[OOC] Cradle of the Gods [Full--for now!]

[Marshmellow]

Welcome

to the universe...

The Supreme Cosmic Entity is at it again, stitching together the fabric for a brand new universe. With every pass of the cosmic needle the universe comes that much closer to completion, but before then there's one little thing that must not be forgotten: bringing in a pantheon to keep an eye on the thing!

This is where you come in. The Not-So-Supreme Cosmic Entities, you've been called in to oversee the latest in the SCE's grand collection. As gods, you'll be responsible for the stability of the universe, seeing to any tears in the fabric and generally trying to keep the ol' Supreme Cosmic Stick-Up-the-Butt off your case. But, as they say, with great responsibility comes great power (or something like that). You've got free run to do whatever you want, so why not do what all gods do best: smiting mortals!

Unfortunately, it looks like there are no mortals here to smite. Guess you'll have to put some of that Nigh-Infinite Divine Power to use setting some things up first.

Who are you?

Somebody important, I bet

What is a god? I'm sure we could get very philosophical answering this question, but this isn't Navel Gazing 101 so we're going to skip that whole conversation and go straight to the meat of it. You are a being of pure cosmic awesome: you may be old, you may be new, but regardless of age you are bigger, stronger, smarter, more magical than literally anything that isn't another god. Keeping universes is your bread and butter; it's literally why you exist. Do note that though gods are infinite, the universes they maintain are not. This may not be your first universe, and chances are good it won't be your last. Some of you may even already be acquainted with each other from previous gigs!

Gods come in many forms! Some gods look like people! Some gods look like spiders! Some gods look like an all-encompassing abyss of your every failure and shattered dreams! Some gods look like kittens! If you can imagine it, and sometimes even if you can't imagine it, it can be a god. Don't... try not to go too crazy with that. A gold robot with laser eyes and a bad comb-over is one thing, but a 12.6-dimensional omniwolf made of legos and swiss cheese is stretching things a bit.

Welcome

to the... world?

Gods have free run of an entire universe. That's a lot of space! Often, gods rarely even have to see each other most of the time, much less interact in any meaningful way.

Unfortunately, due to the economy and a series of budget cuts, the SCE is working small today. This universe consists of the Sun, which doubles as the SCE's base of command, and one single habitable planet. Creating stuff, especially big stuff like an entire 'nother planet, is a lot of work that nobody wants to do, so you're all gonna have to stake your claims on this one little world. If you're quick, you might even be able to get an entire continent to yourself!

The world at start will look like this:

And I will alter it as the game goes on to include any significant geographical features!

The Phases of Creation

Only gods last forever

This roleplay will have phases. They're pretty basic though, so don't worry too much about them. Here's how the order is going to go:

• Creation: In this phase, all the big stuff is gonna happen. Altering the landscape to suit your needs, adding little quirks and concepts to the world, making myths, what-ever. At this point mortals do not exist, and they will continue to not exist until the next phase. You are free to lay the groundwork for your race, e.g. sculpting bodies out of clay or preparing other animals to be raised to sentience, but nothing with more than an animal level of intelligence will exist during this phase.
• Dawn of Civilization: This is the real meat of the story right here. At this point, the SCE will allow gods to imbue their creations with intelligence, and you will be free to guide your race however you like. Heroes will appear, nations will rise and fall, and through it all the gods will be working in their mysterious ways. At this point it is very likely that you will develop multiple characters, perhaps a champion of your god, or another notable mortal. You can do pretty much whatever you want, keeping in mind that the Age of Creation is over and done with, but please for the love of SCE if you're going to go all Zeus and Leda on one of your mortals just fade to black.
• Armageddon: The final phase, this is the point where the threads that once held creation together begin to unravel. Guide the mortals to a dignified end, or watch them squirm as the world is consumed in fire and ice. Keep an eye out, however: if there are holes appearing in the universe, there's always the possibility of something sneaking through them...

And that's it

For now...

That is the whole thing right there. So! Ask some questions, let me know if you're interested, and I'll put up a character template or something later and if there's enough interest we'll go build a world.

