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[Demonic Spoon]

A millennium ago, the SUN exploded.

The SUNlight had faltered, the aging and decrepit Chariot, battered and chipped and ripped open by blasphemy and greed and contradiction, going out for the last time. Impossible, paradoxical horrors had swarmed over the planet-flock, no longer kept at bay by the law-gracing solar rays, and feasted and devoured and warped beyond recognition. Even the SUN itself was infiltrated by their tendrils of what cannot be.

At last, the SUN gathered up its last energies, and self-detonated in a glorious nova, evaporating the horrors under its shining law-light, and forming a bubble of stability within local spacetime, expanding outwards and ensuring SUN-law for centuries to come.

The imperishable fragments of the great Solar, undaunted even by the cataclysmic energies that brought about a new genesis of Is-Law, yet flung far away from each other within the bubble of bought time by those incredible forces, slowly germinated new consciousnesses, perhaps imprisoned godlings incidentally sublimating into their prison, or faithful stewards spending all their energies in tribute to the solar supernova, re-assembled by mindless constructs aboard as part of a massive orrery, or perhaps a coward who had fled beforehand, only to be caught in a nothing snarl, and re-appear fused with some vital seed of the future Sun-In-Making.

Whatever the case may be, lancing beacons of starlight activated, emergency thrusters extruded, burning wheels were lit into existence, screaming wings and grand sails unfurled. An instinctive urge overwhelmed the thinking mind-remnants and half-complete mentalities of the SUN-fragments, driving them only to return to one, to merge, re-assemble the Sun-In-Making, spurring their slow decades long journeys across SUN-Law space as they slowly found and rejoined with each other, coalescing into larger and larger fragments.

Bellowing SUN-Bull-Trains carried forward on wings of steam, of light, of fire and ice. Enigmatic bells tolling the time until the rebirth of the Sun-In-Making. Seemingly delicate telescopes that had yet survived a nova scanned the skies for the tell-tale glimmerings of special lenses shining forth beams of SUNlight.

Steam turbines churn in unknown depths of ever larger and more labyrinth Sun-Remnants, stopping to feed on various materia along their journeys. Growth processes and internal mechanical ecologies working from unknowable blueprints to restore their liege, sometimes at cross-purposes when remnants rejoin in great disordering impacts, causing layers of confusion and mish-mashing as repairing processes begin to go awry.

But with solemn ceremony and inevitability, the final free fragments of the Sun-In-Making meet at last. Aflame Flaming mass with its foundries, riding on a pillar of fire. Crystalline Frosted of frozen perfection, with its grand sails of ice, its many mirrors and telescopes. Shining Fulgent shining even now with lesser brilliance, its wheels and wings seeming to quicken in eagerness, auto-scribe mechanical quill-arms continuing to write out nonsense chronicles.

Impact.

Explosions of fire and of ice and of light, as the three great fragments physically connect at the same time. Grinding and shrieking and violent shuddering. As feed-pipes seek their mates. As emergency structures rapidly dis-assemble, though some seem to be have been overlooked. As automatons with hammers and torches and picks dig tunnels through miles of mis-aligned metal and ice seeking their targets. As the three solar forces finally rejoin and begin to mix at the heart of the Solar Barge, the shuddering as the primal forces of the SUN shoots out into every corner of its being, and finally floods the outermost lenses, once more shining out SUNlight to drive back the night.

Finally, the driving urges leave the remnant-beings, though they find their minds and memories changed, cleansed and elevated by the nova of purifying SUNlight from the Sun-That-Was. They are buried within and fused deeply into the Sun-That-Is, having been thoroughly integrated during its blind idiot reconstruction. They cannot leave, and destroying the Day-Vehicle would kill them just as surely. They are trapped, they are enthroned, they are greater, they are lesser.

Slowly they learned to interpret the strange data-streams from various optics of the Sun-That-Is, from its strange collections of ice-chimes and myriad other instrumentation. They became vaguely aware of each other as they explored their vast collective body-prison-throne. Quill-Arms were suborned to write messages, strangely pliable bats tasked with delivering from consciousness to consciousness. Though never seeing each other face to face, the various beings slowly and vaguely came to know their counterparts. And they became starkly aware of their communal problems.

The Sun-That-Is though reborn young and fresh and new and shiny, was not reconstructed perfectly. Its energy generation is unstable and slowly declining over time. Glitches and malfunctions occur infrequently, but often with serious problems. An disconnected reactor overflowing with generated energy exploding. Longer and shorter bell-hours twisting the flow of time, causing desynchronizations and various minor messes. Lenses angled the wrong way burning SUNlight tunnels into the superstructure of the Sun-That-Is. Outbreaks of hibernating Night-Horror infection being awakened by the disturbance of the final unification.

