of darkness vampire without the blood sucking. But what you end of being is up to you.
General abilities that all Sindari have:
-The Life. Immortality, immune to the effects of disease and aging.
-The Heart. Strong recuperative abilities. While it doesn’t allow you to regrow limbs (at least not this ability), it allows you recover from minor injuries within minutes and injuries which would kill others within hours. Attacks that destroy the brain are usually fatal, however, so avoid headshots and decapitations.
-The Sight. You can see and recognize other Sindari and potential Sindari immediately. You can also see spells of both Sindari and Cisharni origin. To recognize a Cisharni you need to touch them, however.
-The Rebirth. Sindari can transform themselves in a process called The Rebirth that lasts a year. It allows them to recover from any injury or lost limb, and allows them to mold and shape their bodies in whatever fashion they please.
-The High Language: Sindari speak the High Language, and allows them to speak to and understand any mortal tongue.
-The Meld: The Sindari are bound on a higher plane, and can communicate mentally when they wish.
The first step is picking what
Caste or Archetype you want to be. Each class has a special ability, and 3 attributes that double the points you put into them. (i.e. you get one point at the start, if you put it into one of your X2 attributes you improve the attribute by 2.)
Warrior: Onderios.
The strongest and fastest of the Sindari, they excell in the midst of battle, and have a strong resistance to magic. They can wreak devastation, blinking from one opponent to the next, carving a path of bodies to their next target.
X2 bonus to points put into strength, agility, and willpower
Special ability: Blink, allows the Onderios to teleport almost instantly from one location to another up to 10 meters away.
The Priest: Mantari Leaders and guides for both Sindari and mortals, the Mantari posses an inspiring presence, and the power to speak to and shape the desires of one’s heart.
X2 bonus to points put into presence, willpower, and intelligence.
Bind the Will: Can seize the will of any mortal not already bound and press it into the Mantari’s service.
The Mage: Tempisti They channel the power that the gods themselves wield, the power that courses through the world. Who is to say that they control the power, or that the power controls them? Fire and lightning are common tools, but they also use more esoteric magics.
X2 bonus to points put into intelligence, willpower, and perception
Soul Cast: Can create soul gems from the souls of mortals and use them to power constructs and mighty spells.
The Hunter: Santoris The Santoris are the seekers, the searchers. They lurk in the shadows, and strike without warning. They also have the easiest time of finding Cisharni.
X2 bonus to points put into Agility, Intelligence, Perception
True hunters: Allows the Santoris to track a person and sense their location in their mind's eye. Makes them extremely good bounty hunters.
The Messenger: Mecuritia The Mecuritia spread far and wide over the world, delivering words of hope to some, and words of despair to others. Often can be seen in a city one day, and in another one half the world away the next.
X2 bonus to points put into agility, perception, and presence
Teleport: After an hour’s preparation, can teleport anywhere they, or a friendly Sindari, has gone.
The Smith: Bandorin The Bandorin can see the inner workings of the world, the interactions that drive everything forward on the smallest level. They can shape and mold to the highest degree, and become some of the greatest craftsmen the world has known.
X2 bonus to points put into willpower, strength, intelligence
Alchemy: Can transmute one material to another, such as dirt to gold.
After you pick your class, pick a general ability for yourself. Feel free to devise your own ability to fit in with the character you want, though I may edit it to fit in with the power level of the others. Here is a list of sample abilities, you can choose these if you so desire.
List of Abilities that anyone can have (Pick one):
Alchemical Secretions: You can produce a cocktail of chemicals out of the pores of your skin. Level of production depends on your power level.
Domain: Your very presence strains the world. Staying in an area for a length of time brings about effects on the world. The effects it brings is up to you. Examples could be storms, increased fertility, increased happiness, sadness, or anger. Severity increases based on your power level.
Warg: You can bond to any (real) animal, allowing you to see through its eyes and give it commands. Gives bonuses depending on the animals use.
Prodigy: You can pick a skill and raise that skill X2 faster (2 points for just using a skill, 4 points for training up to legendary, and 2 points for training past legendary).
Gene control: You can decide what percentage of your Sindari traits are passed down. Normally rolled to determine percentage.
1.No Sindari traits, completely human.
2.Mostly human. Lives longer than normal, slightly faster and stronger.
