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Author Topic: Lore thread - Of Substance and Spirit - Think we're ready to make characters?  (Read 16085 times)

WillowLuman

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@HBM: On another note, I think we may have scared off people with our walls of text, which is unfortunate, as we need some more input if we are ever to come to consensus here.
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~Neri

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I will finish character tomorrow. It's like almost 2 in the morning.
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Harry Baldman

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@HBM: On another note, I think we may have scared off people with our walls of text, which is unfortunate, as we need some more input if we are ever to come to consensus here.

I scared myself off with my walls of text. Actual people don't stand a chance.

The way in which I imagined spirits to be alien is that, as opposed to generalist humans, they are specialists. Reflecting their status as splinters from a larger whole, instead of encompassing a whole panoply of ideas, an individual spirit's identity is centered around a narrow range of concepts, emotions, or themes. They might grow to understand and appreciate broader ranges from experience (and prolonged hosting with a human partner can help round out their mind), but each one settles into a domain (though the elements comprising this can be linked in rather esoteric ways, since the spirit draws these conceptual connections themselves in their formative period).

You might say that, for spirits and humans, each seems inside-out to each other. Spirits can undergo quite a lot of external change, but are very set internally, while humans are much more malleable internally, but are difficult to budge externally.

Though this seems sensible enough, if not any kind of basis for alienation or even likely to play out in-game. We perceive every other individual in our lives as a narrow range of concepts, emotions and themes, do we not? So a spirit to an external observer is mentally no different than a human.
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WillowLuman

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Well, I suppose from a human perspective a spirit would appear very obsessive, being fixated on the things comprising their domain, and most spirits would seem to have exaggerated personalities.

Another idea I had recently, that might be used to explain things, is some kind of "racial memory." Meaning, the spirit world, somewhat like the spirits that spawn from it, absorbs thoughts and ideas, but unlike spirits it doesn't have a will, it's just sort of a vast unconsciousness. Spirits return to it and bring ideas and thoughts along with structure, but the ideas the world itself absorbs from are world are diluted infinitely through the uniform chaos. However, when spirits pinch off from it, they get this dilute mixture of memories, buried very deeply in their minds.
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Keep Me Safe - A Girl and Her Computer (Illustrated Game)
Darkest Garden - Illustrated game. - What mysteries lie in the abandoned dark?

WillowLuman

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With the end of term, the time to start this draws near.
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Dwarf Souls: Prepare to Mine
Keep Me Safe - A Girl and Her Computer (Illustrated Game)
Darkest Garden - Illustrated game. - What mysteries lie in the abandoned dark?

~Neri

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Do we have a defined charactersheet?
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WillowLuman

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Yes

Spirit
Name: Self-explanatory
Description: How the spirit often appears (it should be insubstantial in some way, like translucent or seeming to be made of light/energy, for instance), what their personality is.
Abilities: The magical spirity things the spirit can do, on their own. Spirits may have some abilities in common, but they have unique specialization and style. Some examples: energy projection, illusions, various ways of messing with matter, control over certain things, doing things with temperature. Get creative. Just bear in mind spirits have a hard time doing anything directly physical.
Human
Name:
Description: Physical and personality description. Their usual clothes, if you feel like it.
Abilities: Human skills. Athletic or strong? Smarts? People skills? Education or understanding of the world? Are they a fighter? Technical know-how? Professional?
Backstory:
The backstories of the human and the spirit, including how they met and how they came to form their bond. It's important to explain why they trust each other, despite the usual sentiments between humans and spirits. This can be for any number of reasons, including ignorance of said sentiments.
Combined Abilities:
What can they do while hosting? This is a spectacular power boost, more than just the sum of their individual capabilities. In general, the human body gets an all-round boost to physical capabilities and resilience, while the spirit's powers are amplified and become able to affect the material world in a much more direct way. It's relatively short-lived and spectacular, so feel free to think of some special effects for its duration.
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Rolepgeek

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'Dis looks cool. I'll waitlist, mebbe, if nothing else.
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WillowLuman

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I think I'm ready to kick this into motion. I'm creating a new OOC thread, which will have more organied OP, and where we'll do the signups. I'll post a link here when it's up. This thread might still be used, I'm not sure.
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Dwarf Souls: Prepare to Mine
Keep Me Safe - A Girl and Her Computer (Illustrated Game)
Darkest Garden - Illustrated game. - What mysteries lie in the abandoned dark?

WillowLuman

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Dwarf Souls: Prepare to Mine
Keep Me Safe - A Girl and Her Computer (Illustrated Game)
Darkest Garden - Illustrated game. - What mysteries lie in the abandoned dark?
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