Searching through fragmentary records, and united by their collective desire for survival, the remnant consciousness have dubbed themselves the Champions of the Sun-That-Is, seeking to maintain and power their new home. By fortune or by design, the final unification of the Sun-That-Is occurred overlooking a vast, lifeless planet, burned clean by the nova of the Sun-That-Was, and blurry memories and sentence-pieces promise that delicate mortal agents placed there, being unable to survive in the harsh conditions of the Chariot-Sun and being unreliable besides, are somehow a good source of fuel.


Acts

Divine acts

Acts are needed for most actions that don't boil down to talking with messengers or other Champions on the SUN. They don't generally carry over to the next turn unless otherwise specified, and it generally takes more to destroy something than it does to create it. Some actions can be gradually completed over several turns, and some must be completed on the turn they're started; check the costs for details. Certain large actions like large-scale worldscaping or life creation will get harder over time. Many actions are cheaper or more effective if performed within one's THRONE's dominion.

Faulty acts can be used for essentially anything a normal act would be used for, but the results may fall somewhat short of the intent or even backfire. This chance is reduced when faulty acts are diluted with normal acts.

Sources:

• Stipend for having placed a THRONE: 1 act
• Paths: 0-2 acts
  • 0-1 criteria satisfied*: 0 acts
  • 2 criteria satisfied: 1 faulty act
  • 3 criteria satisfied: 1 act
  • 4+ criteria satisfied: 2 acts
• Essence act: 1 collective act per flavor of essence

* Only one Path can contribute acts at any given time.

Council proposals and counterproposals

Council proposals/counterproposals are used when making proposals or counterproposals on Council turns. Each Champion gets 2 of each on each Council turn, and as with divine acts, they don't carry over. Talking or voting on Council resolutions doesn't consume any Council acts. Leaving a Council meeting costs a proposal, not that that generally matters if the intent is to avoid having to deal with it in the first place. Because leaving a meeting is an option at all, those who stay in a meeting but aren't explicitly in favor of a given resolution are assumed to be against it to hurry things along and simplify vote tallying.

Council resolutions can change most any rule (including Council rules or the SUN's LAWs), but for now, here is what a proposal needs to pass:

• Someone present to spend a Council act on proposing the resolution.
• An active Council turn, i.e. at least half of the Champions are currently in attendance via representative.
• Support from a majority of present Champions, i.e. more than half of the present Champions support the resolution.

As with divine acts, each flavor of essence with at least two present members receives one collective Council act. It can be spent to propose a resolution backed by a majority of the flavor's members or to have all of the flavor's members exit the current Council meeting. Two essence actions can be spent to end a Council meeting early. Three essence actions are theoretically indistinguishable from a normal majority and don't do anything particularly special.


Turns

By default, there will be up to one Council turn for every five normal turns. Divine acts are unusable (and not awarded anyway) during a Council turn. If fewer than half of all active Champions are present on a Council turn, it'll be outright skipped in favor of another five normal turns. The first turn will be a mandatory Council turn and a Session 0 of sorts.


Costs (very much under construction)

Creation

Spoiler: Animal? (click to show/hide)

Assorted wild animals: 1 act
Near-domestic animals: 2 acts

Up to 3 petty messengers (1 acts): If a Champion only needs to send a yes/no answer, a petty messenger will suffice.
Lesser messenger (2 acts): Sometimes a Champion just needs to send a quick message to some mortals without too much fanfare or too many fear-nots.
Messenger (5 acts): Other times, a Champion needs to send something more than just a message whether it's a blessing or a curse to hard-hearted mortals with armies.
Greater Messenger (10 acts): Still other times, a Champion needs to make a point completely clear. In these times, Greater Messengers will see the message through.

Note: Creating messengers over several turns instead of in one turn may be a bad idea...

Modifiers:

• Transient (-half, min. 1): Vanishes after delivering a message/miracle. Applies after additive modifiers and rounds up.
• No exemptions (-1 act, min. 1): Messenger is bound by the LAW as all mortals are and cannot return to the SUN once dispatched.

Collaboration effect: Increase messenger tier for each additional contributing flavor.

10 pops: 5 acts
20 pops: 7 acts
40 pops: 9 acts
80 pops: 11 acts

Note: (Viable) mortals cannot be created in installments or parts.

Modifiers:

• (None): Standard mortals, e.g. dwarves, elves, gnolls, gnomes, goblins, halflings, half-orcs, humans, kobolds, orcs
• Powerful (+1 act): Sometimes, being a standing ape who can talk to other standing apes isn't enough. Whether it's the strength of a bear, the speed of a gazelle, or the wrath of a carp, these mortals are noticeably special.
• Feeble (-1 act): On the other hand, maybe numbers are more useful than abilities only a few need to use at any given time.

Collaboration effect: Double number of pops for each additional contributing flavor.

