Build a world! Burn a world! Both are the jobs of responsible
ActsDirect actionsActs are spent to make things happen and don't generally carry over between turns. All gods receive an income of two aligned acts in the beginning.
Acts come in several tiers:
- Aligned: Aligned to one's sphere (and most strongly influenced by action alignment/antialignment). Generally tradeable
- Unaligned: Unaligned divine acts modestly influenced by action alignment. Generally tradeable
- Faulty: Worse unaligned divine acts modestly influenced by action alignment. Generally tradeable
- Feeble: Barely divine acts influenced by action alignment. Generally tradeable
3 lower tier acts can be merged to generate one act of the next highest tier, and 1 act of a higher tier can be split to generate two acts of the next lowest tier.
Differences in act tiers turn up when certain actions require acts with a minimum/maximum tier and when acts are opposed, the latter of which triggers dice rolls. In general, acts are considered to be opposed under these conditions:
- Direct opposition by anyone else, especially a peer-level antagonist
- Environmental difficulties, e.g. world actions after world creation or mortal actions during periods of instability
- Defying celestial policy, prophecies, and similar things
- Acting against one's own titles/spheres
Each act spent on an opposed action adds another die to the pool which is balanced to be generally beneficial with aligned acts used for aligned actions or unaligned acts for most actions and detrimental with feeble acts or aligned acts used for anti-aligned actions.
Bureaucratic actionsBy filling out the requisite forms and paperwork, supplying the necessary
bribes fees, and going through proper channels, bureaucratic machinery can take care of any action no matter the cost. This is somewhat offset by its generally slow pace in most circumstances. Here are a few of the factors affecting bureau/department productivity:
- Office space: One department typically wants one province of space
- Funding: Supplying requested acts prevents productivity drops
- Staffing: One department typically wants one entire angelic host
- Corruption: Much like sacrificing gody parts, corruption can damage any organizational attribute at most any time, but sometimes it's worth it in the short run.
Combat/SmitingBur✑❞✷➅ ➠✨❬❴➏➱➽❦✓➸✙✑❒➺ ❜✧✈❌➎ ❏❍❫➟❷✏➲❻ ✸❐➛❏✈ ✫✟❺
Godly brawlsFights between gods or god-level opponents like world Pieces use godly brawl rules. Defense is generally easier than offense, and in addition to selecting a defensive stance listed below, a god may elect to (privately) invest one or more standing acts into defending against attacks. Acts spent on defense persist until a god attacks (which wastes the standing act) or is attacked (which uses up the standing act).
Defensive stances:
- Counterattack: Smite the aggressor! Likely to inflict significant damage against opponents adopting Hit and Run but weak against Careful
- Fortified: Present a stone wall! Likely to negate damage against foes adopting Aggressive but will almost certainly be outmaneuvered by Hit and Run
- Disengage: Tactical retreat! Most likely to work against Careful attackers, but won't deter Aggressive enemies
Offensive stances:
- Aggressive: Attack attack attack! Will most likely catch up to cowards adopting Disengage but unlikely to do anything against Fortified targets
- Careful: Cautious attack! Avoids Counterattack, but nothing interesting happens with targets adopting Disengage
- Hit and Run: Opportunistic attack! Can bypass Fortified opponents but will be swatted down by enemies adopting Counterattack
Social combat✷✦✥✳➅➛➹ ✦➙❋➸❤ ➨✸✉❧❿❗➸❟ ✴❟✟➺❚❲❱ ➦✥✘✢✎❿❺➉❝
Creations/DestructionsThe WorldCreating the world is accomplished by putting together a number of Grand Pieces costing 5+ aligned+ acts each and Greater Pieces costing 3+ aligned+ acts each. Grand Pieces include suns, moons, the overall shape of the world, and additional planes beyond the material plane, and certain features may have limited slots available. Contradictory Grand Pieces will fight amongst themselves until stability is reached. Greater Pieces include features in/on the aforementioned creations such as continents/oceans/regions in addition to sphere-aligned constellations/comets and the like.
