Great, iridescent shards floated above the barren canvas below, only the great darkness of the void above contrasting them. The crystalline ones were only accompanied by Him, the almighty creator of those very shards that gathered around Him.
He lurched forwards, hands weaving a fine cloak of ever changing colors and textures around His form. Two glowing eyes looked to shards before a great booming voice overtook the cosmos itself as he scanned the world, conveying no emotion on a featureless face. The great being allowed Himself to bask in the infinite silence that was the world for the moment, taking in His accomplishment before He turned a hand to touch the great wound on His chest. He grasped into the wound and from it pulled another shard, another being of His essence. He held the shard above Him, allowing it to shine before speaking.
”You shall be my artists, my architects. You will do whatever it takes to make this world beautiful, for that is all it means to be from my own form. With you, there will be creation beyond even my own imagination, beyond the limits of what can and will be. You shall be my attendants.
You will be gods of this new realm of mine.”
Credits
Praise unto the following, their contributions to Divinus have been much inspiration to me.
@Kho, @Cyclone, @Rtron, @Muttonhawk, @BBeast, and @Antarctic Termite for being amongst the GMs for all the Divinus games that I have been a part of, Mk. 2, 3, and GODSPEED. I legitimately thank all of you for being with Divinus.
@Lord Zee, @Enzayne, and @Not Fishing for being the GMs of MK. IV, I may not have been a part of it, but I did watch it with great interest.
Lastly, I want to thank @Frettzo for agreeing to be my co-GM for this iteration!
Synopsis
Divinus is a story of gods, their creations, and the world to be made by their collaboration.
The realm is ruled over by the almighty Monarch of All, to which all the gods owe their creation to, and He has deemed them to be the architects of the blank canvas of the world that He has made. He is their lord and, ultimately, the supreme being of the cosmos. He expects the gods to follow what He has said for them to do, to fail in such an endeavor is to incur His wrath. Though he is much more powerful than any one god, his rule may not be infinite as the Monarch may be able to be overthrown one day through the combined efforts of multiple, powerful gods. After all, the gods will grow with time and they shall accrue their own power to shape the cosmos to their whim!
Though these gods may start small, in time they will raise mountains, gouge rivers, sow jungles and freeze oceans, and having done so they can create every manner of flora, fauna, spirit and mortal folk to populate them. Their colliding visions for the world may drive them to invent mighty weapons and field vast armies, conjure horrific monsters, and sanction glorious heroes to defend their dreams from the passion of the other gods.
The game of gods has many rules, but do not be daunted! This RP is about weaving interesting tales, not about such crass motives as winning or losing. All rules are here for your benefit to make sure everyone plays fairly, in a collaborative manner and to work for the betterment of the story. We've put a lot of effort into the system, so I hope it brings as much pleasure to you as it has to us.
The Rules
The Golden Rule--Do not godmod/metagame/powerplay. It’s ironic because this is an RP with actual gods as characters; however, there are definitely limits as to the power level of our gods. We’re trying to make a collaborative story rather than host a game meant to be ‘won,’ so please keep that in mind as you write.
The Rule of Fair Warning--Before significantly influencing someone else’s creations, especially if it is going to be in a destructive way, give them some fair warning OOC so that potential objections can be made ahead of time and plans can be shifted. Ideally conflicts between two gods that lead to destruction or harm of one god or its possessions will be written with the consent of both players, but if you think that somebody is being unreasonable us GMs can intervene.
The Good Summaritan Rule--Somewhere in every post, please attach a hider box containing a short summary of the post’s actions, including how Vigor has been expended in the post if applicable. As Divinus RPs have traditionally had some massive posts, this helps greatly when trying to keep track of all that’s been going on and when trying to make sure you didn’t miss any important plot point within some massive post. That being said, please do still try to read all IC posts and not just the summaries.
The Bookkeeping Rule--We will be using the character tab to store character and creation sheets. For all creations of significance, please make a hider for them in your character sheet post and slot in some information about them, this way we can keep track of what everyone has done to contribute to this ever changing world.
Leave of Absence--Please give us forewarning on the OOC if circumstances dictate that you will become inactive in the RP for a time. I’m sure we’ve all seen the phenomena of people simply vanishing; it’s frustrating and leaves work where the others have to pick up the narrative pieces. Failure to follow this rule can potentially lead to your god being deposed IC.
Mechanics:
The closer one is to the Monarch of All, the greater the status in His court. Each rank brings greater Vigor, and thus a greater ability to allow a god to apply themselves to a further task per cycle, but all the gods merely start out as attendants. Of course, the more a god is an active part in the world then the more a chance that their status in the heavenly court increases. This is often treated as the gods gaining honorifics, such as Master of the Monarch’s Robes. With each new honorific comes two more Vigor per cycle to denote their increase in power.
All gods make a base of 4 Vigor per cycle.
