@The World OCs only if you please. I am amenable to characters heavily inspired by others, but Creation is the Original Setting Donut Steel.
Damn. All my ideas were of canon characters. I'm surprisingly no good at making outright evil OCs, but I wish you luck with the RP and hope everyone has fun! Sorry to have added interest only to take it back.
@The World Sorry to see you go, but if you wanted to try your hand at making an evil OC (or just filing the serial numbers off one of those canons) just gimme a hollar and I could sit down and workshop with you.
@The World Thanks for your interest. Once you've finished reading, let me know if you have any questions or ideas.
As for everyone else, what would help to drive interest and discussion right now? Options:
Character Sheet (First Draft) Sample Character Sample Plane More Lore ???
Well I would have a few lore and mechanics questions, if you may.
Is it known to the characters why this entity is named Chaos? For a being whose apparent purpose is to conquer all under one rule, it kinda feels like it would unify this whole mess of planes into a single banner. Would it be far-fetched for a character to believe Chaos' design is one of true order?
Is it possible for a plane to host more than a single shard of chaos? Does these shards bring some sort of knowledge about the master. Does Chaos have an actual physical form?
For the long-lived races, just how long ago was Creation shattered into pieces, just to not overlap a character's age with the creation of its homeworld.
Is it possible to play more than a single character? I've seen something about using the character's homeworld ressources to their disposal, so I guess it would be likely for the characters who are more of leader types to bring their generals and subordinates from their conquered homeworld into others, unless the Archons are only able to travel alone?
I also happened to have made a draft for my character. It ended up being longer than I wanted, I got inspired to finally use this character that I stashed in my vault for so long hahaha
Name: Annastaria
Epithets: The Moon’s Shadow. The Dark Lady. The Night Queen.
Age: 639 years old.
Home-Plane: The plane of Elvira is a single impenetrable island, its shores bordered by mountains and at the foot of these mountains are lush forests spreading over miles before giving way to lush verdants plains.
What makes Elvira peculiar is that it is as if the waters around the island were not part of this plane, it is pitch black almost impossible to navigate without a strong source of otherworldly light. It is believed that beyond the waters surrounding the island lies gateways to the other planes. From the mountains and into the forests, night is eternal, while the plains are always lit by the sun.
In her quest of power, Annastaria shattered the balance between these ecosystems, bringing the unending night to the plains and moon light to the waters surrounding the island. While travels by water became safer, now all sorts of monsters and undead came out of the woodwork to terrorize the locals, until Annastaria dealt with the unruly pests by adding them to her own personal army.
Description: Compared to her Moon Elves sisters, Annastaria is way taller, gaunt and sinister-looking. She bears arcane markings across her body (mostly seen on her face), her skin is pale gray, as if devoid of life, her eyes glow with an eerie green light and her hands have warped into dangerous-looking claws. She favors wearing dark robes.
Annastaria is best described as a slab of stone. She is cold and dead silent on the exterior, not letting much on about what’s happening inside her mind, mainly because she doesn’t feel much actually. She is a calculating and scheming sort, coupled with being pragmatic and you get an elf who doesn’t shy from using morally questionable methods to achieve results. She rarely talks at all, unless necessary. She’s secretive and doesn’t like to reveal her cards, or all of them at least. She’s not inherently evil, but her “the end justifies the mean” makes her susceptible to committing atrocities all for the sake of her goals.
Backstory: Annastaria’s keen mind and aptitude with magic quickly granted her the title of “Head of the Magic Council” when her sister reformed the power system. She was in charge of magical research and all things that would require her intellect. Always a firm believer of order, Annastaria had put much effort into uniting all the races of Elvira, from the genocide of the goblin kin to the taming of the great forest beasts and finally to the subjugation of the dragons. It was actually by the end of her bargain with the dragons that she happened upon the Shard of Chaos, which was lost in the depths of the mountains surrounding the realm. Her bargain with the dragons ended into total subjugation instead.
Her desire for Order grew twisted as she attained the power Chaos gave her. It was probably because of her fervent desire to bring everything under a single banner that it made her an Archon, for she would be a most loyal servant in her crusade into bringing all the planes to their knees in front of a single master. Her first step into her journey was to finalize unifying the plane of Elvira, so to this purpose she gave eternal night to the whole realm to draw out all the monsters out of hiding. She had all the monsters slain and then brought back into the undead under her command. A short time after acquiring the Shard of Chaos, Annastaria’s sisters all died of mysterious illness, or so it was claimed, leaving her as the sole ruler of Elvira. The Council of Elder was soon dismantled shortly after she took the crown, leaving Annastaria with uncontested dominion over the plane. With monsters, undead and even dragons under her command, there was no one who could challenge her rule, and she set out for the planes beyond the shores.
