 HEY YOU! NEW READER! YES YOU! Yes. YOU! Anyone can join our game! We have been going for a while but new people are ALWAYS welcome! We did a recap of the game recently. If you do not want to read the whole thread, start here: Here is the recap: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3550307&userid=129241&perpage=40&pagenumber=214#post462446661 It will help you get caught up on the adventures thus far! Welcome! "In the beginning there was naught but the Creator who dwelt in void and sat in silence".  "On the First Day the Creator crafted the Heavens and used his flesh to fill Heaven with Angels and, it was good."  "On the Second Day the Creator reached into his flesh and crafted a new place. Over it was placed the sky and beneath, land and what lay between was filled with water and, it was good."  "On the Third day the Creator spoke not a word, but beckoned his angels unto Ur and so they went and there they crafted creatures of the land and sea and sky. Life covered the world and, it was good."  "On the Fourth day the Creator again reached into his flesh and crafted ten men and ten women. The Creator placed them upon the world and, it was good."  "On the Fifth day, man covered the world."  "On the Sixth Day..."  The voices cease and the flood of images go dark. How much of it are you able to recall? The details are already beginning to fade and the exact words, slip from your recollection, you cannot be certain if you heard them correctly the first time as they fade away to nothingness. Your mind drifts through inky blackness. All is dark and silent, yet you think you may hear voices at the very edge of your perception.  You stir in your slumber. "Wake up" A voice is calling you to wakefulness. You are.... A. A being of the Heavens at the Dawn of Time who is not an all powerful creator, nor is the being "Lucifer". B. A being in the mortal world, sometime after man has been made, one who will have an "interesting" vantage point for things to come. Your first decision is arguably the most important decision you will make as it will set the entire path of the game. Right now you essentially have a choice between two very different games. Pick the one which sounds the most interesting to you! Both beings are influential and important, though in different ways. Option A is at the Dawn of Time, so, it does not really give anything away to say it is not human, there not being any yet. Option B starts in the world, after man already exists, but says nothing of what you are picking, only where and when.  WELCOME TO THE GAME! Welcome to Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens, a Chose Your Own Adventure style game. The format of the game is simple. I will lay out the scenario and offer options to proceed with. You can always propose an alternate path to pick. The most popular choice will be picked. Type as much as you like, but please indicate your vote by bolding your choice like this. One way this game is different from other Chose Your Own Adventure game is that your adventure is to a degree, a freeform adventure. You chose your path through the world. The world can and will change around you based upon your actions and you will not have a predetermined story to run through. Your path and ultimate fate are not planned. Today, the day we started the game, I honestly have no idea where we may be a month from now, let alone how it might one day end. It is all up to you. You do not have plot armor. Bad decisions can get you killed or wreak horrible consequences which you did not intend. If you want to, feel free to join us on irc #madgod on synirc.net. The channel tends to always have some people in it and is especially active when updates go up. If you do not know what IRC is, here is a web based chat version which will not require you to register or download anything: http://chat.mibbit.com/ Diogines fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Aug 11, 2016 |
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May 20, 2013 00:07
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Edited to remove spoilers. This and my next post refer to later events. I would like to give a VERY BIG THANKS to NETTLESOUP for making our games FIRST MAP! Edit: And continuing thanks for helping us to keep it updated! The locations are a rough approximation of where places are, based upon your current knowledge of the world. This is not necessarily accurate, but is a representation of the world, as you, Enkidel, currently know it to be.  THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ENKIDEL: Athar - The village you lived in till you were 11 AR - Arbeh - A fishing village two weeks south of Athar AC - Acco - A large city. B - Mount Har and at it's base, the city of Baitel. The sacred city and largest city in the world. D - Dor - A city G - Gezer - A city I - Ibleam - A city, rival to Zepath K - Kitron - A city M - Megido - A city T - Tanaach - A city, friendly to Zepath Z - Zepath - Your home Squidface on the coast - The camp from your Manhood trial, aka Enkidelopolis The little spire south of Zepath - Zepa's Monument Mountains a bit east - Mountains where beasts are known to reside Far east of Baitel, well off the map. The Kadmonim nomads and their grassland. White spaces - Places you know nothing of.  Many, many thanks to KYPP for our second map! Edit: And again, for the latest version! Diogines fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Dec 13, 2015 |
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May 20, 2013 00:10
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THE MUSEUM OF ENKIDEL Within his home in Zepath, the hero Enkidel has begun to collect trophies of his triumphs.  In his twenty first year, the Hero Enkidel shot a roc from the sky with a single arrow. The creature plummeted to the earth and with a mere knife, Enkidel slew the beast by slitting it's throat. A feather from the mighty Roc lay within this pot. *Picture by Arkanomen Diogines fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Dec 13, 2015 |
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May 20, 2013 00:10
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Option A is at the Dawn of Time, so, it does not really give anything away to say it is not human, there not being any yet. Option B starts in the world, after man already exists, but says nothing of what you are picking, only where and when.