3.Roughly equal. Lives 50 to a 100 years longer, faster and stronger than normal.
4.More Sindari traits than human. Lives 100 to 200 years longer than average. Strong recuperative abilities. Very strong, fast, and intelligent.
5.Mostly Sindari. Lives 200-400 longer than average. Can be many times faster and stronger, along with more intelligence, than a average human.
6.Almost all Sindari. Known as Nu-Sindari, they are virtually immortal, though their regenerative powers are not as great. They can grow to rival the skills of a young true Sindari, and possess one power, inherited from their Sindari parent.
Mind Reader: With a bit of focus, you can easily read a mortal’s mind, giving you access to their outermost thought (i.e. what they are currently thinking) Gives X2 advantage when swaying groups of people, though if you use this on a non-man, it will instantly alert them to your presence.
Plant master: You can control plant life and growth, making plants grow faster and their shape of growth. As your power grows, the magnitude of the change you can effect grows as does the amount of foliage you can effect.
Gifted: Pick an attribute, and apply a 2X modifier to improving that attribute.
War Form: You can within minutes transform into an avatar of war, 2x to 3x the size of a regular human, and armored in scale plate. Only the strongest weapons are able to breach your skin. X2 in battle, but dampens your ability to reason.
Golems: You can summon or create a golem with the force of your will. Strong in combat and hard to kill. Will be able to summon more based on your power level.
Pocket Dimenson: Can create a small extra dimensonal pocket which the Sindari can enter. Requires a Key, an object that the Sindari enchants and forms the location of the portal. The room starts off 5X5X5m in size, though can grow larger the more powerful the Sindari grows.
Attributes:Your attributes start at the human average of 2, though you have one point to apply at the beginning (X2 bonus based on class does apply).
Strength: Higher the number the harder you punch.
Agility: Higher the number the faster you move.
Intelligence: Higher the number the smarter you are.
Willpower:Higher the number the more steadfast your resolve.
Perception: Higher the number the more you notice.
Presence:Higher the number the more people you sway.
And that is it for character creation, here is a sample character sheet you can copy and modify.
Name: (Optional) Can be something like morningstar, or can be something made up like Frios
Alias: (Optional)
Appearance: Changes from Rebirth to Rebirth
Class:
Abilities:
Attributes: Strength:2 Agility:2 Intelligence:2 Willpower:2 Perception: 2 Presence:2
Wealth/Assets: 0
Influence:0
Worshipers/Power:0
Family:0
Skills: none
Skills are your techniques, your knowledge that allows you to perform certain tasks well. Higher skills allow you to get higher outputs from actions. Actions that use skills allow you to advance them one point. If you specifically focus on training that skill, it advances it two points (i.e. if you get paid for doing it, or receive any other benefit, it is not considered training.)
Skill levels:
0. Novice.
1. Adequate
2. Competent
3. Skilled
4.Proficient
5.Adept
6.Expert
7.Professional
8.Accomplished
9.Great
10.Master
11.High Master
12. Grand Master
13+. Legendary
Example Skills:
Miner
Woodworker
Stoneworker
Ranger
Doctor
Farmer
Fishery
Armorsmith
Weaponsmith
Blacksmith
Jeweler
Crafting (specialty)
Engineering
Administration
Weapon skill
Fighting
Persuasion
Leadership
Trader
Performance
Scholarship
Magic:
Enchantment
Evocation
Conjuration
Blood
Influence: Influence is not a measure of your raw physical strength or deadliness in combat. It rather represents your sphere of influence, who listens to and obeys you, and who trembles when they hear your name. High influence allows you to call upon armies and legions, however it also makes you a target of assassins, both mortal and not. It can be very possible that your character may not be ready.
Influence is easier to gain in larger cities, and is almost impossible to gain while in solitude.
Worship/power: Being worshiped by mortals gives you more power. They place their hope, their belief, and soul into your service. .
1 follower: +1 attribute
10 followers: +2
100 followers: +3
1000 followers: +4
10,000 followers: +5
100,000 followers: +6
1,000,000 followers: +7
Magic: The ability to do magic is rare, requiring 3 intelligence to do the most basic of spells without aids. You can either learn spells from a teacher or a book, or create your own.
