Applications for Gods are presently closed!Taken from Caesar's finely crafted and exquisite original ruleset...Godhood V: Legacy Of The Titans OOCGodhood: A game where the players ascend to Godhood, creating a world from the Essence and the Void. An empty world with its lore written by players, yet filled with untold stories of its origins.
Original and subsequent versions created by Caesar. Caesar's ruleset used here with permission.Related pages:
Godhood Game ThreadGodhood IVThis thread is meant for discussions about the Godhood forum game (both silly and serious), discussing one another's writing style, and even for comments from visitors. It is also where you can make suggestions, post your template if you have been accepted to the game, and point out mistakes I made.
The spirit of this game lies in writing a story together. Every player plays a God of their own, influencing the world through godly acts. I myself take the roles of 'Overgod', 'fate' and 'time', which means that I mainly look at the influence the actions of the Gods had on the world and turn them into another part of the story, showing you the consequences of their actions.
We expect a certain degree of maturity, writing skill (including proper knowledge of grammar and spelling) and sincerity. Players are required to use their common sense. (Which I trust they have.)Game RulesGod TemplateName of God:
Titles:
Description of Character:
Spheres:
Manifests as:
Characteristic Animal:
Secondary source of Power:
Divine responsibility:
Name of God: The Name of this God. (Optional: You could be nameless and instead opt to start with a title that fits the God's personality. It will still have to be added to THIS line.)
Titles: These have to be earned, and they relate to certain achievements of the Gods in question.
Description of Character: The general personality and actions that define this Gods.
Spheres: The Spheres that this God is associated with. The God will earn new spheres through belief, or other discriminating actions. Every God starts with one wide sphere, related to either important parts of nature, the elements, life itself or important aspects of humanoid communities. (Examples are: Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Death, Life, Chaos, Order, Love, Hate, War, Peace, Trade and Agriculture.) If you are unsure whether your sphere is wide enough, you can ask me.
Manifests as: The physical description of a God. A God WILL have to manifest to enter the mortal realm and influence in from closer by. The manifestations will have to be remotely humanoid at the least. (So it could be a normal woman or a twisted monstrosity with huge fangs, but not objects like a sword, nor animals.)
Characteristic Animal: Every God is related to a (mundane) animal. This animal will be more important than you might think, as it will determine several aspects of the God's starting situation, along with the ways the God is worshiped and what animal they can manifest as/effect. Try to choose animals that are more likely to be known by people in the more ancient cultures. (So do not choose things like the Blobfish. Do choose things like the eagle, a deer, a grouse or a wolf.)
Secondary source of Power: Every God will receive (a) secondary source(s) of power throughout the game. These are important for they will keep the God alive and increase their influence over the world while they are active. (Example: A temple their worshipers erected.)
Divine responsibility: Gods may be assigned a specific task by their worshippers. They will have to make sure that they take care of this task, or otherwise their followers might start to lose faith. Firm belief of mortals gives the Gods tasks. Taking good care of those expectations by their respective followers will yield great rewards.
Start of Game.
Name of God: Tholag Hammerfist
Titles: None yet.
Description of Character: Enjoys to see people drink, laugh and dance. Tholag Hammerfist strictly follows a code of honor, to never attack an enemy that is not equally armed, nor break your word. Hammerfist despises little people. Tholag uses brute force over tactic in a battle. The Drunk tends to be bad-mannered, and overly friendly.
Spheres: Thunder.
Manifests as: A long and tough man, towering above the average humanoid by about two feet. His face is covered in hair.
Characteristic Animal: Bear
Secondary source of Power: None yet.
Divine responsibility: Organizing feasts amongst the Gods.
(Note that Tholag would have earned part of his Spheres, for example through the unanimous belief of mortals that his laughter causes thunder)
Further into the game.
