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View Full Version : Creating A God (not necessarily for fun and profit)



Weirdlet
2013-05-20, 09:47 PM
I have a question for the Playground- what happens when you try to create a god from scratch?

In my world, orcs are long-lived and resilient, constantly reincarnating as a result of their spirits being refused from both Underhill (where their Sidhe ancestors reside, refusing to acknowledge their mutilated kin) and the human Hall of Heroes. They’ve accepted their place and purpose as the universal soldiers for other peoples’ conflicts, being the go-to mercenaries long after the sorcerous empire that created them from elven prisoners collapsed- but they long for some semblance of peace or oblivion, if not permanently, then at least for a little while between lifetimes.

Their best guess has been to take the bones of powerful creatures and throw them into a chasm up in the mountains, in hopes that prayer and sacrifice will eventually bring about a god and a racial protector, as other species have. This has been going on for several hundred years, under the guidance of a council of war-leaders and wise-folk, mostly female as they have the motivation of not wanting to inflict misery on their children. Bones are offered up from worthy kills, as well as the secret digging of heroes’ graves and powerful animals, like mammoth and dragon graveyards.

Now, in the same world, dwarves prefer to stay underground and anyone who comes to the surface, willingly or in exile, is considered effectively ‘not a dwarf’ anymore, and can never return as anything but casteless. With that in mind, the sudden decision of a particular dwarven king to uproot his kingdom and make for the surface was startling. Unbeknownst to most, the king’s motivation wasn’t just to force a break with tradition and be able to marry his casteless concubine in place of his childless wife- there’s also been some kind of metaphysical pollution going on underground, from where this orcish worship is going on, and they're highly motivated to get out of the tunnels based on what's been showing up there.


So what I’m looking for is some advice on what to do with the theological situation in the background. *Something* is clearly going on in that valley that’s seeping down into the earth and disturbing the nearby underground realms. Are the orcs managing to create their god? If so, what sort of god should it be, and how should it start to manifest? Should it be fragile in its nascent form, or erupt onto the world like a balrog? Evil, neutral, or just plain powerful? Does it have mind or will of its own, shaped by hundreds of years of prayer and desperation? Or have they just opened up a portal to some other plane and something really funky’s going to step through?


TL:DR- Orcs have been looking to create their own god by making sacrifices and desperate pleas to the universe over hundreds of years. It’s starting to work. What have they unleashed/are they in the process of unleashing?

Mr Beer
2013-05-20, 10:28 PM
The most important question here is what do you want it to do? Because that's what it should be doing...you seem to be asking what the "correct" answer is and there isn't one.

Zahhak
2013-05-20, 10:41 PM
Certainly an interesting situation. Since there was no attempt to use the bones of creatures with a consistent moral code, I would say that it would have no guiding code. It is simply the personification of violence and destruction. The stuff going on in the tunnels is probably the souls aggregating into the violence-god. I imagine that when a bunch of souls are forming into a god that will do nothing but kill anything it sees will have some unpleasant effects in the surrounding area.

This is probably what the god's creation will look like (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NpT1wSN7RA), and he'll probably talk a lot like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkMzVU1SvLQ)

Deffers
2013-05-20, 10:52 PM
I'm not sure it's necessarily the personification of destruction, unless you want the players and the orcs to team up to take the sumbitch down. :smallamused:

I'd say... bones. Death. Rest. It's what they want, it's what they prayed for. Make it the King of the White Altar, which halts the flow of souls for respite. That's why the lady couldn't have a baby. The things the dwarves have been seeing are flashes of this fetal god's consciousness trying to establish a demense, a home-- a sort of living cathedral out of the land itself.

As for morality? Powerful. Definitely powerful. And, perhaps, dedicated to its cause-- but unsure of how to proceed. There could be powerful rewards in place for the adventuring party willing to help it learn the ropes. :smallamused:

It'd be especially funny because a baby frankenstein god of deathrest probably would have no idea how to properly reward somebody. Plenty of opportunities for bone-related body horror-- tails of bone attached to its newfound champions, spikes and ridges... I'd imagine its rewards would mostly be defensive and agility-based, because bony things just don't strike me as anything but lithe and rake-like, but at the same time the boons would probably somehow relate to what it does, which is provide rest for the dead.

EDIT: Probably it would speak in a low whisper at most. Think of a whitened sepulcher.