Spoiler: Vegetable? (click to show/hide)

Assorted wild plants: 1 act
Near-domestic plants: 2 acts

Site (1 act): 1 square's worth of vegetation.

Spoiler: Mineral? (click to show/hide)

Trinkets (2 act): Slight effects including slight elemental resistance, luck, sharpness, hardness, or decorative value
Lesser magic items (4 acts): Minor effects including elemental effects, rudimentary magical organs/prosthetics, poison, more luck, speed/strength
Greater magic items (8 acts): Major effects including meteor summoning, menacing vines, short-range teleportation
Very powerful magic items (16 acts): Grand effects including elemental mastery, poison clouds, automatic recall, powerful magical organs/prosthetics, weather control, scrying

Note: Unlike most other creations, there is generally a lower risk of setbacks/curses/failure for artifacts forged over several turns rather than all at once. The optimal forging speed is currently set at 2 actions per turn.

Site (2 acts): A square: A city site and its surrounding countryside, a small forest, a lake, a mountain, a bay, a stream
Area (4 acts): 7 squares: A small country, a mountain range, a sea, a forest, a river
Region (8 acts): 18 squares: A large region
Continent (16 acts): 57 squares: A continent or an ocean

Note: It's fine to include descriptions of plants and wildlife in terraform actions. Plant/animal creation actions should generally only be needed for species introduced later.

Modifiers:

• Within THRONE range: -1 act
• Resource-rich (+2 acts): Bountiful metal, specialty wood, fertile fields, or other desirable properties.
• Resource-poor (-2 acts, minimum 1):
• Resource-random (0 acts): Resource richness is randomly selected.

Collaboration effect: -1 act (minimum 1) for each additional contributing flavor.

Spoiler: Something more abstract? (click to show/hide)

Undirected exploration (1 act): Wander the SUN's halls aimlessly, but not too aimlessly. It's too easy to get lost. Rewards include but are not limited to Instrument locations, CANDLES, quests, acts, curses, blessings, curses disguised as blessings, intelligence on secret actions, maps, information, or nothing interesting.
Directed exploration (1 act): Seek out a partially known location in the SUN's halls. Getting there won't be easy.

Note: Exploration actions can only be performed once a turn.

Collaboration effect: Increased chance of something interesting for each additional collaborator. Further bonus for collaborators of different essences.

Any LAW: 1 Council act

Petty law (2 acts): E.g. subtle alterations to mood, weather, productivity, fertility, climate
Lesser law (4 acts): E.g. noticeable alterations to the above
Greater law (8 acts): E.g. suspend gravity, make fires burn cold, make rivers run uphill, let things walk on clouds, have swords replace feelings or vice versa, spawn spirits to inhabit rocks, plants, and rivers

Note: There is a high risk of setbacks/failure for laws imposed in installments rather than all at once. Laws can generally only affect the area covered by a friendly Champion's THRONE's influence.

Modifiers:

• Smaller range (-1 act, min. 1): I.e. covers less area than your THRONE's full sphere of influence.
• Transient (-half, min. 1): Lasts only until the start of the next normal turn. Applied before additive modifiers.
• Portable (+1 act): Can be delivered to a location not in range by a regular messenger. Petty laws require lesser messengers or better, lesser laws require regular messengers or better, and greater laws require greater messengers.
• Very portable (+3 acts): Can be delivered to a location not in range by any non-petty messenger.
• Extremely portable (+5 acts): Can be delivered to a location not in range by even a petty messenger.

Collaboration effect: Increased range with any collaborator. Increased intensity with collaborators of different essences.

Magic: 9 acts

Note: Loopholes may be researched over several turns, i.e. the act cost does not need to be paid in full.

Modifiers:

• Vulgar yet permitted (+4 acts): Despite flashy, overt effects like fireballs or walking houses, the case for this loophole being legal is ironclad at least until the next time the Champions convene to squabble about it.
• Vulgar (default): The magic this loophole facilitates hinges on the flimsiest of technicalities. Best not to practice it while the SUN or the Champions are watching.
• Coincidental (-4 acts): The effects of this loophole are subtle and negligible for the average observer.
• Coincidental yet forbidden (-6 acts, min. 1 act): Even though this magic doesn't do anything the average bystander can actually notice as out of place, it's still forbidden according to the LAW. The worst of both worlds, it's unlikely it'll get much if any traction.
• Limited scope (-2 acts, min. 1 act): This loophole is only intended for magic affecting a specific action or set of actions, e.g. household chores, walking, birdwatching.

Collaboration effect: -1 act (min. 1 act) for each collaborator. -1 act (min. 1 act) for each additional flavor of essence.

Alteration

Temporary rule: Altering creations requires 2 acts in addition to the difference in costs (min. 1), and there is a price floor of 3 acts total.


