Dawn of Worlds....again?

[Sizzlefoot]

http://www.clanwebsite.org/games/rpg...e_1_0Final.pdf

So a few months back, a game of Dawn of Worlds was started. The thread died, though, before it could reach its full potential. Anyone else up for a game?

[Wasp]

Always. ;-)

[Pickerwick]

Count me in!

[Sizzlefoot]

I think I'll play a god of forbidden knowledge and aberrations.

edit: spelling

[Johel]

Count me interested

[LordArgon]

Posting interest.

[Darklady2831]

Interested as a Goddess of Undeath and Magic.

[Sizzlefoot]

Welp, I suppose we can start soon, once everyone has their deity figured out.

[Wasp]

I would go for a god of wilderness, storm and the sea!

[Johel]

So we got :

• God of Forbidden Knowledge and Aberrations
• Goddess of Undeath and Magic
• God of Wilderness, Storms and Seas

I have a very Cthulhu vibe out of this...

I'll go for an Elemental God of Earth and Fire, stirring volcanoes and earthquakes.
Demanding tributes of young maiden and lads in order to not drown the land in lava.
Also, subterranean civilizations with glorious labyrinthine three dimensional kingdoms.
Cannot go wrong with that.

Spoiler: Koharani ; the Great Beast

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Koharani
The Great Beast



The depths of the Shell-World are haunted by tremors of a hidden horror slithering through stone, birthing rivers of magma and large caverns in its wake. It is the Fire Worm, the Hoarding Maw, the Serpent of Light and the Path Maker, whose aimless travels created the vast underground labyrinth in which we all live and die. For those pious enough to seek Him, the Supreme Communion awaits in his fiery, coiling embrace. For those brave enough to follow His tracks, great wealth can be found past even greater danger. For those who are neither, flee. For the appetite of the Great Beast and its spawn can never be sated but their hungry curiosity can be baited through regular sacrifices.

[LordArgon]

My God would be the god of Decay, Rot, and Fungus.

[Raunchel]

I'm thinking of joining in with a goddess of dreams and the night. Somehow, she has a fondness for spiders ;)

Spoiler: Sorry, I got inspired

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She will be Myrallah, the Dreamer Beneath

And yes, it does seem like it will be a group of quite, well, Great Old One-like beings. I like it.

[Personification]

I will join in as a god of normality and cities, to give people an alternative to all you Great Old One whippersnappers. A name will come soon.

[BaratheonFury]

Interested, I quite like the old ones theme and I think I'll add a Barghest-ish god of Death and Judgement to the mix.

[Personification]

I will join in as a god of normality and cities, to give people an alternative to all you Great Old One whippersnappers. A name will come soon.

I shall be Joshun, God of Simple Crafts, Tools, and Civilization. And lo, I shall speak unto my people: "Beware of those with too many tentacles, for they are unrighteous, and shall explode thine brains."

[Sizzlefoot]

I shall be Nizreph, the Whispering Dark, lord of that which should not be.

[Johel]

• Nizreph, the Whispering Dark, God of Forbidden Knowledge and Aberrations
• Anast-Reya, Lady of Pacts, Goddess of Undeath and Magic
• Askarak, the Primordial King, God of Wilderness and Seas
• Koharani, the Great Beast, God of Earth and Fire
• Karakkus, the Gloomfeeder, God of Decay and Fungus
• Myrallah, the Dreamer Beneath, Goddess of Dreams and Night
• Joshun, the Steadying Hand, God of Crafts and Civilization

Some thoughts that need comments :

Forbidden Knowledge :
Is Nizreph going to play the hoarder or the dealer angle ? Or both ?
Will he try to keep mortals from learning some of the divine secrets about the world's mechanics ?
Or will he spread these secrets to mortals, trading them for influence, at the risk of angering other gods ?
Both angles can be played at once but one should dominate over the other.
The title (Whispering Dark) suggest the second angle, with a deceptive personality.

Aberrations :
Consequences of dabbling too deep in deals with Nizreph ?
Actual denizens of the world ?
Extra-planar beings ?

Undeath :
See below

Magic :
See below

Wilderness :
I guess you mean fauna and flora.
Which doesn't bring much problems.

Seas :
And storm but we can all agree they come hand in hand.
Do you aim for :

• Water in general (including rain) ?
• All that is under water (including rivers and lake) ?
• All that is under sea water (so not rivers and lake) ?

Earth :
I'm aiming for anything underground.
I'll treating as Koharani's territory, with it physically travelling it through avatars.