Forrestfire
2013-05-20, 11:03 PM
I'd like to echo Mr. Beer's thoughts on the nature of the question. Whatever you choose will, in the end, be the right one.

In any case, reading your description, I latched onto a few things about the situation:


The god is formed from the sacrifices of powerful, and varied creatures.
The orcs wanted, overall, a protector, who would keep misery from being inflicted on their children.
There has been a lot of metaphysical pollution in the mountain from the sacrifices.


So, you've got the makings of a guardian deity that could be neutral from the influence of all the things that made it, and destroys or reshapes the world around it because of sheer magical force.

My idea for this? Lawful Neutral/True Neutral/Pragmatic Good lava monster. Have the creation of this spirit shatter the land, turning the mountains in the area into volcanoes imbued with some sort of magic.

Going with the theme, make the lava from the mountains special in that it does not harm those under the god's protection, the orcs. Also, make it so that it doesn't harm innocents, be they children or simply truly good people, echoing the desires of the people who made it for a protector. Of any race, since a god whose thing is protecting children isn't going to let racism get in the way.

So, like...

Lava Not-so-monster God
LN or N
Portfolio: Orcs, children, volcanoes, safe havens
Domains: Earth, Fire, Protection, Family (https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=Glossary_dnd_Familydomain&alpha=)
Appearance: A constantly roiling, vaguely humanoid creature formed out of lava, that can take the appearance of countless beasts and monsters, mixing and matching parts however she sees fit, but all still made of lava.

So, you get a powerful, monstrous god that makes the world shudder, then can get some drama and irony out of the god being a generally alright, non-warlike fellow who proceeds to tell the orcs "play nice and make the world safe for your families."


... Or at least that's how I'd do it, since I like that sort of twist in my games.

Deffers
2013-05-20, 11:09 PM
Hah. Wow, yours is a pretty good take on the situation too, Forrestfire. I think the fact that two different posters took it in two completely different directions (you latched on to protection of children, I latched onto the idea of a brief respite from a cycle of reincarnation) shows just how open-ended and frankly fun, the question is.

Maybe Weirdlet should make the thread a sort of suggestion pool?

Weirdlet
2013-05-20, 11:13 PM
If it helps, I'm thinking the thing's being pulled in a couple different directions- the female warbands up in the mountains want a protector and a place to rest, as well as a warrior-mother to protect her children. The males down in the cities, stuck working in dwarven forges or press-ganged into mercenary companies, have a thing about He Who Watches watching your back and keeping guard, which they mark with either a glass eye or a coaldust tattoo of a mark over the eye in the case of the warriors. Borrowing the eye obsession from Gruumsh, but not wanting the bat-dung crazy of the classic orcish god.

Edit- ninja'd by Forest Fire! And yes- my intention of this thread was to be a suggestion pool, I'm just terrible at keeping track of my introduction when I go off Describing Things.

Deffers
2013-05-20, 11:24 PM
Hrm. I still get a bones sorta vibe... but now maybe its eyes are a crucial part of it? Like... a naive protector full of bones and eyes? I'd say your new descriptor definitely makes it sound more Good than anything else.

I could imagine a dwarf puttering about his mine, axeing his alebeard or doing whatever it is dwarves do, then seeing a femur pop out of a cave wall and blink at him with two enormous peepers. A draconic rib bone begins wedging itself out of the cave wall, hundreds of eyes blinking away dirt and silt. The dwarf gives a curt, loud "NOPE" and marches straight to the surface.

Forrestfire
2013-05-20, 11:27 PM
I like the bone monster idea, since it adds another layer to that irony of an orcish deity being a protector of children. Now she's a cosmic horror defender of the innocent


I could imagine a dwarf puttering about his mine, axeing his alebeard or doing whatever it is dwarves do,

This is amazing. Can I sig this?

Deffers
2013-05-20, 11:34 PM
Yes! Please do! It'd be my first sig on this forum. :smallbiggrin:

I'm liking that eldritch defender of the innocent dealie as well.

Forrestfire
2013-05-20, 11:49 PM
Oh, and the best part is that after a generation or so, having this sort of monstrous god would be normal.