The minimum number of Grand/Greater Pieces required to create the world will be based on the number of gods present. As the number of Grand/Greater Pieces increases beyond the minimum, so will the price/difficulty of adding more Pieces.
Reliably destroying Pieces of the world costs at least as much as was invested into the Pieces, although partial success can still demote or alter the target.
Piece costs:
| Tier | Cost |
|
|
| Grand | 5+ Aligned |
| Greater | 3+ Aligned |
| Common | 2+ Aligned or 3+ Unaligned |
| Lesser | 1+ Aligned or 2+ Unaligned |
| Petty | 1+ Unaligned or 2+ Faulty |
| Below-Petty | 1+ Faulty |
Required for World creation:
Shape (Grand): The overall shape of the world. Mutually exclusive with any other Shape Pieces.
Continents/oceans (Greater): At least 3 are required for each World. Later stages will allow for the creation of smaller Pieces within continents/oceans, and contradictions will be resolved by geological combat.
Connection to the heavens (Greater-Grand): The shape or mechanism of the connection between the world and the heavens, e.g. the sky, an empty void between the gods' home and the material plane, a giant ocean separating the world from the heavens, a hole in the sky where sunlight also comes through, every reflective surface in the world under the light of a moon, &c. Greater connections have known significant flaws making them less reliable than Grand connections.
Death handling (Grand): An underworld, a heavenly vault, a furnace, or some other place for dead things to go.
Seasons (Grand): Seasons when certain influences/spheres are more present in the world. 3 are required, but up to 5 can exist without causing overcrowding. Contradictory seasons will not fight by default unless incited to do so.
Sun/parent (Grand): A power source for the world, whether in the form of a star, an unstar, a sky animal, a machine, planetary core heat, or a more literal parent to the world.
Optional Pieces:
Moon(s) (Grand): Big companions for the world. Extra Moons will not fight by default unless incited to do so or written as contradictory.
World guardians (Grand): A representative for the world (or sentience for the world itself).
Extra planes (1 Grand each, 1+ continent/ocean needed for each): More planes, whether for travel, storage, hiding from other gods, or something else. Limits on planar travel give them some use in avoiding attention from other gods.
Start an additional World (next: 2 Grand): Start working on an additional world, which will require a separate Shape, a separate Connection, and its own quota of 3+ continents/oceans.
Oracle (Grand, sensory gody part, downside): An engine of answers mostly (but not necessarily exclusively) for godly use. In addition to needing a sensory gody part, a significant flaw/downside preventing it from freely giving perfect answers all the time is needed.
Magic system (Grand, organ): A magic system, principle (e.g. sacrifice, similarity, or geometry), or power source baked in from the start and built into the world. Specific magic schools can develop later, but having a power source can help...
LifeMortals (1 Grand + 1 Aligned Act per existing mortal species, requires 3 flora, 2 herbivores, and 1 carnivore/omnivore): Sapient species with the capacity to communicate, build, and, most importantly, worship. Civilizations take time to develop and can be influenced by meddling gods.
Fauna (1 Common, creates entire
order/family/genus, requires 2 flora): Macroscopic moving creatures to populate the world
Flora (1 Lesser, creates entire
order/family/genus): Sessile and/or microscopic creatures
TerrainContinent/ocean: See Cosmogonic Pieces
Region/sea (1 Common, requires continent/ocean): A large part of a continent/ocean enough to fit an empire, several kingdoms, or many cities. Should broadly agree with the underlying continent/ocean themtically.
State (1 Lesser, requires region/sea): A chunk of a region large enough to fit a kingdom or several cities. Should broadly agree with the underlying continent/ocean and region.
Province (1 Petty, requires state): A piece of a state supporting a city or several villages. Should broadly agree with underlying terrain
Domain (1 Greater, restricted to Natural-specialized Tempered, requires life-forms or servants): The seat of a nature god's influence in the world. Sculpting land or creating/destroying life (including Critters and Creatures) within one's domain or in another's domain with permission costs one tier less than normal. Effectively a region-sized Piece for terrain interaction purposes.