Name of God: Satoi
Titles: The Bringer of Hail, The Cold
Description of Character: The Cold tends to avoid most other Gods and mortals. Instead, her attention is focused mainly on the tundra, and the harsh life that is lived there. In some winters she will join the falling carpet of snow, strengthening it even further to protect her lands. This is her way of fighting.
Spheres: Ice, Winter, Fishing.
Manifests as: An elderly human woman.
Characteristic Animal: Dire Wolf
Secondary Source of Power: The Pools of Whispers.
Divine responsibility: Ensuring the abundance of fish before the winter months.
- At the start of every turn, all Gods receive acts. The amount of acts they receive are based on their connection with the essence (which should be strongest at the start), the combined strength of their received worship (several fanatic cults could be just as strong as an entire moderate population) and secret factors.
- Theoretically you can store as many acts as you want. At a certain point, however, it might start giving drawbacks to store so much divine energy. Five acts is always safe.
- Going into a negative amount of acts might have severe consequences, potentially ranging from being helpless while your enemies destroy your interests to canceling out your acts and finally to twisting your acts into unintended harmful events. There is also a chance nothing bad happens, if the negative is shallow.
- Any thing you decide to do in each turn will take up acts (except for storing them). Some will be worth even more, although you should try and estimate how much each of them would be worth.
- Try to flavor your acts first in italic text, then summarize the actual effects in bold, like in this example:
He smiled cynically, and then finished his creation, watching as the steam rose from the new pit.T'kernas creates the first automaton.The following two acts would cost one 'number of acts':
The world was pain and pain was the world.
The man screwed his eyes shut and listened to the roar of blood as it churned inside him, rushed on and on by his heart. From half a dozen wounds, his life trickled away, the greedy soil drinking up the crimson fluids, drinking up the man’s warmth and life. He listened to his rational mind as it screamed out for him to do something, anything to keep him alive, if only for a little while longer…
He pushed away those thoughts. He had made his choice, long ago; now… now he had to pay for it. He would not fight death, no, not anymore. He would enter Death’s embrace with open arms, and be taken from this world to the next.
How had it come to this? He reviewed the past few years of his life. Hate, fear, greed… He had listened to these inner voices, these base desires, sought to sate… and they had betrayed him. He was going to die, here on the plains, where already the carrion eaters were descending, calling out in anticipation of the coming feast.
He could almost feel their cold beaks tearing into him, rending his flesh in search of a hot meal.
After a moment or so, he forced himself to open his eyes.
The grey skies yawned in an endless abyss before him, stretching into forever. The man could already see a murder of crows wheeling around in the skies, slowly descending to begin their macabre feast.
The abyss of grey seemed to comfort the man. I will watch over you. my son, the skies seemed to tell him, in the soothing voice of a mother, I will watch over you till the day the world ends. All you need to do is stand up.
He heeded the call of the skies and gazed into its depths. The man felt something, deep in his heart of hearts, change as he did so. Despair left his body as eagerly as the blood that flowed from his wounds, and a hope, a wondrous, terrifyingly beautiful hope, surged through his very soul.
Stand up, my son. Stand up. Now, the man could hear a voice reverberating inside his skull. It was a woman’s voice, soft and lilting. When she spoke, it sounded like she was about to sing.
Her voice cut through the pain-induced stupor that the man had been lying in, giving him a sense of serene clarity.
Ignoring the pain, and his fatigue, he managed, with no small effort, to push himself into a kneeling position.
The battlefield was silent, save for the cawing of the crows and the unsteady beating of the man’s heart.
He looked up once more, and stared into the grey depths of the sky.
Good. Now, my son! You must stand. The voice spoke once more. Her tone was encouraging, and the man felt heartened by it.
He placed his hands on the ground, digging his fingers into the bloodied soil. The man’s first attempt failed, leaving him sprawled on the ground.
The second time around, he managed to stumble to his feet.
For the first time, the man was able to see the ruin that had been wrought.
