It was a swift ship, sleek and low and black flag billowing. It pounced out from a sheltered cove, and you could only watch in dread as your lumbering vessel tried to escape, the atheric engine increasing in pitch as it shifted wind and water to gain whatever speed it could.
There was no fortunate escape, or miraculous wind securing a race to freedom. The pirates sent a cannonball soaring over the deck in warning, and the merchant captain argued with the navigator and struck the colors. The hum of the aetheric engine lowered, and the wind dissipated, allowing the pirates to board.
You’re not sure what happened next, as the navigator waved his hand and blue fire consumed the pirate’s captain before a musket ball blew through the spellcaster’s head. Steel flashed and a deadly brawl spread throughout the ships. Only later do you recall the merchant captain slipping below the deck, and the hum of the aetheric engines rise to a fevered pitch. The pirates had the upper hand, but fate had other plans for you as the ship erupted around you in a flash of light and aetherium. The last sight you recall is burning eyes in the darkness before the water swallows you whole.
You wake up. The sheets are rough against your skin, but in a bed you lay, surrounded by 4 wooden walls. Daylight streams through a open window, the sounds of the sea being carried with it. Only a few minutes pass before the door opens and you are greeted with a cry of surprise to see you awake.
A local fisherman found you and a few other survivors on a beach, piled you into his boat and took you back to his village, Seatree. A trip he made with all speed, engine strained to its limit. For while finding one Mighty on a beach is remarkable, finding several is a portent not seen since the ages of Myth.
So rise, ye Mighty. Deeds fell and great are yet to be done.
Welcome to Rise of the Mighty. You play as Mighty, divinely empowered heroes and champions in a world wracked by disaster. You are in the land of Logadia, split from the Eternal City and the Republic by the Abyss which has consumed the seas.
Creating your Mighty:
-Name:
-Appearance:
-Goals/Ambitions: Why burning desire led to you being chosen?
-Aspects: Start with 3 Aspects
A word representing a portion of the divine fire empowering your abilities. Aspects can be elemental, such as fire or night, human nature, such as love or vengeance, or a skill such as sword or dance. (Godbound words good example). Possessing an Aspect changes and empowers you just by having it, what way do your aspects effect you? Examples: Fire-can control fire and is immune to it. Vengence-You never miss against someone who has harmed you. Dance- Dancing is just as restful as sleep to you, and are able to communicate with any intelligent creature with your body language.
Three Stats: Assign 4 dice, no category can start with more than 2.Prowess: Physical ability, from fighting to dexterity. Can be used for acts of both physical strength and dexterity.
Resolve: Strength of spirit and convictions. Can be used for convincing others, wielding raw power and resisting corruption.
Cunning: Intelligence and Plotting. Can be used for rituals, designing machines, crafting complicated plots.
In addition, come up with two gifts based on your aspect(s). Gifts are bound to a single aspect. Gifts are abilities/miracles that you can easily call upon.
When you perform an action that has a possibility of failure or interesting consequences, choose a stat that is related to your action. The rating in the stat will be rolled, (example Prowess:2 will roll 2d6 and take the highest of the two dice.)
A roll of 6 suceeds, no extra consequences resulting from the action.
A roll of 4-5 suceeds, however there is an extra complication.
A roll of 1-3 fails.
Your effectiveness and possible consequences are fiction dependent, but when the odds are bleak and the situation is do or die, your action becomes desperate. When performing a desperate action, you gain an additional XP, however, the dangers and possible consequences are more severe. You can volunteer to take desperate actions to increase your position or effect while also gaining the additional XP.
Gifts: Specialized uses or aspects of your power. Some gifts are constant, such as giving your Mighty wings or immense strength. Others allow you to summon storms or fire on command, raise the dead, forge a thousand swords in a minute of work.
-Guidelines on Gift Creation:
*Increase Armor/Resistance/Immunity: Can use your aspect to negate damage/ consequences or environmental hazards.
*Attack Booster: Can be used to improve your combat capabilities for a round of attacks. Generally can increase your effect level and an additional effect.
*Enhanced Weapon: Summon or wield a “magic” weapon, that can slay most supernatural foes who are resistant to mere steel.
*Smite/Direct Damage: Directly use your aspect to smite a foe. Does a guaranteed amount of damage according to your effect level.
*Instant Death: Instantly kill/ enslave, or impair a foe. Generally most effective against lesser foes, worthy ones can resist.
*Knowledge Gathering: Use your aspect to draw upon hidden things of the world, or reveal the hidden or unknown.
*Create physical objects or materials.
*Summon creatures and minons. Minions usually last until the ability is used again.
Come up with two gifts based on your aspect(s). Gifts are bound to a single aspect.
Dominion: You accrue Dominion by performing heroic deeds and from worship from your cult. Dominion can then be invested to enforce permanent changes in the world. The cost of the change is related to how far reaching and plausible, with impossible changes requiring a quest or heroic deed to accomplish. Influence represents your personal attentions, and can be subbed in for dominion use. Dominion can create a formidable castle, a cadre of spellswords, flowers producing healing nectar, etc etc.