Fire :
I'm aiming for heat, fire, magma,... the general idea of combustion.
Not necessary light and even less sunlight.

Decay :
Are you aiming for decay as :

• Upon death, matter transforms into another matter, allowing for new possibilities. Decay is thus a necessary and positive change for life.
• Everything will inevitably come to ruin, slowly but surely, until final entropy. Decay is but a passing state until nothing remains.

Fungus :
Self-Speaking
Should we expect mushroom-based sapient species ?

Dreams :
Could you expend on your aim ?

Night :
Could you expend on your aim ?

Forbidden Knowledges VS Magic
What is what, how to we resolve the issue ?
Magic is basically understanding how Creation works and subverting the rules.
Doing it instinctively is one thing as the gods gave you that ability.
But doing it "scientifically" could be seen as going too deep.
If so, which wizards are governed by Forbidden Knowledges or by Magic ?

Forbidden Knowledges VS Civilization
What is what, how to we resolve the issue ?
I can see Joshun doling out knowledge and trying to organize people as something else than preys for the other gods.
But then I can see the other gods taking exception to that.
Especially Nizreph, whose whole thing would be to control knowledge.
Is there a cost for Joshun "stealing" from Nizreph ?

Decay VS Undeath
What is what, how to we resolve the issue ?
We have to define what undeath is.
Is it the mere animation of dead matter (aka corpses) into automatons ?
Or is it the enslaving of departed souls ?
Does it prevent decay ? And how does that make the god of decay feel ?

[Sizzlefoot]

I was thinking Nizreph would have a sort of Yog-Sothoth feel. He opens the door to endless knowledge, and it sure isn't his fault if you're eaten, mutated, or otherwise inconvenienced because of it. Despite being called the Whispering Dark by some, he is often depicted as a light, or a glowing eye or doorway.

As a suggestion, maybe magic is more understood/tamed, like normal D&D magic, while Nizreph's knowledge is more like "whoops, you summoned a twenty-foot long monster made from shadows and mouths".

Not entirely sure about his aberrations at the moment. I'll figure something out later and edit this.

[Justicar]

I hope I am not too late.

Spoiler: Shade

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Titles: God-Thief, Giver of Gifts
Portfolio: God of Knowledge, Thieves and Information Brokers
Agenda: Shade loathes those that hoard knowledge from others. To him, information is meant to be free. In fact, he believes that, if knowledge isn't spread far and wide among everyone, it could damage the fabric of reality. He is known as the God-Thief, not because he is the patron deity of rogues, but because he steals from other gods. He takes the boons stockpile for themselves should be given to the mortals of the world.
Appearance: A floating cloak made of shades and pages of parchment.

Symbol: A book with a dagger overlaid on it

[Wasp]

• Nizreph, the Whispering Dark, God of Forbidden Knowledge and Aberrations
• ?????, ?????, Goddess of Undeath and Magic
• ?????, ?????, God of Wilderness and Seas
• Koharani, the Great Beast, God of Earth and Fire
• ?????, ?????, God of Decay and Fungus
• Myrallah, the Dreamer Beneath, Goddess of Dreams and Night
• Joshun, ?????, God of Crafts and Civilization

• Askarak, the Primordial King, God of Wilderness and Seas

Some thoughts that need comments :

Wilderness :
I guess you mean fauna and flora.
Which doesn't bring much problems.

Yeah, I mean basically the untamed, darker side of nature. So more Feywild than the Shire.

Seas :
And storm but we can all agree they come hand in hand.
Do you aim for :

• Water in general (including rain) ?
• All that is under water (including rivers and lake) ?
• All that is under sea water (so not rivers and lake) ?

General, but only the wilder aspects. Not a cleansing spring shower, a lovely creek or a rescuing oasis, but the monsoon, a dangerous bog or the crushing depth of the ocean.

[Personification]

If we need titles, then Joshun is the Steadying Hand and the Shield of Sanity. As for Civilization V. Forbidden Knowledge V. Magic, I see that as there being three categories: Things Man was Meant to Know (i.e. fire, construction, city planning, cooking, brewing, art, etc.) which is my domain, Things Man Probably Shouldn't Know But Only Because of Potential Ramifications for Others and General Power Issues (i.e. magic and Hollywood style mad science) which are the domain of the magic god(s), and Thing Man Should Not Know Under Any Circumstances Because of High Risk of Head-Explosion and Accidental Tentacle-Summoning (i.e. anything written by H.P. Lovecraft or, to a lesser extent, Ivan van Norman) which is the domain of all of you crazy eldritch abominations.

tl;dr: I am Prometheus, the magic god is Hecate, and the forbidden knowledge god's name can only be written using a font that mixes characters from Sanscrit and Wingdings.

