CURRENT EVENTS
What Has Gone Before: kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9819
The Shattering of the World
It was in this time of peace, when all seemed to be quiet, and the approaching storm had been seen by no one - in this time of bliss, when even Nephirthos's armies stood still, and the Lord of Malice had declared a truce - that the Harbinger of Destruction struck. Nephirthos poured his malice and his power deep into the earth, cloaking his actions in darkness, hiding them from the eyes of his fellow gods: for months, he laboured in secret, weakening the earth itself with the power of pure malice. And eventually, the earth gave way: no longer could it endure such scorn and despite.
That day, the ground shook and groaned, and the sky grew clouded and dark; even the sun hid its eye from the cataclysm about to take place. All over the world, mortals fell the shadow of dread around their hearts, the fist of fear gripping their souls, and evil radiating from the ground. But none, not even the wisest, no, would have imagined that the Lord of Malice would go so far, that in his fury and lust for power, he would violate the world itself; and none could foresee what came after. The ground shook with such violence as to make whole cities crumble, and thousands died, screaming, buried under the rubble of once-majestic towns; and the rumblings, the earthquakes, grew stronger and stronger, till all those who had survived had fled their ruined cities, and feared what would come. Then a terrible sound, as if the very rock at the heart of the world had cracked, echoed across the world - and all was changed, forever. Shattered by the power of Nephirthos, the land groaned and broke, its fragments shook and shot away from the site where the God of Chaos had brought his power to bear: the sea, angry at the violation of his sister, surged with the fury of a thousand tsunamis, and swallowed large portions of the land, killing many tens of thousands in its rage. Chunks of what had once been a single, lovely land were brought apart, or forced together, and terrible earthquakes created new mountain ranges, further wreaking havoc on all mortals and gods had built: only in the north, Nephirthos's cities had remained almost untouched by the catastrophe, as the god had laboured deviously well, and had protected them from the cataclysm he would unleash. But elsewhere, Ai-War and Ai-Toring were sunk under the sea, and all those who lived there died, weakening the God of War severely: Ai-Solin and the surrounding lands also were swallowed by the sea, and Solina's worshipers followed their deity into oblivion; even Drakkan, Nephirthos's farthest town, could not be protected and was devoured by the sea. Cities once deep into the land, such as Ai-Lamentum and Ai-Thyddian found themselves facing the sea; Ai-Maeror found itself suddenly in land, and its ships marooned. Ai-Amplus, Ai-Sanguine and Ai-Arx were destroyed when mountains rose where once the cities stood.
For days, weeks, the ground shook and groaned, and the lands shifted, and the people died, screaming at the skies, cursing the gods who had forsaken them, or begging them for help. Looting and pillaging became commonplace, and many died or were wounded, raped, mutilated by the worst that is in mankind. And all the while, in his dark fortress, the Lord of Malice laughed, and fed off the chaos and mayhem he had unleashed upon the unsuspecting world...
Nephirthos has cracked the world!
Ai-Amplus, Ai-Sanguine, Ai-Arx, Ai-Solin, Ai-War, Ai-Toring and Drakkan were destroyed during the Shattering of the World.
Nephirthos's army besieges Hope.
Sanctuary, Ai-Lamentum, Ai-Thyddian, Rhy, Ai-Maeror, Hope, Joium, Zamoro, Ai-Amore, Lybal, Ai-Skull and Ai-Bone are severely damaged by the Shattering of the World.
The floating city of Drifton is founded by Solus's followers.
The underwater city of Mer Solus is founded by Solus's followers.
