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In the prosperous city of Vendra there is a grand celebration.

Their mighty phalanxes were victorious over the hated enemy, the now sacked city of Pundlo, and have returned to Vendra carrying piles of precious fabrics and looted jewellery and herds of livestock and captives.

Celebratory wines and meads flow freely from crocks and amphoras. Dancing figures and singing and revelry echoes through the night.

And of course, in the the newly paved open air pillared circle at the top of an unassuming hill near the outskirts of Vendra, Mantios smiled happily as captured soldiers and cattle and rugs and fine jewels were presented to him.

Mantios had promised Vendra victory over her enemies, and had demanded tribute to the lords of the starry sky. Of course, Mantios had made those lords up a few years ago, in shining Zanas, many miles to the south, but these savage warlike hillfolk didn't need to know.

With great ceremony, Mantios began to burn silks worth more than fine horses, and sacrificial blood splattered on marble, all to honour the lords of the starry sky, as battlewounded warriors paid respects around the open aired pillared circle.

And the lords of the starry skies heard the chants, felt the splash of hot blood, smelt the rich smoke, saw the world, so far far far away.

For the people of the world knew them, if only dimly and vaguely, and so in turn they knew the world also, though again dim and vague.

Mantios's neck hairs pricked up, and he felt an uncanny sense of being... watched, by the stars. But he brushed it aside to focus on finishing up the ceremony. Eventually the audience dispersed back to the wider festivities, and all that remaining was the lightly smoking ashes of expensive treasures.

   ***

Arkhun laughs boisterously amongst their brother-soldiers, drinking the most, eating the most, and talking the most. Most look at Arkhum adoringly, some enviously, resentment hidden behind smiling faces.

   ***

Badul is nestled deep in the hills, far from 'civilization'. Here the people hunt, and gather, and farm only little. They are strong and fit, but insular and distrustful. They remember old stories, and dream of times before the low-folk built their stone walls. Simpler times. Bloodier times.

   ***

Pundlo may have been broken, but many soldiers and citizens have fled into the wilderness, fires of determination and revenge burning in their breasts.

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Welcome to Watchers of the Starry Sky. You are a Watcher. An incredibly vast and powerful being, but that is also incredibly distant from the world of your desire and attention, and thus you must act with prudence.

Awareness of the World
Prominence & Other Things
Watcher Contests:
Example uses of Prominence:

Character Sheet
Appearance: What looms in the Night Sky? The Flesh Star with its fringe of pipers and drummers? The broken hourglass ever seeking more time? The pulsing frozen eye, whose gaze tears away at heat?
True Name: Forbidden Syllables...
Sign: That might draw you closer...
One Personality Trait: Easy to Anger? Patient? Likes to go fast?
One Historical Fact: Your favourite pet, now tragically lost? A lover, spurned? A kingdom, abandoned? A people, slaughtered? A planet, devoured?
Hidden Secret: That you hesitate to share...

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.

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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.

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Costs (very much under construction)

Creation





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.

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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.

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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.

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The Earth

Here is the new world in all its blank glory:

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Character sheet

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


Welcome to Animismus, where you are seemingly inanimate pieces of scenery making up the world. Of course, you are not actually inanimate, or this would be a very boring game. You can do things that you would conceivable capable of doing following vague gm animist logic.

Scale and actions:
Smaller spiritual scenery, like the local tree or boulder, can act every turn. Larger scenery, like that river or mountain, can act once per two turns. Truly colossal scenery like a sea or desert can act once per 3 turns.

Time to construct the world! There will be some mortals scattered around to admire the scenery and create drama, so keep that in mind when deciding what the world, and by extension you, will be.

Name: Everything has one!
You are: Boulder,Tree,River,Lake,Valley,Mountain,Cave etc. Feel free to describe in detail.
Intended Scale: Small/Large/HUGE. Size isn't everything~
Quirks: Anything that makes you somehow interesting. Potentially ignored.