Shard: Annastaria’s shard is an emerald that reflects the verdant life of Elvira’s core, now corrupted by its wielder’s dark ambitions. As it is the heart of the plane, the Dark Lady channeled her soul magic into the shard to allow her greater ease over converting her homeworld’s denizens into becoming her mindless subjects. The Shard now effectively works as a soul reservoir. It accumulates siphoned souls to be later used to fuel Annastaria’s magic to ungodly levels.
Powers: Annastaria is what most called a “Spellbinder” before she became Archon. While she was adept at all forms of arcane magics, she was most proficient and interested in the art of white necromancy, or the study of souls.
Now, she actively raises the dead, drains living beings from their souls and life force to force them into undeath, and infuses dark energies into stronger foes to rob them of their strength and will to fight. In the most extreme cases, when she has to get personal, she is no stranger to calling down the elements to devastate armies and obliterate single opponents.
She is at her most dangerous when surrounded by death, for she claims the souls of the dead and uses them to fuel her magic.
Misc: Annastaria has a familiar winged snake named “Laghoss”. It was a monster orphan when she found its egg next to its dead parent. It was actually from raising the monster that she had developed ideas about unifying the various races of monsters with elven-kin. The little guy is loyal as a loving son to its mother. It often serves as Annastaria’s eyes and ears.
Name: OPHANIM (traditionally written in allcaps, think “the LORD”; not an acronym)
Epithets: Divine Beyond; Lord of Hosts; Shroud of Heaven; Beacon of Salvation; Perfector; Tyrant in Splendour; etc
Age: ~2000 years
Home-Plane: The plane of OPHANIM, once a medieval fantasy archetype, was conquered and utterly reshaped within mere centuries of its manifestation, and now lies permanently bathed in searing light. Its inhabitants, once human, orc, and elf, are now – better. Tall, crystalline, polygonal, featureless, identical humanoids populate land, sea, and sky, pursuing no purpose but their faith. Idolatry is a capital sin. Doubt is a capital sin. Freedom is a capital sin. Only the sinful know death in its eternal embrace.
Description: It may manifest as a large, symmetrically faced, androgynous humanoid in white, otherwise superficially resembling nearby mortals; a searing yellow or white glow with no source; or a wheel of perpetual flame laced with never-blinking, never-still, bloodshot eyes. When humanoid, its eyes are never visible. The stories say that they glow so brightly that they instantly incinerate the evil. Stories that are never told in OPHANIM’s realm debate the meaning of evil in this case. OPHANIM is fierce, commanding, and fanatically stubborn, as if relentlessly following the commandments of a twisted holy book never written. It never raises its voice, but its voice is said to boom exactly as loudly as it needs to, even if that is loud enough to bring a forest to knee.
Backstory: OPHANIM may be recognized as an archetype that appears in stories across many shards, but its tale is true in only one. The stories follow similar basic premises: the road to hell, and you know the rest. Sometimes it is a king. Sometimes it is an adventurer. Rarely, it is an angel – perhaps you’ve heard of Lucifer. In no telling is it known as what it is: an utterly inhuman elder spirit obsessed by the trappings of divinity. There were never good intentions. The Shard was taken like every sealed treasure of OPHANIM’s world; a vault was found, followers commanded to gather as a flock and retrieve it. Traps and enchantments were shoved aside with force of numbers. Only the sinful died in that crusade. Do not doubt this.
Shard: The Book of Perfect Light is kept in OPHANIM’s possession at all times. The Book of Perfect Light is said to contain the whole of OPHANIM’s doctrines, written plain. The contents of the Book of Perfect Light have never been read by any mortal being. The Book of Perfect Light is not full of often incoherent, wholly self-contradictory dictates writ tightly in a script only OPHANIM can comprehend. Do not doubt this.
Powers: OPHANIM’s power is broad, but relies universally on faith and followers. Its golden-tongued missionaries shout its truth from the mountains, and listeners are taken by the unnatural draw held by its arbitrary doctrine. Its faith is intransigent. Its followers worship madly and fervently in pursuit of mutually exclusive visions of paradise, and at the peak of their faith, when a village, city, continent shouts its name in unison, OPHANIM drinks of their love, and rebuilds them into something without it. In those parts of Creation it has reached into and perfected, its power is like a god's. Shrieking streaks of light erupt from the temples built in its name to shatter the armies of the as-yet unfaithful. Its perfected followers are nearly as vicious, their form beyond pain, beyond fear and doubt, beyond hunger and thirst, and beyond what most beings would call morality.