Scope: Cost
Village:1 -Villages, a few square miles, 1,000 people
City:2 -Major city, ten miles square, 100,000 people
Region:4- Province, a thousand square miles, 1 million
Nation:8- An entire kingdom, 100 million people
Realm:16- The whole world, Billions of people
This cost is then multiplied by the difficulty and implausibility of the change, with a modest and plausible change having a cost of 1, a implausible change bending the rules of (human) nature requiring 2, and flat out impossible or unthinkable changes costing 4. Impossible changes often require a Mighty Deed to be done to cement the change or find necessary components.
-Name:
-Level: 1 (XP:0)
-Aspects:
-Appearance:
-Goals/Ambitions:
-Prowess:
-Resolve:
-Cunning:
-Effort: 3
-Health: Unharmed
-Influence:2
-Dominion:0
-Preferred Weapon:
-Gifts:
Actions:
Actions with a possibility of failure or interesting consequences are rolled, based on a relevant stat.
A roll of 6 suceeds, no extra consequences resulting from the action.
A roll of 4-5 suceeds, however there is an extra complication.
A roll of 1-3 fails.
You can improve your chances of success by channeling your divine power. If using Effort through a gift or miracle, you add +1 die to your roll.
When taking an action, declare what stat you are using and any relevant gifts or miracles you are using, in Bold .
Upon leveling up, you:
-Gain in Potency (base potency is equal to your level.)
-Gain 2 Gifts
-Every odd-numbered level gain a Stat point.
Gain Xp by going on adventures, completing goals, spending dominion and performing desperate actions.
Levels/ XP required
1/0
2/ 5 xp
3/ 10 xp
4/ 20 xp
5/ 40 xp
6/ 65 xp
7/ 90 xp
8/ 120 xp
9/ 155 xp
10/ 195 xp
You are in the land of Logade, conquered by the Republic centuries ago. Roughly a hundred years ago, a civil war split the Republic. House Vandire, who controlled the land of Logade, was on the losing side. Legions once again landed on its shores, but were unable to defeat Vandire before the Abyss came over the seas.
The Abyss darkened the waters, unleashing terrible monsters and making long distance sea travel impossible. The Republic legions were isolated and cut off, pressed by the armies of House Vandire. Then a dark god rose in the capital of Logade, Cerana, slaying tens of thousands. Many Mighty from both sides gave their lives defeating the god, including two of Lord Vandire’s children.
With the devastation caused, a truce was called between the Vandire territory and those still claiming allegiance to the Republic. With the loss of communication and supplies, however, many of the remaining legionaries turned bandit and warlord, carving up the land into petty fiefdoms. A local Senate still clings to life in the coastal city of Neonilus, hoping for a way through the Abyss to be found. They survive in the face of Mighty warlords and pirate armadas, and focus on maintaining the ties with various other cities up and down the coast.
Their strongest ally is the city of Kalibee, ruled by their council of High Sorcerors. Powerful enough to survive somewhat independently the first Republic invasion, the post-Abyss world has advantaged them the most.
TLDR: Setting in Logade, cut off from rest of the world by mysterious Abyss. Many Mighty Warlords terrorize the land, with a few protected cities remaining as bastions of civilization.
What/Who are the Mighty?:
Blessed with a part of the divine fire that forged the world, they possess the ability to shape the world in a limited way,, much as god might. Some are the children of gods, others chosen by some other unknown power, or chance event.
The Mighty are rare, but the most frequent Mighty seen can draw upon a single Aspect, a way to view and shape the world. Most can draw upon aetheric energy to cast magic and rituals, though some are more gifted at those arts than others.
The Chosen are those Mighty who posses the ability to manipulate two Aspects. They are some of the most powerful to be found, often becoming founders of great houses in the Republic.
Those Mighty able to draw upon three or more are whispered in legend and myth as Primordials. Founders of legendary nation-states, who slaughtered gods and built halls from their bones. Prophecies of the end of the world speak of their return.
Here is a quick list of words from Godbound you can draw from or use as inspiration. Feel free to make your own Aspects as well!
Alacrity :Agility and swiftness in motion
Artifice :Building, repairing, and destroying objects
Beasts :Command and transformation of beasts
Bow :Ranged combat and impossible accuracy
Command :Leadership, rule, and enforced obedience
Death :Undead, death, and the dying
Deception :Trickery, stealth, illusion, and lies
Earth :Stone, strength, soil, and obdurate hardness
Endurance :Tireless vigor and scorn for injury
Fertility :Plants and growth both unnatural and normal
Fire :Heat, smoke, light, fury and lust
Health : Vigor, healing, and the command of disease
Journeying : Swift, unhindered travel over far distances
Knowledge : Knowledge both mundane and supernatural
Luck: The having and giving of luck good and bad
Might: Raw strength and its use in tremendous deeds
Night: Darkness, sleep, night-passage and dreams
Passion: Emotion, devotion, grudges, and yearnings
Sea: Water, seas, rivers, sea-beasts, and purification
Sky: Weather, lightning, flight, and winds
Sorcery: Initiation into theurgic spellcasting
Sun: Light, vision, truth, heat and banishingu
Sword: Melee combat and unarmed struggles
Time: Prophecy, postcognition, and time-weaving
Wealth: Money, prosperity, and abundant goods