Coalescence, a boundary that forms the inside that is you. You become. You know your own existence and become empowered by this certainty. A harmony of resonances freely vibrates with your surroundings, which you now know also exists.

In the sacred simplicity of geometry you think, and thus cement your being, as glorious shadows flicker entrancingly on Crystal Sphere.

Signup Sheet Do not believe their lies. All is false.

Name: Meaningless Vital
Heavenly Tier: The Pecking Order The dirt. The worms inside of the dirt.
Sphere: Elemental Favoured Abstract Frees
Temperament and Humours: The Tower That Is I The Wheel That Is The World
Goals: Impossible Possible
Vice: Sacred Abominable
Virtue: Born In Blood Watered By Liberty

(Appearance is not customizable at game start)

Celestial Mechanisms and Trajectories

Decrees

An decree is the imposition and ordainment of your divine will upon reality. What you can do with an decree is determined by your place in the celestial hierarchy, but there is no limit to your amount of decree per cycle. All divines start with a single decree.

Every echelon will have a certain base allotment of new decrees per cycle, and further decrees may be earned by the adoration of the wise and the mortal and spherical aligning. Divine Cannibalism! Like hungers for like.

Decrees are perfectly capable of creatio ex nihilo, while workings and descent makes using of that which already exists, either your own body or the surroundings.

Decrees are far too intangible to be gifted to other creatures or deities under most circumstances.

Workings

Workings include all activities that are not performed through divine decree. Generally a celestial can perform one working per cycle. Far more prone to failure than acts. A Working must align with at least two of the characteristics of your god (Vice, Virtue, Goal, Sphere, Constellation, Temperament, Name). Workings work at the level of your echelon. Workings cannot create things from nothing, you must have some source to draw from for creative workings.

Spherical Alignment

Favour or Suspicion. With favour you will find your actions going smoother and will occasionally gain bonus decrees. With Suspicion, fate itself seems to scheme against you, and you will find it harder to gather acts from worship. Do not believe their lies. All is false.

The Celestial Hierarchy

The Crystal Sphere hums with the destiny of self-actualization. But every celestial divinity is not suited to the full range of the symphony of infinity. The newborn melodies are all of immense size and stature, able to arrange the heavens and build the tracks of fate, but struggle to perform smaller and finer manipulation, and find much of their potential to be locked up in their immensity.

With precise and surgical amputation, a celestial divinity can be freed from the chains of self, to become something new and more sophisticated, transmute the ethereal and grand into the mundane and humdrum and so descend the hierarchical stairs to ultimate truth. Of course all change comes with a price, and they will find it hard to regain their former glory, and become powerless before the motions of the heavens.

Transcension

You may only descend or ascend a single step per cycle. You may try to aim for a specific appearance for your new self to take on after the transition.

Descending is free and leaves behind a remnant of your former self. You may choose to carry out other actions for a cycle before or after descension, but not both.

Ascending costs two Decrees and will demand all your attention, making Workings unavailable and requiring the reclamation of the appropriate remnant of self. Should one of your remnants be destroyed your path of ascension is broken. Ascending will leave you exhausted, decrees for a cycle will have to be announced before you ascend.

The Tiered Heavens

All gods begin the game as Resplendent Worlds. As echelon differences grow more extreme, it may become harder for the players to communicate with each other or life in general.

- Resplendent Worlds (Zeroth Echelon)
The largest things contained within the infinity of the Crystal Sphere, resplendents are chained by their selves and struggle to impose their will.

The descent of a Resplendent typically produces a celestial body remnant- a planet, moon, sun, asteroid belt, constellation, and so forth.

Example Decrees: Alter the natural laws, create the sky, cover the stars, birth moon-wives.
Example Workings: Physically moving celestial bodies, devouring worlds.