Gods will create things using an arbitrary currency called Vigor, representative of the god’s effort in a task. Vigor is used for creating life, heroes, artifacts, and massive landmark creations. Larger and more complex things increase the costs, or more powerful artifacts. Each god only receives and stores Vigor dependent upon their status, with the Monarch of All dictating who gets more. Examples of how to use Vigor is as follows, any questions about a cost can be brought to the GMs who chall make a ruling:
1 Vigor: Create a Champion. 1 Vigor: Bless or Curse, the will of the gods are an ever fickle thing and as such are able to turn crops sour and make the land devoid of crop growth as a curse, or make the fertility of a peoples’ livestock ever greater as a blessing. 1 Vigor: Form a society. 1-3 Vigor: Create an extraordinary species of unintelligent life; plants and animals, with great power. 2 Vigor: Creating small landmasses, such as islands or mountains, or water sources such as rivers or great lakes. 2 Vigor: Create a single powerful creature, such as the kraken or hydra 3 Vigor: Resurrect a dead creature. 5 Vigor: Create a sapient species, such as humans. 1-5 Vigor: Create an artifact.
Aspects are the elements of the cosmos over which a god has great control over, such as a god of Lava, Forges, or Love. They are a keyword that exemplifies what your god is a true master over. The aspects also allow a god to do things within that category without expending Vigor, or at least enhance the product of a god that chooses to use Vigor. These Aspects cannot be shared with other gods. These are awarded by the Monarch of All as a result of a god's growth and contribution to the world.
A cycle is a turn of time, a time where the Monarch of All replenishes His power, and by proxy the power of the other gods, by going upon a sacred venture into the center of the world from the Divine Palace. Once a cycle is turned, the gods gain renewed vigor, each god gaining power dependent upon their status.
Great heroes of legend, whether they be warriors, scholars, or leaders, are those chosen by patron gods and gifted extraordinary power. These champions can be devastating forces on the field of battle, or they may even be wizened sages with little affinity for fighting. All champions are exceptionally resilient individuals but all champions can be felled one way or another, whether they have a singular weakness and such. Champions are able to, like gods, grant boons, create lesser artifacts, teach their people a technology or idea, or perform tremendous tasks using their own Spirit. Spirit is earned per post for the Champions with each post granting a post of 2 Spirit.
Of course, given that heroes are far weaker than gods, they are not able to achieve the same great abilities using this. What would cost a god to make a mere artifact pertaining to their aspect for free, a champion must spend a significant amount of Spirit to even come close to replicating. No matter how much Spirit a champion has, they simply cannot compete with the gods. Examples of how to spend Spirit is as so:
Tor the Scholar desires to found a community behind him, choosing to found a tribe he spends 6 of his Spirit to found the group and imposes upon them his ideals and other such unifying thought.
Tor the Scholar then wishes to make a magical scroll that codifies the history and laws of the tribe, he spends 4 of his Spirit to make the artifact that will exist in the tribe until it is either destroyed or forgotten about.
Where there are the first gods forged from the shards of the Monarch of All, there are still a great multitude of shards that have yet to be forged into further gods.This is to aid in accommodating new characters that come in at a later date, however it is not the only option for new players. Gods can birth demigods either on their own or with another god.
Demigods function much in the same way as normal gods do, however, their power is far more reduced and they lack the ability to have a truly defined form that would kill mortals that gaze upon them. Vigor costs for them are doubled to reflect the greater effort they must produce in order to match anything a god can do. Additionally, demigods are barred from entering the Divine Palace, unable to fully bathe in the glory that is the Monarch of All. Now a demigod can become a god if they are bestowed with a shard of the Monarch of All, often if they prove themselves worthy of such a mantle of responsibility.
Gods cannot be harmed by normal weapons or magic, they are simply far too weak to do anything to a god. However, a god can muster enough power to hurt or even ‘kill’ another, even though true death is for a god is a daunting task to pursue in a fair fight. Furthermore, gods do not age, suffer ailments, or suffer from any natural causes.
Gods are able to shapeshift between their true godly form and that of a mortal form, however, the true form of a god is far too much to be withstood by lower life and will often kill or blind those who come into direct eye contact with said form.
The very lands themselves can be bent to the whims of gods, all gods can create or modify the environment and weather in their localized area. This also applied to creatures.
The senses of a god stretch to that of the very horizons themselves, able to see in perfect clarity. They are able to see heat and magnetic pulls and they are able to hear for as far as they can see, selectively tuning out annoyances as they wish or discerning individual speech from a large crowd.
Traveling as a god is innately faster than what mortal eyes can perceive, being able to run, jump, float, swim, or merely fly, faster than most things in the cosmos. It hardly would take them a lot of time to traverse between continents and even between that of the world and the Divine Palace, but such a trek to that great palace is an odyssey in and of itself and often requires passage from the Monarch of All to achieve in a timely manner.
Character sheet
NAME
ALIAS (IF ANY)
Aspect The aspect of your god and what that encompasses.
Always wanted to be part of the Divinus series, ever since the first (second?) one.
Got two ideas in mind. Either the Goddess of luck/chance or the God of evolution. Let me know which one sounds more interesting.
Feel free to chase whichever one you like. Evolution seems a bit more difficult to play but as long as you've got some tangible goals, you should be fine!