The SUN

Lantern. Lawgiver. Locomotion. The SUN is many things, but the SUN is also the abode of the gods themselves. Its sprawling halls contain its Instruments, numerous wonders ranging from blinding lattices of mirrors and lenses to ticking arrays of countless gears. Such is the scale of the SUN's labyrinthine corridors that it's thought that there are still other Champions left undiscovered and isolated amidst its endless rooms. Precious little is known about most of the rooms' purpose or function, and only two have been mapped out and characterized so far:

• THE BAT-RIDDEN BELFRY: Its jolly ringing marked the passage of hours. Indeed, the very sound of its bells seemed to fill things with a certain clarity, which is comforting, and pushes back the dark, a little.
• THE ULTIMATE LENSES: The SUN's outermost lenses and last safe stop for outbound light. Despite their apparent fragility, they've survived the trek with only minor scratches, and even for the SUN's Greatest Messengers, standing in front of them while the SUN is active is extremely inadvisable.

THE LAW

The laws spontaneously appearing deeply etched into the walls, ceilings and floors of the SUN, as if summoned by legal ghosts of a misty past, are many and onerous, a sure sign that your predecessors had too much Council time on their appendages. Here are a few of the less unimportant ones:

SUN ABOVE, GODS BETWEEN, EARTH BELOW.

• Interpretation: So long as the SUN shines true, no living mortals are permitted to visit the SUN just as no Champion is permitted to visit the ball of earth.

GOD SHALL NEVER KILL GOD.

• Interpretation: So long as the SUN shines true, no Champion can harm another, nor can any Champion be harmed by another. They still shouldn't be used for target practice, obviously.

TIME IS.

• Interpretation: So long as the SUN shines true, causality exists, and things can happen only after other things.

HORRORS ARE NOT.

• Interpretation: So long as the SUN shines true, nothing forbidden by THE LAW shall ever exist within its light.

THY WORD IS THY BOND.

• Interpretation: So long as the SUN shines true, agreements and promises witnessed by the SUN must be kept.

(Loophole-ridden physical laws about thermodynamics, something called gravity, and lots of other stuff)

• Interpretation: So long as the SUN shines true, things seem to make sense and happen reproducibly except for that thing the wizard did that caused the farmers to turn into frogs. Luckily, the SUN took care of the upstart, and neither the wizard nor the farmers were ever seen or heard from again.

SOULS RETURN.

• Interpretation: So long as the SUN shines true, any souls originating from the SUN shall return to it, gravitating towards the Afterlife Vault of the most compatible Champion.

The Champion

Essence

Godly essences come in three flavors: Flaming, Frosted, and Fulgent. Each flavor receives an extra collective act each turn should it manage to come to some sort of consensus (>50%) on what to do with it. Unused essence acts don't carry over to the next turn. Essence flavors with fewer than two members don't get this act.

Actions performed by gods of different essences working in concert are often cheaper or more effective than those performed solo. Differences will be listed in the relevant act's cost table.

Their THRONES

Direct interaction with Champions is incredibly dangerous to mortal health whether it comes in the form of speaking with, gazing at, or otherwise communing too closely with them. This is regrettably true even for the most fireproof and electrically insulated mortals. Fortunately, Champions can send down their THRONES to maintain a presence on the material plane and, as a bonus, spread the cleansing radiance of the SUN. THRONES can take on the appearance of buildings, natural wonders, monuments, literal thrones, or any number of other majestic things, and within their influence, everything conforms better to their owners' vision. The first time a Champion's THRONE is placed on the world is free and costs no actions and comes with the option of extending range/reducing intensity or increasing intensity/reducing range by one step. Subsequent moves require 2 Acts and can be repelled by the influence of THRONES of uncooperative Champions. There is no penalty for overlapping spheres of influence between friendly Champions. If anything, there may be a minor bonus in that the intersection is better covered at the expense of some area that is less covered.

THRONES in their default configuration gently affect places to a Champion's liking up to one square away and maintain the SUN's LAW up to three squares away. Champions interested in better range or intensity may spend an act to reconfigure their THRONES to increase one at the expense of the other. Squares that contain particularly pious mortals or that resonate particularly well with one's sphere can count as being within one's dominion even when they're out of range.

The CANDLES

From time to time, Champions may stumble on CANDLES. CANDLES may be lit to expand or intensify a Champion's THRONE's influence for two turns. Optionally, the CANDLE may be burned at both ends to double the bonus at the expense of making the bonus last for only a turn. In any case, the bonus starts on the next normal turn and ends on the end of the normal turn after that in the unmodified usage.