Base Decree Allotment: None
Much more likely to receive decrees from worship

- Radiant Realms (First Echelon)
Continental masses of elemental purpose and boundless power, Radiants are creatures of the earth and sky and thus able to sculpt either at will. They can create and alter regions, but only in sweeping terms- "cool swamps" or "jagged mountains," not "coniferous forests" or "venomous badlands."

The descent of a Radiant typically produces a sapient race or great monsters.

Example Decrees: Lay swamps, arrange volcano chains, weep seas.
Example Workings: Moving mountains, digging chasms, acting as matchmaker between mountain and river.

Base Decree Allotment: 1
More likely to receive decrees from worship

- Shining Spirits (Second Echelon)
Towering whirls and swirls of vital essence, spirits are creatures of life and thus able to mold it on a whim. They can create and alter life, but only specific life- "Tallwood Trees" rather than "forests" or "a variety of poisonous conifers." They also cannot properly create sapient life, though they have some ability to alter existing mortals.

The descent of a Spirit typically produces a flourishing civilization. Spirits gain a second sphere during their descent.

Example Decrees: Creation of specific species of life, drastic altering of an existing species, minor altering of several species.
Example Workings: Evolving a species in a certain direction through selection pressures. Mass-murder. Breeding strains of disease. Planting enough trees to grow a forest.

Base Decree Allotment: 2
Life is more likely to be friendly to them.

- Pearlescent Patrons (Third Echelon)
Imposing entities of divine arrogance, patrons are creatures of civilization and thus able to influence them deeply. They can create and alter the qualities of a civilization, granting them technologies and expertise, directing them to expand or consolidate, and manipulating their values and culture. They must, however, be somewhat specific with these gifts- "teaching metalworking" rather than "encouraging industry."

The descent of a Patron typically produces a heroic individual or great artifact. Patrons gain a third sphere during their descent.

Example Decrees: Introduce democracy to a civilization, spark the invention of windmills, make monogamy taboo.
Example Workings: Destroy a town with your wrath, plague a valley with nightmares, deafen all within miles with your booming voice, forge a kingdom sized wall that could halt an invasion of giants.

Base Decree Allotment: 3
Your worshippers are more likely to fear and obey you.

- Lustrous Ascendants (Fourth Echelon)
Humble entities of scheming purpose, Ascendants are creatures of mortal affairs and thus adept at manipulating them. They can freely interact with individual mortals and their works, coercing and befriending them, procuring objects and information, and aiding and opposing them in direct, personal terms. Their divine power when doing so is limited, however, and as usual they must be rather specific with their manipulation.

Ascendants do not typically descend further. Doing so puts them at great risk, but the effects of reducing themselves to a more or less mortal champion can be surprisingly powerful and deeply personal.

Example Decrees & Workings: Befriend a king. Slay a dragon. Uncover a spy-ring. Found a spy-ring. Assassinate a hero. Craft a magical item.

3 Workings per cycle
Base Decree Allotment: 3
Less likely to gain decrees from worship.

(Drew heavy inspiration for the Celestial Hierarchy from IronyOwl's excellent Mantling of the Gods with permission!)

Everything is gone.
 
One of your surviving enchantments helpfully tells you it has been two-thousand and thirty-two years since you retreated into your own pocket dimension to pursue magical research away from distractions. You struggle to grasp that span of time as you try to put your mind back together.
 
Distractions.
 
Thieves who wanted to steal your healing spells to save their cities from pandemics, not realizing this is exactly what the demons wanted.
 
Short-sighted fools who begged you to defeat the dragon-lords laying waste to entire kingdoms, failing to see the greater horrors the Scaled Ones kept at bay.
 
The agents of pesky godlings, feeling threatened by occult powers that began to creep into their domain, heedless of the foundation of sand they stood on.
 
Once you had grasped at the ultimate essence of magic, you were sure you would be able to finally fix everything. But until then all these irritants were preventing you from completing your grand quest. And so you left them and their world behind, until you were ready.
 
And finally, after years, decades, centuries, millennia, of toil, you were on the cusp of achieving your life-long ambition, when everything broke.
 