CENTERS OF WORSHIP
Amplarx
Ai-Amplarx
Ai-Amplus
DESTROYED
Ai-Arx
DESTROYED
Argothoth
Ai-Argoth
Ai-Bone
DAMAGED
Ai-Mortis
Ai-Skull
DAMAGED
Avatar
Ai-Avatar
Sanctuary
DAMAGED
Bhakti
Ai-Amore
DAMAGED
Ai-Bhakti
Elauradaneth
Eryn Alfirin
DAMAGED
Eryn Sîdh
DAMAGED
Maeror
Ai-Lamentum
DAMAGED
Ai-Maeror
DAMAGED
Hope
DAMAGED
Medela
Morgath
Mag-Granth
DAMAGED
Mag-Morgath
Mag-Uronth
DAMAGED
Movahl
Ahl Destrian
DAMAGED
Hall of Retribution
Nephirthos
Darkmoon
Devil's Keep
Drakkan
DESTROYED
Fort Flux
Joium
DAMAGED
Krypta
Lybal
DAMAGED
Nephirthos
Nevazal
Ramos
DESTROYED
Rhy
DAMAGED
Thorden
Zamoro
Ordine Naturale
The Pit
DAMAGED
Solina
Ai-Solin
DESTROYED
Solus
Drifton
L’im Verthackas
Mer Solus
Port Solus
Thyddian
Ai-Aeyre
Ai-Thyddian
DAMAGED
Toringian
Ai-Sanguine
DESTROYED
Ai-Toring
DESTROYED
Ai-War
DESTROYED
Being a Deity
Being a deity isn't all fun and games; there are rules that must be followed, especially in the case of young, naive deities such as yourselves. To all intents and purposes, you are a group of recently ascended deities who are coalescing into a pantheon. None of you had any significant dealings with the other as mortals, but recent cosmological upheavals caused you all to grasp the chance and arise to divinity. Undoubtly other deities might arise later, either by your intercession or through their own power, but nonetheless, you are the seed of what could become a powerful pantheon - or a monotheism.
Ok, so every deity worth his (or her, or its) salt is the deity of
something. After all, there's always need for a patron deity of winter, or a goddess of abundance, and so on. So, as a new player, the first thing you need to do is to decide who your deity will be. Choose a name, and areas of influence from the list placed here:
kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=344843#344843
You can choose 1 or 2 areas, but remember you must combine them together. You also need to make up a dogma - a statement that describes how your ideal worshipers should behave. It's something akin to a commandment, or a sacred teaching: worshipers will strive to adhere to it as closely as possible.
The next order of business for you all is to reveal your divinity to mortals. An unspoken agreement prevents you from meddling too much with the affairs of mortals, and therefore you are unable to appear in all your glory to all mortals in the world to proclaim your magnificence. You can choose whether to appear to a single mortal (your "prophet") or a specific group of people (such as "the poor" or "the warriors"). Appearing to a large group of people could provide you with a large worshiper base, but with more tepid worshipers and possibly some dangers. Appearing to a single mortal will create a fanatic follower who, however, is susceptible of death.
After this decision, each turn will roughly be the same as a season of the world. During each turn, each of you will be presented with situations that require your divine attention: these can be new problems, or the consequences of problems you already faced before. You may react to these problems by focusing your divine attention on them. Each of you has a divine rank, that goes from 1 (the lowest) to 20 (the highest). This rank signifies your power: each turn, you can divide these points as you see fit among the various situations, and the more points you put in each one, the more you are actively trying to influence its outcome. The pool of divine rank points is replenished each turn. You will, of course, also need to describe how you try to do so and what outcome you desire.
Example: Naeros, deity of war, is suffering a schism: many of his worshipers have changed their belief about him and interpret his dogma in another, radically different way. He decides to do something about it. He has divine rank 4: given the importance of this problem, he decides to give all his attention to the schism, and uses all 4 points to try and influence the outcome so that the worshipers who have caused the schism are hunted down and executed.
You may also use your divine rank points to actively try to proselytize (whether via intimidation, terror, gentleness, or whatever). The more points you use to proselytize, the greater the chance you will get more worshipers, but of course every point you use to proselytize means one less point you can use to care about the other problems of your church. Also, you can use your divine rank points to spy on another deity, trying to learn what's happening in his church - and possibly, to influence it.
