Pantheon: The Third Age - Rules and Comments Thread

[Montresor]

Damn, and I was looking forward to having a few dragon sacrifices on the altar of the Sun God!

[I'm Murrin]

[Arcadia]

Crap! Crap! Crap!!!!

Now I have to make a decision. I see the race I wanted to use but now with the minor domain, I have a big decision to make.

Xar, I want to clarify something:

If we choose a minor race, will we gain in drp level more slowly?

[Xar]

Crap! Crap! Crap!!!!

Now I have to make a decision. I see the race I wanted to use but now with the minor domain, I have a big decision to make.

Xar, I want to clarify something:

If we choose a minor race, will we gain in drp level more slowly?

It is quite possible, yes - in essence you sacrifice some of your own potential as a deity in order to increase the potential of your followers in the world.

Incidentally, please notice that "undead" is no longer an epithet that can be affixed to another race (i.e. you cannot take "undead humans" as a race anymore); there are two undead races in the list, the Fallen Ones and the Vangoryth.

[I'm Murrin]

I'm interested by the Vangoryth, actually. I can see the similarities to Wampyr, but the differences are jarring--them being undead, for example. I assume that their design was founded in game balance considerations?

[Arcadia]

Thanks, Xar.

[Menolly]

Someone will have to change their Av! The flying beasties have disappeared!!

That's already been taken care of a week or so ago. Just waiting until the game starts before sharing it.

Well, the other populace had to eat something during the healing years!!

...I know, I know...

Tastes like chicken, right?

Damn, and I was looking forward to having a few dragon sacrifices on the altar of the Sun God!

[I'm Murrin]

Somehow I completely missed something when I first read that post: the Fallen Ones are undead? Hmm. I might have to rethink things, then.

[Arcadia]

a lot of interesting races.

[Moxinomal]

a lot of interesting races.

Indeed. I am looking forward to seeing what others will be choosing.

[Montresor]

As enormously tempting as it is for the Blood Serpent to be worshipped by the Ssathis, I think I shall go for humans as my majority race.

[Cryak]

I'm caught between Weredolphs, merfolk and humans.

[Dorian]

I really have no idea what to choose

[Montresor]

I really have no idea what to choose

For your deity, the absence of followers makes the most sense.

Choose nothing!

[Creator]

That will make for an interesting approach to growing DRP!!

[O-gon-cho]

Well, he does see himself as a non-deity, who exists only because we believe he does...I think...

Kinda reminds me of a contest entry in the last game...

[Zephyr]

Unbelievable about the new races!! I'm working on my Rerevelation now. If anybody's interested, it was going to be this...

She was walking toward the Forest, returning to her home, when she felt... something from within the Trees. Something of the Trees, yet, somehow, not. She had always been more aware of things about the Forests than anyone else. She didn't know why, and was always as confused about why nobody else ever understood such things the way she did as they were about why she did. She just always had a knack. A significant one. She had simply always understood the Forest. The lives, the needs of the plants and animals; it had always made sense to her. She felt perfectly comfortable among the Trees, and had made them her home two years ago, at fourteen, when her mother had died. Now, she seldom left them. She was not uncomfortable with people. She warmly welcomed any she ever ran across in the Forest, and there were even a few people she was happy to run into from time to time.

She could track things through the Forest better than anyone else, because she knew how all things should look. Tracking an intruder in the Forest was simplicity itself. (In fact, the reason she was outside of the Forest at the moment was because she had found a young boy wandering within, followed his trail back to where he had entered, and returned him to the nearest village. To the extreme relief and gratitude of the boy's parents.)

But now, something was happening. She didn't know what. She had never felt anything like whatever it was she felt now approaching her from within the Trees. It wasn't any particular sense; it was every sense. It was as though every sensation of the Forest was concentrated into a small point, and was somewhere in front of her. The smell of the rich earth; the feel of the dew-wet leaves; the sound of the birds and insects; the taste of the nuts and fruits on the Trees... It was all right there, somewhere in front of her.

And it was moving closer. She wasn't afraid. How could she be afraid of this sense of perfect Forest Health? But she was confused, startled, and extremely curious. What was moving closer???

Then she saw a shape. A human shape. A man was coming out of the Trees. He looked happily satisfied, nodding his head and smiling. He stopped just inside the Trees, waiting for her. When she joined him, he greeted her.

