Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Auspex7 03-31-08, 09:22 PM	one night, after a quadruple overdose of geeksauce (i had finished reading "A Game of Thrones", talked to a player about an idea for a class concept, had been thumbing through FC1, and was preparing for my next game night), a notion kind of whomped into my brain: souls are like votes. they are empowering. devils, demons, gods... all of these beings (and more) gain strength from them in various ways. my next thought was... "why can't people?" after a bunch of consideration, a vain attempt at going to sleep, a lot of mountain dew, and some time on the phone with a buddy, this mess happened... the name of the world is...unimportant. i have it written down, but it's not something we toss around at the table. we just say "the world" a bunch when speaking globally. feels organic that way, i guess. Creation Lore*: *central to this 'world' is the idea that many different Prime Material Planes exist, occupying the same 'slot' in the Great Wheel. i like viewing them as alternates which can each be reached via the Planes, although any portal to 'The Prime Material Plane' will invariably take a traveler to his/her own world, unless some Serious Stuff goes down allowing them access to other variants. as a result, humans, dwarves, elves, etc can be encountered throughout the Planes despite originating in a world different from the world of the PCs. the creation lore here only accounts for the creation of the world within the Prime Material Plane of the PCs, rather than the whole cosmology. the Beginning started as a "merger" of sorts between the Dragon Mother (the source of the Divine), and the Elf Father (the source of the Arcane--a sort of manifestation of the Weave). These two sources spawned their Selves first, and eventually spawned the world, and 3 offspring to occupy it. the first of these offspring was The Crafter--a dwarf. to pay tribute to his Mother and Father, he began shaping the world, creating landscapes and features. he also crafted beings in the images of his parents--dragons after his Mother, elves after his Father, and the Lizard Men after both. his imagination, vision, and skill amazed the creators, and they rewarded him by allowing him to create a race in his own image. the other two offspring were loved no less, but were their own beings, and knew they could not match the achievements of the Crafter. the second--an orc--was arrogant and impatient, and believed himself quite clever. rather than offering a tribute to his parents, he attempted to create his own progeny, which failed miserably, resulting in hobgoblins and goblins. seeing his failures walking the world beside the races of his brother's creation, the second became enraged. he smote the world so mightily that the land shattered, and the world bled oceans that separated the land into continents. this single, cataclysmic act changed much. the second became the Destroyer, and all at once earned the hatred of the Crafter, adoration from his Mother, and estrangement from his Father. the Mother reasoned that the Destroyer had succeeded in creating by breaking the earth to allow the oceans to rise. the Father, viewing things through different eyes, saw the nature of the Destroyer for what it was, and forsook him. to reward the Destroyer for creating the oceans, the Mother requested that the Crafter create a race in his brother's image. despite his hatred of his brother, the Crafter complied out of love for his Mother, and the orcs were born into the world. the third--a human--was dominated by an inquisitive nature. he saw much, learned quickly, and initially found himself content to observe, explore, and celebrate the world. he travelled between the races, learning and teaching much, though never finding himself content enough to remain in one place for too long. in his travels, he discovered new ways to accomplish many things. he created a boat to travel between the continents, tamed a horse to ride accross the plains, and was the first to create a written language. over time, he became more and more aware of a few undeniable truths... 1. as time went on, the various races became jaded. the farther they were removed from their own births, the less they appreciated or acknowledged their creators. they lacked passion. 2. he was not content. through his attempts to mimic the instinctive and natural interactions of the elves with his Father, the third had learned that he could shape the Weave through study and manipulation. through his exploration of the nature of things, he saw that Life and Magic were larger by far than the world. this led him to believe that there must be still more beyond the world, and that these places were within his reach, if he could only find the ways to them. the third took pause. he had grown very wise through his many experiences, and far surpassed the Crafter and the Destroyer in innumerable ways. despite this, and despite his unequaled love for his Mother and Father, the third had created nothing to offer them in return for their gifts to him... ...and so he created the Great Solution. after a period of isolation and preparation, the third went to his brother, the Destroyer, and he began regaling him with stories of time spent among the races created by the Crafter. he told the Destroyer of all of their achievements, and of their beauty. and then the third told the first lie. he told the Destroyer that the Mother and Father favored the other races over the orcs, goblins, and hobgoblins. the Destroyer became enraged, and the third pressed on. he told the Destroyer that he would soon present the Mother and Father with gifts beyond those given to them by either the Crafter or the Destroyer, and that he, too, would be granted a race in his image. in a fit of murderous anger, the Destroyer did exactly as the third knew he would... he struck the third with a blow so powerful that his soul--the infusion of Life and Magic in all the races--was shattered. sensing what had transpired, the Father took hold of his son's consciousness, and thrust it into another place, where it could exist without a complete soul. unbeknownst to the Destroyer, he had helped the third create--and become master of--Death. upon believing himself to have annihilated the third, the Destroyer became possessed of the desire to do the same to the Crafter. he turned away from the corpse of the third, and sought out the dwarf, rife with hate. having sensed what transpired, the dwarf took up the hammer he used to shape the world, and rushed to fight the Destroyer. seeing this, the Father and Mother shredded the souls of the Crafter and Destroyer, and the Father threw them into their own places beyond the world. next, the Father and Mother took an accounting of all that had transpired. seeing that the third had given the races cause to cherish their own gifts, and to celebrate them, they created a race in his image to live on the world with their own races. next, they pulled away from each other...the Elf Father enmeshed himself more with the Weave, and the Dragon Mother infused her essence in all life on the world. from that point forward, the souls of every being in the world became stronger than the souls of beings from any other place, as they were the final representation of the bond of Life and Magic. each race could create more souls through reproduction, but each race also would eventually suffer a final death.
