Palingenesia:
A Modern Greek Gods Saga
with @Ezekiel
Power cannot exist without faith, not even that of the gods.
Millenia of war, of strife, of bitter blood feuds eroded the gods’ powers. A little at first, nothing to be concerned with as humanity’s tongues changed and morphed. A few brought their concerns to Olympus, signs and portents of what was to become of them. Zeus refused to hear of it and the others largely fell in line. They were unwilling or unable to face their fate. Most carried on as they always had, falsely secure in their supremacy. By the time they were relegated to stories, to nothing more than myths, even the Olympians slumbered in an aether, separate from the mortal realm and their own, they remained suspended in the space-in-between.
Humanity moved on, evolved. They inherited a vibrant world, became masters of it and its deepest mysteries. Their power was uncontested and unchecked except amongst themselves. They warred, they stripped the planet bare, they howled to the empty universe around them that it did not offer them more, that it did not other them an escape from the hell they had created for themselves. Disasters plagued them, but they did not submit quietly to the rising temperatures and oceans. They did not stop even as famine and droughts ravaged their lands or viruses their bodies. Their feuds and hatred deepened until all out nuclear war nearly wiped them from the planet.
Nuclear power, the concentrated rending of the cosmos, stirred ancient slumbering things. The gods and more ancient titans began to stir, first to consciousness but still adrift in a vast emptiness. Their long dreams ended, their hopes and desires and fears made real in the unending sleep dissipated. They woke to find the world that had left them behind had paid for it dearly.
Though some hesitated to assist the mortal realm, the knowledge of what irrelevance had done to them was still fresh and biting. Most eventually agreed to work together to mend what had broken. And in rebuilding the world that humanity has destroyed, the gods had peace among themselves for some time. Old grievances were ignored while there was so much work to be done, while there was so much of humanity eager for them. There was no shortage, even in their diminished state, of mortals to worship them.
Equilibrium would never have lasted long, and it did not. The world was restored, though not returned to what it once had been. Mortals built great monuments and temples once again, and soon, the gods eyed each other as competition. They began their ancient dance for power and quickly reverted to using mortals as their pawns in a great game. War was inevitable.
When it broke out, it was a revolt against Zeus. Had it not been him who had led them to their insignificance in the first place? Who was he to try and crown himself again, after all his failures? The battle raged bright and hot until an unexpected interference from the mortals. Their nuclear weapons had not been exhausted in their wars, and stockpiles had been uncovered. Though few would say it aloud, they could destroy the gods as much as their distant power could wake them.
The Olympians called a cease-fire to secure the weapons away and to find a way forward. Agreements were reached in what came to be known as The Accords. Even as his allies signed with the rebellion, Zeus refused. He fled to raise new armies, to find new allies. In the end, he was captured and imprisoned like the Titans he had once overthrown.
The Accords gave each god provenance over their own realms as they were. Any gods found to be meddling beyond their spheres of influence or their geographic domains, would be held accountable by their peers. There was to be no king of the gods.
And for a time, it has worked. Humanity flourished in a new golden age under the gods’ thumbs. Not all remain pleased with the new status quo - god or mortal. A new threat has formed within humanity, small enclaves brought together by shared, virulently anti-god beliefs. The gods had not found all the weapon stockpiles and these enclaves now control those that had been hidden. Far removed from the great metropolises that had formed, the gods watch and worry from a distance. Rumors of something else borne from the ashes of Old-Earth plague gods and mortals alike. Surely it is a just a story,
TL;DR:
- The gods went to sleep because of irrelevance (3rd-4th century CE)
- In that time humanity got big and strong then did bad things to the earth and themselves (mid-21st century CE)
- It's been roughly 400 years since humanity nearly erased itself from existence (approaching the 22nd century CE, now notated as NE - for “New Era”)
- The gods restored the world in the course of about a century
- God civil-war for 50 years
- The Accords has been in place for about 200 years
- Humanity, with the gods’ aid, has rebuilt to essentially (our) modern levels
- The world looks different, there will be a map
- Main Factions:
- The gods and demi-gods
- Personifications, spirits, and other mythological humanoids (nymphs, dryads, etc.)
- Mortals
- Sub-factions:
- Gods and their supernatural underlings can be roughly categorized by how they feel towards humanity and their fellow gods
- Mortals/humans have those who are fervent in their beliefs, passive, or the smallest group who are militantly anti-god and known as the Misotheists
Other Notes:
You will be more than welcome to create multiple characters across the factions. Writing standards and expectations are casual though may dip into “advanced” territory thanks to our love of writing collabs in place of shorter back-and-forth posts. That will largely be a personal decision for how you prefer to write.
Creating a god or other mythological character will be left to your creativity - pick and choose the myths and how they occurred in the character’s ancient histories or in their re-awakening. This also means crafting shared history among your characters is heavily encouraged.
Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Persephone are being used as GM characters (by Ezekiel and me), and Zeus will be unplayable due to him being…indisposed. For the main Olympian gods that leaves the following open to play.
- Poseidon
- Hestia
- Aphrodite
- Ares
- Hephaestus
- Apollo
- Artemis
- Athena
- Hermes
- Dionysus