Can you imagine being a foreign paladin visiting this land? Maybe they see a kidnapping in progress, there's a monstrous demon carrying at a group of small children in its claws, its bones scraping and its eyes staring into your very soul. The paladin draws his blade and charges, ready to end this foul beast, only to hear the children... laughing? And what appears to be a parent coming out of a nearby house to collect her child.

Later, the paladin's companions find him in a tavern, drunk out of his wits on ale, and ask him what happened to him to cause him to decide to drown his sorrows. His response?

"Orcish daycares are hardcore."

Deffers
2013-05-20, 11:56 PM
Yes. Simply spectacular. If Weirdlet's not using this, I certainly am. It's going in my ideas file.

I can only imagine the players interacting with this godling as it's just born. I keep seeing it as being unfailingly polite and completely clueless about what's normal when it's not protecting someone.

Forrestfire
2013-05-21, 12:05 AM
Totally using this next time I run a campaign.

Best god ever. :smallbiggrin:

Weirdlet
2013-05-21, 12:10 AM
Hrm- I like the lava idea, and I like the boney protectors idea, quite a lot. I'm almost thinking that the volcanic pit is where the god-soul is, and that it draws in souls to the crucible to be remade in heat and embraced in the earth. When manifesting, it's like a gigantic skeleton of some great beast is drawing itself up out of the depths, dripping magma and hissing with steam.

And it has boney minions as its messengers and local protectors^^

Geostationary
2013-05-21, 01:33 AM
Hi. I'm here to babysit the children while you're off at war.
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130202001917/darksouls/images/1/1f/Dark-souls-gravelord-nito.jpg
Have fun!

Weirdlet
2013-05-21, 02:20 AM
Exactly. That is completely the sort of babysitter a bunch of cranky Uruk-hai females would approve of.

Coidzor
2013-05-21, 02:27 AM
I was thinking that one possible interpretation is that since there's no strong personality (typically new gods being created are either spawned from existing gods or are from very, very exceptional people with supreme wills) to form the nucleus of a godhead for the deity that's forming, it seems like it could be at the point of being a demiurge without true consciousness, desires, or any of that shebang, just unfocused power and general directives/goals.

Almost ripe for hijacking by a demon or other foul presence, really... Or waiting for a hero-figure.

Or both. Some Demon Lord is subverting it and trying to get to full godhood and/or Demon Prince level and someone needs to kick that bastard out and sacrifice themselves/become one with the power to give it personhood, control, and focus for the divine power.

Mastikator
2013-05-21, 03:12 AM
TL:DR- Orcs have been looking to create their own god by making sacrifices and desperate pleas to the universe over hundreds of years. It’s starting to work. What have they unleashed/are they in the process of unleashing?

IMO either some kind of demonic or sacred spirit. If they're looking for oblivion or rest it might be some kind of demon that either gives them peace in some afterlife or eats their soul.
Since they have a warrior culture I'm thinking it's a demon that challenges them once they die in a 1 on 1 battle, if they win the demon must provide an afterlife, if they lose the demon gets to eat their soul. Over time the demon becomes more powerful and only the "truly worthy" are given an afterlife, whilst the living benefit from the increasing power of the demon. Maybe some sects try to sacrifice other's souls to the demon to either a free passage in the hereafter or some kind of power or favor in life.

Just my 2 cents.

Coidzor
2013-05-21, 10:17 AM
Oh, alternatively or conjointly you could have them forming a Necromantic Intelligence (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19527634/Tome_of_Necromancy?post_num=6#331892434) or something similar from the sacrifices and turning the aspect of the land itself towards death, which could be what's messing with the dwarves, having a sudden infestation of all of the sacred, honored dead rising up and denying the tombs and halls of the dead to the clan.

Slipperychicken
2013-05-22, 12:30 PM
My vote is to have a dark god of deception, trickery, and corruption snack on their sacrifices and desperation to grow in power. He will tell the Orcs precisely what they want to hear: He is their devoted protector and ruler newly born into the world, who loves his children and everything about them, but he will need more sacrifices/souls/worshipers to keep them safe.

The Orcs will sate his lust for blood and build freakish monuments. The god will outwardly play the part of the stalwart champion of the race, but he will not bring them peace or wealth. Although he improves their combat prowess, he is not truly their god.

