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wethelostooc2020-06-06 12:20 pm
thelostmods) wrote in wethelostooc2020-06-06 12:20 pm
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Personalize a God
In preparation for endgame, the mods will be preparing a suite of gods for characters to rescue from across the multiverse. We are offering here the opportunity to have a god and challenges personalized for you for Part II of endgame. Fill in the form below and one of the mods will respond to you with a god, a world to rescue, and prompts for some of the challenges characters will encounter in their quest. We are offering the opportunity to personalize one god per character (if you have multiple characters, please fill in the form for each of them, individually).
Please fill in the form for your characters by 14 June, 11:59 PM PST. We will be responding with information from the 15 June to 4 July.
If you do not get a personalized god, DO NOT FRET! There will be opportunities to rescue other gods during endgame! This is just for folks who would like us to tailor a god for them.
Please fill in the form for your characters by 14 June, 11:59 PM PST. We will be responding with information from the 15 June to 4 July.
If you do not get a personalized god, DO NOT FRET! There will be opportunities to rescue other gods during endgame! This is just for folks who would like us to tailor a god for them.
QUESTIONS
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: In terms of visceral fears, the end of the world - specifically worlds cracking apart and being engulfed by Darkness. In terms of more intellectual fears, losing the people he cares about specifically due to his own failures.
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: His intellect.
What is your character's greatest strength?: I want to say something cliche here like his capacity for empathy but let's be real it's probably also his intellect.
What is your character's greatest weakness?: His fear of failure/letting others down.
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: I've gotten to touch on it a little bit but I'd like to really delve into Ienzo's fears with regards to the world(s) ending and his capacity to make it significantly worse by trying to make it better. I'd also like to give some dramatic weight to the idea that he'll have to choose between the Meadous and his homeworld, even though I know OOCly that he'll get to jump back and forth between the two at the end of this.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: I think at this point he feels enough kinship with snow leopards that that would be h is first choice.
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: Let's go with city.
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Chariot, why not.
Silk the God of Loneliness
God Name: Silk
God Aspect: Loneliness
God Appearance: Wispy fox ghost (Source)
World Name: The Moors
World Inhabitants: Silkies (Source), which are a cross between ponies, goats, and… presumably some sort of dragon. Hard to tell. They are melancholy creatures, as a whole, often more focused on their inner world and problems than on the world around them. They all know of a time when silkies lived together, but they were all too frustrated with each other’s little habits to get on. They’re uniformly easy to irritate and may breathe fire at you if you annoy them enough.
Basic World Description: Massive, derelict cities surrounded by stretches of empty moors. The entire world seems to be comprised of large islands with steep cliffs that make travel between the islands by anything apart from flight extremely dicey. The environment itself is very wet and often foggy. It’s led to a fairly verdant grassland, though, with thick swaths of green interrupted by stony boulders everywhere. The silkies live fairly solitary existences here. You’ll find only a handful occupying each city, and it won’t be near any other silkies. They feed on the lush grasses. There are other animals here, but they’re only very rarely seen. Mostly, they’re just heard in the distance.
Notable World Quirks: Silk uses a magical chariot to carry/remove the sun and moon from their positions in the sky each day. Because of Silk’s disappearance, and the disruptions, there has not been a ‘day’ for what should have been several days. All of the silkies are starting to get very worried about the vegetation dying from the loss of sunlight.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. The city is huge, skyscrapers reaching up to grim-looking heavens, others toppled over with rubble strewn about. Vegetation and mold is everywhere, giving the place a half-reclaimed look. Picking through, Ienzo and his companion manage to catch sight of one of the place’s elusive inhabitants. The silkies are curious creatures, even if they’re not the friendliest. They have questions for those visiting their realm. Who are they? Have they seen Silk? Why is the earth shaking? What happened to the sun? One, in particular, seems more pensive when they come across her. “Tell me about the places you call home, and I’ll tell you what I know of Silk. This is… the place I live. A dwelling. It sometimes does not feel like a home, though.”
It’s only once Ienzo and his companion have provided detailed answers that she’ll give some basic information, including Silk’s aspect. She’s not a fan of her god.
2. The fog has been light throughout the visit to this world so far, but there’s another rumble, and then there’s a sudden wave of it coming for Ienzo and his companion. The wall hits, and there’s a sudden and intense sense of disconnection, all sound growing muffled, and a cold sinking into the bones. Grab tight to your companion if you can. With the fog comes a rapid decline in memory relating to oneself, even for the Scribe of Sense. Anyone trapped in the fog will need to find another person and tell them about themself to escape the effect. Or at least who they think that person is.
3. The last of the leylines snap back into place and the world finally settles. It’s then that Ienzo and his companion will be greeted by the silkie they met earlier in the city, the thoughtful one. She has a simple request: Do not save Silk. Let this world exist somehow without them. Ienzo and his companion will have a choice to make: Rescue the God of Loneliness and restore this melancholy place, in full, or leave Silk and hope a realm can exist without its god.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: Being completely and utterly alone.
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: Her sense of humor.