Eldritch thing with a Biblical(ly accurate)/divine light theme. Drastically more powerful and versatile in places where it is worshipped. Its religion is unnaturally alluring, compensating for the fact that a critical eye would realize it’s an insane totalitarian. It seizes absolute control of its most devoted followers down to shaping their body and soul into its uniform vision of perfection.
Misc: A playable entity in the superbly obscure indie game Shadows of Forbidden Gods. This iteration makes a lot of extrapolations from a character that had precious little actual character. I hope this counts as original.
@Riffus Maximus Let me try and break down your questions as best as I can.
Is it known to the characters why this entity is named Chaos? For a being whose apparent purpose is to conquer all under one rule, it kinda feels like it would unify this whole mess of planes into a single banner. Would it be far-fetched for a character to believe Chaos' design is one of true order?
They probably don't know why Chaos identifies itself as such, though they could guess at it. The theming is more like a "prima materia" type of Chaos, if that's helpful. What I read about your character's motivations pretty much works, people can easily project their own intentions onto Chaos, it's not very... forthcoming, nor personable.
Is it possible for a plane to host more than a single shard of chaos? Does these shards bring some sort of knowledge about the master. Does Chaos have an actual physical form?
It's one Shard to one Plane. The Shard's presence on the Plane is what shattered it in the first place. Taking possession of the Shard brings you into communication with Chaos. It's like picking up the One Ring, but Sauron wants you to use it for him. The physical manifestation of Chaos is Gladius, which I mentioned briefly. It's like an evil, shapeshifting fortress that can manifest itself on new Planes. Every time a Shard is acquired and reintegrated with the Heart of Chaos, Gladius grows larger and more complex. This is also the process that reunites the Planes.
For the long-lived races, just how long ago was Creation shattered into pieces, just to not overlap a character's age with the creation of its homeworld.
As I said before, each Plane has a unique relationship for time. For some, the shattering was many thousands of years ago. For others, perhaps it was merely hundreds. What they all have in common is that the shattering has passed out of living memory, so however long it would take for your elder race to have forgotten it, that's how long ago it was.
Is it possible to play more than a single character? I've seen something about using the character's homeworld ressources to their disposal, so I guess it would be likely for the characters who are more of leader types to bring their generals and subordinates from their conquered homeworld into others, unless the Archons are only able to travel alone?
Only one Archon, but what you're describing is my intent for more leadership focused characters. I think I'll include a section for this on the updated CS. Until you acquire a Plane's Shard and reunite it with the others, you're limited to whatever resources you could fit into Gladius with you. Which could be considerable; I am thinking about adding a section about Gladius onto the CS, so you each get a "wing" to personalize.
Anyway, regarding your character: I think she is good, with the only nitpick being that nobody should even really know that there are other Planes out there until they get their hands on a Shard.
@Sniblet I was pretty much fine with your character until you pointed out that you ported it from a video game. For that, I would ask that you personalize them a bit more? Maybe introduce more of a personality to help them interact with their fellow Archons? Otherwise they may have difficulty cooperating with your 40-million-year-old "elder spirit." Have you considered maybe that they might have been human to start, until learning the "truth" within the Book of Light?
Interesting association: Chaos' symbology associates with with "darklight," a light and darkness that coexists. Kind of a Yin-Yang thing going on.
Name: OPHANIM (traditionally written in allcaps, think “the LORD”; not an acronym)
Epithets: Divine Beyond; Lord of Hosts; Shroud of Heaven; Beacon of Salvation; Perfector; Tyrant in Splendour; etc
Age: ~40M years
Home-Plane: The plane of OPHANIM, once a medieval fantasy archetype, was conquered and utterly reshaped within mere centuries of its manifestation, and now lies permanently bathed in searing light. Its inhabitants, once human, orc, and elf, are now – better. Tall, crystalline, polygonal, featureless, identical humanoids populate land, sea, and sky, pursuing no purpose but their faith. Idolatry is a capital sin. Doubt is a capital sin. Freedom is a capital sin. Only the sinful know death in its eternal embrace.