He does not truly bless their crops or their trade; he knows "too much" prosperity will make them weak (a shrewd god, he will hold the Orcs to a Spartan way of life), which runs counter to his ends. He claims to look after the children, but instead uses trauma and brutality to forge the most ruthless warriors. He cares little for the people's suffering, and will gladly plunge their civilization into constant war to make the greatest, most ferocious fighters to serve his ends.

As a being of trickery, he does give them a mixed blessing: He teaches the Orcs to wage war with deception and cunning, in addition to the brute force they always knew. This blessing has synergy with their inherent strengths, transforming the Orc armies into the most dangerous and lethal fighting force on the planet. Also, Orc leaders blessed by him gain deceptive powers, and often earn a reputation for being corrupt and clever politicians, which casts some suspicion, but is largely written off.

Though the Orcs fight many successful wars and hunts (most of which serve the god's agenda instead of their own), spurred by the god's hunger for sacrifices and amusement, they never gain lasting peace. There always seems to be a new enemy for them, whether from without or within, and the Orc people are nearly always poor; every spare coin goes to either war, sacrifices, or lining their leaders' pockets.



Tldr: God of trickery takes advantage of the Orcs, making them cunning strategists and politicians, but constantly impoverishes them and makes them fight needless wars to further his agenda.

THEChanger
2013-05-23, 12:27 AM
The mother had journeyed many miles to find herself at the foot of this mountain. It was, in the eyes of her clan, a foolish journey. After all, the stories coming from the north were just that, stories. The orcs never had a god, and never would have a god. They were monsters, slaves all, and alone. Only an orc would keep other orcs safe, and there were no orcs among the gods.

Still, what other choice did she have? The stories were her last hope. Traders from the northern clans brought rumors that the wise-folk had begun to make sacrifices to the mountain. The bones of their hunt were thrown into a chasm, so deep that none knew where it ended. The site was barred from outsiders, and guarded by the fiercest warriors of the northern tribes, or so the stories went. No one knew for sure if anything truly was happening in the north, but she had no other choice.

At least one part of the stories was false. There was no one here. No warriors, no wise-folk, not even animals. It was just her and her son. Adjusting her pack, the mother began the long climb up the mountain. She had come so far with her offering. Maybe, just maybe, the stories were true, and there was something to the chasm of bones. It certainly felt different than anywhere else she had been. The earth and wind felt...still. But not dead. No, this was anticipation, as though all of nature was holding its breath. Waiting for something to happen.

Finally, the mother found herself at the top of the mountain. There, amidst scraps of bones which had not made their way to the chasm, she looked over the edge, steeling herself. Here, even she could barely breathe, as though if she made too much noise she would disturb the careful balance of a growing power. Slowly, carefully, she unlatched her pack, and laid her offering at the edge of the chasm. She looked into the eyes of her son, and she could feel tears beginning to well up. No. No tears. Not here. Not when she was so close. An orc could only show weakness to another orc. Only an orc would protect another orc.

Finally, with everything in place, the mother knealt before her offering. Placing her hands on the skull, she whispered into the chasm. "Please. If there really is anything down there, if the stories are true, if ANYONE is listening, I beg you. Bring my son back." She screwed her eyes shut, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Carefully, dreading what she would see, the mother opened one eye. No. Nothing had changed. She was still there, alone, listening to the wind, hands desperately clutching the skull of her dead son. A dark, primal scream ripped its way out of the mother's throat, and rising, she hurled her son's skull into the abyss. So it was all a lie. The orcs were alone. She was alone.

For three days and three nights the mother lay there, sobbing, her tears mixing with the fragments of bone which lay around the edge of the chasm. The wind blew, and rain began to fall. And on the fourth day, something changed inside her. She had lost everything. Her entire family was dead, and everyone she loved gone. The hole in her heart was massive, almost as large as the chasm in front of her. And she needed it to be filled. It was at that moment the mother made her choice. She would do what the universe could not. She was alone, yes. But the orcs did not have to be. And so the Mother took the chasm into her heart, and filled the hole with all the orcs of the world. She would keep them safe, whatever the cost. She would love them when none else would. And when it came time for them to die, she would welcome them into the chasm of her heart, and keep them for all time. And with that decision, the universe answered. The Mother walked down the mountain, alone, and set about her work.

Because only an orc would protect another orc.