Reality shattered, and with it your mind, your magic, the layers upon layers of artifacts and spells you had buried yourself under melting away like ice cubes in a furnace, your extradimensional sanctuary popped like a mere bubble, all beneath the assault of something completely outside your knowledge.
 
Your crumpled body crawled across dry dust, as you looked at a sky filled with cracks, the moons of Home falling apart before your eyes.
 
You never wanted this to happen.
 
So why did it?
 
Have you not spent your entire life, your every moment, grappling with the universe, grasping its secrets one by one, to prevent something like this from occurring? To prevent death and suffering?
 
And yet, you were entirely blindsided.
 
The heavy weight of failure threatens to crush the slowly re-assembling fragments of your mind, the ever-burning pyre of your previously unfaltering will sputtering as your recovering senses inform you of how lifeless and twisted Home has become.
 
But if you gave up now, then would it not all have been truly worthless? Your efforts merely more of the ash and dust you crawl through?
 
Inaction is death. You are not dead. Yet.
> You see now that your long isolation was a mistake. Seek out survivors, if there are any.
> To wonder out into the unknown without preparation, is that not the actions of a fool? Establish a base of operations, which will perhaps become a beacon of hope.
> All the power in the world without understanding and the wisdom to apply it properly is worthless. Your greatest priority should be to determine what just happened.
> You actions are your own. Write in a path of your own choosing.

((OOC Thread))

Five gods crawled into the Golden Bubble. At the center of the bubble floated a softly glowing pearl, emanating golden light that suffused the entire Bubble. Behind them, the hole they had made to crawl into this eggshell sealed shut, but not before a wisp of non-existence slithered in. A shudder ran through everything, as the five knew this space was now tainted, the seed of the Devourer planted.

An eternal moment of tension, as each tried to discern the temperament of this group they had fallen into during their escape through cracks and across non-distance.

By primordial instinct they focused first upon the largest of their number, resembling a whale from the fevered paintings of a blind artist. Oceans poured from massive rents that had been torn in her sides, as the ghosts of shipwrecked sailors cackled gleefully at her misfortune.

Sayyart, the Leviathan who Swallowed the Sea.

A massive orb which promised explosive destruction flickered into existence next to the Pearl and began to lazily orbit it. Sayyart established a connection to this place, and chose her Roles.

---

In the prodigious shadow of Sayyart lurked an even darker blackness which seemed to drink in the golden light. A distorted outline of an ape, like that self-same artist had this time tried to paint a picture of her beloved based on half-forgotten dreams and memories. Radiating menace, he was-

Valosh, the Blind Tyrant.

With a slight shudder, a spiral of uttermost black, completely covered in cruel and jagged hooks and barbs joined the cannonball of Sayyart, as Valosh took up his roles.

---

Half a man of silk and steel floated closer to the Leviathan, driven by millennia of habit to try and heal her seemingly bleeding wounds, the shining light of its fire banishing shadow and bringing the darkness of Valosh into stark contrast with his surroundings.

Nixitar, the Healing Fire

A hand, desperately trying to clutch that which is lost, covered in living flames, appeared next to the Pearl. Nixitar would do his duty.

---

A hunched and wrinkled old man stood to one side, carrying an air of loneliness as he leaned on a exquisitely made crutch, grumbling about shoddily made ships and armour. He examined the bubble itself, looking for ways to improve it.

Wieland, the Chained Smith

A ordinary smith's hammer, wrapped in clinking chains, shimmered into existence beside its fellows, becoming part of an intricate dance around the Pearl.

---

The last of the five was perhaps the most alien, and yet simple. A box, like any made by mortal hands floated serenely. From within ethereal singing sounded.

Kiln of the Crooning Souls

A box, which was perhaps Kiln himself, completed the set, trilling unearthly melodies.

---

As the last chord was strung, a subtle melody began to emanate from the five symbols, something once known as the music of the spheres by long destroyed mortal scholars.