[LordArgon]

I shall name my god Karakkus, The Gloomfeeder.
As for Fungus people, that is a possibility. For Decay I was thinking that is the more natural process.

[Sizzlefoot]

I hope I am not too late.

Spoiler: Shade

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Titles: God-Thief, Giver of Gifts
Portfolio: God of Knowledge, Thieves and Information Brokers
Agenda: Shade loathes those that hoard knowledge from others. To him, information is meant to be free. In fact, he believes that, if knowledge isn't spread far and wide among everyone, it could damage the fabric of reality. He is known as the God-Thief, not because he is the patron deity of rogues, but because he steals from other gods. He takes the boons stockpile for themselves should be given to the mortals of the world.
Appearance: A floating cloak made of shades and pages of parchment.

Symbol: A book with a dagger overlaid on it

This is a really cool concept, but the whole knowledge-broker thing could step on Nizreph's toes a bit.

[Justicar]

This is a really cool concept, but the whole knowledge-broker thing could step on Nizreph's toes a bit.

I kinda see it as opposite sides of the same coin. Nizreph is a darker side of knowledge with a 'It's not my fault you didn't read the fine print' vibe. Shade has a more "Information wants to be free" mindset; less teaching people things they should not know and more... anti-secret. With Joshun being the god of tools and civilization, i.e. the lighter side of knowledge, Shade kind of straddles the grey area in-between him and you.

However, if you have any ideas on tweaks, I am more than open to suggestions.

[Sizzlefoot]

I kinda see it as opposite sides of the same coin. Nizreph is a darker side of knowledge with a 'It's not my fault you didn't read the fine print' vibe. Shade has a more "Information wants to be free" mindset; less teaching people things they should not know and more... anti-secret. With Joshun being the god of tools and civilization, i.e. the lighter side of knowledge, Shade kind of straddles the grey area in-between him and you.

However, if you have any ideas on tweaks, I am more than open to suggestions.

Ooh, I like that. Maybe they're related somehow.

[Justicar]

Sure. If we go off of Personification's 3 Categories of "Things Man was Meant to Know", "Things Man Probably Shouldn't Know", and "Thing Man Should Not Know Under Any Circumstances", then Shade is the means that knowledge moves across those boundaries. In fact, Shade is so neutral that he would share information with evil races just as freely as he does good races.

I guess, in a way, he views reality as a sheet of ice: if too much weight (knowledge) is in one place, it could cause cracks. Therefore, he does his best to spread out the weight as much as possible to preserve reality. I guess that would a possible source of conflict between him and Nizreph is if your god was purposely trying to punch holes in reality with his 'gifts'.

[Darklady2831]

• Nizreph, the Whispering Dark, God of Forbidden Knowledge and Aberrations
• ?????, ?????, Goddess of Undeath and Magic
• Askarak, the Primordial King, God of Wilderness and Seas
• Koharani, the Great Beast, God of Earth and Fire
• Karakkus, the Gloomfeeder, God of Decay and Fungus
• Myrallah, the Dreamer Beneath, Goddess of Dreams and Night
• Joshun, the Steadying Hand, God of Crafts and Civilization

Spoiler: Anast-Reya

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Title: Lady of Pacts, First Among the Dead
Portfolio: Magic, Undeath, Pacts
Agenda: Anast-Reya seeks to spread the use of magic throughout the world, and to encourage the spread of the undead. She abhors death, seeing it as the greatest of all evils, and offers to save those who are desperate enough. Yet she also abhors pride, and any who come to her seeking to outsmart or trick her will soon find their victory turning to ash. Death is an evil, yet it can also be an escape from the torment of an eternity of punishment.
Appearance: A woman with sickly pale skin and white hair, middle aged with sunken, gaunt features who wears a cloak the colour of dark blood adorned with many charms and fetishes of bone, feathers, and teeth. She wields a dagger of bone in one hand, and offers the other out to those who ask.

Forbidden Knowledges VS Magic
What is what, how to we resolve the issue ?
Magic is basically understanding how Creation works and subverting the rules.
Doing it instinctively is one thing as the gods gave you that ability.
But doing it "scientifically" could be seen as going too deep.
If so, which wizards are governed by Forbidden Knowledges or by Magic ?

Decay VS Undeath
What is what, how to we resolve the issue ?
We have to define what undeath is.
Is it the mere animation of dead matter (aka corpses) into automatons ?
Or is it the enslaving of departed souls ?
Does it prevent decay ? And how does that make the god of decay feel ?