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May 20, 2013 01:23
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I proof read the OP many times times, but, foolishly, made a mistake in the title >< Within moments of the thread going up, I messaged a mod, but it was too late, the thread already being live. quote:Our Chose your Own Adventure game, The Land Between the Rivers, has successfully finished, it ran for 5 months and overall, everyone seems pretty happy, I know I am. Traditional games is a good subforum, but I aimed this game at the GBS crowd, part of why the game was so much fun was because it was exposed to a wider audience. Most of the players in the game, came from GBS, not, traditional games. When multiple people told me that waiting for updates on the game kept them going through their boring jobs all day at work, it really gave me the motivation to keep the game moving along. Could we please be moved back? I sent a private message to a GBS mod. Diogines fucked around with this message at 01:50 on May 20, 2013 |
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May 20, 2013 01:45
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An update. No word from the GBS mods yet on being moved back to GBS, but lets keep our fingers crossed, it is still early in the morning, so they probably did not see it yet. Traditional Games is a good forum, but almost everyone from the last game, except for perhaps 3 or 4 people, came from GBS. Part of what made the game fun was exposing it to a wider group. If we wanted a smaller group, we could have done a PDQ, Gurps, DnD etc style game with a limited number of characters and applications, but this is a Chose your Own Adventure game with only 1 character, the adventure you are choosing. I like the fact that anyone can come in and out of the game as they so desire and that they don't need to do any "work" to get in, there is no application, there is no waiting list and there is no player cap, they just need to start reading. A lot of people posted in the last game that it kept them going at their boring day jobs, people who never would have seen the game at all if it was on traditional games, those posts are what part of what gave me the motivation to keep the game flowing with almost daily updates. Since we essentially just picked between two different games and preparing the next post for either is going to take some time, I am going to start working on the update, under the assumption that we will get back onto GBS tonight. You can keep voting, if the vote shifts drastically the other way, we will change back, but for now, I need to start putting things together, so I'll start with what we have. Diogines fucked around with this message at 12:32 on May 20, 2013 |
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May 20, 2013 12:29
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The update is ready and will go up as soon as we are back on GBS. Lets keep our fingers crossed folks.*takes a chomp* posted:Voting A Over the course of the game many people told me the same thing, which is why I really want our game on GBS. Your enthusiasm was what made the game exciting for me. Diogines fucked around with this message at 20:21 on May 20, 2013 |
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May 20, 2013 20:19
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Anyone who wants to join us on IRC to discuss basket weaving, good wine or elk hunting is welcome to, but we'll hold off on an update till we get our game back onto the right forum, give it a little more time, I don't think we've been noticed yet, so, give it a little more time.
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May 21, 2013 00:43
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I messaged a mod roughly twenty seconds after the thread went up and I realized I left something critical out of the title  . I think we've just not been noticed yet, please do not spam any mod with requests, I am hopeful it is just a matter of waiting to be noticed.
Diogines fucked around with this message at 01:30 on May 21, 2013 |
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May 21, 2013 01:18
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Deadly Ham Sandwich posted:Diogines, I just read one of the books, Disc World: Small Gods, you recommended at the end of the Mad God thread. It was good. Was it an inspiration for the tortoises? It was, yes. It was a little call back to the book for those who had read it. Then we all grew to love Beaky when we met her. Like the last game, i'll release a reading list after this one is over!
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May 21, 2013 03:50
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"Wake up sweetheart" you hear your mother say to you as she lifts you from your crib. She smiles to you and then she frowns, pressing the back of her hand against your forehead. Her hand is freezing as she wipes the sweat from your brow. She turns and calls out "Jalitha! Fetch a jug of water! He has another fever!" You hear another female voice say "Yes Mistress!" You hear the rushing of feet. As your mother carries you out of the room, you see your home. You are too young to know it, being only a few months old but you live...  CHOICE A. In the city of Baitel. Baitel is a city built of bricks and ringed by a stone wall thirtyfeet high. Compared to it's neighbors, Baitel is a metropolis and is the largest city in Ur. There are other cities and villages nearby, but they are smaller. The land is somewhat arid and it is not heavily forested but there are small scattered forests in the hills and pine, cedar and spruce forests far to the north. The sea is far inland from the sea, Baitel itself is at the edge of a river. Your father is the king of Baitel and the great, great, great grandson of the tribal chieftain who first decided to settle their flocks and plant fields in this land. Men have settled down before, but more and more of the wandering tribes are settling down and taking up farming. Your mother is the daughter of a chieftain of a tribe of nomads, wed to your father to secure peace after a large series of raids. Raids by other nomads still occur, but they are rare and with the exception of bad weather, life is good and prosperous. The population of the city is booming. The most advanced technology known here is the plow. Your people worship an omnipotent, omniscient singular god who is referred to in the Old Tongue as El, though the worship of a wide variety of other gods occurs among those newly come to the city.  CHOICE B. You live among a wandering tribe of nomads known as the Kadmonim. Your father is the Chieftain of the largest and most powerful of the Kadmonim tribes. The tribes of the Kadmonim follow their great flocks of sheep, goats and cattle through the hills and grasslands further east from the coast, a land which is increasingly becoming more settled. Your people trade with other tribes and with the the village and city folk but your people raid their flocks and farms as well. There had been increasing violence with the cities as your people competed for grazing land with settled folk but for now at least, things are once again peaceful. Your older cousin married the king of Baitel to secure a peace of sorts. Your mother is from that city and wed your father as part of a series of marriages to bring peace. Your people worsphip the god Ishat who they believe to be the sun and the father of the gods. Your people believe that a wide variety of gods guide their lives and your people worship them beside Ishat.  CHOICE C. You live in the village of Carine, which lay further east from the coast than other settlements and is at the edge of a vast grassland inhabited by the Pardonim and other nomads. The village lay atop a large hill and is ringed by other hills. The village is not as large as a city, but it is large by the standards of the other nearby villages. There has been talk of even building a wall! As the patriarch of the wealthiest, largest and most respected family in the village, the words of your father, the High Elder, is law. Your mother is the eldest daughter of another prominent family in the village. Your people farm, herd flocks, trade and sometimes raid both the nomads and other settlements. After the end of a rather large series of raids, life is again calm and peaceful. Your people worship the same gods as the tribes of the Kadmonim but revere Nikall, goddess of grain and growing things above all others.  CHOICE D. You live in the small fishing village of Athar, a small and isolated village which lay west of Baitel, along the coast and much further south. Your village is isolated and distant from other villages, cities and tribes, though there are a few other small villages fishing further south. Your people settled here long ago, they fish the seas as they have since time out of memory, vaguely aware that there are other peoples, but interacting with them rarely. Your father is the village priest of Asherah, who your people believe made the world and swims through the sea as an immense fish, causing storms and the tides. Your people know that many other leaser gods, the offspring of Asherah, also exist, most of whom also live in the sea, though they know that the gods of other peoples exist as well, though they are surely demons and trickster spirits. If you want to, feel free to join us on irc #madgod on synirc.net. The channel tends to always have some people in it and is especially active when updates go up. If you do not know what IRC is, here is a web based chat version which will not require you to register or download anything: http://chat.mibbit.com/ EDIT: MORNING VOTE COUNT An initial count of the vote in the morning, as of the time of this post: A. 14 B. 5 C. 6 D. 35 An update will go up this evening, but I will answer very, very basic questions about each starting location till then. Anything about specific persons or practices, it is too early to cover, but things like the local environment and very basic information about each group is fair game. Piracy does not exist, since there is no real travel or commerce by sea yet and thus nothing to steal. D is the most primitive and isolated starting group. A is the most advanced and interconnected and B and C somewhere inbetween, C being more advanced but B being better traveled. As always, voting is open till we post otherwise and you can vote or edit at any time. Diogines fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Nov 2, 2013 |
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May 21, 2013 03:55
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The land is arid, but none of it is a desert. Water is far more abundant, the wilderness has patches of grasses and green throughout and forests exist.