-Effects:
-Minor +1
-Small +2
-Standard +3
-Large +4
-Massive +5
-Scale:
-Single +1
-2-4 +2
-5-10 +3
-10-30 +4
-30-100 +5
-100-500 +6
-500- 1000: +7
-1000-10,000 +8
-Range:
-Touch/self +1
-5m +2
-25m +3
-100m +4
-250m +5
-1000m +6
You can compensate for insufficient intelligence through the use of soul gems to supplement your power. Many powerful spells will require a soul gem to draw enough magic without harming you.
So what are you supposed to do? -Good question! Your main goal is to take down the Atlantean Empire, and how you do that is up to you. At the start you are on stronger than a regular mortal, but you will grow stronger as the years pass and you train your skills. There are two clear avenues. One is that you lurk in the shadows and build up a power base, run cities, spread your family in positions of power, and weaken the Empire from the shadows. The other avenues is that you attack and harass them overtly, striking hard at their armies and fleets. Assassinating commanders and politicians can also possibly prove to be valid. However this will attract the attention of the Cisharni, and they will not be pleased by your existence.
Of course you can do any combination of the above, raising havoc and then disappearing when the heat gets high using your Rebirth ability.
No, wait I mean how do you actually play this thing?
Turns take place over a decade or a century, with each year having one “focus” or action.
So each turn a player can have 10 total actions during a decade turn, and 100 total actions during a century.
Action’s might not require a roll, and thus will have a determined effect. (Such as working a job or running a business). Rolls are required for random effects (children) and when actions are opposed and carries risk.
Determining the level of the action or focus you are taking is determined by either your level of skill, your influence, or wealth. Higher levels of any of the three allow you to pursue more lucrative focuses, such as running a market stall vs running a shipping company, or fighting as a soldier vs leading as a general.
-I will let you know how long in-game time the turn will take, usually either a decade or a century. This effects how many actions you can take in a turn.
-At the start of every turn, POST YOUR CHARACTER SHEET, just copy and paste it from your last update with your new changes.
-Include your actions. Include a sentence or two (Feel free to include more, especially for important actions and plans) describing each action ( or set of actions, if let's say you do multiple focus on the family actions, feel free to include one overarching description, including all the new family members names if you want.)
-After you post your actions, post a summary of the changes that you expect from your actions, such as total earned wealth, new skills, new family members, other important updates. Also, highlight actions that you need from me, such as wars and such.
-I know it seems like a lot, but each turn will take about a week (well, once 75% of the players have posted, there will be 24 hours until I will be free to post the turn) so you have a lot of time to write it up. Also, there will not a be a player limit, so the more you handle on your end, the less I have to do, so the turns will go (theoretically) faster
Make money: This is a wide ranging action, and one that will probably be used less and less as the game goes on as you set up other sources of income. But this is basicly you using a skill to directly make an income. The common unskilled laborer makes 1 silver coin a week. If you have a skill of 1 or zero, this is what you will be making. Your wage is based on your skill level, so if you have a skill of 5 (Adapt) in mining you will earn 5 silver coins a week, totaling up to 5 X 52 weeks=260 silver coins a year. Doing this also raises the skill used by 1 per year up to legendary level.
Train: Devote your time exclusively for training. This trains your skill of choice twice as fast, and is required to raise your skill past legendary.
Focus on the family: This is also a wide ranging action. The first time you use this action it will generally be to find a spouse. You can choose who you go after, weather a commoner or a high prince or princess, the higher you marry the more power you get (usually half the power of the person you are marrying), but beware the attention.
Times after that will generally be to make and raise children. You can decide the gender of your child, and usually I will roll for the level of inheritance the child will get from you, unless you have the gene master ability.
You don’t have to name your family, but it is encouraged. You are also responsible for keeping track of their ages in your character sheet (Ex. Maria, F, 25). Just add +10 years every turn. If you fail to do this (and I notice) you will receive a warning, and if it is not fixed they will die from disease or something. Mortals have a rising chance of death after age 50.
Travel: Take a year and travel to a place either with or without your family. Can travel all over the sea, or deeper into the continent. You have a year, you can travel either as short or as far as you want.
Rebirth: Take a year and renew your body, restore any lost limbs or other injuries, and possibly take on a new identity.