The Mother
Demigod
Symbol: A child's skull with a single black tear.
Alignment: True Neutral
Portfolio: Journeys, loss, families, love, the dead.
Domains: Orc, Protection, Repose, Travel

Weirdlet
2013-05-23, 12:34 AM
THEChanger, I adore you.

THEChanger
2013-05-23, 12:42 AM
That's the story the orcs tell of the Mother's rise to deityhood, at any rate.

If I had my way, no one would know who the Mother is. She walks among her children, wearing a mask of bone. Her priestesses do as well, so one can never be sure whether it is just a priestess of the new goddess, or the Mother herself. And as to what the Mother is, or what she has done to recieve her power...well, only the Mother knows, and she knows better than to burden her children with such things.

But SOMETHING drove the dwarves from beneath their mountain home. Maybe it was Mother, maybe it wasn't. But the dwarves were never happy with the orcs in the first place, and the fact that the greenskins have a Goddess of their own now, so close to the strangeness going on deep beneath the dwarfhold, certainly gives the new, more aggressive king an excuse to launch a crusade to the surface. After all, the Mother is an affront to the Dwarven gods. Clearly her divine power is stolen from the rightful wielders in the Dwarven pantheon.

It probably doesn't help that some of the clerics under the new king are beginning to lose their divine connection to Moradin and the other dwarven gods...

Weirdlet
2013-05-23, 12:53 AM
Might be there's a couple different 'small gods' who've picked up a connection to the wellspring there. The Mother is certainly one of them- He Who Watches slunk back up into the mountains, the sergeant who watches after his lads, who spies and steals and makes damn well sure they get out of there alive. What use is this big conspiracy of grave-robbing and bone-knapping, if the lads have no one on their side? And the Warrior is all of them together, the paragon of the fighting spirit at its crest rather than at its depths- pride over weariness.

EnglishKitsune
2013-05-23, 02:41 AM
Using some of the earlier suggestions, and continuing with the idea of the Mother, and multiple entities tapping into the power source, and indeed your original brief about the constant reincarnation; you could combine them into something like this:

The Son

He drifted, both aware and unaware, another dead orc, bound for another life of hardship. His last life had been short, he remembered that, his last few fleeting memories of a grieving mother. Those memories were fading, and soon he would be thrust into another life.

He became aware of a dim light, blurry and far away, it did not fade or dim, it merely was. It seemed to change, never in shape, but it grew darker, then brighter, three times it happened, before a single drop of water fell and hit him.

Rain, he realised, and he was struck by another drop, it ran over his skull and dropped into his empty eye socket. This he felt, was wrong, but he could not remember why. This was all that was left of his body, yet he was now back inside it. He found other senses returning as the rain hardened.

He was on a pile of bones, why he was there he did not know, but he longed to see his mother again. He felt the bones beneath him hum and crack, and felt the heavy presence of magic around him. Where was his mother? He could not see her. The rain was still running into his eyes, and in desperation he lifted a hand to stop it.

He paused, a hand, not his, it was far to long and slender, and seemed to end in almost a claw, yet he had lifted it, as the respite from the rain now proved. He stretched his sense into the arm, and felt it as his own, stretching them further, he began to feel every bone beneath him as his own.

He saw through a thousand sockets, gripped and scrabbled with a thousand hands, he found purchase with a thousand feet, but it was too much, he was losing himself, hurriedly he withdrew back to his skull. He remained in there for a period, how long unknown to him, but long enough for the rain to stop. His mother still did not appear however. He desperately wanted to see her, so he tentatively reached out, being selective, choosing a new body made from the bones of those beneath him

TL;DR - The Mothers child is brought back, but only as his skull, however, he is able to reform himself through the bones in the chasm and begins hunting for his mother.

This could set up some pretty decent scenarios and help explain the spreading magic plague. As Mother and Son share the same power, as she spreads and more Orcs believe in her he too becomes more powerful, as such, he could have began searching the caves (And dwarf mines) beneath the chasm for his mother. He has no way of communicating as such, and so the plague is him actually entering the minds of people looking for his mother.

And if he ever actually does find her well... Would she accept him as her son? The son she forgot to care for the people instead? As he spreads and word reaches her would she in fact consider him a monster and want him dead before knowing his true origin? Could she hire the PC's to do such a thing?