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May 21, 2013 04:04
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A good idea was suggested on IRC. Since it seems we will be stuck in the Game Room, a forum that most of GBS does not know exists, a banner ad might help us get enough of a flood of initial players to keep it going? It is apparently not very expensive, $7 gets us 1 ad in the rotation for a month, $30 gets us 4 for a month. A number of people politely offered to buy a title which was nice of them, but, its not that much, so I may even buy the ad myself if we have no volunteers. I don't really have the technical skills to make a good banner ad though. Does anyone want to try to make a good one? If anyone makes a good banner, i'll pay for it, if no one else wants to. Edit: ADarkerPorpoise has volunteered to come in for 4 ads in a month rotation and I will match him, so, we will get the thread some exposure. Anyone else who wants to volunteer to make our ad, by all means, post it in the thread! Diogines fucked around with this message at 04:49 on May 21, 2013 |
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May 21, 2013 04:40
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MORNING VOTE COUNT An initial count of the vote in the morning, as of the time of this post: A. 14 B. 5 C. 6 D. 35 An update will go up this evening, but I will answer very, very basic questions about each starting location till then. Anything about specific persons or practices, it is too early to cover, but things like the local environment and very basic information about each group is fair game. Piracy does not exist, since there is no real travel or commerce by sea yet and thus nothing to steal. D is the most primitive and isolated starting group. A is the most advanced and interconnected and B and C somewhere inbetween, C being more advanced but B being better traveled. As always, voting is open till we post otherwise and you can vote or edit at any time. Diogines fucked around with this message at 14:30 on May 21, 2013 |
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May 21, 2013 14:27
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Canuck-Errant posted:
Canuck, that is fantastic. We can't get a banner ad up till midnight anyway, so we wait to see if any others pop up for variety, but I like that one.
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May 21, 2013 14:40
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OhYo posted:Any accounts of great-floods lately? Hot Dog Day #82 posted:Here is a question for you, Diog! The city, A, was settled on purpose by one charismatic and powerful tribal chief who thought the side of the river would be a good place to live and so settled his people there. For reasons of geography and history, Baitel grew larger than other settlements. If it is the first city is unclear. It is the largest and growing fast. Nomads have been settling down to farm, slowly, for a long time but the pace has been speeding up for the last few centuries. The largest city in the region only has four thousand people. The picture for Baitel is a larger city than it truly is, the walls are not half as high as shown but it was the best picture to fit it. A, B and C are the same ethnic group and closer geographically to each other than D, who are a different ethnic group and much further south. You as a character are of course not familiar with the intricate details of the agricultural revolution and the Neolithic, but to give you a rough idea. Our update will go up in about three hours
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May 21, 2013 21:24
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I'd like to thank ADarkerPorpoise for buying this banner ad, I just did too. So, thanks! Your the Porpoise! Anyone else who wants to join in is more than welcome to do so! I am working on tonight's update, it should go up in less than an hour. Diogines fucked around with this message at 23:12 on May 21, 2013 |
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May 21, 2013 23:05
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You... Live in the village of Athar. You are a few months old and the son of Shushem, the village priest of Asherah, the Great Fish, creator of the world, bringer of tides, storms and father of the other gods. You also live with your mother, Nami and Jalitha whose exact social status is unclear to your infant mind, though she usually nurses you and is not as old as Mama, she is much lighter skinned than Mama and your father. You all live together in a hut built of stone, mud and wood and thatched on the top with dried palm leaves. Your hut is with lots of others a few hundred feet away from the beach and surrounded by a forest of palm trees, though there are a few other sorts of trees in the forest, the palms predominate.  You are too young to know how to count, but a hundred and forty people live in Athar. You are also too young to appreciate much of the wider world and your people are scarcely aware of this fact either, but in either event, your village is far further to the south than any other nearby peoples. The extent of your peoples contact with the wider world is occasional exchanges of brides between even smaller fishing villages further south than you and virtually no contact occurs with those further north and east. Being an infant, your memories of your earliest years are nothing more than a few misremembered flashes of images, smells and sounds. Time passes. Your baby teeth come in. YOUCH! This is painful for you and even more painful for Jalitha. You learn to crawl. That a boy!  Your mother and Jalitha are happy and enthusiastic. Your father is cold, distant and uncaring. You learn to walk and to talk. Way to go!  Your mother and Jalitha are wildly enthused about this fact. Your father does not appear to notice or to care. You learn to control your bowels and bladder. You the man! On a roll here!  Your mother is very happy. Jalitha is thrilled about this fact. Even your father, for once, seems slightly happy, if only because he will no longer smell your accidents, but he otherwise ignores you, as he always does. More time passes. Your parents are away and Jalitha is cooking over a fire pit in a corner of the hut. For some reason she does all of the cooking and most of the cleaning, not your mother. She smiles to you and smooths down your hair with one hand. She takes a stone knife in one hand and your hand in the other and walks you outside. She sits you on a rock outside of your home and tells you that she has a special treat for you. "Your hair is getting too long Sweetling and you can hardly see." Which is true, your hair is getting rather long, never having had a haircut and it is now often getting in your eyes. You are too young to understand that your people braid their hair, never cutting it their entire lives. Does Jalitha understand this? You are now old enough to understand that Jalitha is a bit taller than other women in your village and that she is somewhat lighter skinned as well. Her eyes are blue and everyone else you know has brown eyes. She also speaks differently than other people and is much younger than mama. You do not look like her, you look like everyone else. She may be different but she lives with you and mama and your father and in your young mind has a place somewhere between big sister, beloved aunt or maybe even second mother. She always has time for you, even when mama does not and your father, who never does. "You are a BIG boy now, aren't you?" she says as you sit on the rock outside your home. You nod enthusiastically. You ARE a big boy! "Are you ready for a special surprise?" You nod again, eager for your surprise. "We are going to make your hair nice and neat and then we'll make you some seaweed cakes, won't that be nice?" Seaweed cakes! Your favorite! Those take lots of time to make and you don't get them often! You nod again, this time much more enthusiastically. Seaweed cakes, oh boy!  