[OOC] Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

[Lugubrious]

@Lugubrious I wouldn't count arek as a phantom yet. Who is the no-show btw?

@Double Capybara

Oh, Nevix.

[Cyclone]

Look guys! I'm already on a roll! (Don't expect it to last )

Here are two sheets that are rather overdue:

Flickers

Creation:
Magical

Name:
Flickering Sparks; Flickers

Description:
Created when Zephyrion combined his primordial power of Change with Astarte's raw magic ever so slightly so as to alter existence, Flickers are a natural phenomenon that can occasionally appear in places frequently in the presence of Zephyrion's power. These tiny, minuscule sparks of power are enough to animate the air that they touch (or perhaps other substances as well) into a being known as an elemental, after which the Flicker will gain some level of sentience and serve a role similar to a soul.

Flickers are something entirely different from souls. This makes the elementals more like forces of natural than even 'unnatural' lifeforms, means that they do not go to the Primordial Pool or Wraith Stones upon death to be reincarnated or manipulated, and makes them immune to the White Giants' ability to detect souls and life (and likely somewhat resistant to those with the magic of Soul Manipulation). Upon an elemental's defeat, their Flicker may manage to escape and reconstitute itself over time, allowing them to resurrect themselves in a much weaker state. Alternatively, if more care is taken to thoroughly kill an elemental, their Flicker will sputter out and simply cease to exist, consigning them back to the eternal nothingness that preceded their birth. Magic is the best way to defeat any Flickering being.

Appearance

Elementals

Creation:
Being (More like forces of nature than living creatures)
Name:
Elementals; Spiryts; Djinnis

Lifespan: Immortal (Experience no aging or sickness, can be slain but sometimes manage to resurrect themselves)

Description:
Elementals are beings made of anything from an eddy of wind to an entire cliffside, animated by a Flicker and brought into sentience. The first of their kind were the air elementals, animated when Zephyrion unleashed the first Flickers into the winds. As more Flickers spawn into existence, time will show that these spiryts of air are not the only beings that Zephyrion brought into the world. Beings of primal earth, fire, and water are also common, and sometimes there exist 'bastard' spiryts that wield power over some odd combination of two primal elements, like djinnis of steam or mud.

To any elemental being, size is everything: they exist in a rigid hierarchy where the largest are the most powerful and also the most intelligent. Rarely a mighty Flicker is spawned and the elemental that it creates starts off large, but the vast majority are minuscule and must cannibalize other elementals, age for countless centuries, or draw power from worship and offerings if they ever wish to grow. The smallest air elemental might be a spiryt too weak to be seen or sensed that takes the more of a tiny eddy of wind, perhaps not even strong enough to blow out a candle. The most powerful would be tremendous, cloud-sized beings that can smite lesser beings with lightning. Worth noting is that the elementals exist in a sort of feudal system in which each lesser one owes it allegiance to a greater one. There might be billions of lesser elementals so weak and insignificant as to warrant neither a name nor any more respect than that for an ant, a few hundred thousand 'regular' spiryts that can be easily seen and possess near human intelligence and power, a few thousand lords whose magical power is to be reckoned with, and then perhaps a dozen so powerful that they answer only to Zephyrion.

Like hiveminded insects, the greater elementals exert a sort of telepathic control over their lessers. Those of regular strength have some degree of free will, but the billions of lesser elementals are essentially mindless slaves. In great numbers and coordinated by a few lords, thousands (or even millions) of these lesser spiryts could work together to create something truly terrifying like a hurricane.

While they do not often directly mettle in the affairs of living beings, the elemental lords are tasked by Zephyrion with maintaining both Change and a crude notion of 'balance' on Galbar, and they bring some some semblance of control and predictability to the primal and chaotic force of Change that Zephyrion first wrought. This sacred task is done through controlling (to a large extent) the weather, erosion, volcanic activity, water movements, and even the movement of the earth. In general, through their constant battling with one another and whimsical displays of power, they manage to maintain a balance and prevent life from becoming too idyllic, stagnant, or boring for Zephyrion's taste.

It is worth noting that elementals long for worship, but whether it simply is a part of their egotistical nature or somehow empowers them the mortals will never know. The Djinnis, as the elemental lords are sometimes called, can shift their appearance, gift a great deal of knowledge, and offer various boons or jinxes. For these reasons, many of the elemental lords are powerful enough to be plausibly seen as deities by the uninformed mortals, and their more direct and reliable influence on worldly affairs means that the local elemental lords might be worshiped even more than Zephyrion or any actual gods. Through prayer and offerings, mortals can often curry enough favor to have the more benevolent elementals gift them with rain or rich earth and bountiful harvest, or convince the crueler ones to show mercy and restraint when wielding their power over natural disasters.