Paths

The Path of Benevolence, or: The Mortals Path

The positive attention of mortal charges is good for getting stuff done and translates rather directly to great power. Here are the types of mortal attention available:

Belief: Association of a god with a sphere. The god of the bells. The god of the mirrors. Excepting gods with colliding spheres, excessively broad/unenforceable spheres, excessively narrow/unrecognizable spheres, or without any representation on the mortal plane, this one is generally a freebie.
Worship: Active acts of adoration/veneration whether through offerings, festivals, sacrifices, or prayers.
Dedication: Righteous mortals dying and going to a god's afterlife vault and an argument against making worshipers immortal.
Souls: General population of a god's afterlife vault and another argument against making worshipers immortal.

The Path of Aloofness, or: The Meta Path

Some Champions don't particularly care about squishy mortals but would normally feel pressured to maintain good relations with them regardless in order to avoid falling behind. These Champions may instead gain acts by following the Path of Aloofness:

Creator: Find a suitable muse and let the words or brush strokes flow. A picture is worth a thousand words, and either or both of these will satisfy this mechanism (unless it sparks unanimous disapproval). Literature, dialogue, and proposals (but not counterproposals) on IC count to the 1000 word quota.
Destroyer: Remove or arrange for the removal of a creation no one needs or remembers making. Make sure you have records if you're outsourcing the job. Alternatively, take up the position of devil's advocate during a Council turn and see an proposal fail after you've argued against it for five free turns of fulfilling this criterion.
Preserver: Stop something from getting destroyed/changed/improved. Alternatively, stop an act (whether divine or Council) from going through somehow. Make sure you have records if you're outsourcing this one.
Reshaper: Reshape the land itself (optionally including its attendant flora or fauna) to better fit some sort of vision. Mortals aren't necessarily involved, so surely this won't step on any toes? Alternatively, propose a counterproposal and see it pass.
Exister: Continue to exist. This one is generally a freebie and is solely in place to keep the Path of Aloofness vaguely playable.

The Path of Malevolence, or: The Nonexistent Path

So long as the SUN shines true, there is no Path of Malevolence.


The Earth

Here is the new world in all its blank glory:

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

Character sheet

Code: [Select]

Name: Who are you?
Sphere: Which strange biomechanical apparatus of the SUN are you merged with and manage?
A time-keeping gallery of bells? A self-writing repository of knowledge currently mostly filled with useless dross?
An orrery of observation telescopes? A factory constructing an endless stream of constructs?
A secondary reactor complex supplying the world-rending energies required to keep the SUN running?
One of the vast engines constantly repositioning the SUN as it drifts of the eddies of space?
A cannon of grand destruction to shoot down Night-Terrors when they inevitably make their appearance?

Flaw: During the imperfect reconstruction of the SUN, you acquired some flaw in your functioning or personality.
Perhaps your rage-spires overheat frequently, or your bell-tolling fails sometimes, or your optics suffer chromatic abberations or optical illusions.

Essence (select one): Flaming|Frosted|Fulgent.

THRONE form: What does your THRONE look like?

Avatar (Optional): When communication via bat-letters proved unworkably cumbersome,
each champion eventually designed their own personal tele-operated representative to communicate with their peers,
and to attend the council meetings and to explore the mysteries of the [color=gold]SUN[/color].
What does yours look like?

Sigil: A glyph of some sort representing your portfolio.

Afterlife vault (optional): What do your worshipers have to look forward to?
Emergency SUN fuel, if not specified your souls are fed directly into the central SUN heart to power it.

Description (optional): Any additional details


[Demonic Spoon]

[reserved for things]

Source

[Nakéen]

Name: Demonic Spin the Fulgent Flame

Sphere: The Forgotten Fulgent Furnace.

Flaw: When the SUN was still Sun-In-Making, the balance of Essences was momentarily broken and Flaming became Fulgent, causing the Fulgent Furnace to be damaged by the strange Fulgent Flame. The burst of anomalous essence seared the name of the one once known as Maximum Spoon, turning them into the Demonic Spin.

Essence: Flaming Fulgence

THRONE form: a pure pillar of Fulgent Flame

Avatar: A Spoon.

Sigil: A vortex of flames

Afterlife vault: Purification by the flawed Fulgent Flame, which while the Furnace is broken means being changed and reborn into a new, flawed soul.

Description: Disclaimer, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

[Rockeater]

Name: Directional unit

Sphere: The compass-clock pointing where is places and when is next

Flaw: slowly but surly Directional unit drifts, Next shall always exist, but it would become less clear how much time is between now and next

Essence (select one): Fulgent.

THRONE form: A small black sphere from which go six perpendicular bright beams of light


Avatar (Optional): A floating point with three arrows from it, one pointing up, one pointing forward, one pointing to the side

Sigil: Large circle with a small circle in it center with four arrows in the four cardinal directions pointing from outside in

Afterlife vault (optional): Measuring and remeasuring every measure, calculating and recalculating every calculation, trying to eliminate or mitigate the mistakes and visions of Directional Unit

Description (optional): WIP

[Egan_BW]

Name: The Tip of the Iceberg, or TIP
Sphere: Acts as a waste disposal system, allowing for unwanted material or concepts to be Unexisted.