She takes the stone knife and begins to cut your hair. You are not afraid. You know she would NEVER hurt you and oh boy, seaweed cakes! She starts to sing strange words as she cuts your hair, they don't sound like words anyone speaks but her song is very pretty. Suddenly someone pulls her back, the knife slices the top of your scalp as she is yanked, giving you a small cut and one which won't cause any permanent harm, but, to a four year old, it may as well be losing a limb. OUCH! Blood trickles slowly down to your face as you watch your father beat Jalitha, roaring with anger at her. "SEA WITCH!" Wam. "You defiled my son!" Wam. "Have you lost your senses!?!" Wam. "Master!" Jalitha cries out "I am sorry!" Wam. Sob. Shriek. Whail. "Forgive me Master!" Wam. "EL!" Jalitha screams and then other words you do not understand. She is bleeding far worse than you. Wam."Your demons will not save you WITCH! If you ever touch my son's hair again I shall finish what Asherah began and feed you to him upon the moon!" Blood is trickling down your face and Jalitha is hurt badly as your father beats her. Other people are looking out from their homes now, fear in their eyes, but they do nothing. Jalitha told you that you are a big boy now, so you... OPTION A. Fall over on your side and scream hysterically because you are in pain! OPTION B. Fall over on your side and scream hysterically because Jalitha is in pain! OPTION C Try to pull your father off her! OPTION D Scream at your father to stop! OPTION E Try to pull Jalitha away! OPTION F Yell loudly that YOU are sorry for whatever YOU did! OPTION G Run and get mama! She should be in your cousins home, making beads. OPTION H Run and get Uncle Jorah! He is is your youngest uncle but he is big and the strongest man in the village! Sometimes he argues with your father! Uncle Jorah can stop him! OPTION I Scream that Jalitha is a witch because you are afraid you are in trouble! If you want to, feel free to join us on irc #madgod on synirc.net. The channel tends to always have some people in it and is especially active when updates go up. If you do not know what IRC is, here is a web based chat version which will not require you to register or download anything: http://chat.mibbit.com/ Diogines fucked around with this message at 23:42 on May 21, 2013 |
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May 21, 2013 23:38
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Diogines posted:I'd like to thank ADarkerPorpoise for buying this banner ad, I just did too. And I'd like to thank Cantordust, our Marxist friend, upholding Soviet values even after the apocalypse! Who also just went in for a month long, 4x ad!
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May 21, 2013 23:51
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the_steve posted:How far away IS our uncle's hut? It is a short run. It is tough to tell, as a four year old, if he intends to beat her to death or not.
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May 22, 2013 00:14
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I am going to hit the hay. If anyone wants to do a count about 9 hours from now, I may have time to do a quickie update in the morning!
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May 22, 2013 04:00
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my dad posted:Dio, are we allowed to make negative votes? Blood dripping from your scalp in a narrow stream and down your face, terrified shrieks behind you, you run as fast as you can, trying to choke back tears. Others in the village watch you as you run and watch the scene unfolding but all keep their distance and do nothing as Jalitha continues to shriek and beg. You find your uncle Jorah at the edge of the village chopping trees. He is a grown up and very old but younger than your father. You, being a four year old are too young to understand, but your uncle Jorah is in his mid 20s and your father, is in his late 30s. Jorah sometimes takes you out to fish with him, or takes you when he goes to cut wood. He spends lots of time with you and likes to have you with him when he works. Sometimes he throws you so high in the air you can almost touch the birds! You laugh and giggle with delight when he does so because you know he will always catch you! He can take down a tree in a single blow with his stone axe!  He must be the strongest man in the world! Well, no, he is not the strongest man in the world, which to your young mind may as well be this village, nor can he cut down a tree in a single axe blow, but he is tall and he is strong. His hair is long and braided behind his head, like all of the men of your home and is almost two feet long. You race towards where you hope he is cutting down trees.  You run as he takes a final swing at the large palm tree and it begins to fall over, you, a young child, continue to run, oblivious. You look towards Jorah who now sees you and whose face is an expression of horror as the tree falls in your general direction. He yells to move as he races towards you and you, towards him. The tree is falling. You are oblivious to the tree and do not know if it is going to fall on you, he scoops you up and moves aside at the last moment, carrying you, the tree slamming into the ground somewhere near the two of you and making a loud and startling crashing sound which causes you to let out a shriek of terror. Jorah, holding you in his arms looks at your bloody face and half finished haircut and yells in great confusion over the source of your injuries "Are you alright!? Are you alright?! You almost fell beneath the tree! What happened!?" You.... OPTION A Break down completely and shriek and sob because your family is fighting, you were hurt, you were almost hit by a tree and there was a loud and scary sound from the tree falling and now Uncle Jorah is yelling too and this is all too much for you and WAAAAAAAAAAH! OPTION B stammer out between sobs "Papa...! HURT!" then break down sobbing. OPTION C say between choked sobs "Papa...! Help...! OPTION D scream "JALITHA IS A WITCH!" OPTION E yell out the words "SEA CAKES!" to your confused uncle between sobs and point towards your home. OPTION F scream out "JALITHA!"then break down sobbing. OPTION G Something else! Specify what you want to say. Today, you, a four year old, were about to get your favorite treat, watched one family member savagely beat another, took a cut to your scalp, now have a bloody face, almost had a tree fall on you and there was a loud and scary noise and are now held in the arms of a confused and scared adult who is yelling also! It's been a rough morning, hasn't it, Champ? Make what you want to say appropriate for your age and experience. If G wins but a single variation does not beat the other options, we will combine the winning Gs. OPTION H Try to summon all of the self control, discipline and willpower that you, a four year old child can in a herculean effort to yell out "PAPA IS HURTING JALITHA! STOP HIM!" and THEN break down sobbing. This will be tough and random chance is a factor in the game. If you pick this one, there is a chance you might replace words with sobs, not saying what you intended, or breaking down completely, this also applies to G above. Random chance sometimes comes into play, beside your abilities, the nature of the world and many other things come into play. Written options wont always succeed. Generally, if it is clear if an option is guaranteed to succeed it will say that you do it, if success is uncertain, it will usually say something like you try, attempt, make your best effort etc. The odds of your success and your ability to accurately judge those odds wont always be written perfectly correctly but tend to be in the rough ballpark. I am a MOSTLY reliable narrator! Or not! Diogines fucked around with this message at 17:15 on May 22, 2013 |
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May 22, 2013 16:58
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GoneWithTheTornado posted:Hey Diog, do these childhood choices actually affect our future personality, abilities and 'stats' like some people are theorizing, or should we just concentrate on solving situations the smartest way we can think of? I am starting on the update now and barring any last minute swing votes to change the results, expect it up in about an hour. I encourage anyone who has not voted to do so and anyone who wants to change their votes, up through the last minute is welcome to do so. Diogines fucked around with this message at 22:48 on May 22, 2013 |
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May 22, 2013 22:41
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Deadly Ham Sandwich posted:So that's a yes? That is a non answer.
