Tentative interest since I've got more than a few RPs going at the moment. But when you say gods, exactly what level of power are you thinking of? And what kind of god? Cause when I hear both I tend to think of entities that are close to if not omnipotent, or extremely abstract and esoteric, and that usually doesn't bode well for the narrative.

<Snipped quote by Havoccultist>

I don't mean gods in the sense of "beings who can effortlessly rewrite any and all aspects of reality with a single thought," but more like those you would find in D&D pantheons or say Greek Mythology. Take the Timebreaker Wars, for instance. That was a battle fought between many different pantheons, so you can imagine hundreds of gods all fighting each other.

Here is a good video from Matt Mercer of Critical Role that details the types of gods I'm envisioning having fought in the Timebreaker Wars:



However, for our characters, when I said "basically gods," that was more of a reference to them being OP, not them being literal gods like the ones who fought and died in the Timebreaker Wars. Our characters were just normal mortals at first, and then once they bond with their Quantum Shards, they begin to develop god-like powers, such as perhaps elemental abilities or healing or light/gravity/shadow/whatever, but they are still technically mortals. I will probably play two Avatars, one who has a powerset similar to Blue Marvel from Marvel Comics and one is akin to an OP Sith Lord.

What powers do you think you'd like to use?

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

I see. Probably something time related, precognition and general temporal manipulation, since I have a character arc idea where a future version of my character from an alternate timeline intentionally corrupted the Quantum Shard they had to become a Void Demon, as they seek to stop the mending of the crystal to preserve not only their own power and/or existence, but also to keep what they see as the loop within a loop from repeating. I.E. to keep the crystal from being reforged just so another group of gods or beings, be that the Avatars or whoever else, can go to war over and shatter it again. This antagonistic future version of my character would also seek to maintain the status quo as it currently is, believing that all the realities which presently exist thanks to the shattering will be erased or destroyed or irreparably damaged if merged back into a single timeline.

And that's not a risk they're willing to take.

<Snipped quote by Havoccultist>

I had a similar idea for my Sith character XD. I was thinking of making them eventually become an evil character, and she is an alternate timeline version of my good character's twin sister. They come from very similar timelines that split off at the moment of a plane crash when they were kids. In the brother's timeline, his sister died, and in the sister's timeline, her brother died. He managed to grieve and then recover, but she still harbors a lot of emotional trauma from that day and gradually becomes resentful of her alternate timeline brother for him not having been as miserable as her after losing his twin. Not only that, in his timeline, their parents had another daughter, while in her timeline, their parents divorced and then eventually died in a car crash while they were arguing. She begins to feel betrayed that the other version of her family had such a happy life without her and that sparks the gradual corruption of her Quantum Shard.

As for your idea for time powers, I'd be curious to see just how far you wanted to take them. Since the Cosmic Crystal is a fourth dimensional construct, and by extension the Quantum Shards, I'd imagine any temporal-shifting abilities would not directly effect anyone who also had a Shard. But it could effect the environment around them. As for the future version of your character, I'd imagine their Shard would be a different one than the past version, since it seems unlikely that a fourth dimensional object could go back in time and co-exist with a past version of itself. Instead, it could be that his timeline was ripped in two as well, with a different Shard going to each half and finding him in both timelines.

I have to head to work now, but we can discuss it more later. I'm excited!

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

I don't see any causal conflicts since alternate timeline versions are not the same as direct future versions of the prime individual. The way I see it, this future version comes from a parallel reality/alternate timeline, but in its future, and goes back in time/hops from timeline to timeline in order to stop or counteract their 'prime' self and alternate selves. As opposed to coming directly back from the 'prime timeline's' future, which even if we did allow an interaction would ultimately result in either a Grandfather Paradox or a very deterministic fate. Since killing or defeating one's future self doesn't mean that you won't eventually become them, then go back to start the cycle all over again.

To give an example (albeit a poorly thought out one), see InFAMOUS. Specifically Kessler, who is simply an alternate version of Cole from the future. In particular, a future where the Beast went on a rampage and he lost everything, a series of events that sparked his desire to go back and interfere in the first place. Besides the mechanics of causality, I think time powers working as you describe is fine. Even if one time travels and makes changes, assuming no branching realities where that change succeeded are created and the timeline one is currently in is altered instead, those with Quantum Shards will remain aware and unaffected by such changes.