This could also explain why he doesn't hurt children, and in fact actively protects and plays with them, he's literally got a child mentality, and sees them as friends. The childlike mental state also mean a demon could easily manipulate him towards evil, through promises to lead him to his mother or in fact posing as her. It could lead to some very hard decisions for the PC's.

But that's just my two-cents into this. :smalltongue:

Lea Plath
2013-05-23, 05:32 AM
This thread is full of win. Lots and lots of win. I've just stuck half a dozen ideas in my head.


But...if the orks value family, surely the gods would be a family. One spirit, seperated in diffrent aspects that fufill the orcs needs. Maybe even an pantheon. I also quite like the idea of them having a temple that looks like a home, with bones, arranged to look like them at each wall.

The Mother is the nuturering aspect. She cares for the orcs, she guides them through life and into death, but she cannot go beyond. She is also the aspect that grieves , for each orc lost is like a lost child to her.

The Guardian is the most horrific looking aspect. All bones and eyes. He is guards the threshold of homes, to death. He watches the back of his kin and rewards those who watch others. He sees all, but speaks little. He is the protector and watchman.

The Son is the god of children. He died young, and does not wish the same fate. He guides lost children back to their families. He plays with them. Comforts them. His apperance might be terrifying but he simply wishes to help.

And the Grim. The Grim is the most warlike aspect. His shield is a rib cage. His helmet a skull. His club a shattered femeur. He does not enjoy war, but he understands its grim neccesity. He fights, but takes no joy in it, for he wishes nothing more than to be home with his wife and child.

How are those for some basic ideas?

Forrestfire
2013-05-23, 06:04 AM
I am loving this more and more as time goes on.

DMwithoutPC's
2013-05-23, 03:59 PM
This is one of the most Awesome Threats I've ever come across

I love all of the Ideas mentioned, and this is the direction I would take.

... The remains of the fallen. Thousands upon thousands of bones at the bottom of the chasm. Always of the most powerful warriors, of the most fearsome beasts. Dragons, Heroes, Villains, Mammoths, Wizards, Priest. Strong, honourable and always slain in battle. Until. A grieving Ork woman throws in the skull of her son. An infant, sweet, gentle and unknowing of any of lives hardships. He becomes the vessel for all the divine energy pent up in macabre place. Only he, having died a natural death and in is short life only knowing love and no hate or strife, can give the Orks the afterlife they are looking for. No battle, no glory, no pain. Only quiet, only peacefulness, only rest...

The Son absorbed the essence of the bones he's resting upon, and therefor knows all about the live of his brethren. He knows battle, but does not care for it. His only concern is giving the Souls of the Orks a temporary respite from one mercenary’s live to the next.
And of course, children. Being the embodiment of a children dying before their time, he does everything within his power to keep Orcish children alive, save and happy.

If/ when he establishes a church, every of priestess will be His Mother. (I'd like to play around with the cliché that we're children of God, and make every one Parents of God) I loved the wearing a mask of bone idea, so my priestesses are doing this as well. The Mothers are tasked with preparing the dead for their journey to the Asylum of Bones, the newly created afterlife. (I know Asylum also means Madhouse. I'm not a native speaker, but I was looking for a word meaning resting place, but then cooler.)

The Son physically remains at the bottom of the chasm, appearing as a saddening small skull on top of a body made up of a variety of different kinds of bones. What kind of bones change each time you meet him. He is in control of every skull, bone, skeleton thrown into the chasm and constructed a gigantic cathedral in which the souls of the deceased come to rest. What exactly these resting souls look like is a mystery, because the Son allows no one near them.

I mention people being down there. These are mostly the Mothers, and a few Chosen Ones besides them. Generals, the leader of the tribes or just random child playing at the edge of the chasm could get invited by the Son to descend into the nearly bottomless pit. For these occasions he built a spectral ladder that allows one to descend into the darkness. Various accounts have been given about the length of such a journey. Some who re-emerged at the surface said it had taken them days to arrive at the Asylum of Bones, others said it took a few hours and one child insists it only took a few minutes.

====

This might have been overly specific, but I though you would just pick whatever you liked and ignored the rest, so I let my imagination take over. So just take whatever you like!
Oh one more thing. The reason I choose to create only one god was, who I interpreted it, the Orks wanted rest and silence, and in my mind that didn't really mix with lots and lots of gods.