Run a business: This is one way of increasing your wealth and power. Requires an investment of at least 10 gold coins. (10 silver coins for 1 gold coin). For every 10 gold invested, gives a return of 1 gold every year. Every 10 gold also gives you 1 point of influence. You will need to describe what sort of business you are creating and keep track of the business and investment on your character sheet.
Gather a following: Gather a group of people in service to you. For general followers, you can recruit 10 X Influence level X Presence followers. For devoted followers, it is 10 X your Presence attribute. You can recruit up to adept (level 5) followers in a particular skill, but they count as 5 people towards your max recruitment a year. Devoted followers also count towards your worship score.
Lead an insurrection: Take any followers you have, and wage a destructive campaign of terror across the land. This requires rolls, based on your skills and those of your followers, to determine your level of success. You can do this to target something in particular, or just cause chaos across a region. This is a risky action, but can reward you with power.
Terrorize for power: This is you showing off your amazing abilities, and causing general mayhem. This increases your worship score, which grants you more attribute points the more people that worship you. It also increases your power score, and makes you a high value target for the authorities.
Lead an army: This action involves taking an army, either your own or as a general, and take and hold territory.
These are just some options, it is not a comprehensive list. It is intended to be some guidelines on how to craft your actions in the sandbox.
Name: Frios
Alias (changes with mortal form): Markus
Appearance: Young Roman man, handsome, dark hair.
Class: Warrior Onderios
Abilities: Blink, War Form
Attributes: S:4 A:4 I:2 W:2 Per:2 Pres:2
Wealth/Assets: 3 gold coins
Power/Influence: 5, well liked by fellow soldiers and officers
Worshipers: 0
Family: Wife Maria Age :38
Son Martin:Age 18 4/6S
Daughter Liva :Age 16 3/6S
Skills: Soldiery: 10
Leadership: 4
Frios is a member of the Roman Legion, serving as a centurion in the XIV.
6 Actions are spent focusing on being a centurion, 3 of which improving your leadership skill, 3 improving soldiering. Frios leads his century well in Gaul fighting many battles and campaigns against rebels with distinction. Earns 10 silver coins a week, for 10 years = 5000 silver, or 50 gold coins
2 Actions Focusing on the Family: Have two more children, 2 sons aged 6 and 2 by the end of the turn. Frios spends time with his family, having two more sons. His son Martin decides to follow in his father’s footsteps and becomes a soldier
2 Actions spent gathering Devoted followers from your legion: 10 X Presence of 2= 20 devoted followers. You start a small cult among the soldiers, venerating the warrior spirit with you as its embodiment.
Summary:
20 worshipers: +3 attribute points (Due to worship bonus)
+1 from time
S:6 A:4 I:2 W:4 Per:2 Pres:2
New skills: Soldiery 13
Leadership 7
Wealth 53 gold coins
2 new sons
Just to give an idea of how combat or opposition will work.
Combat:
Each side: roll 2 relevant skills, 1d6 for each skill point.
Add 5 points for each relevant attribute point.
Advantage/disadvantage: Roll twice, take highest/lowest.
Equipment difference: +10 (minor difference) to +30 ( major difference). Equipment can also have special abilities.
Health: Relevant attribute X10
Events:-Breaking up the standard turns will be Events. Events are more focused on the short term, like major battles, decisive moments, when your character is at risk. These are focused more on moment to moment action, and could take place over a few days.These will pop up throughout the week. You can volunteer for one, though sometimes it will be randomly chosen, with greater weight given to those who have more influence. Battles or fights against Cisharni will usually be Events.
Turn Updates will update the changing world around you. It won’t be focused on player actions, unless your actions affect the world stage, such as causing a major insurrection or fighting a major war.
IN CONCLUSION This means that the weight of your character’s story and development is on your shoulders, so feel free to have fun with it! Add details, describe the town or city you are settling in, the size of it. My job will be to keep the game on course, and the world ticking. This game is long scale, so feel free to make plans that might take decades or even centuries.
It's a bit messy, don't sweat the small stuff, be prepared to rebirth and maybe even die, and get ready to kick a lot of ass.
This topic is going to be for OOC, character sheets, planning, stuff that wouldn't really fit in with the ICC where we will be posting turns and events and that stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys do in the course of taking down Atlantis!
Link to IC thread
here.