Since our character concepts are so similar, however, I might just go the straight villain angle and nix the prime part beyond said character wanting to gather more power to prevent their alternate selves from reforging the crystal, keep the current realities as they are, prevent the inevitability of the next loop, etc.

<Snipped quote by Havoccultist>

Oh yes, I think we actually were on the same page after all about your future self idea. I went back and re-read your original post and realized I misread a part. I thought you meant that your evil version came from the future our characters were heading towards, kind of like Alternate Barry/Savitar in the Flash show, but I see now what you meant. So yeah, we can say that there are countless alternate pasts, alternate presents, and alternate futures. Some timelines are farther along than others, and there can be many different eras covered in our adventures.

Like, there could be a timeline where it's still the 1950s but aliens invaded, or a timeline where there's a zombie apocalypse going on, or a timeline where Earth has been destroyed and the remaining humans live on other planets.

And please feel free to continue on with your idea, your evil version and my Sith Lady/Lord could probably team up for a while, though I imagine he would eventually distance himself from her when she veers even farther down the path of evil than him XD. It seems your character still has some semblance of honor and a sense of greater good, but my evil character will eventually devolve into a sadistic bitch LOL.

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

I think I'll play a pure antagonist in this RP, as I'm not sure I have it in me to play both sides of the conflict at the moment. At least not to the degree of making two completely fleshed out versions of the same character. Maybe my character's alternate self could serve as a MacGuffin for a subplot or two before they get axed or something if we really want to include them. Another question I had though concerned the setting. Does it have to be Earth or a version of it? Or, given that it's a multiverse now, could our characters technically come from anywhere provided it's not a fandom/pre-existing fictional setting?

<Snipped quote by Havoccultist>

Yeah, or if we ever get to a point in the plot where your antagonist character is defeated or killed, you could then bring in a good version of that character from a different timeline who then inherits their Quantum Shard or something.

As to your other question, it's totally fine to come from places other than Earth or Earths that are radically different. For instance, there could be timelines where humans or humanoid life developed on other planets, and timelines where non-human humanoids developed on Earth. There could be Earths similar to the movie Bright, where elves, orcs, fairies, etc exist in modern society.

What did you have in mind?

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

Probably something fantasy themed, but nothing concrete as of yet. I was just curious to know what the scope of the timelines was. How crazy you could get with it, etc.

Oh, and as for Void Demons and other Quantum Shards not part of our main group of characters, we could say only Avatars who were deemed worthy at the moment of bonding by their Shards were granted access to Celestia. In the case of our "bad guy" characters, they may have been worthy at the moment of bonding, but corrupted their Shards after the fact. Those who bonded with a Shard and were immediately deemed unworthy are the ones who first turned into Void Demons, and thus they never came to Celestia. And in some timelines, there are Shards which never found a host and are just waiting to be collected by the Avatars.

<Snipped quote by Havoccultist>

That works. We could say that all the timelines from which the Avatars originate may be at different points along their own flow of time, but the moment they bond with a Quantum Shard, their timeline syncs up with Celestia, which is why they all get teleported there at exactly the same time. So, it would be like one timeline has an Avatar bonding with a Shard in 1951 Earth, while in another timeline, a different Avatar didn't bond with a Shard until 1981. But they both arrive at Celestia at exactly the same time, and from that moment forward, both those timelines are locked with Celestia so that time flows evenly between them, meaning in the two timelines referenced, they will always be 30 years apart even though both are considered "present time" to their respective Avatars. Almost like multiple save files for a game at different points in time but all of them are now running simultaneously.

If you are doing a fantasy-themed world, it could be somewhere in the ancient past, the distant future, or anywhere in between. It only becomes synced with Celestia when your character bonds with the Quantum Shard and is teleported there. Though if you go with temporal powers, perhaps you can rewind time like in Prince of Persia or the Eye of Agamotto, but all Shard-bearers would rewind with you. You mentioned precognition, so that could be the subconscious mind of your future self sending back fragments of memories through the Quantum Shard, and perhaps that's how you begin to realize uniting the Crystal goes against your values. Like, you receive visions of people screaming out as their timelines are erased in the future or something. Now whether those are legitimate visions or doctored manifestations created by some nefarious entity remains to be seen XD.