Description: It may manifest as a large, symmetrically faced, androgynous humanoid in white, otherwise superficially resembling nearby mortals; a searing yellow or white glow with no source; or a wheel of perpetual flame laced with never-blinking, never-still, bloodshot eyes. When humanoid, its eyes are never visible. The stories say that they glow so brightly that they instantly incinerate the evil. Stories that are never told in OPHANIM’s realm debate the meaning of evil in this case. OPHANIM is fierce, commanding, and fanatically stubborn, as if relentlessly following the commandments of a twisted holy book never written. It never raises its voice, but its voice is said to boom exactly as loudly as it needs to, even if that is loud enough to bring a forest to knee.
Backstory: OPHANIM may be recognized as an archetype that appears in stories across many shards, but its tale is true in only one. The stories follow similar basic premises: the road to hell, and you know the rest. Sometimes it is a king. Sometimes it is an adventurer. Rarely, it is an angel – perhaps you’ve heard of Lucifer. In no telling is it known as what it is: an utterly inhuman elder spirit obsessed by the trappings of divinity. There were never good intentions. The Shard was taken like every sealed treasure of OPHANIM’s world; a vault was found, followers commanded to gather as a flock and retrieve it. Traps and enchantments were shoved aside with force of numbers. Only the sinful died in that crusade. Do not doubt this.
Shard: The Book of Perfect Light is kept in OPHANIM’s possession at all times. The Book of Perfect Light is said to contain the whole of OPHANIM’s doctrines, written plain. The contents of the Book of Perfect Light have never been read by any mortal being. The Book of Perfect Light is not full of often incoherent, wholly self-contradictory dictates writ tightly in a script only OPHANIM can comprehend. Do not doubt this.
Powers: OPHANIM’s power is broad, but relies universally on faith and followers. Its golden-tongued missionaries shout its truth from the mountains, and listeners are taken by the unnatural draw held by its arbitrary doctrine. Its faith is intransigent. Its followers worship madly and fervently in pursuit of mutually exclusive visions of paradise, and at the peak of their faith, when a village, city, continent shouts its name in unison, OPHANIM drinks of their love, and rebuilds them into something without it. In those parts of Creation it has reached into and perfected, its power is like a god's. Shrieking streaks of light erupt from the temples built in its name to shatter the armies of the as-yet unfaithful. Its perfected followers are nearly as vicious, their form beyond pain, beyond fear and doubt, beyond hunger and thirst, and beyond what most beings would call morality.
Eldritch thing with a Biblical(ly accurate)/divine light theme. Drastically more powerful and versatile in places where it is worshipped. Its religion is unnaturally alluring, compensating for the fact that a critical eye would realize it’s an insane totalitarian. It seizes absolute control of its most devoted followers down to shaping their body and soul into its uniform vision of perfection.
Misc: A playable entity in the superbly obscure indie game Shadows of Forbidden Gods. This iteration makes a lot of extrapolations from a character that had precious little actual character. I hope this counts as original.
>Iastur sends his regards. Or, he will rather, as soon as they stop running away.
I was pretty much fine with your character until you pointed out that you ported it from a video game.
Ophanim in-game is mostly mechanics and theme, with exactly one lore blurb, shown in the picture. Everything that makes it more than that was me.
I would ask that you personalize them a bit more? Maybe introduce more of a personality to help them interact with their fellow Archons? Otherwise they may have difficulty cooperating with your 40-million-year-old "elder spirit."
I think its inhumanity is pretty core to the character I want to play. Its age and origin are just aesthetic (it's spent the overwhelming majority of those 40 million years in an unchanging world devoid of unique experiences to develop from, so practically speaking the extra zeroes are only there to sell the Lovecraft look), but I'm not willing to make this character into the sort of entity you can have a normal conversation with. Not to say that it can't talk to another Archon, but it wouldn't be very charismatic. The "(very alien being) obsessed with the trappings of divinity" thing is The point. If that won't work, I have other ideas I can try to put to a sheet, no issue.
Have you considered maybe that they might have been human to start, until learning the "truth" within the Book of Light?
I could make that change, or something similar, but I wouldn't want anything to be left of that human.
@Zyx I know your plate is full, but there's room for you here if you're interested.
@Sniblet Yeah I think I may have had a slight knee-jerk reaction to seeing such an inflated number on the sheet. I think if you wanted to make them 4000 or thereabouts it would feel more in line with the others (assuming there will be others). Given what you're saying I think the character is functional as it stands. I only worry that this character's inhumanity might make them monotonous to play, but I leave it at your discretion.
@Zyx I know your plate is full, but there's room for you here if you're interested.
