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 The gods are dead. They were dead long before you were born, and they will be dead long after you are naught but dust beneath the heels of the Sephirdem. Oh priests speak with honeyed words and show proof of ancient miracles, but the days when man might still challenge death with power from above are long past. They raised this world, and the wonders you see in, the Thousand League Wall, the Impossible Lake, the Orb of Eternities. But one by one, they grew bored of this world. Of toying with us mortals, of creating fantastic wonders and accepting humble sacrifices. So they left, or slumbered, or otherwise took their leave of us boring mortals. The age of the Gods ended, and with it, came the age of Monsters. As the Gods left, their creation ran amok. Creatures once tame and peaceable, became fearsome monstrosities. Bred of the remenants of the power of the Gods, and who knows what else, they ravaged and destroyed the creation of the Gods. Leviathan, a titanic being who crested taller than the mountains. Asphordel, a spinning, gyrating monstrosity of bone and smoke and plague, Keranos, the mighty bird, who's wings brought storm. Mankind teetered, on the edge of destruction. Many turned to worshiping the Monsters, trying to placate them with sacrifice, others to hiding. There was no safety to be had. Not while beings of such power towered over mankind, who was bereft of a protector. Which is how Gilgamesh came to be. First of the Heroes. He single handedly slew Leviathan, who's skull still forms the Mighty City of Gilga, and united the peoples of the world under his banner, issuing in the age of Heroes.  Men and women, mighty powerful, having taken the blessing of the gods, or years of martial discipline, having embraced the arcane, or mastered powers beyond imagining. Slowly, but inexorably, they pushed back the Monsters, they carved out spaces where mankind could once again live in safety. They raised kingdoms and empires. They built the lands we recognize now as the Three Homelands, and the Mighty Cities therin. They constructed the Pyramid In The Sands, redirected rivers, assembled legions. They pushed the monsters to the periphery, to the land of mist and legend. Some might have thought that Monsters remained, but it was the stuff of myth, rather than the cruel reality of life. But now... heroes are dead. The Sephirdem got the last of them. One by one they died. Heroic last stands. Legendary quests for items of power that might push back the evil slowly poisoning the world. At first it was mere squabbles between heroes, a desire for power, for land, by the time they noticed the rise of the Sephirdem, they were few, and weak, and soon they were naught but food for jackals. Every now and then, someone tries, the last apprentice of a long dead master. The fight, and inevitably they die. The age of Heroes ended. It is now the age of the Sephirdem. The Sephirdem came, from no one knows where, from the sands and from the forests. From the oceans, from the skies. Free of bodies, they offered simple exchanges, power for sacrifices. What each Sephirdem offers, what each Sephirdem wants, it varies. There is the Devouring Flame, who will grant you a fighting style of unrivaled power... as long as you honor him with constant destruction, of things held closely. The Monolith, who will grant a small peek into the future, so long as his edifices are gilded, and more wealth is piled before him. The Serpent, who's tasks are all nebulous and seemingly whimsical, and who will bless her followers with a toxin so powerful it can slay instantly. At first, the Sephirdem were weak, just spirits, able to affect the world only through willing followers and the boons they offered. Slowly, inexorably, though they became more and more powerful... carving out the kingdoms of man into their own. Now, it is not a matter of who the local lord or Hero is, its a question of what Sephirdem rules a village. At first, it seemed, like the remaining Heroes might successfully hold off their encroaching advance, and indeed, for decades, the Sephirdem were contained, no more than a nuisance... until the arrival of The Master. The first warning any had that The Master has arrived was when legions of Sephirdem Acolytes took down the gates of Uea, The First City, and slew its protector. The Master, and it's few acolytes, had somehow bound the other Sephirdem together, forced them to cooperate. How it achieved that remains one of the great mysteries of our time, and perhaps what makes The Master the most feared of the Sephirdem. We live now, in an age of terror. A world of darkness. Man is not free. Those who would sacrifice their very souls, will worship the Sephirdem. Those would would not worship will serve. Those who would not serve will die in unspeakable agony. To resist is to die. To fight is to die. To struggle is die. The only path forward is surrender... ===================================================== Ok, so what the gently caress are we dealing with here? I hope that i've painted a slightly compelling picture of the world we're dealing with here. A time ruled by demons, in the equinox of an age where people were larger than life. Now, people live in lovely farming villages, or in cities that are a shell of what they were before. Depending on where you live, the brand of misery you get to experience is different, from ritual human sacrifice, to being forced to labor in the mines, to everything else an evil force of darkness might covet. Yes, there are monsters. They are terrifying and powerful for the most part, the type of encounter even a dozen armed men would shy away from. The Accolytes, those who worship the Sephirdem range from powerful, to beyond the power of even the heroes of legend. Rumor even has it that some Sephirdem have gained corporeal existence after getting enough worship... So this is all a great backdrop for some kick-rear end heroes. We're drawing inspiration from a lot of sources here, but what I'm looking for is some Wuxia/Martial-arts/intense combat type action. Fights with highly skilled combatants, performing inhuman feats as they battle all out. Its also the proper environment for some seriously interesting