"Hi. I'm Zephyr, son of Bhakti and Jove."

The young woman's eyes went wide, and a fly may have actually flown into her wide-open mouth. "Hello," she managed to say after a very long pause.

"From your expression, I guess you know my name."

"I don't know what I know!" She was clearly very confused.

"What do you mean?" the stranger asked.

"I've..." she began, a look of reluctance on her face. "I've heard things. In here. When I'm walking, I hear... words. Whispered. At first, I thought people were somehow hiding from me. But it's not easy to hide from me in here, so I thought maybe they were invisible, crazy though that is. Then I came to believe it was actually the Trees... talking to me. As though that's less crazy. And if those three names you just said were not among the most common words I've heard, I certainly wouldn't be telling you this!"

"Wow!" Zephyr replied. "Well, good," he said, nodding to himself. "That's good. At least this won't come totally out of nowhere. You've had some exposure to all this. It took a long time to find you, because you were so far away. I didn't know what I'd be up against once I found you."

"What?? How far away were you?"

"Well, the ship ride took two weeks, then..." he began.

"What?!?"

"Listen, do you want to sit down or something?"

Deciding to sit before she fell down, she settled onto the ground.

Zephyr held out his hand. "Well then, it's nice to meet you..." he paused expectantly, as he began to sit.

She took his hand, and said, "Allyria."

Zephyr stopped half-way down to the ground, a look of surprise now on his face. "Are you kidding me?"

Confused, Allyria said, "No?"

"Have you ever heard the Trees whisper 'Allyria'?"

"Actually, yes. It makes sense that they know my name, though, right? But why are you so surprised?"

"I'm not surprised they whispered 'Allyria.' It's just that they were talking about someone else. Another Allyria."

"Really??" she was excited. "Who is she?"

"Who was she. She lived hundreds of years ago. She was... um, the Prophet of a great Forest's god."

"What?!?" Allyria was a bit stunned by all this.

"Listen, let me try something first..." He started going through a bag he had over one shoulder. "I found you because I found a rather interesting thing. Ah, here it is!" He pulled out a rather large chunk of a gem. It was obviously a fragment of what must have been a very large gem. It was also the most unusual color - red and blue, with a clear division of the colors. As though two pieces of the different colors, each with a flat surface, had been stuck together at the flat surfaces. But the joining was flawless beyond words, so it truly looked like a single stone. "I found a fragment of something called the Herzwald."

"'Herzwald'? Oh! I thought the whispers were saying hurtswood!"

"Ah, no something much better than that," Zephyr smiled. He held it out to her.

At its touch, Allyria knew. She saw all. She saw a god of imponderable strength Simjen forge the Herzwald. She saw him take it to another god Bhakti. And she saw this god take it to a mighty Forest Shakari. She knew so much about Shakari! Beginning with the Herzwald's creation. She saw the Abomination, the very reason for the Herzwald's creation. She saw its hideous strength, and saw it murder a man of wondrous powers Forestal, a Dragon, and so many people and Trees. She saw Bhakti come down from the Heavens, holding the Herzwald, and fall in battle, on the brink of death! And she saw him rise up again, more powerful than any god had ever been!!

She saw Bhakti's Prophet, Wiri, raise a beautiful, delightfully happy - and six-armed! - girl. She saw Wiri die, accidentally, tragically, while the girl was still small. And she saw Wiri become one with the mighty Shakari!

And she saw her namesake, Allyria. (And what an extraordinary coincidence that her parents named her that, since nobody alive had likely ever heard of Bhakti, much less his Prophet.) She saw Allyria's rise in power, her amazing abilities, her amazing battles. It was Allyria herself who wielded the Herzwald when it was destroyed.

And she saw Bhakti and Jove, in Manifested form, standing in Shakari, with all their followers. She saw the joy and strength turn to ruin and madness, right before their eyes. And she saw them give up their lives, so their essences could merge with the Forest and their followers, in the hope that their followers would regain some of themselves, and be able to survive the cataclysm.

And there, her knowledge of Shakari ended.

Seconds later - centuries later - Allyria opened her eyes. "What..." she couldn't figure out what to ask. "Zephyr, I'm just a sixteen year old girl. What does this have to do with me? Why were you looking for me?"