Elementals are usually merciful or aloof enough to not disturb defenseless mortals unless somehow insulted or provoked, but when the inevitable fight does occur, men will witness the terrible power of the spiryts. Often even a spiryt of only mediocre power is extremely resistant if not outright immune to attacks by physical means, but magic will eventually become an equalizing force. It may one day even be possible for mortals to learn the magic of the elemental lords and use that sacred power to dominate and bind spiryts to one's will...

Appearance

Regular elementals, comparable in strength to a sorcerer or several warriors

One of the most powerful ones in all its fury

A Djinni in form that it might use to interact with mortals

So to summarize, elementals (or at least the powerful ones) are sentient and more intelligent than any other lifeforms created so far. They're somewhat hard to fight/kill and if not thoroughly slain via magical means, they can sometimes manage to revive themselves albeit in a much weaker state. So they're something between living beings and forces of magic/nature, about as alien to animals as robots are.

Instead of souls, they have something called flickers. It's similar but the main difference is that these 'Flicker' souls are not under Reathos' jurisdiction and can't go into Wraith Stones or the Primordial Pool, be used for necromancy, or be reincarnated. Flickers just sort of appear in places where there is a lot of the energy that creates them (Zephyrion's Change and primal magic), so Galbar and maybe a few other worlds will start having Flickers but they won't just randomly appear on lifeless rocks all over the cosmos. Anyways, once a flicker soul appears it will animate the wind, earth, mud, fog, water...anything really, and become an elemental with traits and powers that somewhat reflect its composition and nature.

I know this all might be heavy and on the OP side, but their toughness is somewhat offset by how there are less than a million spiryts that are even remotely intelligent or powerful, and that number should stay pretty static on Galbar. Eventually I intend for a sort of shamanistic magic to be invented/taught/stolen by the mortals which would allow them to enslave and exploit the power of tons of lesser elementals just like the powerful ones do, which would effectively allow for a strange form of pyromancy, geomancy, etc.

@Legion02 I'm actually kind of interested in how Reathos will feel about these sorts of beings that don't properly die according to his rules, though I suspect he will hate them. For fairness I mentioned that @Frettzo Astarte's soul manipulation can be used to some extent on the elementals and flickers. And of course, other gods like Vestec could still corrupt or otherwise change flickers to make death elementals and all sorts of terrors; don't get the idea that I made the elementals conceptually different just so that they couldn't be messed with.

[Dawnscroll]

I'm done with Logos till next turn.

[Scarifar]

I might do something with the Hain still left in the Valley of Peace, but I'll most likely do that on the next turn.

[Frettzo]

I'm taking it easy. Astarte's not invested enough in the world yet to really care about primitive sentient life. As soon as a big cultural event takes place, she'll realize how much she enjoys them.

[Lugubrious]

I think I'm waiting for Cyclone before I have Slough do desert stuff.

[Cyclone]

@Lugubrious

Want to collab? I could send down the new Vizier guy, but Slough still hasn't done much to garner Zephyrion's attention at this point so I doubt that he'd personally respond to her going into his desert. It's not like he's zealously overprotective of it.

[Lugubrious]

@Lugubrious

Want to collab? I could send down the new Vizier guy, but Slough still hasn't done much to garner Zephyrion's attention at this point so I doubt that he'd personally respond to her going into his desert. It's not like he's zealously overprotective of it.

@Cyclone

If you think a collab is necessary for the Vizier to import Zephyrion's wish to give life to the desert, sure.

[Cyclone]

@Lugubrious

I have to wake up in something like six and a half hours from now, so I can't stay to start a collab now.

If you want to get it going and PM me a link I'll go on tomorrow, otherwise maybe we can start it another time

Nighty night everyone :p

[Fabulous Knight]

Hey @Cyclone, has that invitation to not!Olympus been sent out yet?

[Scarifar]

Hey @Cyclone, has that invitation to not!Olympus been sent out yet?

@Fabulous Knight

Nope.

[BBeast]

Hey @Cyclone, has that invitation to not!Olympus been sent out yet?

@Fabulous Knight

You could probably just rock up, though. It would probably make Zephyrion feel even more prideful that people are flocking to see his palace without any prompting on his part.

[Fabulous Knight]

@BBeastI might do that; something so great in construction begs for its foundations to be tested, after all.

[Antarctic Termite]

@Frettzo Do you think the university will continue being able to function / your degree will still be useful to you after you graduate, in or out of your home country? Is very bad news if your education is messed up before you can complete it and put it to use finding some stability.

Hey termite. I've noticed that you like squicky mutilationy stuff.

Now, I'm not saying do anything in particular, but you might find something interesting if you google 'the flesh that hates'.