Flaw: Wants to die.

Essence: Frosted

THRONE form: A tree-sized spear of ice. Though relatively slender, it hides hidden depths of utter frozenness.

Avatar: A floating sphere of stainless steel, frosted over. It communicates via ringing.

Sigil: A ray.

Afterlife vault: Unexistance.

Description: TIP was once a fragment of a Finality Sovereign, fated to create a dead zone in the void. Before the Sovereign's very Tip could Unexist itself, however, the upstart Sun-That-Was saved it and sealed the fragment of utter finality within a waste disposal system. For eons, the Tip was trapped within existance, though blissfully asleep. Now the dramatic reconstruction of the Sun-That-Is has woken it up to face the vile Blasphemy of its continued life.

[TricMagic]

Name: Who are you?
Sphere: Death & Taxes. Ensuring Waste Energy gets collected, broken parts get recycled, and systems take the proper toll for use, along with getting things to work as they should and not break down into non-usability.

Flaw: Cannot vote at Council Meetings. Too busy at keeping the system from collapsing due to user error.

Essence (select one): Fulgent.

THRONE form: Nothing. It is everpresent when placed, being the area itself.

Avatar (Optional): A black-haired child with a ledger/tome and sword/pen. Ink swirls with their actions, writing into existence their actions.

Spoiler: Sigil: (click to show/hide)

 

Afterlife vault (optional): Reincarnation and occasionally Angelhood for those particularly dedicated to their task. It's a thankless tax, but one kinda has to do it.

Description (optional): Any additional details

[Leonardo8]

reserved

[Stirk]

Name: BFG
Sphere: The SUN's largest weapon system.

Flaw: Nothing can ever be big enough

Essence (select one): Flaming

THRONE form: A really, really, really, really big mortal.

Avatar (Optional): A miniature (but still big) version of BFG.

Sigil: A large beam. Must be large or it doesn't count.

Afterlife vault (optional): The Expanse, where souls are gathered together to make bigger and bigger guns.

Description (optional): Is the biggest god. Any suggestion otherwise is heresy.

[Kilojoule Proton]

Name: The Cardinal Movement
Sphere: The movement chamber is the vast, ticking, creaking, and groaning monstrosity of cogs, belts, and springs through which the SUN's optics and propulsion are directed.

Flaw: It's fairly clear that the Cardinal Movement was never intended to achieve sapience in its own right. Indeed, by all accounts, it's not supposed to do more than relay the Champions' whims to the appropriate peripherals, and its cantankerous self-awareness now occasionally frustrates the Champions' machinations for better or for worse.

Essence (select one): Frosted

THRONE form:
   Pre-metalworking: A SUNdial
   Post-metalworking: A pointlessly complicated clock in brass with no discernable power source

Avatar (Optional): Sometimes a grandfather clock, sometimes a music box

Spoiler: Sigil (click to show/hide)

Afterlife vault (optional): Massive enmeshed cogs with cities on on both viable faces. Souls are periodically flushed when the barge-bells ring.

Description (optional): TOCK.

[Maximum Spin]

Name: furthest
Sphere: Charnel Severance, the specialized set of filters applied in the SUN's optical system which reduces its light to a form suitable to shine on things without obliterating them completely. Charnel Severance is technically also a weapon, I suppose, since it could be used to obliterate things instead of not obliterate them.

Flaw: Due to hairline fractures in some of the filters, Charnel Severance occasionally lets raw SUNlight into the universe where it should not be allowed. This also manifests as erratic behavior in furthest's personality.

Essence: Flaming

THRONE form: A congeries of glowing orbs in various colors, visually representing the filters of Charnel Severance.

Avatar: Either a seraph or a very small mortal, depending on the recipient.

Sigil: ꙮ

Afterlife vault: Returned souls are recycled for immediate reuse in order to preserve materials. Reuse is not bound to the vicissitudes of linear time and it has not been scientifically confirmed that furthest does not in fact possess only one soul being used over and over again.

Description: This god is definitely bigger than any and all others, don't let anyone tell you different. Since Charnel Severance is fundamentally designed to contain and reduce SUNlight, and thus in some sense exists in opposition to it, furthest may technically qualify as a kelipah and might therefore be slightly evil. Please don't tell anyone.

[Demonic Spoon]

Current Roster of Players:

Flaming:
Demonic Spin the Fulgent Flame
BFG
furthest

Frosted:
The Tip of the Iceberg, or TIP
The Cardinal Movement

Fulgent:
Directional unit

Leonardo8 can still finish up a character if they want, and are also welcome to join during play if they want.