All around him were the bodies of his brothers, hacked and twisted and torn apart. Their blood stained the earth till the soil was reduced to a thick, almost porridge-like muck.
All around him, he could see his fallen brethren, their bodies hacked to bits by swords and axes, or torn into ribbons by arrows. All their faces were twisted into mocking parodies of their past selves. A sea of grimacing gargoyles and grisly masks surrounded him.
Already, the carrion-eaters had descended, and were picking at the dead faces, tearing their cold clammy flesh with their beaks.
Now, my son! Stand! Stand up, and become my Champion.
The man, resolve welling in his veins, forced himself to stand. He ignored the pain, ignored his body as it screamed to him to stop.
He ignored it, and slowly, but surely, managed to stand up.
The Goddess saves a nameless soldier from the dead and makes him into one of her Champions. - One act
Sei'imeri walked quietly through the small town, in her guise of an elderly woman. She liked touring various settlements like this, the vibrant life of communities appealed to her, hearing the general hubbub, seeing the different people, smelling the aromas of bakeries and kitchens. All around her, the brick and wood houses rose up, crowding around each other like stone trees of a forest. The crowd of people went along the roads about their business, marching along like ants. Shopkeepers, merchants, and customers bartered. The men at the tavern laughed and boasted drunkenly. The children shouted as they played 'knights and orcs'. Sei'imeri simply took in the vibrant, living chaos with a smile as she walked along.
But something caught her eye. A small house stood on the street, that strangely acted like an oasis of silence amid the activity of life. People quieted as they neared, and hurried on past as quickly as they could. No peddlers or merchants dwelled near it. And the children stayed as far away as they could. Curious, Sei'imeri stopped a man on his way down the street. "Excuse me, sir. Why is that house silent?" Sei'imeri asked, doing her best impersonation of an innocent question. The man looked to the house and made a gesture with his hands as if to ward off evil.
"That house is cursed. A woman lives there, some kind of witch I say." The man replied in a hushed whisper. "The people say she sacrificed her husband so she could give birth to a demon." Now that was interesting. Demons were a form of life she hadn't experimented with much. Sei'imeri wondered exactly how a mortal womb could grow a demon without burning up. Assuming this hearsay was true of course. Mankind had the annoying habit of label everything they didn't like under the sun as 'demon'.
"Oh? Did anyone see the ritual or sacrifice?" Sei'imeri asked. The man shook his head.
"No, but the husband was murdered after she became pregnant. And shortly thereafter, the baby in her womb became misshaped and bizarre. And she began moaning in pain, as the demon's blood mixed in her womb. She's dabbling with the occult, I swear. You'd do well to leave that house alone, lest she takes a fancy to your heart." The man warned. He made another gesture with his hands as he hurried on. Sei'imeri just sighed. Typical really. It seemed much more likely to her that it was a combination of an unfortunate accident and a bad pregnancy. Still, on the off-chance that the man's rumors were right, she went up to the house, and entered.
Much like the exterior, the interior of the house was eerily quiet. It was still and dusty, the only light coming in from the windows outside was blocked by curtains giving the place a dark look. The only noise was a soft moaning coming from one of the bedrooms. Following it Sei'imeri saw a woman lying on a bed. She was pale, her hair was unkempt and matted, and her skin was dirty. She was dressed in a plain dress, a uniform tan in color. Sure enough, she had the swollen belly of pregnancy, one that seemed too large for an unborn human baby. She looked over weakly at Sei'imeri.
"Who are you?" She asked softly, confused, curious, and somewhat afraid.
"Don't worry, I'm a healer. Call me Sei," Sei'imeri said. That was true enough, often the prayers for healing of wounds and infections came to her, and often she answered them. "Let me see if I can help you." The woman just nodded, and winced and groaned again.
"Please... can you make the hurting stop? This thing is killing me..." The woman said. Sei'imeri came up and gently laid a hand on the swollen belly, causing the woman to flinch again. Though she said nothing, she felt the energies of the life in her womb. It was wild, chaotic, uncontrolled, and would soon be fatal, but it was not demonic.