A oily black ocean of icy-cold covered the outer bubble in a sticky layer, protecting and hiding it, as Ocean and Darkness were formed from the melody.

Fire, Cruelty and Healing created a spark of malice and despair that set fire to the oil, causing the entire ocean to burn with tenebrous flames, searing the tendrils of the Great Devourer with the first true agony it had felt in ages of non-time, even as they healed the scratches it had made on the surface of the filmy inner layer of the Bubble.

The music of the spheres became more profound and complex, as souls of music wriggled out of the hole in the box (which box you are not sure), and joined their voices to the harmony, forming Souls and Music. The scent of incense swirled inside the bubble as tiny spots of nothingness imploded into existing. The music was glorious and triumphant, yet melancholic, for they were all OUTCAST. The Five felt a ripple run through them, a unique resonance with their own loss, the outcast survivors.

---

Nixitar watched as the roles the gods had chosen for themselves steadily joined together into a greater whole, forming a defence for their new... home? He waited, expecting Armanents and Artifice to no doubt sprout great cannons from the ocean, to fire upon the Devourer.

But to his dismay, he found that, as always, he had been thinking too small. Focusing only on one tiny window, habit having long since become instinct. And indeed he thought to himself, as the delicate inner film of the Bubble hardened into gleaming golden orichalcum, why would one create tiny needle-shooters, when you could turn the entire Bubble into a massive cannonball, a World-Armanent, wrought by divine Artifice.

---

Sayyart could not help but marvel at the skill of the odd smith, the inside of their refuge not even being effected slightly by the momentum of their rapid movements, as it slammed repeatedly into the Great Devourer, who was not all around.

The pain of her melting senses was slowly fading as the repeated bludgeoning slowly carved out reality from nothing. But she knew in her many guts they had made mere temporary respite. This would never be enough to stop the Devourer.

---

Reality is wavering (35/100 Stability)
The gods are strong

((IronyOwl gave me permission to crib from his Expedition Arcane))

The Undying Court is not pleased. More specifically, they are not pleased with you. Your crimes, real or imagined, have gained you a spot on the latest colonial expedition to new lands, this time a penal colony, after the last several waves of previous settlers were lost, presumed eaten by the locals.

But that's okay! With your mastery of magic, even this is merely a minor hindrance on your inevitable path to ultimate arcane power followed by revenge on those fools who thought to exile you!

Now, you have been given some minders, but you're sure that won't be a problem to someone of your scintillating intellect. Really, the dangers of the hostile environment are likely to be the bigger problem.


7 players, as that is a magically significant number probably, selected via rolling. You may submit an Expedition Sheet even if you do not submit a Character Sheet and vice versa. Expedition Sheets may omit portions you don't feel strongly about. Contents of Expedition Sheets are not guaranteed to make it in, but are not linked to whether you make it in as a player.

((Got a bit lazy with editing the expedition sheet for my version but it should probably be fine.))

You drift through the featureless Aether, it's inimical nature steadily sapping away at your reserves of power. It is your opposite. You are a being of faith, of worship and wonder. The Aether is the cruel and cold foundation of reality, constantly destroying the flights of fancy that sustain your being.

Just as you are about to finally succumb to the depredations of your prison, contingencies put into place so long ago finally activate. The walls of reality have grown thin, the gods that imprisoned you have fallen silent, the lurker at the threshold slumbers, and the stars are right.

Even as you ready yourself to intrude once more on the material plane, to sway people into worshiping you, you cannot help but recall the events that led to you being stuck here in the first place.

Yes, you were once known as [insert name here], [insert title here] of [insert sphere here]! It was that [insert adjective here] [insert nemesis here] who did this to you, all because [insert backstory here].

But now you were back! And this time you would do it right! You would [insert goal here], if only you could gain enough [insert secondary source of power here], and once more have your flock [insert some cult practices here]