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May 22, 2013 23:35
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That happened several times last game. When it happened, I laughed and re-wrote them. Don't worry about that possibility, make the votes you want to make.
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May 23, 2013 00:08
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Still held by your uncle, here, at the outskirts of the village you point towards your home and wail at the top of your lungs, tears now freely flowing you yell "SAVE JALITHA!" then fall into a good old fashioned hysterical wail that you have been fighting to hold back. You have managed to somewhat clearly communicate what you needed to an adult despite all of the horror you have just endured and should feel good about yourself for being able to do so under immense stress! This is a feat very, very few children your age could have managed! Your confused uncle Jorah, who thought he somehow hit you with a tree, realizes that he has not. He wipes the blood from your eyes. With one arm he continues to hold you as you wail and with the other, he grabs his axe. He runs back towards the village proper and towards your home, bringing you with him. Jalitha lay upon the dirt, bloodied and bruised, your father yelling at her unmoving form while shaking some sort of enormous tooth at her. You have seen it before. Your father wears it all the time on a necklace and it is VERY sharp! Your mother appears and grabs you from Jorah then takes you into a house, not yours, several other women are inside and they look afraid. Your mother tries to calm you down and wash the blood from your face. You have never seen anyone hit anyone else in the village before, even when people are very mad, which is rare. Nothing like this has happened before though your father is often mean to Jalitha. You have difficulty hearing exactly what is said as your father and uncle yell at each other outside but after a few moments your father comes into the hut, snatches you from your mothers arms and drags you outside. Jorah is standing over Jalitha, axe in his hand and fire in his eyes as he looks at your father with hatred. Your father drags you beside her and now tears stream down HIS face! Your father holds out a hand in the direction of the beach and cries out "My son! My son! This witch has defiled you in the eyes of Asherah! Oh my son! My son! Asherah! Forgive him!" Your FATHER is crying? He is made of stone and never in his life has cried, or cared about you but he seems to be doing both now. He presses the enormous tooth he had into your hands and forces you to grip it on the top.  "Grip tightly my son and CUT! Beg that Asherah will not hold you to account for the crimes of this witch!" your father says as he kneels over Jalitha and pulls her strange and pretty hair out straight for you to cut. Jalitha's eyes open and she looks at you, she is still alive. She tries to smile but her face is badly bruised and her lips are bleeding. "It will be okay Sweetling" she says to you in a gentle tone. You... OPTION A Fall down and sob hysterically because you are a young child and this has been a highly traumatic experience! OPTION B Cry, try cut her hair and try to scream out pleadingly to Ashera between tears. OPTION C Try to cut her hair and try to summon all of your willpower and self control to try your hardest to not cry or say nothing. OPTION D Try to tell your father no, which, is likely to take the form of you dropping the tooth and crying, or stammering. OPTION E Try to run back to your mother. OPTION F Try to run behind your uncle. OPTION G Try to stab your father in the leg with the tooth. OPTION H Try to slit your fathers throat, he is bent over, holding her hair out and thus low down enough to try it. OPTION I Try to slit Jalithas throat. OPTION J Try something else. Write what you want to do. Please try to keep it appropriate for your age and experience. If you want to, feel free to join us on irc #madgod on synirc.net. The channel tends to always have some people in it and is especially active when updates go up. If you do not know what IRC is, here is a web based chat version which will not require you to register or download anything: http://chat.mibbit.com/ Diogines fucked around with this message at 00:34 on May 23, 2013 |
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May 23, 2013 00:21
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Quick edit after I posted it, I reordered the options, so if you just voted, please double check you got the right one you wanted!
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May 23, 2013 00:24
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From IRC:quote:9:44 ADarkerPorpoise Diog does Dad do sermons or rituals in front of the whole village?
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May 23, 2013 00:52
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Good news! There are no actual deserts in the local region! Even north where it is more arid, but, it is not really a desert and there are actual forests near you, such as the one you currently live in, near the beach. Diogines fucked around with this message at 04:30 on May 23, 2013 |
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May 23, 2013 04:27
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An update will go up in three to six hours so vote away! If you want to change your vote, by all means, do so, but it will make counting easier if you do a new post and say what your vote was and what you are changing it to.