"They say it was a baby demon in here." Sei'imeri started. The woman started to protest, but Sei'imeri held up a hand. "But I know it isn't. But neither is it a human. It is simply flesh, growing out of control. and you're right, it will kill you if nothing stops it."
"Why has Sei'imeri cursed me?" The woman murmured, closing her eyes.
"My dear, this isn't Sei'imeri's work." Sei'imeri said.
"But...how do you know? Who's is it then?" The woman asked softly.
"I doubt it's anyone's work. The dice of fate simply gave you a bad roll," Sei'imeri said, placing a hand on the woman's belly again. There was a soft glow, and the woman gasped. She sat up, feeling herself. The swollen belly was still there, but the pain had abruptly vanished, leaving behind a relief that was almost euphoric. She looked to the 'old healer' that had come to her, and saw the youthful visage of Sei'imeri smiling back. "And I think I would remember making this shipwreck of a pregnancy. I know my own work."
"You...you're..." The woman stammered, staring wide eyed at Sei'imiri. The goddess just nodded.
"I am Sei'imiri. I'm the growth of all that lives. Be it the crops of the field, the animals of the wilderness, the plants of the forest, of life that man has not yet discovered that causes plague and disease. And of the young children, even the unborn." Sei'imeri said.
"S...sei... forgive me..." The woman said, doing her best with the large belly to bow prostrate before the goddess. Sei'imeri simply reached down and helped the woman up.
"Don't worry, I'm not angry with you. I understand. I'd feel the same way if I were in your situation." Sei'imeri said, helping the woman back down on her bed. "Now, as it so happens that I'm looking for a vessel for a project of mine. I figure I can accomplish two goals with one miracle." She put her hand back on the woman's belly. Again it glowed, and the womb began reducing in size. The chaotic, cancerous flesh within it was reduced, and that which remained organized itself into proper organs, cells, and tissues. Order was imposed on the disease as it transformed, as an unborn child was formed in the woman's belly. "You won't die, and you'll have your child. She'll be healthy, and grow up to be a fine woman. The catch is though, she won't be human. She'll be the first of my new people." The woman blinked, her mouth agape a little as she took in this sudden, heavy news. Sei'imeri just chuckled and used one finger to close her open mouth.
The goddess got up, after the baby was formed, and turned to the door. On her way out, she glanced over her shoulder. "Oh, and you might want to get up and have a bath. Make yourself presentable you know. Some guards will be over, in about an hour they'll be telling you that a man they caught confessed to killing your husband. You won't have to worry about that silly demon business anymore. Take good care of my child." Before the woman could respond, Sei'imeri faded from view, leaving just a small butterfly that fluttered out the window.
Sei'imeri saves a pregnant woman from dying and transforms the cancerous fetus into the first of her new species. - One act
Thatkid: Promidalchus [Nature] (Raven)
King Of The Weasels: Jilganheim [Chaos] (Weasel)
10ebbor10: Aeolos [Weather] (Peregrine Falcon)
Micelus: Orseth [Plots] (Dwarf Crow)
Vagel7: Imber [Water] (Shark)
Fniff: Slask [Forests] (Wolf)
Adwarf: Kain [Earth] (Mole)
Shootandrun: Dolrael [Earth] (Bear)
NUKE9.13: Tokchoko [Light] (Lizard)
Ghazkull: Utran'Vitran [War] (Carrion Crow)
Yes, this is copied word-for-word from Caesar's Godhood. I'm not proud of that, but when I tried to revise it I realised that there was nothing I wanted to change. There are nevertheless some additions.
