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[chubby2man]

Balancing Acts: Nature

The primal force of the world, it draws power from all living things. It is instinct, the desire to live and the urge to explore. It is evolution and creation, a circle of life and death, slowly increasing in bounty over scales undetectable to mortal senses. 

It opposes the rapacious, the greedy devourers that seek ever more. Industry invaded the land with the First Men, and now seeks to bend all to its will. But Nature itself has awoken, and with honeyed words and red claws, it’s defenders will arise.

As Nature and Industry are rather vague terms, especially when applied to a god game, I’ve decided that your teams first task will be to decide 2 traits for yourself. An opposite of that trait will be applied to the other team, as long as it would apply to them. These traits can be negative, though they don’t have to be. Your team will also receive 2 traits from the other team. These traits will help determine goals, and effect what actions you can take “like Order can’t form rebellions”

Example: Chaos Trait: Freedom, Opposite Trait: Tyranny

Main Thread

[Madman198237]

Joining Nature.

Guys, WAIT A BIT before we begin trait discussion---we do not want prospective joinees to know anything until after they've picked a side.

No offence, prospective joinees.

[crazyabe]

Beastial
Magical

[Shadowclaw777]

First off it's BESTIAL, not beastial.

Also I guess I will join Nature Side, and have a few ideas to express.

Adaptability: Soldiers of nature have easily manipulatable genetics that can adapt to any situations, making them quite versatile and can adjust to any situation.
Proliferation: Soldiers of the nature are endless, we are the Swarm and have indispensable amount of units to utilize. The other soldier will just be simply overwhelmed by the numbers we produce.

Also I'm actually not keen on having a lot of units at disposable, magical seems like the way to go but it needs to seem more nature-oriented; it should probably be called Imbued instead.

The inverse of each trait so for adaptability would mean that if the enemy can't adapt to the situation, they would to limited to the plans and strategies they put forth. They would be easily exploitable because of their stubbornness to only a direct plan.
And for Proliferation, it would mean that the enemy would have to rely on powerful lesser groups of units to rely on, and there investment to the quality of there own units leads to there downfall.

[Maximum Spin]

First off it's BESTIAL, not beastial.

You're now my favourite
that drives me insane.

ETA: I endorse Magical as a nature trait, though, mainly just so Glass can't get it because we all know he wants it

[FallacyofUrist]

I too support Magical, and I definitely like the idea of Proliferation.

[Maximum Spin]

The Discord seems to be developing some kind of consensus around (mainly trolling Glass with) the idea that "Nature is the source of all scientific inquiry, being endlessly adaptable and always driven by evolution to improve itself." should be a trait (I mean, I just wrote that description myself, but it's a synthesis from stuff).

ETA: My other suggestion is still something like "Nature is the source of all magic; strange, even miraculous things can happen in nature, where reality and fantasy blend together, which could never happen in the cold world of humanity."

[Madman198237]

I support Spin's Magical definition, though I will be rewriting the Science side as a different suggestion, I think.

We shall confine our enemies to ELDRITCH-NESS!

Comprehensible: Nature can be comprehended, understood, for Nature is all there is, and anything within Nature can understand it. Indeed, it is the very Nature of our world that it is to be understood, that it is to be Researched, befriended, and Improved.

[Maximum Spin]

Can we add "and improved" to the end of that? In any case, though, +1 for these Magical and Comprehensible definitions.

[RAM]

Industry will probably go for invention and production. They seem like the obvious choices. Invention and adaptability are pretty much the same thing, and opposing directly on that would be awkward. I would also like to nail industry to things that it really can't escape. Consumption would be an obvious thing to hit them with, they can't really escape it and it forces them into a situation where if we can stifle them they will suffocate. Another nasty thing to hit them with would be obsessiveness. "The ends justify the means" can be a real knife in your back when you assume that it is safe to completely ignore the means and find out later that they were undermining the ends. They combine together well to create obsessive consumption, a reckless disregards for the costs of your actions is a great way to lose popularity and drive yourself into a corner...

That would leave us with sustenance and awareness. These neatly bypass the lack of inventiveness by pulling new ideas from observation rather than ingenuity and a lack of production by maintaining what we do have and building up our resources.

Let them blindly pursue their dreams of power! Those who ignore their surroundings and cast-to-ash all they possess are doomed to tragedy...

[IcyTea31]

Industry seems to have agreed on Refinement and Mass Production. This leaves us with Decay and Mass Consumption, so let us rust all their steel and grow a thousand mouths to eat their thousand riflemen.

I'd say both of those aspects can be countered with Perfection. See how Nature made this creation ready for its purpose from the outset, whether that purpose be overpowering the enemy or adapting to its tactics? See something you can't Refine further, see something you can't Mass Produce without an Imperfection.