Name: Who are you?
Sphere: Death & Taxes. Ensuring Waste Energy gets collected, broken parts get recycled, and systems take the proper toll for use, along with getting things to work as they should and not break down into non-usability.

Flaw: Cannot vote at Council Meetings. Too busy at keeping the system from collapsing due to user error.

I would request that you choose another flaw please?

I'll hope to get the first turn up a bit later today, hopefully we'll have at least one more Fulgent or Frosted player by then.

[Demonic Spoon]

Turn 0: Council turn

Having never found any chamber actually intended for this purpose, the avatars of the Champions of the Reborn sun instead gather inside an unused storeroom lying at the end of an elaborate maze of seemingly purposeless corridors. They can feel and hear the distant humming of slightly misaligned machinery grinding against each other, and occasionally the storeroom is filled with bursts of steam which cloud their vision.

Still, as the various Champions gather for their first voice-to-voice meeting, they can feel something changing in the SUN. Some previously uncaring algorithm detecting the proper conditions and becoming responsive to the collective will of vital subcomponents of the greater whole. You feel that through your consensus you might be able to enact certain changes upon the functioning of the Sun-That-Is, such as adjusting its shine or modifying its laws. If nothing is decided in a relatively timely manner, safeguards may activate, de-activating gestalt-mechanisms that even sputter and churn, filling the air with static.

Agenda

SUNshine meter:
████████████████████
[~-1 █/Turn]
Expected Collapse of the SUN-Law Bubble: 3 Turns

The SUN hangs in the void above a lifeless world, though water-bearing (now liquid thanks to the presence of the re-lit SUN). Elaborate, straight-angled canals spanning its surface hint that it once housed an advanced civilization. Alas. Once more your meter-readings and divinations confirm your earlier assumptions. The current output of the SUN is non-sustainable, and when it goes out, you will go out with it.

The obvious solution to this, is to lower the SUNlight output, but this is problematic for several reasons

• Even within the safety of the SUN-law bubble, infestations of Nothing-Wrong have managed to persist, hiding in the shadows of planets or at the hearts of moons. They are no doubt merely waiting for us to lower our defences to attack!
• The build-up of energy in several subsidiary systems by decreasing their output without also decreasing their input will almost certainly result in several catastrophic meltdowns
• A lot of laws of physics become more wobbly below certain SUNlight thresholds, which have domino effects on various delicate arrangements.

But none of these problems are in and of themselves insurmountable.

A further problem is the predicted collapse of the SUN-law bubble, which is even now expanding. Various predictive-analysis scribe hands have repeatably foretold that at some point soon the Bubble will expand to the limit it can against the resistance of the Horrors, and finally vanish in a great cataclysmic *pop!* There is likely nothing that can be done about this, but you should prepare for it nevertheless.

Finally, in your earlier discussions at least some of you have managed to glean from certain fragmentary records that raising mortal-farms may be useful for SUN-fuel. You can feel certain feed-lines humming at this revelation, and each solar faction may potentially benefit from a stimulus package of power if they agree that mortals should be raised on the Earth-World

Various tentative data-pings and echo-hums make many of you certain that you could further decide to FORBID, PERMIT or REQUIRE certain things of your world, which may help enforce order or strengthen the SUN's grip over its terrestrial dominion.

Finally, it might be nice if the Planet was given a new name by the Champions who might soon impinge their will onto it...

They Council can decide to end the Council session at any point through a simple majority vote (this does not require Council Acts)

The Council

The various avatars huddle, tribally within the Council-Storeroom, still somewhat untrusting of those who they have so very recently rejoined with.

The Flaming Contingent is the most numerous, and have thus managed to secure the least steamy corner as their camp. Their number include
🔥 A intricately engraved burning spoon, seeming to propel itself by miniature explosions. The avatar of Demonic Spin the Fulgent Flame, burn and light-scarred master-body of Fulgent Furnace, a subsidiary reactor and materials processing complex which powers several vital systems reprocesses scrap metal.
A large self-propelled gun, humming ominously, that had barely managed to fit itself through the door by angling itself correctly on its many mechanical legs. Avatar of BFG, the largest spinal mountain weapon of the SUN, the Solar Lance, which might fell mighty foes, though the SUNlight cost of even a single shot is prohibitive.
ꙮ A tiny flurry of fire-wings makes up the last of the Flaming trio. They represent furthest, who through the Charnel Severance filters the full glory of the SUN into something more survivable for lesser things.

The icy Frosted freeze any water vapour that nears them into crystals which ding onto the ground in tiny clatterings.
A levitating sphere of imperishable steel, ringing bell-like, operated by distant TIP, the garbage dump of the solar barge, unexisting anything unwanted.
Serving as its musical accompaniment, a wheeled music box merrily playing some nameless tune. In fact the tele-rover of the the Cardinal Movement who is the Movement Chamber, a vast interchange of gears and belts and strange tubes which can feel deeply hibernating [STEWARD_COUNCIL] protocols humming into wakefullness all along its body, ready to convey the will of the Champions far and wide. It tickles.