Auspex7 03-31-08, 09:26 PM	reserved
Auspex7 03-31-08, 10:49 PM	Why the Creation story is relevant: 1. "souls are like votes". the votes from this world count for more than votes from elsewhere. as a result, divine beings with access to this world have tremendous interest in it. the only gods able to interact with this world are the ones in the creation story. non-gods, on the other hand, are a totally different story. Devils and Demons, most notably, are *very* interested in the world... 2. mortals from this world can ascend. this is a very big deal in this setting. as people experience life--whether in the 'leveling up' sense, or via celebration of life--their souls become more and more vibrant. this isn't to say they become superheroes. what it means is that the more a person "lives", the more close they become to their own divine heritage. the way this plays out in the game is like this: as you gain levels beyond 10th, you very gradually begin aging slower, and remaining vigorous of body. your capacity to continue to flourish will eventually (ie, at epic levels) become undeterred by the passage of time. at level 15, people become sensitive to areas of highly divine radiance. think of this as being similar to jedi sensing the presence of other force practitioners, except that it also applies to the presence of portals to other planes, etc. you can sense the presence of these things, though direct perception of them may well be barred from you, and the awareness is very vague--you only have awareness of varying degrees of this divinity being expressed. the best way to understand it would be like experiencing heat. if you stand with your eyes closed, and the air is 70 degrees around you, it could be because it's very cold, but you're next to a furnace, or it could simply be warm in the area at large. as you move around and focus, you could discern a bit more, but depending on the situation, your interpretations could have wildly varying levels of accuracy. at level 20 and beyond, you become increasingly able to pinpoint and/or directly perceive portals and presences, even through attempts by others to hide them. also beyond level 20, complete ascension becomes possible, relating to... 3. the number of votes you get further bolsters the strength of your own soul. if you're level 20+, and have managed to garner a reverential following (possible even without being worshipped in the true sense--think of Nelson Mandela or even Jerry Garcia), you actually begin to become infused with actual divine power. not enough to grant spells, but enough that you will completely stop aging, will draw incredible direct interest from planar beings, will be able to locate and traverse Celestial Staircases to access planes, and will have the possibility of founding a veritable religion over time, eventually with the possibility of becoming an elevated being similar to an Outsider, or even a God. 4. while all of the races have some direct connection to the creators, it is tremendously diluted, except where otherwise 'helped'. similarly to the way the Greek gods had trysts with mortals, divine beings sometimes have relations of sorts with mortals in this setting. the results are *not* demigod type beings. in general, they are called "blooded", but that tag can mean that you are a child of: a. any dragon--we're not talking a descendant of a dragon, rather, an actual child resulting from a dragon and a member of any other race listening to too much Marvin Gaye in an unsupervised setting. dragons are the very image of the Mother of all Life. when they get it on, their kids are exceptional. the offspring of these children are the types who eventually may become 'dragon disciples', etc. b. a god. being an actual child of a god, archdevil, demon lord, etc does give you a slight edge over others. still... if you want to be Hot Stuff, they make you earn it like every other being. you just have a sliiiiiiight head start, and one major twist. c. a Serious Outsider...archdevil, demon lord, etc. not even balors or pit fiends produce "blooded" offspring on the Prime Material Plane. this may be confusing given that dragons *do* produce "blooded" children. only Outsiders with the power to harvest and/or pervert souls are able to infuse humans in this way, and doing so requires the addition of some of their own stolen souls with the essence passed from a mortal of this world to a child. dragons, on the other hand, possess this innate strength of soul naturally. what it means to be blooded (and it should be noted that these *are* in addition to normal racial traits): Dragon-, Demon-, or Devil- blooded... you gain degrees of ascendance 2 levels sooner than normal folks. also, for being Dragon-Blooded, you gain +2 charisma and +2 to strength, intelligence, *or* wisdom. for being Demon- or Devil-Blooded, you gain +2 (or -2, if that's your flavor preference) to charisma, and +2 to strength, intelligence, *or* constitution. you age at 1/2 the speed of normal people, and have