Free terrain Pieces obtained from creating higher-tier terrain Pieces don't themselves provide free terrain Pieces.
Incarnae (limit 1 active per god)Prophets (1 Common, requires mortals): Special mortals touched by the divine to better spread their gods' cults and also banish hostile angels
Creatures (1 Common, requires fauna): Half-tamed beasts with unnaturally high capacity for growth to work their gods' wills on the world and nom yummy enemy mortals
Archangels (1 Greater, requires angels): Incredible angels promoted to a mere step below the gods to do what must be done and smite impious creatures
Monuments (1 Common): Great trees, mountains, springs, or other imposing representations of the enduring might of their gods
ServantsHigh Priestoods (1 Lesser, requires cult (co-creation OK)): Elders, envoys, or actual priests overseeing the rites and sacrifices
Critters (1 Lesser, requires fauna): Species of wild beasts for bringing great fortune or great ruin to trespassing mortals
Angels (1 Common): An entire host of messengers, envoys, spies, or clerks with innate planar travel abilities matching that of unmaimed gods
BureaucracyBureau (1 Greater, limit 3 per heading deity, requires 2 departments, angels, and office space): An organizational unit managing up to four departments and headed by gods/Incarnae. There is less overhead for performing bureaucratic actions through proper channels, i.e. through the bureau delegating to an appropriate department.
Department (1 Common, limit 4 per bureau, requires angels and office space): An organizational unit with duties covering a sphere/title pair. Spheres/titles not possessed by the founding deity increase the cost by one Petty Piece unless sponsored by other deities or the founding angels in question. A functioning department placed under a functioning bureau can provide up to one effective Aligned Act per turn under ideal circumstances.
ArtifactsArtifacts are generally wearable divine constructions providing bonuses/penalties when used. The exact slot makeup for equipment is under construction.
CultsCult template:
Name (optional): How the cult gets named in updates and such
Deities/spheres/persons/things venerated: What the cult venerates (or fears!)
Offering doctrine(s): What followers do/give up to generate acts for their patron(s)
Miracles/interventions: What followers can commonly expect to do. Think stuff like better harvests, cursing rivals with bad luck, and not meeting bandits on trips and that kind of thing.
More information: Any other information on practices that can help flavor/color the cult's interactions in updates
Cults:
- Early cult chassis (1 Common, min. 1 deity, 1 offering doctrine, 1 miracle/intervention*): (None)
* Subject to rebalancing
Example offering doctrines:
- Burnt offering: Sacrifice food to the god(s)
- Pilgrimage: Travel to sacred sites
- Monument building: Build great monuments to honor (or ward away) the god(s)
- Mortal sacrifice: Sacrifice mortals to the god(s)
- Tithes: Sacrifice valuables to the god(s)
- Vision quests: Commune with the god(s) with special libations
Fighting: Carries the risk of injury and depends heavily on health status or artifacts.
Alteration: Generally costs as much as the next lowest tier, although luck can be used to substitute for part of the cost. Penalties apply for opposed alterations.
Blessings/curses: Temporary bonuses/penalties to various entities. Faulty/Unaligned Acts should be enough for most mortal-scale problems; angels and above probably need Aligned acts.
Smiting: Full smiting generally requires the next lowest tier for decent reliability, but lower amounts can achieve partial smiting.
Divine attributesTitles and spheresGods almost invariably have two titles governing their spheres of interest, although these can be altered or switched under some circumstances. Titles/spheres determine the extent to which an action is aligned, neutral, or anti-aligned. Here are a few examples to convey what's going on:
- Destroyer of Fire: Aligned for acts involving destroying fire or involving destroying with fire, anti-aligned for creative acts mediated by fire or destructive acts not involving fire that could involve fire
- Spawn of Sorrow: Aligned for acts involving sorrow or spawning things more loosely related to sorrow, anti-aligned for joyful acts or acts not involving spawning that could involve spawning
- Feather Sword: Aligned for acts involving birds or warfare, anti-aligned for acts involving peace and the opposite of birds (dribs?)
Should checking titles and spheres end up being too tedious/restrictive, the system may revert to just checking spheres.