@Lugubrious

���������� good skip go౦ԁ sKip� thats ✔ a good��skip right��there��� right✔there ✔✔if i do ƽaү so my self � i say so � thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ� �� �НO0ОଠOOOOOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ� �� � � � � � � ��Good skip

@Cyclone Parts of this my latest clusterfuck of a post were written before you uploaded the elemental sheet, so let me know if there are any inconsistencies.

So many links to cool shit I've put on my tumblr over the years and want to share obnoxiously, fuck. Anyway I now need to get busy doing another sheet for the Cult of Jvan. This one won't have much actual horror but a decent bit of body horror.

[Fabulous Knight]

���������� good skip go౦ԁ sKip� thats ✔ a good��skip right��there��� right✔there ✔✔if i do ƽaү so my self � i say so � thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ� �� �НO0ОଠOOOOOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ� �� � � � � � � ��Good skip

@Antarctic Termite

What the many dicks.

[Antarctic Termite]

<Snipped quote by Antarctic Termite>

What the many dicks.

@Fabulous Knight

Lugu linked me to the SCP-610 article on the SCP creative writing scenario's website. 'Skip' is in-universe slang for an anomalous entity in the SCP Foundation continuum, and the blocky question marks are the product of RPGuild choking on the formatting of the 'Good Shit' copypasta.

Many dicks indeed. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also @Dawnscroll I found an artwork that could very plausibly be Logos. Here!

I try to link to the blog posts rather than directly to the image so that it's easier to source each artwork.

[Muttonhawk]

Welp, that's enough hair-horror and flesh-imagining for one night...

[Legion02]

Look guys! I'm already on a roll! (Don't expect it to last )

Here are two sheets that are rather overdue:

Flickers

Creation:
Magical

Name:
Flickering Sparks; Flickers

Description:
Created when Zephyrion combined his primordial power of Change with Astarte's raw magic ever so slightly so as to alter existence, Flickers are a natural phenomenon that can occasionally appear in places frequently in the presence of Zephyrion's power. These tiny, minuscule sparks of power are enough to animate the air that they touch (or perhaps other substances as well) into a being known as an elemental, after which the Flicker will gain some level of sentience and serve a role similar to a soul.

Flickers are something entirely different from souls. This makes the elementals more like forces of natural than even 'unnatural' lifeforms, means that they do not go to the Primordial Pool or Wraith Stones upon death to be reincarnated or manipulated, and makes them immune to the White Giants' ability to detect souls and life (and likely somewhat resistant to those with the magic of Soul Manipulation). Upon an elemental's defeat, their Flicker may manage to escape and reconstitute itself over time, allowing them to resurrect themselves in a much weaker state. Alternatively, if more care is taken to thoroughly kill an elemental, their Flicker will suptter out and simply cease to exist, consigning them back to the eternal nothingness that preceded their birth.

Appearance

Elementals

Creation:
Being (More like forces of nature than living creatures)
Name:
Elementals; Spiryts; Djinnis

Lifespan: Immortal (Experience no aging or sickness, can be slain but sometimes manage to resurrect themselves)

Description:
Elementals are beings made of anything from an eddy of wind to an entire cliffside, animated by a Flicker and brought into sentience. The first of these kind were the air elementals, animated when Zephyrion unleashed the first Flickers into the winds. As more Flickers spawn into existence, time will show that these spiryts of air are not the only beings that Zephyrion brought into the world. Beings of primal earth, fire, and water are also common, and sometimes there exist 'bastard' spiryts that wield power over some odd combination of two primal elements, like djinnis of steam or mud.

To any elemental being, size is everything: they exist in a rigid hierarchy where the largest are the most powerful and also the most intelligent. Rarely a mighty Flicker is spawned and the elemental that it creates starts off large, but the vast majority are minuscule and must cannibalize other elementals, age for countless centuries, or draw power from worship and offerings if they ever wish to grow. The smallest air elemental might be a spiryt too weak to be seen or sensed that takes the more of a tiny eddy of wind, perhaps not even strong enough to blow out a candle. The most powerful would be tremendous, cloud-sized beings that can smite lesser beings with lightning. Worth noting is that the elementals exist in a sort of feudal system in which each lesser one owes it allegiance to a greater one. There might be billions of lesser elementals so weak and insignificant as to warrant neither a name nor any more respect than that for an ant, a few hundred thousand 'regular' spiryts that can be easily seen and possess of near-humanoid intelligence and power, a few thousand lords whose magical power is to be reckoned with, and then perhaps a dozen so powerful that they answer only to Zephyrion.

Like hiveminded insects, the greater elementals exert a sort of telepathic control over their lessers. Those of regular strength have some degree of free will, but the billions of lesser ones are essentially mindless slaves. In great numbers and coordinated by a few lords, millions of these lesser spiryts could work together to create something formidable like a hurricane.