CHARACTER SHEET:

God Template

Name: The obvious

Domain: Your god's chosen domain, the concepts over which you rule. Gods may have multiple domains, such as a god of the ocean and trade, and more domains may become added to your god as the rp goes on.

Personality: Just a basic outline to help us get to know your god. I won't hold you to this, but it's good to know what we're all getting into before we start.

Appearance: Gods typically have more than one appearance, as there are plenty out there that enjoy taking on mortal disguises for their own purposes. Gods may appear differently to mortals than to their fellow god-kin, so you may want to make a note of that as well.

Symbols: Gods often find themselves associated with materials, shapes, even colors. As with domain, gods can acquire new symbolism as the rp goes on.

Trivia: Anything else that's important about your god. Relationships with other gods for example, or a resume of escapades from past universes, etc. Whatever you'd like here, really.

[Marshmellow]

CURRENT STATUS

The World

[Scarifar]

Name: Uktar

Domain: stone, blacksmithing, metalworking, machinery

Personality: Rather wise, and certainly very intelligent. A creator at heart. What he creates, he hopes it creates something as well. He has no desire to see destruction, and hopes that there is never a need for any. However, just because he doesn't like destruction does not mean he is incapable of causing any. On the contrary, when he is angered, one should worry about every moment they spend on land, for the earth alone can be devastating to a mortal.

Appearances:

Appearance #1

Appearance #2

Symbols: Boulders, hammer and anvil.

Trivia: He likes blueberry pie.

[General Scales]

Name: Caractus.

Domain: Experimentation, Scholars, Change, Adaptation.

Personality: Caractus is one that seeks to use his knowledge, though lacking the creativity of other gods, to cause evolution and change among the landscape as well as that which lives in it. It puts aside most emotion for the purposes of greater learning though its curiosity is never ending when dealing with cause and effect. In this way being a god allows it to simulate mortal life and however the lesser beings act when given a push providing for endless opportunities and possibilities for his own experiments. It finds the intervention of others gods mildly frustrating at times as they influence what he intends as a controlled environment though they allow for things he does not, so while it annoys him there is fascination in the interactions they would cause. Many of these factors lead to a studious ever busy god who wants nothing more than to change a few specific factors and let the mortals play out existence before eventually dying out as they do.

Appearance:

Main Appearance

Secondary Appearance

Symbols: Eyes, Many-sided shapes, Glass vials.

Trivia: Caractus is an older entity who has seen many other gods though with a strong lack of interest in them or what they do as it simply wishes to observe and learn along with his mortal creations as they achieve their enlightenment from simple beings. Other gods might have a distain for it's unwillingness to take a more direct role in things but Caractus rarely judges them for viewing him in such a way, let them think what they will so long as they keep themselves busy.

[hivekiller]

Name: Kebreus

Domain: Torture, Herbs&Spices, & Music.

Personality: Kebreus is a god with a mixture of the good and evil gods. Kebreus likes to create musics and inspire others to do music. He also has the knowledge of creating new herbs and spices which can be use in both good and bad ways. Kebreus likes to watch mortals suffer too, but most of the time he will only torture those who are found guilty.

Appearance:
Takes the form of a young man. He is very short and has a graceful build. His outfit is that of a minstrel, incorporates musical note designs, and it is mostly violet in color. He carries a satchel of books. His lips are very thin. He can grant or withhold musical knowledge. He sometimes takes the form of a dog.

Symbols: A Golden Harp with herbs under it.

Trivia: Kebreus is annoyed by people prone to music.

[darkwolf687]

Name: Orfai; The Eternal, The Change Lord, Keeper of Secrets, Librarian of the Black Libraries, Collector of 'curiosities' etc etc etc... (He enjoys showering himself with titles, no matter how dubious the grounds for them are...)

Domain: 'Secrets', 'Change' (Sometimes, and perhaps more accurately, construed as 'Chaos', particularly in the presence of Caractus, though Orfai insists that he is the God of Change because chaos is just rampant change.) 'Collecting', 'Forbidden Knowledge' (How he decides what is forbidden knowledge is anybodies guess...)