Finally, you may use your divine rank points to start a particular event yourself, even if it is not among those that happened to you that turn (send a comet as an omen, order your followers to found a city, and so on).
POSSIBLE ALLOCATIONS FOR DIVINE RANK POINTS
-Internal affairs.
-General events in the world.
-Proselytism.
-Spying on another deity.
-Attempting to influence another deity's events (only if they are known via spying or otherwise).
-Attempting to start custom events.
Remember: the more points you allocate on a given situation, the more you're trying to influence its outcome; you will need to describe how, and what is the outcome you desire. Attempting to start an event is also demanding, and may not always yield the desired results. Also, remember that spying on another deity has a chance of getting caught, and attempting to influence another deity's events is much tougher than influencing your own!
By default, I will list all problems for each deity in this post; if you desire, however, I can prepare private messages for each of you regarding problems the other deities could not know about, and list here only those you cannot hide.
Each situation will affect the number of worshipers you have; the higher the number, the greater your divine rank and your power. If you lose all worshipers, your divine power extinguishes itself and you are cast out of the pantheon. This rule does not apply for the first four turns (one year of game time), to give you a chance to establish worshipers.
Tip: Being a nihilistic god can lead to unpleasant results if your followers are required to kill themselves or do not proselytize. Remember: your survival depends on that of your cult and your worshipers!
Your worshipers also affect your areas of influence. If your worshipers start believing you rule over something else, in addition or in exchange for what you rule now, and you do not succeed in stamping the thing out, you will find that your areas of influence change to match your worshipers' expectations of you.
Finally, as for areas of influence: if an event you hold dominion over actually happens among the deities of your pantheon, you may gain additional power from it. If, for example, two deities fall in love with each other, the deity of love will receive additional power. Watch out for the traps laid by other deities!
Just a couple of additional clarifications. I've been asked whether you, as deities, are indestructible and immortal in regards to whatever mortals can do. Yes, you are. For the intents and purposes of the game, usually not even a direct attack from other deities can kill you (but see Deicide, below); normally, the only way for you to die is to lose so many worshipers that your Divine Rank goes down to 0. This means having less than about 200 worshipers in total; this rule starts from the fifth turn, so hurry up with your worshipers
For additional rules about death and return from the dead, see below.
DEICIDE
As soon as you are reduced to less than 500 worshipers (after the fifth turn since you entered the game), you become vulnerable to the direct attacks of other deities. Deities who might desire to destroy you can then declare an attack against you, assigning divine rank points to this attack; similarly, you may use your divine rank point to defend yourself, and other deities may lend you their points to strengthen your defence. If the attacking deity breaks through, though, you are killed, and the attacking deity immediately absorbs your portfolio (areas of influence) and remaining worshipers.
RESURRECTION
Just as deities can die, deities can also return from the netherworld. Upon death, deities do not enter the afterlife ruled by the King of the Dead, like mortals do, but they exist in a state of eternal slumber. Any deity who died due to lack of worshipers can return to waking life if his or her cult rises again; this can be an event inspired by other deities, or due to pure chance. If enough worshipers gather for the deity to return to Divine Rank 1, the deity returns from the dead and rejoins the pantheon. If the deity's spheres of influence had been claimed by someone else, the deity immediately recovers them, stripping them from the usurper. The deity will likely have to rebuild his clergy, religion and holy sites from scratch, although he could always try to restore the old ones.
Deities killed by other deities (see Deicide, above) cannot return from the dead.
Also, I've decided to give each turn a deadline. This is so that eager players who react first will not then have to wait one week or so before they can act again; and it also will help if any player has to unexpectedly leave for an extended period of time, and has no chance to warn us. I propose that each turn lasts three real-life days from the moment I post the events of the turn.
A comments thread has been started, and you can find it here:
kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=344843#344843[/b][/b]