@Sniblet Yeah I think I may have had a slight knee-jerk reaction to seeing such an inflated number on the sheet. I think if you wanted to make them 4000 or thereabouts it would feel more in line with the others (assuming there will be others). Given what you're saying I think the character is functional as it stands. I only worry that this character's inhumanity might make them monotonous to play, but I leave it at your discretion.
>Tempting, but I'm good. Offer is appreciated though.
Okay, I made a pretty quick-n-dirty sample character if anyone is interested in viewing it.
Name: Lykos Daedalion
Epithets: Ulysses the Fool, Death's Jester, the Shadowprince, the Mouth of Chaos
Age: 36
Home-Plane: Hellen: A cold and windy archipelago, with storm-carved coasts that rise above a violent sea. For thousands of years these great islands have been embroiled in the bitter feuds between their kings and other noble lords. Great fleets and armies are launched from kingdom against kingdom, much innocent blood is spilled, and their grudges grow ever deeper and darker. Since becoming the Shadowprince, the various united city-states have been marshaling their armies and fleets to carry on the conquest of Chaos.
Description: To most the persona that Lykos projects is that of Ulysses the Fool, though this identity has changed since his days spent masquerading as a court jester. Ulysses comes across as a babbling madman, completely deranged, what little wits he ever had replaced with the mind-shattering presence of Chaos. While he can use illusions to transfigure his appearance, his usual motley garb is a mishmash of metal, leather, and flamboyant silk. This is all of course an elaborate mask, as his true nature is that of a ice-cold killer. The madness of Chaos keeps his cold and dark psyche company as he slowly plans and executes the Darklight's return.
Backstory: Lykos Daedalion was born as the fifth son to a great king of Hellen, but when he was still an infant, his parents and all of his brothers were slain by assassins. Lykos himself was spirited away to live with relatives, but they were bribed by the king's usurpers into giving the child up to them. In secret, they switched Lykos with a pauper's baby, and offered up the other child to be killed. Lykos grew up destitute, and had to steal-- and later, kill-- to survive.
Lykos eventually fell in with a band of outlaws and mercenaries who made their living raiding Hellenine cities and pirating their ships. This simple life of theft and murder came to an end when his gang were killed on contract by a cabal of secretive assassins. Lykos himself managed to fight off the assassin sent to kill him, and having slain his assassin, he was taken in by the others. There he trained in their hidden arts of magic and combat, and quickly proved to be one of the most powerful among their number. This was also where he assumed the persona of Ulysses, as he often favored disguising himself as a jester or entertainer when contacted to kill nobility.
As he reached the height of his power and prowess, Lykos went into business for himself. He put into an action a slow and methodical plan to murder his way through the noble family that had his own extinguished, and eventually slew the usurper king himself. This was when he found out that the king's scepter had been a Shard of Chaos, and the Anti-Creation chose Lykos as the first Archon of its return. Normally not one for armies or politics, Chaos convinced Lykos to begin the conquest of Hellen, which he utilized a series of illusions and puppet rulers to do so, eventually consolidating all of the island kingdoms under his shadowy rule.
Shard: The shard in his possession is the Darklight Scepter, formerly part of the regalia of his father, a Hellenine king. It resembles a golden staff with an orb of light on one end, and a matching orb of darkness on the other. Lykos claims that the Scepter is the first and most powerful of the Shards of Chaos, giving him a uniquely intimate relationship with Chaos, but this is unconfirmable and spurious at best. However, the Scepter verifiably gives Lykos a portion of the power of Chaos over what is real and unreal.
Powers: Lykos is the ultimate assassin, trained since a young age in the arts of stealth, subterfuge, sabotage, and silent death. His skills extend to nearly any killing implement that has ever been invented, and some other, miscellaneous tools. He knows a variety of potent and forbidden magics, not only for taking lives, but also for tricking the eye and confusing the mind. As part of his jester disguise, he also knows a variety of jokes, puns, stories, limericks, offensive stereotypes, and can juggle.
How big are these planes meant to be? Because so far the character sheets make them sound like isolated continents, whereas I was picturing them as whole worlds forming part of a multiverse.
@King Cosmos I would say it varies. It depends on the theme of your character, and the scale of their story. I made the Hellen plane kind of small because that would better suit an assassin Archon. Really it's up to you and if something seems amiss we can work it out.
So I have a question, roughly how large can our characters be? My thing will have a humanoid vessel but it's true nature is huge as it is basically bringing everything into it?