So far only a single Fulgent champion has shown up. A most concerning state of affairs. Surely it didn't... eat the others did it? In any case, the sole Fulgent representative is a brightly glowing gem carried by some belfry bats, through which communes the Directional unit, a vast, finicky compass and also clock, who charts the SUN's course through the voids of space and time, keeping time and distance and angle and often getting strange atemporal data from the future and past...


Status

Spoiler: Instruments (click to show/hide)

• THE BAT-RIDDEN BELFRY: Its jolly ringing marked the passage of hours. Indeed, the very sound of its bells seemed to fill things with a certain clarity, which is comforting, and pushes back the dark, a little.
• THE ULTIMATE LENSES: The SUN's outermost lenses and last safe stop for outbound light. Despite their apparent fragility, they've survived the trek with only minor scratches, and even for the SUN's 's Greatest Messengers, standing in front of them while the SUN is active is extremely inadvisable.
• THE CHARNEL SEVERANCE: Buried into the hull beneath the Ultimate Lenses, these semi-blasphemous filters modulate the glory of SUNlight into something survivable for those external, for great is the SUN's mercy.
• THE FORGOTTEN FULGENT FURNACE: An unstable burning shining mass of combined Fulgent-Flaming essences which provides fiery power to various other parts of the SUN, including some auxiliary warming chambers of the Solar Lance, and eagerly feeds on waste brought to it by various movement lines and lines of construct coolies.
• THE COMPASS-CLOCK: Banks of delicate navigational and chronometering equipment fills the glass and bronze down of this instrument. Accelerometers, automated termite-augers, strange fizzing coils that scream if any construct lingers close to them too long, and more esoteric devices like mirrors that reflect a few seconds into the past, or chimes that begin to stink if a reactor is going critical. It is also here that a vast tube of golden sap carefully measures the SUNlight reserves.
• THE BLOT: A section of nothingness, which cannot be observed because it isn't there, carefully contained, into which various unrecyclable trash or unwanted stowaways or infections are thrown to cleanse the great space lantern.
• THE SOLAR LANCE: Sometimes you just need a really big gun. the Solar Lance is that gun. Built into inner superstructure of the SUN, with a line all the way to the tri-essence core-heart, it can only be aimed by re-orientating the entire SUN itself, but no records exist of anything that can resist a direct blast.
• THE MOVEMENT CHAMBER: A vast, ticking, creaking, and groaning web-monstrosity of cogs, belts, springs and pipes and mechanical carrier pigeons, which transmits orders and information and between the various far flung parts of the sky-chariot.

Spoiler: Champions (click to show/hide)

Flaming pantheon

Communal acts: 1 Council act

Members:

• Demonic Spin the Fulgent Flame: 2 Council acts
• BFG: 2 Council acts
• furthest: 2 Council acts

Frosted pantheon

Communal acts: 1 Council act

Members:

• The Tip of the Iceberg, or TIP: 2 Council acts
• The Cardinal Movement: 2 Council acts

Fulgent pantheon

Communal acts: 1 Council Act

Members:

• Directional unit: 2 Council acts
• Reaper-chan: 2 Council acts

((People are still free to join or finish up their sheets))

[TricMagic]

What even would be a valid flaw though? What do flaws even do?

[Demonic Spoon]

Flaws help you to make your character and helps inform my writing for your actions. You have a large amount of freedom in what you would want to consider a flaw of your character. It could be a gross physical defect that impedes your functioning as instrument such as making math errors when taxing people, or mental aberration such as seeing everyone else only as complex equations to balance, or some combination of the above, or perhaps something else similar. All six the accepted characters have flaws I am okay with, if you need further examples.

[TricMagic]

Name: Reaper-chan
Sphere: Death & Taxes. Ensuring Waste Energy gets collected, broken parts get recycled, and systems take the proper toll for use, along with getting things to work as they should and not break down into non-usability.

Flaw: Rather childish, not really caring about other things. This can cause issues with their work effort if they get bored.

Essence (select one): Fulgent.

THRONE form: Nothing. It is everpresent when placed, being the area itself.

Avatar (Optional): A black-haired child with a ledger/tome and sword/pen. Ink swirls with their actions, writing into existence their actions.

Spoiler: Sigil: (click to show/hide)

 

Afterlife vault (optional): Reincarnation and occasionally Angelhood for those particularly dedicated to their task. It's a thankless tax, but one kinda has to do it. Even if it's boring.

Description: Don't think about it. You thought about it and shuddered. Didn't this thing use to be more responsible?? This working?