THEChanger
2013-05-23, 05:45 PM
I'm glad people latched onto the idea of the Mother. Always makes me giddy when an idea I had inspires people. :smallsmile:

With regards to other gods...if I were going to run this, I would definately have the Son tap into the wellspring(actually, I think that deserves a capital now. The Wellspring. A source of divine energy manifesting itself in the world, waiting for entities to snatch it up.) as well. The discussion of the watcher of lava and bone and eyes earlier would match up with his physical form. And I don't think it would be the actual son any longer. I'd imagine the second god to be very angry at the start. Lost. Abandoned. Filled with the pain and suffering of all the dead that make up his form, and also with the longing for his mother.

OR, maybe there are, in fact, two sons battling for control of the second god. The Mother's child, who wants to protect and be at peace, and the stillborn son of the dwarven queen, full of rage and hate and wanting to take vengeance on his father, who would abandon his mother...

But, at least for now, I'd stop with two. I don't think the Wellspring has enough power at the start to empower more than that.

DMwithoutPC's
2013-05-24, 07:46 AM
I agree with THEchanger, keep your amount of gods to a minimum. The Wellspring is a inconvential way to create a god and it doesn't seem logical if it suddenly manifests itself into a dozen gods.

Amoren
2013-05-24, 09:15 AM
Hmmm... I like a lot of the ideas here, but I think I'll add a bit of my own.

I think a good source of the problems that the Dwarves are having is an unintentional side affect of what's happening. The latent energies of very powerful beings building up within one place wouldn't normally be so disastrous, except it being worked upon by the blind faith of thousands of very ancient souls is having an unintended effect. Essentially, the identities, personalities, and 'quirks' of the energy that was stolen and cast into the pit that do not conform to what the orcs want is being expelled from The Wellspring, repulsed by the faith which is shaping it. Over time, this has been virtually unnoticeable, causing merely the occasional crop of a new type of worthless stone (it has no beneficial smithing or crafting properties, is fairly weak and brittle, and quite ugly to look at). However, as the god's shaping began to pick up pace, more and more of the 'tint' to the energy was expunged into the surrounding stone.

These 'soul figments' essentially came to possess the stone, and displaced from the proper order of things, started to do something that they shouldn't have. Because they have no energy of themselves, they start to draw upon the life energy of things around them to once again have energy of their own - drawing life from the creatures of the underground, especially the dwarves, making them sickly, and then eventually die. Simultaneously, soul figments that possess the stone, and even the corpses of the creatures that have fallen to their vampiric hunger, begin to animate utilizing the stolen energy, trying to imitate some grotesque version of life as its all the traces of personality and soul left in the offered bones from the ritual knows. It, or rather, they, are not actively malicious, but their very negative effect is the result of it only trying to do what's natural after being unnaturally warped and changed - because the very fabric of the universe and how things work upon where they were cast is being sundered to make way for a new deity.

Jacob.Tyr
2013-05-24, 09:43 AM
Simultaneously, soul figments that possess the stone, and even the corpses of the creatures that have fallen to their vampiric hunger, begin to animate utilizing the stolen energy, trying to imitate some grotesque version of life as its all the traces of personality and soul left in the offered bones from the ritual knows. It, or rather, they, are not actively malicious, but their very negative effect is the result of it only trying to do what's natural after being unnaturally warped and changed - because the very fabric of the universe and how things work upon where they were cast is being sundered to make way for a new deity.

I feel like they might very well be actively malicious, as what "personality" they have is coming from the parts being expunged. Psuedo-vampiric entities taking on the aspects counter to the ones being taken on by the new gods. While the Gods of the wellspring defend children, value family, and protect the dead these other entities are made of all of the rebelliousness against the family, hatred of children, and disrespect towards the dead that were present in the sacrifices.

A new breed of Demon, of sorts, that balances the presence of the new gods. These demons consume the souls of the dead and steal children, all the while working their influence to drive orcs to betray and abandon their families.

Amoren
2013-05-24, 02:44 PM
That would certainly be there, you're right. And thinking about it, such beasts would also be the most common, as such personality fragments would be the ones most forcibly expunged. However, there might also be a host of ones that were just sort of nudged out, as well. Things that would be indifferent to the god's goals and designs, but were sort of pushed aside out of the values that were desired, and left to seep into the earth.

Weirdlet
2013-05-24, 02:59 PM
That is genius. Thank you so much!