Apologies for the lack of responses since my initial interest post. Things got busy and I've been too fatigued lately to plot up a big post of any kind. I've written up response to each of these two issues, and these are just my interpretations, which are always up to cooperation and hashing out, because that always makes for a better game and world in the end!

Forbidden Knowledge VS Magic
Magic is, yes, 'understanding how creation works and subverting the rules'. However, how does one do this?
Anast-Reya's answer is: By calling out to powers beyond the ken of mortals for aid.
Whether that means asking a particular god for aid by using some ritual or 'magic words' to invoke them, or it means contacting the spirits of the dead to do something for you, or asking the animating force of the wind to fill your sails, it is all about appeasing and beseeching the world around you for aid. There are limits to what a mortal can do, and to what magic can do.
Forbidden knowledge may be trying to bypass this, to master and control the world on your own. Forbidden Knowledge could be learning how to teleport, or to resurrect the dead, or to do any number of things that the gods or the spirits of nature or the dead simply refuse to do. The God of Earth and Fire may decree that no mortal can cause a conflagration on the scale of a volcanic eruption, and it would then be forbidden knowledge to learn how to engulf an entire city in flames with a single utterance.
Wizards may either seek forbidden knowledge, or learn the rituals and spells needed to supplicate and invoke the various spirits that inhabit and hold sway over the world, it is simply a matter of how they learn it.

Decay VS Undeath
This issue seems easier to solve, to me.
Define undeath as: Stasis of the dead.
Undeath means violating the natural law that things suffer entropy and decay over time. A zombie is a violation of the natural law that when something dies it stops moving. A ghost is a violation of the natural law that spirits move on to some afterlife when they die. Undeath simply means holding the spirit and/or body in a state of eternal stasis. It violates Decay simply by existing, because the undead do not feed the trees, they do not pass on, they exist to clog up the world around them and bring a halt to change.


Thoughts?

[Justicar]

Seems like the biggest contrasts in knowledge among the gods is their views.

Joshun: Here are some simple gifts and knowledge to help you survive and ward off the 'dark things' that want to prey upon you.
Anast-Reya: Ask for greater knowledge and the gods/spirits will decide if you are worth.
Nizreph: I don't care if you are worthy of the knowledge. I am going to give it to you and have fun seeing what happens.
Shade: No one should hoard knowledge. Secrets will destroy the reality. Only when everyone is equal will the world be safe.

Actually, it is kind of interesting comparing these deity with Askarak, Koharani, Karakkus, and Myrallah. Primal versus Arcane. Control versus chaos. Cities versus the wilds of nature. I am not saying that this is two sides in a conflict, but lines do seem to be made.

Please correct me if I am wrong with any of this. They are only first impressions.

[Sizzlefoot]

Seems like the biggest contrasts in knowledge among the gods is their views.

Joshun: Here are some simple gifts and knowledge to help you survive and ward off the 'dark things' that want to prey upon you.
Anast-Reya: Ask for greater knowledge and the gods/spirits will decide if you are worth.
Nizreph: I don't care if you are worthy of the knowledge. I am going to give it to you and have fun seeing what happens.
Shade: No one should hoard knowledge. Secrets will destroy the reality. Only when everyone is equal will the world be safe.

Actually, it is kind of interesting comparing these deity with Askarak, Koharani, Karakkus, and Myrallah. Primal versus Arcane. Control versus chaos. Cities versus the wilds of nature. I am not saying that this is two sides in a conflict, but lines do seem to be made.

Please correct me if I am wrong with any of this. They are only first impressions.

Seems pretty accurate for Nizreph.

[Darklady2831]

Spoiler: Quoted Text

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Seems like the biggest contrasts in knowledge among the gods is their views.

Joshun: Here are some simple gifts and knowledge to help you survive and ward off the 'dark things' that want to prey upon you.
Anast-Reya: Ask for greater knowledge and the gods/spirits will decide if you are worth.
Nizreph: I don't care if you are worthy of the knowledge. I am going to give it to you and have fun seeing what happens.
Shade: No one should hoard knowledge. Secrets will destroy the reality. Only when everyone is equal will the world be safe.

Actually, it is kind of interesting comparing these deity with Askarak, Koharani, Karakkus, and Myrallah. Primal versus Arcane. Control versus chaos. Cities versus the wilds of nature. I am not saying that this is two sides in a conflict, but lines do seem to be made.

Please correct me if I am wrong with any of this. They are only first impressions.

Seems pretty accurate for Nizreph.

Likewise for Anast-Reya!