Infringing on another god's titles/spheres without their explicit permission flags an action as opposed and will alert said god to the action (even for secret actions!), at which point the god whose titles/spheres are being infringed may elect to react to the action with an action of their own or at least denounce the infringing deity. Allowing infringement to go unchallenged long enough may result in spheres/titles changing hands.
Classes of divinityThis is getting out of hand. Now there are
two classes of divinity?
- Sparks
- Unique creation: None
- Court: None
- Specializations:
- Unquenched
- Unique creation: Grand Artifacts
- Court: Angels, couriers, animals
- Specializations:
- Utter God: Bonus to alteration-related actions, but can only act on the world directly at its edges or most desolate locales
- Howling Gates: 1 free extra planar travel action each turn, but receive a penalty after the second planar jump
- Twice as Bright: Significant bonus to destructive actions, but can die from combat
- Tempered
- Unique creation: Mortals
- Court: Angels, clerks, priests, prophets, couriers, servants, animals, weather
- Specializations:
- Celestial: Can begin building a bureau to maintain the world, but receive a penalty to direct world actions
- Ancestral God: Can directly develop cults, but receive twice the existing species penalty when creating mortals
- Natural: Can begin cultivating a domain in the world, but receive a penalty to interactions with bureaucracy
In difficult times, gods may elect to sacrifice parts of themselves (which generally can't be removed by other gods without full cooperation) for two sphere acts each, and certain great projects require/benefit from the inclusion of gody parts. To account for the fact that different gods can have very different gody plans, sacrificing parts marked with an asterisk removes half of their function. Here is a tentative, incomplete list of parts and their functions:
- Eyes/eyespots*: Penalty to perception; can be used to create orbs and other round things or constructs with divine vision
- Ears/tympanic membranes*: Penalty to perception; reduces connection to mortals/mortal prayers; can be used to create caves or prayer-receiving things
- Nose/gills/antennae: Penalty to perception; cannot detect corruption; can be used to create hills or corruption-sensing things
- Tongue/voicebox: Penalty to communications; cannot speak to mortals; can be used to create divine communicating objects or rivers
- Hand/manipulator limbs*: Penalty to direct actions and crafting; can be used to create mountains
- Heart: This kills the god. Can be used to create ? ? ?
- Lungs*: Cannot create living things; can be used to create locations/things with power over life
- Liver, most organs*: Assorted general penalties; can be used to create particularly powerful magic
- Kidneys*: Penalty to corruption resistance; can be used to create particularly incorruptible locations/things
- Feet/wings/locomotor limbs*: Planar travel requires an act, can be used to create plateaus or portal networks
- Bones/exoskeleton*: Penalty to damage resistance; can be used to grant solidity to the world
Listed penalties apply to the sacrifice victim going forward and not only to the specific action/creation involved. Aside from the given creation possibilities, most gody parts can be used to create functionalized versions of themselves if successfully transplanted to a different god. Communication-related difficulties with mortals as a result of part absences can be bypassed through the use of other modalities or through maintaining a priesthood with matching sacrifices.
Public sheet:
Name: e.g. Vaarsa
Class: Unquenched / Tempered
Specialization: See relevant listing
Titles/spheres (2): e.g. Mother Ocean, Devourer of Coasts
Form: e.g. A gigantic kraken
Description/background: e.g. Vaarsa is a fickle great octopus whose long-standing grudge against the Dry will see many coasts and ships ravaged by her thousand arms, the waves.
Also PM me:
Offensive stance: Aggressive/Careful/Hit and run
Defensive stance: Counterattack/Fortified/Disengage
Name: Yalini
Class: Spark
Titles/spheres (2): Trick of the Light, Bird of Light
Form: A bird made of light.
Description/background: Yalini is a relatively large bird who will not hesitate to bend or break some rules.
Name: ANTHEM-314
Class: Spark
Titles/spheres: Rock of Ages, Ghost in the Machine
Form: A mechanical beetle made of stone.
Description/background: ANTHEM-314 is an ascended machine that outlasted its creators as well as the world where it was created. It is said that it is preparing for the arrival of its creators even now.