low-light vision for these types. God-Blooded (best used ONLY with extremely mature players, or better yet, as NPCs)... you gain +2 constitution, +2 charisma. you age at 1/2 the speed of normal people. here's the Major Twist: it is very hard to kill God-Blooded. in order to kill one, you have to match or surpass the vibrance of the intended victim's soul. the wording there is key, DMs. in game terms, this means: 1. you are a normal person 2 or more levels higher than the God-Blooded you are trying to kill. 2. you are blooded and equal to or greater than the ECL of the blooded you are trying to kill. 3. you are currently experiencing A Truly Incredible Emotional State. this is hands down my favorite for flavor, and creates a lot of possibilities for fun play. lets say you allow a character to be God-Blooded, and he decides he wants to Rape and Pillage rampantly. at some point, he is very likely to cause a lot of misery and very, very sincere anguish... the more people he pushes into this state, the more people are capable of landing a killing blow on him during that period. now... how long you choose to allow this state to last is up to you, but for me, i'm talking about being at the razor's edge of keen sensitivity and clarity. the best or worst you have ever felt in your life. those kind of moments that shine brighter, or dim to darker tones than any other time. if you *do not* meat those requirements, and you 'kill' a god-blooded being... they get knocked down, but they get up again!--just not right away. in fact, depending on the relative level of the person who 'killed' them, the emotional state/situation, etc--the blooded effectively goes into hibernation for a period of time determined by the DM. furthermore, he rises with -1 constitution, as though he had been resurrected, and only gains the point back after gaining 20,000xp. in my game, i don't allow any spells or effects to restore the point of lost constitution at all. not surprisingly, blooded are very rare in this setting, and the presence of them is a very big deal. they are capable of passing for normal folks, if they really want to live quiet existences. do they, though? that's entirely up to you. the elements i've outlined here are intended to be a few flavor oriented concepts around which to build. i have one player running a blooded character, and he's about as mature a player as i've known in 18 years of playing D&D. he has two characters in the fully fleshed out world setting, one of whom is of normal birth. his other character, which we have been running in a one-person game in the same global setting as the other game i'm running (and concurrently--i love dynamic games), is god-blooded. the fun part with this is that he's one of four existing sons of the death god, and he's by far the weakest at this point. he's currently level 11, and he's been "killed" twice... one period of slumber lasted 2 years, during which some Bad Things happened. despite what would look like a free pass to go bats#!t f*&king crazy, he's easily held in check by the fact that his 3 half brothers are all very powerful (personally, and in terms of influence), and are all suffering from Highlander's Disease (ie, if you can eventually cause my death, you gotta die first, jerk!). ahhh, one thing i neglected to mention, which further controls blooded characters-- they show up as 'blips' on the divine radar. high level characters can perceive their nature with increasing detail as they level up, blooded can sense blooded, etc. if you've seen Highlander 1, the effect in a battlefield scenario would be like the Kurgan (sp?) and McCleod being on opposite sides of the battlefield. the other guy shines like a beacon to you. anyways...i have one last thing to edit on the original post, and i'm frankly too lazy to structure this any better than i have. flame away, i'm wearing fireproof underoos!
GoriceXII 04-01-08, 01:27 AM	I think that the obvious question here is this: is everyone going to be playing blooded characters? How much of their own lore do they know, and how likely is it that they'd learn of their origins?
Auspex7 04-01-08, 05:01 AM	I think that the obvious question here is this: is everyone going to be playing blooded characters? How much of their own lore do they know, and how likely is it that they'd learn of their origins? in my own opinion, most of the characters in this setting should be non-blooded. as far as their own lore, and access to their origins, these things would be up to how the DM wanted to handle the characters. with the one blooded character we have, playing through the process of learning bits of his origin and personal lore has been a very fun thing to do. some information flows freely. other bits require some digging, politics, action, etc to uncover. as far as lore, people at large do understand that there are people around who carry the blood of dragons, gods, and/or outsiders. what this actually means to them depends on how they interpret stories, rumors, etc.