backgrounds, disillusioned worshipers of long dead gods, apprentices to recently deceased heroes, former Acolytes... what have you. Give me something interesting, take a chunk of the world and flesh it out when you give me a character. What your write for your background is cannon. I'm not going to dispute it unless it goes fully against the grain of the world. This is your sandbox. While I have a loose plot in mind, its going to be much more interesting if your character has goals in mind. If you explore and react and figure it out from there. Hand in hand with that, your character should have room to grow and evolve. Its not very entertaining if your character is an unchanging monolith. A word about tone. You may have surmised, but this is not a happy world, this is humanity in decline, and the fight may ultimately prove to be hopeless. This is a game about resisting impossible odds, about spitting in the face of death, about screaming defiance as the legions beat down your gates... but that doesn't mean it has to be all grimdark all the time. Levity, humor, and downright placid moments are needed to act as contrast for all the darkness. But I do not promise a happy ending. Satisfactory, yes, but not happy. I don't even promise victory. If that is your type of game, you will be disappointed. Also while mature topics are acceptable, we're going to stay away from uncomfortable topics, so no on screen sexual violence, no super descriptive scenes of torture, etc, etc. We'll do Veils and Lines when we have the roster picked out so we're all on the same page, and while this is a mature game, i'd like for it to be also enjoyable for everyone playing. You are the good guys, I'm willing to accept morally grey characters, but this is about being a larger than life heroic figure struggling against the crushing grasp of the Sephirdem. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is TheCog's mandatory disclaimer, this will turn some people off the game, but I want everyone signing up to be aware. I struggle to keep up with my writing. Even when I'm really engaged, sitting down and putting text to screen can be really hard. While I will make every effort to keep this game going, there's a chance it will die in its infancy, through the fault of no-one but myself. I'll do my best to not just drop the thread and vanish, but I make no guarantee as to the long term viability of this game. You have been warned. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, I haven't yet decided what system this is going to be in. I am strongly leaning towards FATE (which i've run exactly once), but when you apply, don't feel like you need a character sheet. Give me a strong concept, and we'll figure out the mechanical details once we have a roster. If you have a system this would be especially suited to, pitch it to me. I know this is a lot to read, (and its shorter than the initial version) so feel free to shoot questions at me, here in the thread or via PMs. TheCog fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Jul 26, 2017 |
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Jul 26, 2017 02:51
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They took everything from me, so I split the stone. They killed my wife and children, and they forced me to work. Something died in me that day, but my body kept moving. They gave me a pick, so I split the stone. I can work for hours without tiring, even when my hands blister, even when sweat pours burning lines of salt down my back. I was a large man, once, fat and foolish, but my labors have cut away at me even as I split the stone. The picks they give me keep breaking. They accuse me of sabotage, then they whip me, then they give me another. When they tire of that game, they force me to work with my hands alone. I cannot deny them, I do not even try. With hands curled into claws, I split the stone. They leave me alone now, leave me to work. My hands have broken and healed so many times they've turned to stone themselves; fused and brutal things, blunt and indelicate graspers. They whisper as they watch me, and the whips fall no more. They fear me, I think, or at least they cannot understand my single-minded devotion to the stone. They do not understand that it is not the stone that I strike. The stone is nothing at all except an idea. An idea of something strong, of something unified and imposing, falling before unrelenting pressure. They fear me and my devotion because they understand that they are the stone, and when I at last rise from my penance I will turn to them. And then, as I practiced, I will split the stone. --- I really dig your worldbuilding, though I haven't precisely nailed down my exact concept. High concept is that he's forged himself into a supernaturally powerful brawler - untrained and brutish, but able to pierce stone or armor with his bare hands. Whatever system we end up running, he's going to be strongly slanted towards attacking rather than defending, ideally high-risk, high-reward maneuvers that will either cripple the enemy quickly or expose him to harm. Leaving which Sephirdem in particular he labours under up in the air for the moment, but he wants to go after them and then kill them - and then as many more as he can take down before he dies himself. He's stoic and quiet, but rage burns beneath the surface. Naturally that's the starting point, so whether he actually burns himself out killing stuff or he finds another reason to live we'll just have to explore.
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Jul 26, 2017 19:32
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Dog Kisser posted:snip I'm glad you dig it! I really like the character concept you have going. I'll post a couple "further fleshing out" questions in a bit (later tonight/tomorrow), but I didn't want to just leave you hanging
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Jul 27, 2017 22:19
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Consider this an interest post. I have... a similar problem to yours, but this sounds interesting and I'll see if I can come up with something.
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Aug 1, 2017 00:09
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