I will be accepting 8 players. When writing up your God application, please include a writing sample in the style of an Act to demonstrate your fluency with basic spelling and grammar.Turn 0: The Age of TitansIn the very first turn of the game, players do not play their gods at all but instead play titanic behemoths with unspeakable power. Each Titan is aligned with a Sphere as the gods are and start with five Titanic Acts, which are significantly more powerful than normal Acts. During Turn 0, the Titans collaborate or compete to create the world.
At the end of Turn 0, any Titans still left alive will die. This is to give the players a chance to engage in world-building on a truly titanic scale before the much more subtle manipulation of play as a divinity begins.
Titanic Acts are not capable of fine manipulation, but outstrip divine Acts by several orders of magnitude. You cannot delicately change the life of a single mortal or interact with worshippers on an individual level (not that you need to). You
can sink an entire continent or raise one on a whim. Examples that require one Titanic Act include:
(+) Raising a continent from the deep, or a mountain range.
(+) Splitting a landmass in half or reshaping it to your whims.
(+) Causing a region to become flush with flora or fauna of a specific or generic kind (e.g. "green plants", "forest", "oak trees", "animals", "mammals" or "monkeys" would all be appropriate).
(+) Creating a new type of life and proliferating it.
(+) Enforcing unique and persistent conditions (e.g. a region forever struck by frost, an expanse where lava continuously churns rather than forming a solid crust, or a vast expanse of black oil that sucks down anything that trespasses into it).
(+) Uplifting an entire species to sapience.*
A Titan that has no Titanic Acts left can be slain by another Titan at the cost of an Act - the slain Titan can perform one last Act as part of its death throes and the slayer may extend the effect of the Act he used to slay the victim as if he were conducting a normal Act. In other words, Titan-Slaying can happen as part of a normal Act. Two Titans with one Titanic Act left can slay each other in this manner (and thus effectively perform two acts each). Otherwise, all Titans will die by the end of Turn 0.
Only one sapient species will survive to the end of Turn 0, and likely in a very primitive state indeed. Any excess sapient species will die out, leaving only ruins and other indicators of their status as ancient, long-dead predecessors. If no sapient species are created, or if all die out during Turn 0 as a result of Titanic actions or otherwise, humans will arise by default.
You can only take on a Titan when I have accepted your application for a God. Titans should be physical creatures, of any size or form. Unlike Gods they have a definite form, may be biologically immortal, but are very definitely otherwise mortal. Turn 0 will take place over an undefined period spanning several aeons. You can put in your titan app at the same time as your god app.
Name: Pyro
Sphere: Fire
Appearance: An enormous dragon, wreathed in flames.
Name: Nyx
Sphere: Void
Appearance: A swirling maelstrom, consuming all in its path.
Name: Yggdrasil
Sphere: Life
Appearance: A massive oak with roots stretching for miles around.
Edit: I have just discovered the existence of another Godhood thread. That said, if anyone wants to play this one I'm still game to host it!
Limits of one Minor Act:a) Destroy a single building or structure of no more than two storeys, or force open the gates of some sort of fortified structure.
b) Change the genetics of up to two individuals to create a sub-race, passed on either by breeding or by 'infection' (in the case of Night Reavers).
c) Flood a town or otherwise small geographic area, or cause a similar natural disaster.
d) Teach one technology to a whole people.
e) Spread up to 3 technologies from a neighbouring people to one they have contact with.
f) Kill up to 3 people outright, with no save (raining fire would be more effective for mass destruction but you can't guarantee who dies).
g) Create an artefact with local supernatural powers, able to affect a single person or small group of people at a time with greater or lesser effects.
Said artefact cannot, for example, level mountains. It could raise a wall around a town.
h) Incarnating for an extended period, e.g. to lead your followers personally.
Appearing to your followers for up to an hour at a time as an illusion of light and sound costs no acts. Performing any true physical activity does cost an act, but if it is something as simple as untying a rope the power of the act will shape fate in the deity's favour as a result of the action.
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Topic: Godhood V: Legacy Of The Titans [OOC] (Read 25463 times)