As for the second choice, I'd opt for something more defensive. Something like Eternal would counteract our own Decay and keep our unassailable fortresses unassailable. This would leave Industry with Instantaneous, which can be effective if used right, but forces them to think deeper about their moves.

[RAM]

Why would mass production be opposed by mass consumption? Does not the one lead to the other? I would expect that it would be more some for of "lack of production"... Actually, I  would expect it to be pretty close to "perfection". We would oppose their numbers with our elites. Refinement is a bot off from my prediction of invention. Same family but the species is just a touch off. My theory still holds however, they keep perfecting things which leaves us stifled in the development theatre by opposing that. I guess, if we are lucky, refinement might be opposed by inspiration, which should collaborate well with awareness. It is a little awkward to have two things doing much the same there, but they collude, awareness increasing the scope and complexity that inspiration can entail, so it would be less of a loss and more of a specialisation. I mean, some level of "make lots of stuff" and "get new designs" is a very very obvious route for industry to take. They would pretty much need to be messing with us to switch to something like chemicals or communication. They would be applicable, but not really iconic...

To put it another way:
 Freedom: do what you want. Tyranny: do as you're told.
Refinement: endlessly repeat, better each time. Decay: become worse due to progression of inherent instability. Inspiration: become better once through a single event. Erosion: endlessly repeat, worse each time.
Mass production: create many, all alike. Mass consumption: absorb all. Trial and Error: create many, all different(A.K.A. refinement... A.K.A. Evolution...). Perfection: Create few, all alike.

Tyranny and Freedom are both bad. Taken to extremes both will lead to ruin. I do not think that the opposites will be worse than one another deliberately. Also, an opposite is not completely different. The opposite of 1 is -1, -2 would be more opposed to it but would not be an ideal counterpart. They are likely to change one element rather than all. Fidderent means to the same purpose. Freedom and Tyranny both orchestrating the actions of the populace, one towards absolute order and the other absolute chaos. A more fitting absolute opposition to freedom would be death or confinement, to do nothing against your will. Tyranny and freedom both dictate action...

So I think that decay and mass consumption are not good assumptions based on the idea that they will be taking refinement and mass production. I also feel that eternal and sustenance are very similar, but sustenance is more of an attack to their bottom line, with it being opposed by something like suppression, hunger, or revival, none of which work to feed the sustained needs of mass production or refinement which are both hungry for materials. Perfection to awareness are both trying to... not enough time... is not trying to take the cap out of refinement, which rather denies the existence of perfection anyway, what with it seeking to improve forever and never reach an ultimate point

[IcyTea31]

Refinement: endlessly repeat, better each time.

That's not the definition the Industrialists are using.

Refinement is akin to an oil refinery, taking the resources that Nature created and making them into something better.

Nature makes iron ore, but Industry and refinement turn it into steel, able to be shaped to a useful form.

Refinement: industrial process that separates a substance from its surroundings, 'purifying' it.
Decay: natural process that mixes a substance with its surroundings, 'decomposing' it.

The steel Glass uses as an example will eventually mix with oxygen i.e. rust and return to the earth where it will, over time, turn back into iron ore.

Why would mass production be opposed by mass consumption? Does not the one lead to the other?

You're right. The opposite/inverse of Mass Production could be Craftsmanship, now that I've thought about it. Rather than a single factory creating larger quantities of lower quality goods, we'd have decentralized artisans producing smaller quantities of higher quality goods.

Perfection: Create few, all alike.

Why create only few? Why make them all alike? The Natural way is to fill the universe with many, many beautiful things, each perfect in its own way and for its own purpose, from the highest mountain to the deepest sea to the hugest nebula to the tiniest microbe.

Also, an opposite is not completely different. The opposite of 1 is -1, -2 would be more opposed to it but would not be an ideal counterpart.

The philosophical question here is, what is the opposite/inverse of 2? -2 or 1/2? 2 + (-2) = 0, but 2 * (1/2) = 1. Will this divine war end with something (1) or nothing (0) still existent?

[Detoxicated]

Adaptability: Soldiers of nature have easily manipulatable genetics that can adapt to any situations, making them quite versatile and can adjust to any situation.
Perfection: See how Nature made this creation ready for its purpose from the outset, whether that purpose be overpowering the enemy or adapting to its tactics? See something you can't Refine further, see something you can't Mass Produce without an Imperfection.

+1

[Madman198237]

Icy, you should not know what the Industry side is choosing, each side is intended to keep to its own thread without looking at the other one.

Nevermind, I see where you got it from.