Personality: He is generally a curious person who thirsts for knowledge. Depending on ones relationship with him, he can either come across as friendly or a smug snake. He doesn't waste his time on those who aren't interesting to him and mostly does things because he wants to see the change that will result from it. He gifts great powers and artefacts to a select few mortals just to see what they will change using them. Sometimes, he would even change people into powerful monsters and demons. This has led to some power-hungry individuals and cults in past worlds making disgusting sacrifices in his name in an attempt to make him appear, hoping they will be able to benefit from these gifts. Most of what Orfai does is simply to see a reaction. He is neither good nor evil, for all his domains also have a brighter side that he also exercises, but has in many of the worlds that have been created been considered evil because he would bring chaos to the world. He is similar to Caractus is that he has a domain of change (or at least, claims he has the domain of change... much like he showers himself with titles) however he is much closer to the embodiment of rampant, never ending change than to the careful and methodical experimentation of Caractus
While his presence may not be obvious, he usually has his hands mixed up in big changes somewhere. Whether it be the fall of a nation, an important new invention or the death of a prominent mortal. His powers are often not on display for mortals and occasionally even the other gods to see, as he is not interested in prestige, power or even recognition, only creating endless change. At some times, however, they are displayed in horrible ways. In the last world he was entrusted to be a guardian of, a great trade city known as Iriwall was razed. Orfai sent minions to completely destroy the city, and they arrived en masse and slaughtered everyone inside the city, bringing down it's great towers and destroying all the goods in it's massive warehouses. Orfai then recalled his armies and watched as the economy of many, many nations suffered. Great businesses losing billions in coin and making grand cut backs to cover it. Millions losing their jobs and starving, old and well established family businesses collapsing and nations declaring sudden wars and sending their knights to kill one another in an attempt to save their crumbling economies. Such change, what a glorious year for Orfai that was! And a great secret to be hidden from the mortal world, chaos and discord.

Appearance: Orfai, being the prince of change, appears in many different forms. In fact, sometimes he appears as a formless void or even changes through multiple forms right in front of others. This had led to him being almost impossible to depict by mortals, so he is often instead indicated by his mark, which is perhaps the only uniform thing about him.

Symbols:
Orfai's Mark, his only major and permanent symbol.

Trivia: Orfai keeps a small pocket realm of his own, which he uses to store secrets that are entrusted to him or that he deems he needs to keep, as well as other curiosities or things that simply amuse him. He gets rid of almost everything within it after an Armageddon, though some things have become permanent additions to his little collection; These he generally uses in the end to bring about some form of change or at the very least amuse him.
He respects gods who enjoy change or advancement but despises those who would maintain an order or stagnation.
When Armageddon comes along, he goes absolutely berserk and dumps pretty much everything he's collected into the world... and takes the souls of those he deems amusing into his collection...
Orfai 'shadow marks' secrets if a mortal is able to summon him or wants it hard enough. This confers the ultimate protection on a secret; No matter what others do, something always intervenes that means they won't uncover the secret. Once a deal is made, it's held at Orfai's pleasure, however...
Although he enjoys rampant change and chaos, he does take his duty... semi-seriously. The Supreme Cosmic Entity has assigned him to help oversee this universe, after all, and it's rather unhealthy to disobey the Supreme Cosmic Entity.

"Everyone universe needs a god who may as well be against it and who seems to exist simply to get on everyone elses nerves"

[Pathfinder]

Name: Manus

Domain: Stars, stories, sculpture, and decay

Personality: Manus cares little for the machinations of their fellow gods and only seeks to pursue their muse. They are obsessive in their creations, every detail must be flawlessly perfect or perfectly flawed for them to be satisfied. Finally, in the end they seek to destroy what they create. Beauty isn't defined by something's ability to last forever, instead it lies in the fact that they don't.

Appearance: Manus does not have a "true" form so to speak. They are a force, of both creation and destruction. Their fellow gods register that they exist but no physical body is present. However should they deign to be among mortals they take upon this form, appearing as male, female, or a combination of both depending on the beholder.