While they do not often directly mettle in the affairs of living beings, the elemental lords are tasked by Zephyrion with maintaining Change and a crude notion of 'balance' on Galbar, and they bring some some semblance of control and predictability to the primal and chaotic force of Change that Zephyrion first wrought. This sacred task is done through controlling (to a large extent) the weather, erosion, volcanic activity, water movements, and even the movement of the earth. In general, through their constant battling with one another and whimsical displays of power, they manage to maintain a balance and prevent life from becoming too idyllic, stagnant, or boring for Zephyrion's taste.

It is worth noting that elementals long for worship, but whether it simply is a part of their egotistical nature or somehow empowers them the mortals will never know. The Djinnis, as the elemental lords are sometimes called, can shift their appearance, gift a great deal of knowledge, and offer various boons or jinxes. For these reasons, many of the elemental lords are powerful enough to be plausibly seen as deities by the uninformed mortals, and their more direct and reliable influence on worldly affairs means that the local elemental lords might be worshiped even more than Zephyrion or any actual gods. Through prayer and offerings, mortals can often curry enough favor to have the more benevolent elementals gift them with rain or rich earth and bountiful harvest, or convince the crueler ones to show mercy and restraint when wielding their power over natural disasters.

Elementals are usually merciful or aloof enough to not disturb defenseless mortals unless somehow insulted or provoked, but when the inevitable fight does occur, men will witness the terrible power of the spiryts. Often even a spiryt of only mediocre power is extremely resistant if not outright immune to attacks by physical means, but magic will eventually become an equalizing force. It may one day even be possible for mortals to learn the magic of the elemental lords and use that sacred power to dominate and bind spiryts to one's will...

Appearance

Regular elementals, comparable in strength to a sorcerer or several warriors

One of the most powerful ones in all its fury

A Djinni in form that it might use to interact with mortals

So to summarize, elementals (or at least the powerful ones) are sentient and more intelligent than any other lifeforms created so far. They're somewhat hard to fight/kill and if not thoroughly slain via magical means, they can sometimes manage to revive themselves albeit in a much weaker state. So they're something between living beings and forces of magic/nature, about as alien to animals as robots are.

Instead of souls, they have something called flickers. It's similar but the main difference is that these 'Flicker' souls are not under Reathos' jurisdiction and can't go into Wraith Stones or the Primordial Pool, be used for necromancy, or be reincarnated. Flickers just sort of appear in places where there is a lot of the energy that creates them (Zephyrion's Change and primal magic), so Galbar and maybe a few other worlds will start having Flickers but they won't just randomly appear on lifeless rocks all over the cosmos. Anyways, once a flicker soul appears it will animate the wind, earth, mud, fog, water...anything really, and become an elemental with traits and powers that somewhat reflect its composition and nature.

I know this all might be heavy and on the OP side, but their toughness is somewhat offset by how there are less than a million spiryts that are even remotely intelligent or powerful, and that number should stay pretty static on Galbar. Eventually I intend for a sort of shamanistic magic to be invented/taught/stolen by the mortals which would allow them to enslave and exploit the power of tons of lesser elementals just like the powerful ones do, which would effectively allow for a strange form of pyromancy, geomancy, etc.

@Legion02 I'm actually kind of interested in how Reathos will feel about these sorts of beings that don't properly die according to his rules, though I suspect he will hate them. For fairness I mentioned that @Frettzo Astarte's soul manipulation can be used to some extent on the elementals and flickers. And of course, other gods like Vestec could still corrupt or otherwise change flickers to make death elementals and all sorts of terrors; don't get the idea that I made the elementals conceptually different just so that they couldn't be messed with.

@Cyclone

Man will he be confused. Like at one part they are a force of nature. But on the other hand they are sentient. I think that in the end he will make sure his order holds a number of mages capable to dispatch these flickers. Sort of making an 'apex predator' for them so he has a hold over their 'death'. He won't hate them being, he'll probably just hate them for not dying.

[Fabulous Knight]

@Legion02When're you going to make that order? Sentient Hain exist now; you could make stone-age hunters trained to kill those that will not die...

Hell, you could make some of the order from the elementals.

[Cyclone]

Hey @Cyclone, has that invitation to not!Olympus been sent out yet?

@Fabulous Knight

I had envisioned Vizier Ventus as being the poor guy who has to go on a wild goose chase and find all the insane gods to formally invite them to Zeph's party. I might do this after he messes with Slough.

In the meantime feel free to simply waltz in like others suggested, though "testing the foundations" of his house might understandably get Zephyrion agitated to outright enraged, depending on whether the whole castle crumbles