"I'm learning what's going on right now, even as we're talking. When I found this fragment, I learned... I learned many things. I felt you. I knew that one of great importance was in this direction. The closer I got to you, moving in whatever direction the feeling seemed to come from, I felt you stronger, and felt the direction more precisely. Until I walked through this Forest, and knew you were right on the other side. The Herzwald led me to you because your Heart is of the Forest. Nobody else in the world Loves the Forest the way you do. Nobody else knows more about the Forest than you do." He grinned. "Well, except maybe me."

None of this was clearing up Allyria's thoughts. "So now that you've found me..."

"Ah, yes. Well, the Herzwald taught me something else. And I'm glad you're sitting down for this." He grinned. "It taught me how to ascend to godhood."

At this, Allyria laughed. This guy's as crazy as... Yeah, as crazy as Trees talking to me. "There aren't any gods. Not for centuries. Now I know that there actually were some; it wasn't just myths. But still, they've all been gone for so long."

"Yes," Zephyr said. "The One Above All, the Allfather, imposed an interdiction. The deities have been banned from Eiran for a long time. But that interdiction is ending."

"It's ending??? Are you sure??? How do you know???"

Zephyr shrugged. "My parents were gods. I just know. I can feel it in my soul. The gods are returning. Soon. And I'm going to be one of them."

"How can you do that?"

"I can absorb this fragment. It will turn to dust, and blow away. But the might that Simjen put into it when he made it, and the power it channeled when it was used by my father and by Allyria, will enter me. It will merge with my soul, and raise me to godhood."

"And you need me to help this happen?" Allyria asked, seeming skeptical that she could, or was needed to, take part in such a thing.

"Allyria, you held the gem. Do you doubt that the kinds of things I'm talking about can happen?"

"No," she whispered.

"Good. Allyria, I will be a god. It's my birthright, and, finally, the means are open to me. But the Herzwald and I will take care of it by ourselves. I need you for after."

"To do what?" she asked, entirely confused.

"To be my Prophet."

And she was back to thunderstruck. "To be your Prophet?!?!?! What... You... What...???" Allyria was now in tears. It was simply too much for her.

Zephyr sat on the ground in front of her, and took her hands. "Allyria," he spoke gently, "Allyria. Shhhhh." When she calmed a bit, he went on. "The Herzwald brought me to you because I will need help here, on Eiran. I'll be seeing everything, and doing what I can from above. But I need a voice; a hand. I need you."

With a shaky voice, Allyria said, "But how? What can I do? I love the Forests. If you're right, I understand them better than anyone else. That still doesn't mean people will listen to me. Why should they? I'm only sixteen years old!"

Zephyr smiled, but didn't respond. After several seconds, Allyria noticed saplings behind him where she didn't remember seeing any before. And before her very eyes, they grew. In moments, there were Trees that looked to be ten years old. "Do you think people would listen to you if you could do this?" He laughed along with her in her delight. "I will give you - and eventually, others - abilities and powers of the Forests. With these, you will be able to help and heal the Forests. I think they'll believe you."

He stopped then. He sat quietly, waiting for things to sink in. Waiting to see if she would accept it all.

"OK," she whispered after several minutes. Her Love of Forests, all aspects of which were emanating from this man, combined with the visions she now had of Shakari, and the promises such visions and Zephyr's words held - all were more powerful than her shock and fear. She was strong, after all. When she knew she was right, nobody had ever been able to convince her to give up on anything. And this!! This was something she knew was right. The Forests of Eiran becoming... she couldn't even imagine the possibilities!! But Zephyr can. "OK," she said more strongly. "What... What do you want me to do?"

Zephyr smiled broadly. He stood, reached for her hands, and helped her up. "Don't worry, we'll start small."

They began walking, into the depths of the Forest.

After a time, Allyria asked, "So what happened to Shakari? Where have you been?"

"That, my dear, is a long story." Zephyr took a deep breath, then let it out. "After the interdiction began..." And they continued walking for the rest of the day.

But that's all shot to hell!!!

[Dorian]

Ha that would be ideal .I choose nothing, and the stronger you all get, the stronger I get, as YOUR all my followers tehehehe

[uKulwa]

My followers are Humans.

[Rothmog]

ohohoh, i choose the tender loving yekiths, they have a lot of limbs to give hugs! ohohoh