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May 23, 2013 18:05
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Much of the village is out fishing or seeing to the other every day tasks of life but you feel this moment as if everyone in the world is watching you. And many women watch from their homes and men and children watching from other vantage points. Jalitha is on the ground before you, her face badly bruised, your father still crying, holding her hair out long. "Curse the witch!" your father screams "and beg that you are not defiled in the eyes of Asherah!" You do your best to stay silent but it is just too much for you, you are a young child. You begin to sob and cry. Jalitha tries to smile to you again, she says nothing. You clutch the tooth tightly and slice through the hair easily, the tooth is VERY sharp. As you cut off sections of her hair, your father stretches out other portions of her hair and crying, you cut off most of her long golden hair. Your father scowls at his brother. "Take the witch if you want her, Jorah" your father says with venom. Your uncle Jorah looks at him with hatred, lifts her in his arms and carries her away as she weeps gently. You drop the tooth and try to follow but your father grabs you in one hand and a pile of her hair in the other and drags you to the beach. He screams out to Asherah, cuts his palms on the giant tooth and says many things you don't understand, partially because you do not know many of the words and partially because he is ritually throwing Jalitha's long pretty golden hair into the water while half drowning you. Her pretty hair sticks to your face and drifts past your eyes as you scream and struggle for breath.  There is lightning as you continue to struggle for breath and have your head dunked beneath the water again and again. You pass out. You awaken in your home. You are very, very sleepy and feel as if your eyelids were being dragged closed by the strength of the tides. You see you are being held in your mothers arms, who yells out your name "Og!" and then leans down to kiss your face with tearful eyes. You fall back to sleep in her arms. You have a name and, even if it was not mentioned prior and it is Og. It was definitely not excluded prior to this point by mistake, the same mistake which occurred several posts in a row, but rather, was left out as a clever framing device, on purpose, to make you identify more with your persona! Time passes. You recover from nearly drowning and find that Jalitha has left your home and now lives with your uncle Jorah. You frequently sneak out of your bed in the middle of the night and enter theirs. Sometimes your father angrily drags you home, frequently he does not. As you grow older, you find that the other children of the village do not want to play with you. Your hair is shorter from your half finished haircut and their parents fear your father and tell them to keep away. You also look different. You are tall for your age and the top of your scalp has an odd line where no hair grows, where Jalitha cut you as your father pulled her back. You have no siblings to play with. Six years pass. Even young children are expected to contribute to the labor of the village. During this time, you spend varying amounts of time with different people and learn many things as you help them in small ways. The more time you spent with each, the more you learned from them. You spent time with your father, who tried to teach you the duties, rituals, lore and sacred names you would need to know when you one day become the village priest of Asherah. His lessons included reading the future from shells and other objects washed up upon the beach and predicting the weather by watching the tides, something he is apparently able to do fairly accurately, at least as far as your young mind can tell. It is almost universally believed in your village that if sacred rituals are not done to honor Asherah, the fish will leave at best and your village will be hit by storms at worst. Your father is no more loving than before, he is cold, distant, impatient and quick to criticize at the smallest mistakes, but at least he is paying attention to you now. You even win small and highly precious bits of praise from him when you learn a particularly hard lesson perfectly. At times, you ran out on his lessons and tasks and he punished you and sometimes dragged you back when you ran away from him. You spent time with your uncle Jorah who was always glad to see you. With him and sometimes with his brothers, Amatar and Ikaria, you went out in the small boats your people use to fish. You watched him cast nets and pull up fish and also watched him paddle a boat. You learned the names and appearances of fish and some of how they live.  Sometimes you saw enormous fish in the water beneath you and sometimes you saw them spout water high into the air. You were very afraid the first time you saw one, but your uncle Jorah smiled and told you not to be afraid because they are the grandchildren of Asherah and the children of Asherah's gentle daughter, Ninveh. Your uncle teaches you that these creatures are minor gods and it is very good luck to be splashed by the spouts of water they shoot through the back of their heads, for if a fisherman is splashed by them, they will surely catch many fish that month. You spent time with your uncle Pagam and helped him make stone and wood tools. You even helped him start work on some of the boats your people use. You also watched him cut down trees and sometimes went with him into the forest to try to catch small game like rabbits and deer. Pagam is one of the best hunters in the village, though your people do not eat much meat. He does not talk to you very much, but he seems to like you. Often as you sit beside him, chipping flakes off of a rock to shape it, he smiles at you and places an arm around your shoulder, or ruffles your hair. You spent time with your mother and watched her make nets, clothing, baskets and rope. She also makes beads for the village from pearls and seashells. Your mother is kind to you, but is obviously unhappy with her marriage to your father, not that she has any options. On your ninth birthday, the day uncertain, but the season known more clearly as your people track the seasons, not the days, she gave you a necklace of beautifully cut shells. You spent time with Jalitha. Jalitha walks more slowly since your father beat her and her hair slowly grew back. You watched as she cooked many wonderfully tasting foods. She also told you stories of far away lands and battles with fantastical creatures as well as the names of giant creatures who live within the clouds and their stories. She continues to be kind and loving to you. You spent some time alone, exploring the beaches, tide pools and caves along the coastline at times when other children would play together. You spent some time in the forest, climbing trees and sometimes spying on other children as they played. You spent time swimming in the ocean, alone, as other children played. Twice a year your father and all the men of the village leave for a week. In the weeks leading up to this, all within the village seem on edge and fearful and the women of the village afraid. The women wait together at the edge of the village on the seventh night and sometimes one of the women lets out a great shriek when she sees her husband has not returned, the other women comfort her as best they can. You have asked your mother what happens to the men and where they go, she tells you that you will know when you are older and not to worry because your father will return. The oldest boys of the village go with them on these trips and return as young men. Sometimes everyone returns, sometimes, just one or two of the men, or even the boys, do not. You know that one day you will go on these trips, when you are ready to be a man. Jalitha did not spend these times with the other women, but alone, or sometimes, with just you. When you were afraid that Jorah would not return, she told you not to be afraid and promised you that a sky giant named El and other sky giants would send Jorah home safely. During these frightful nights, you were sometimes with her as she prayed to sky giants for Jorah's safe return. At other times, your father has caught her praying to the sky giants before and gotten VERY angry when he caught her and beat her for doing so. 1. You are now ten years old. You spent time with many people over the last six years, sometimes by choice, sometimes, you were forced to. Please order the following in the order you spent the most time with them, from most frequent to least frequent. Before anyone asks, I swear to Denziroh that this vote does not correspond to deciding some sort of secret stats like str / con / dex / int / wis / cha or any other similar formulation, so, trying to correspond different votes to stats in this vote won't achieve that goal. A. Father B. Uncle Jorah