Name: Luka
Class: Spark
Titles/spheres (2): Divine Hatter, Protector of the Skulls
Form: A tricorn hat somehow filled with valuable godly organs. Two large eyes adorn the front of the dark black felt hat embroidered with gold.
Description/background: Luka seeks to insure that every head equivalent is under the cozy protection of the Spark's greatest creation, head ware. Will probably become the planet's hat if not stopped with excessive violence, making him the sky.
Name: Yitterblum
Class: Spark
Titles/spheres (2): Star of Chaos, Emperor of Flesh
Form: A Kaleidoscopic Sphere of Viscera
Description/background: Yitterblum's flesh twists in unknowable spirals, organs and bones exposing themselves just to be subsumed back within his depths
Name: A-0
Class: Spark
Titles/spheres: Bird of Night, Beast Builder
Form: A gargantuan raven with feathers of carbon steel.
Description/background: A shadow of a timeline which never was, her primary purpose is to live and exist for the sake of those who cannot, and to build more beings to do the same.
Name:
Neobel Eka- Vahi Virasata VainaClass: Spark
Titles/spheres (2): Noble Heritage, Wine of Life
Form: A multitude of fermenting god organs, wrapped up in grape pustules that occasionally burst into more of the wine that makes up it's twisting orchard of a liquor body.
Description/background: Born from death, given life. NEVVV, seeker of life's waters and pleasures, soother of sorrows and pains. One who seeks, prunes, and ages. Lines continued into the future, the old given new life, aged like fine wines. And a very capricious spark.
Name: Sornlun
Class: Spark
Titles: Usurper of Heavens, Voice of Flame
Form: A moon-centipede of semi draconic parentage, each of its legs is an usurped sun-hair tress, and its shell is adorned with the glittering scales of messenger-dragons it slew. Its eleven eyes are jewels, each carved from a different divine gemstone.
Description/Background: Sornlun was once the Centipede constellation of one of many starry skies, thrust high by the act of a Weaver of Heavens. Sornlun loved the Weaver, and wanted for it to notice it amongst the myriads of constellations, and suns, and lesser stars. In this quest Sornlun usurped and slew many of its astral kin, so much so that it was shunned and banished by the Weaver.
Name: Calamos Gladius
Class: Spark
Titles/spheres (2): Puissant, Bae Victis
Form: A man standing in a chariot with no visible means of draft. The chariot is also part of me and its appearance changes to suit the onlooker.
Description/background: This entity was born out of the desire of living beings for conquest.
Name: Gregory, Dire Rabbit
Class: Spark
Titles/spheres (2): Celestial Pope of Civilisation, The One Who Defies Chaos
Form: A rabbit with the head of a whale, legs of a dragon, tail of a cat and eyes of a bee. They wear a shroud of shimmering silver and glistening aether. Adorned upon their head is a mitre composed of Light; a hologramic projection emanates above the mitre. It displays a crescent moon between a brush and a hammer. The hammer menaces with spikes.
Description/background: Gregory, or Greg, believes in creating an ordered society, one untroubled by the chaos of gods and the world. It has had many roles in its life, from a mere animal, then a corporate celestial executive, to a hero, to a divine beggar, a devilish warlord and now, a god in full. Gregory detests orange produce, seeing it as unnatural.
Name: Gongon
Class: Spark
Titles/spheres (2): Devourer of Sanity, Writhing Mass of Ignorance
Form: A giant writhing transparent maggot, pulsing with inner lines of light, internal organs clearly visible as patches of poorly designed incoherent flesh and gears that shouldn't function properly, false-eyes which see nothing but glow prettily scattered all across its bulk, it's slavering mouth parts an insane frenzy of various designs and styles organic and mechanical and spiritual
Description/background: Gongon is that which feasts on all that is forgotten, and ensuring that is forever lost, devouring libraries with particular relish, and emitting horrible piping wheezing from its corpulent body's struggle to breathe, which can drive mortals mad.
Author
Topic: Sparks of Divinity OOC (10/??) (Read 4666 times)