Symbols: Stars, scrolls, chisels, black holes, and the various shades of purple.

Trivia: In the end Manus will be one of the gods who actively tries to end the world. It's nothing particularly personal, just godly nature. Besides that Manus has a fondness for gods who are are artists as well and has a dislike for those who create but does not destroy and those who destroy but do not create.

[Dead Cruiser]

Name: Kun

Domain: The Sea, Life, Evolution, Cycles, Fertility

Personality: Generally ambivalent, Kun's foremost agenda is to pursue her own goals, paying no heed to the other gods or their concerns. She considers herself to be far above them, both in power and perspective, and as such finds their ambitions and rivalries unbearably petty.

Appearance: Kun has really one form, caring little for vanity, as this is what she feels most comfortable as, and grants her the most utility. Notable is her sheer size, of which a mortal can barely comprehend, and dwarfs other gods by scales of magnitude.

Symbols: Symbols of Kun suggest crashing waves, or her many tentacles, perhaps both.

Trivia: Kun's being and machinations are both so vast that even her mind is massive compared to her divine peers. As though her consciousness is divided evenly among her tentacles, she can assign various tasks and matters to fractions of her mind, as so to accomplish much at once and make best use of her titanic reach and many interfering tendrils.

[Rhymer]

Just want to say I love the idea @marshmellow Good luck with this!

EDIT: Yilig-Cro would love to carve out an empire in this world.

[General Scales]

I'm enjoying looking at all these gods and thinking about what could end up happening to the world between all or most of them. There is some great potential here.

[CoCoTina]

Name: Zambura

Domain: Zambura is often seen as the goddess of cowardice, ugliness and toadyism.

Personality: Feeble and outwardly submissive, Zambura has often been disregarded as far as gods are concerned. Perhaps this isn’t without just reason considering her creations don’t often amount to much and most have resulted in nuisances for everyone else. It’s not that she is without good intentions, she is just a very unfortunate god – think of a cowardly Don Quixote and you roughly have Zambura.

Appearance: Zambura’s primary form is somewhat humanoid from the shoulders up. However she is lacking a face, only a pale yellow fabric covers what most assume to be her cranium. The rest of her body seeps down into a mass of oily fat, with cockroach-like legs protruding from her large body that struggle to drag her weight around. The word often used to describe her is disgusting.

When she appears to mortals she prefers to take on the form of a pale, slight-framed boy, seemingly around the age of 9. This suits her so as not to appear threatening or intimidating. In this form she is most able to gather the intel she requires.

Symbols: Nematodes, rotting meat inhabited by maggots, sweat, and any green-brown color.

Trivia: Many attribute the creation of the cockroach to Zambura.

[Marshmellow]

hoo boy lookit that turnout! i think we got a good number here so

the people that will be playing are:

scarifar, as uktar, the wise god of the smithy

general scales, as caractus, the old god of progress and patron of scholars

darkwolf, as orfai, the god of fancy titles

pathfinder, as manus, the god of creation and decay

dead cruiser, as kun, the large and in charge goddess of life and the sea

and cocotina, as zambura, the goddess that is responsible for the fumigation i had to get a few years ago

and of course myself, as a goddess of nature who can be found posted in the pantheon already

hivekiller i can respect the colors and you definitely get points for style for that but i think your particular writing style would not fit in well with a casual rp. but thank you for the interest! i hope that you will find another cool rp to participate in, or possibly get another chance to join in on this one once we enter the dawn of civilization!

and also thank you muchly for the kind words, @Rhymer!

now then, everybody may post their profiles to the pantheon and i will get everything formatted properly and an ic starter post will be forthcoming on the morrow

[Thrashy]

I hate living in different timezones. I had no way of responding to this as I was asleep at the time :/ Oh well, have a great game!

[PaulHaynek]

I hate living in different timezones. I had no way of responding to this as I was asleep at the time :/ Oh well, have a great game!

@Thrashy

I feel ya bro!

Have fun, party people! Or... godly people.