C. Uncle Pagam D. Mom E. Jalitha F. Alone along the beach G. Alone in the forest H. Alone, swimming in the ocean 2. When the men of the village left for a week, did you pray with Jalitha for Uncle Jorah to return safely? Please pick ONE. Because of the large number of options, please make sure to include the letter, to make it easier to count. Thank you! A. Yes, to Ashera and to the other gods of your people, because you believe in them B. Yes, to Ashera and to the other gods of your people, because everyone believes in them C. Yes, with Jalitha to her sky giant, because you believe in him D. Yes, with Jalitha to her sky giant, because you think it will make Jalitha happy, but you don't believe in him E. Yes, with Jalitha to her sky giant, because you think it will make Jalitha happy, but you don't care if he exists or not, you just want to make Jalitha happy F. Yes, to both Ashera and the gods of your people, alongside Jalitha's the sky giant, but you only believe in Asherah and his children G. Yes, to both Ashera and the gods of your people, alongside Jalitha's the sky giant, but you only believe in her sky giant H. Yes, to both Ashera and the gods of your people, alongside Jalitha's the sky giant, you don't know what you believe I. No, you did not pray, you are angry at the thought of prayer, because of your fathers harsh treatment of you, but have not decided if you are angry at the gods or not, you are just angry J. No, you did not pray, you are angry at all gods, because of your fathers harsh treatment of you K. No, you did not pray, you do not BELIEVE in gods because of your fathers harsh treatment L. Yes, to both Ashera and the gods of your people, alongside Jalitha's sky giant, you believe in them both If you want to, feel free to join us on irc #madgod on synirc.net. The channel tends to always have some people in it and is especially active when updates go up. If you do not know what IRC is, here is a web based chat version which will not require you to register or download anything: http://chat.mibbit.com/ Diogines fucked around with this message at 01:27 on May 24, 2013 |
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May 24, 2013 00:56
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We had 2 option Es for question 2, fixed!
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May 24, 2013 01:07
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Per IRC request, I added option L to question 1. L. Yes, to both Ashera and the gods of your people, alongside Jalitha's sky giant, you believe in them both Diogines fucked around with this message at 01:24 on May 24, 2013 |
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May 24, 2013 01:21
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RandomPauI posted:This is an ancient fishing village. Denouncing a key part of our faith will have grave consequences. We're also the son of a high priest. We're expected to assume the position of high priest in the worship of Ashera and the true gods. And they are true gods: we've seen the children of Ashera and received blessings from them. But we haven't seen any signs of the Skygod or the Skygiants. I am going to take it as a given that you are smart enough to hide your beliefs for now, if your belief is anything but a sincere belief to Asherah and fake it. I should have put that in the question. The question is really about what you did in prayer and why, when you were alone, hiding with Jalitha, a few times a year. Considering your society, as a ten year old anyway, publicly denying your gods right now could potentially result in the following question: Are you from... A. Baitel B. The tribes of the Pardonim C. The village of Carine Diogines fucked around with this message at 12:42 on May 24, 2013 |
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May 24, 2013 12:38
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Vagon posted:Yeah, it was a joke. He was saying if we were in public and doing this out loud and chose to denounce our god, we may as well have been voting for a game over. You are ALWAYS welcome to change your vote, but if you do after this point, please do so by making a NEW post. Editing in at the end of your old vote something like "see below" is nice, to help our dedicated team of vote counters, statisticians and chart makers but it is not required. After reviewing their hard work, for this vote, we are going to go by points where your first pick is worth 8, your next pick is worth 7, then 6 and so on, which is different from what I first intended but I think that way is better. The main update will be tonight and we are still on that vote. Your fathers job involves more than simply beating you for not remembering all of his lessons perfectly. Your people have no writing and he is the chief historian of the village. Many nights the people of your home gather to hear him tell the sacred stories of your people. One story you memorized perfectly after a number of beatings. Your father had you share the story before the village when you were nine, it was as follows: "In the beginning, Asherah swam through the waters and His Hunger was Great as he swam through the deep. Where Asherah beat his tail the waters were deepened and where he lifted up his tail, rose land. Where he splashed water high was made the sky, stars and moon and sun. And His Hunger was Great as he swam through the deep. Where Asherah lowered his fins, came the plants of the sea and where he raised them came the plants of the land. And His Hunger was Great as he swam through the deep. Asherah cast forth his seed unto the waters and made the Great Fish and their names are Ninveh, Yamsef, Daam, Keenem, Nagaal, Faram, Smis, Adom, Jaar, Xural, Amal, Menl, Garal and Ophama. And His Hunger was Great as he swam through the deep. Asherah ate the flesh of his sons and daughters and the flesh of their sons and daughters. And His Hunger was Great as he swam through the deep. Asherah cast his seed upon the land and where it landed came our fathers. And His Hunger was Great as he swam through the deep." For once, your father was pleased with you and told you he was proud of you when you finished the story, perfectly. His satisfaction almost lasted a full day, till you accidentally sorted some sacred sea shells wrong and he beat you. When you asked what the next verse of the story was, your father said you would learn when you became a man. Jalithas stories have a different tone. Many of them involve fantastical places far to the north or east or across the sea or in the clouds. As she cooks, Jalitha tells you many stories. There is a great deal of violence in her stories but they are rather exciting, people fighting each other or slaying giant monsters or sky giants fighting monsters to protect people. Sometimes the sky giants trick each other or argue but they never fight. According to Jalitha, the world is filled with dangerous and scary monsters always just over the next hill, but you do not need to be afraid because the sky giants will keep them away. These monsters take many forms and shapes. Scary people who eat other people are a common theme but they are always stopped just in the nick of time when the heroes defeat them to save the innocent. The best stories that she tells you are about the sky giants Smattas and Maranal. Smattas is said to be spear of the Sky Giant El, the father of the Sky Giants. In her stories, Smattas always arrives to defeat horrible monsters and save little children when all hope is lost and he always, always, always wins, even when it seems impossible. She teaches you not to fear thunder for it is not the anger of Asherah as your father had taught you, but rather, it is the sound of battles of Smattas as he defeats monsters far away to save little children and women. Lighting are blessings sent by Marnal as Smattas fights, to help sick and hurt people who were hurt by monsters, he is so strong he can even bring dead people back to life! She also tells you stories of the land giant Labaras and his many fantastical journeys across the world, hunting monsters and going on adventures. When he was all done adventuring, he founded the great village of Baitel far to the north and then joined the sky giants in their home in the clouds. According to Jalitha, when you are in danger or in trouble you should ask El to send his the sky giants to save you and if you are nice to other people and don't hurt people than they will always keep you safe. According to your father, Asherah does not help people but will punish you if you disobey by sending the fish away or sending storms. Sometimes Asherah's children help you and sometimes they hurt you. Diogines fucked around with this message at 17:32 on May 24, 2013 |
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May 24, 2013 16:38
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Everyone knows you count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, lots, many-lots.
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May 24, 2013 17:04
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Snow Job posted:I think a lot of people are mistaking kindness for perversion, not that I voted for him very high. That had me a little confused, yeah. He is a tool maker and hunter and is the silent type. He is one of the few people who in your life who is actually nice to you. Spending many long hours scraping stone tools and longer hours hunting, he is prone to silence. That disgusting topic mentioned above is not in the game.
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May 24, 2013 21:19
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I am going to start on the update. Give me a bit.
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May 25, 2013 00:04
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It has been a bit of a long day, I am not sure if the update will actually go up tonight, but I started on it. It will go up at the latest, in the morning, if it does not go up tonight.
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May 25, 2013 01:01
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Mid Vote Mini Update if you missed it, which has information on the gods of your people and the beliefs of Jalitha: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3550307&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=18#post415791499 Time passes. Six years. You are rather tall for your age. You have spent the last six years of your life to a degree, isolated. The other children of the village never want to play with you. You look different, your hair is shorter and there is a line atop your head where none grows at all, where you were cut. When you were eight, you learned that the parents of the other children in the village told their children not to play with you, afraid to attract the attention of your father. You were both hurt and angry. You have spent the last six years in your own company or in the company of the adults in your life. As much as you could, you took every opportunity to be with Jorah, leaving with him in the morning on his boat when he left to fish, out of the reach of your father. For a time. When you came to shore at night your father would often be waiting for you and thrash you for skipping out on those tasks and lessons which he assigned to you. Your uncle Jorah made excuses when he could to spare you your fathers wrath but they rarely succeeded. You no longer look at Jorah with the eyes of a toddler and Jorah is indeed the tallest and strongest man in the village and though he sometimes argues with your father, he has never disobeyed him in any drastic ways, nor has he placed a hand on him or threatened to do so. Still, watching Jorah, you have learned a number of things, as has all of the time you have spent exploring the beaches, alone. You know how to paddle a boat, if not how to navigate one any meaningful distances, but enough to get to deep water. You know how to cast a fishing net, even if your mastery of such is still fairly limited and can spear a fish in the shallows, something you are actually rather good at, you are unlikely to starve anyplace you have access to the sea. You can identity many sorts of fish and have some knowledge of where more can be found and their habits, you also know how which seaweed is edible and which shellfish are. You spent a great deal of time swimming in the sea on your own and sometimes ran into the tides and swam off to escape your father. You are an excellent swimmer and can hold your breath for quite a long time. You have a fine collection of pearls from clams you have harvested from deeper waters, you have given many of them to Jalitha, which she keeps in a pot in your uncles home. You have been a rebellious child. Your father has made you pay for your disobedience and running off from his lessons and tasks with the back of his hand. You tried to spend time with Jalitha and you did, but your father frequently intervened and would frequently pull you away from her. Jalitha was always there to hug you and tell you it would be okay after your father's less than kind treatment, often with seaweed cakes. From Jalitha you learned scraps of her tongue and limited bits of knowledge of lands far to the north of you and of their beliefs. You know there are other villages far, far to the north and that they are very large. Jalitha is from the village of Baitel, but you have also many others, including the villages of Siddon, Rehob, Dor, Taanack, Ekron, Carine and Zepath. There are others. When you accidentally used the words you learned from Jalitha, your father was not pleased. You have also learned a little bit of cooking from her. You spent a great deal of time with your father. He spent many long hours forcing you to repeat the sacred stories of your people and insisted that you learn precisely. You also learned more of the other gods of your people, the children of Ninveh the Mother of Gentle Giants, Yamsef the Bringer of Tides, Daam the Great Shark, Keenem the Crab, Nagaal the Blowfish, Faram the Clam, Smis the Great Lobster, Adom the Seaweed Father and his bride Jaar, Xural who makes beautiful shells, Amal the Moonfish, Menl, Garal and Ophama. You have learned many of the stories of your people but have not learned any of the practical skills your father knows, such as reading the weather from the tides, or the future from sea shells and other items strewn across the waters edge. You have had many questions to your father about details of his lessons and what occurs when he leaves the village with the other men and the oldest of the boys, but he has been staunchly unwilling to discuss it with you and has told you that you would know, when you were older. You spent some time with your mother. Your mother is as loving as she could manage to be, but is not as warm and affectionate as Jalitha, you still often sleep in your uncles home, though as you have gotten older, not in their bed. You went on a few hunting trips with your quiet and stoic uncle Pagam, but not often and rarely helped him make stone tools, you did not learn anything useful from him, nor did you learn much of the forest, which you spent very little time in, beyond the confines of the village. You have decided that you believe in BOTH the gods of your people and in Jalitha's Sky Giants, at least for now and when the men of the village went away, prayed to all of them that Jorah would return safely. So far, he has. It is a sunny afternoon. You are talking to one of the adults in your life and will have an excellent opportunity to get more information from them. Right now you are... OPTION A. Out on your Uncle Jorah's fishing boat. OPTION B. At the edge of the beach, reciting the sacred stories of your people while your father collects sea shells. OPTION C. With Jalitha in her home, helping her cook. OPTION D. None of the above! You want to go swimming alone in the ocean. This is a mini vote. We will update in an hour or two, you will then have some time to question the person and we will have a second update tonight, unless you pick D, as the ocean is not likely to answer your questions. Diogines fucked around with this message at 18:30 on May 25, 2013 |
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May 25, 2013 18:17
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