What is your character's greatest strength?: Possibly her resilience.
What is your character's greatest weakness?: Trying to heal from the world's most toxic relationship and the insecurities that come with that.
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: Maybe give her one more opportunity to cause a grander scale of destruction and mayhem before she finds a happy ending. I never really planned out an endgame scenario, but it'd be nice for her to go out with a bang during this last event.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: She's already been a hyena so she'd switch it up and be a monkey for the acrobatics.
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: City.
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Balloon.
Po-ni-ke the God of Rebirth
God Name: Po-ni-ke
God Aspect: Rebirth
God Appearance: Skull-faced fluff-monster
World Name: The Endless
World Inhabitants: Fae Folk who stand only a few inches tall and come in a wide variety of colors [source]. Quick and mischievous, they enjoy goading creatures larger than themselves into trying to chase them down: they might steal, tease, or throw pebbles at visitors to encourage a good chase. They seem not to mind if this leads to their homes and hiding places being destroyed; though they build sprawling, intricate hives of residences, the longevity of those structures is not of concern to them. When they die they are reincarnated, and when they come of age they undergo a ritual to open their minds to the memories of their past lives. Mostly their past lives tend to involve much of the same as their present lives: antagonizing the local megafauna for fun.
Basic World Description: A temperate landscape of forests, plains, and lakes. The Fae Folk are among the smallest creatures found here; the wildlife tends toward large animals: enormous ground sloths, saber-toothed cats, wild horses, and terror birds. Everywhere one goes, the ground is littered in Fae Folk dwellings or their abandoned remains, making it difficult in many places for a being of human size or larger to move around, particularly if they wish to avoid destroying the buildings. Fae Folks’ homes are haphazard creations made out of all sorts of found materials with rooms and entire buildings stacked on top of one another. Newer constructions may be lower to the ground, but older buildings and ruins are sometimes too high for a human to see over from ground level. The land is absolutely choked with these buildings apart from swathes of destruction where the larger animals of the world have simply crashed through the buildings to make paths for themselves.
Notable World Quirks: The strangest plants that grow in the Endless are the floating trees. Their leaves grow huge and spherical, filled with gases created in the process of photosynthesis, and in place of a solid tree trunk they possess long, sinewy vines, allowing them to grow quickly and send their leaves soaring above the forest top for better access to sunlight. The Fae Folk enjoy climbing the floating trees and severing the vines below them to go flying--perhaps the trees might also support the weight of a human? Too bad there’s no way to control it once you leave the ground.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. The very first thing the Fae Folk do is to steal the aetherometer Harley is using to find and move the leylines. They dash off laughing at the top of their little lungs, throwing it back and forth to play keepaway as they dive in and out of the ramshackle fae-sized homes they’ve built everywhere. They don’t seem to care about the earthquakes or any explanation of what the visitors are doing here; they’re just excited to be chased by a new kind of dangerous creature.
2. Where the Fae Folks’ buildings are tallest is where those buildings have clearly been abandoned. Wandering in among them, the narrow openings between buildings are like a maze, and a feeling of unnatural stillness settles in. It’s all too easy to get hopelessly separated in here, and once one is alone one starts hearing and seeing things: voices and faces from the past, visions of things that went wrong, of old regrets.
Just when it begins to feel too real, though, too overwhelming, one might bump too hard against a building or kick a shorter structure over by accident. When the old buildings crack and break, there’s an immediate sense of release from the visions that haunt you. Smash a building and the vision grows weaker still--and what better way to find a separated companion than to destroy the barriers separating you?
3. Healed by Okota’s wheel, Po-ni-ke steps out into the sunlight and gazes across the landscape, hollow eyes taking in the Fae Folk homes that cover the land and prevent the grass from growing and the larger animals from moving freely. Thoughtfully, the god taps a claw on its skull face before turning to Harley and her companion. ”It’s past time for them to start again,” Po-ni-ke says, ”But I am still weak...I don’t know if I have the strength to raze it all to the ground by myself. Will you help me?” Strangely, a cheer goes up among the Fae Folk close enough to hear the pronouncement, almost as if they’ve been looking forward to this.
Po-ni-ke will do its best to help by burning up buildings, but the god’s firepower is limited. Perhaps explosives would be helpful? Or one could go the old fashioned route of smashing everything in sight.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: Freezing to death (from Snowblind), failing in his job
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: Knowledge
What is your character's greatest strength?: Conscientiousness
What is your character's greatest weakness?: Hubris; unwillingness to see someone else's point of view when he thinks he's right or feels like he has the moral high ground
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: Flynn has been pretty anti-violence because of his gritty experiences in Snowblind and because most of his arch has been about adapting to a more realistic world. THAT SAID he can actually brawl and fight and he canonically killed a man with a giant pyramid capstone so... maybe giving him a cool and completely stupidly over the top fight to remind him where he's coming from.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: A lion (and he would be wrong)
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: Jungle
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Key
Old Steg the God of Brawling
God Name: Old Steg
God Aspect: Brawling
God Appearance: Stegopelta (Source)
World Name: Risaedla
World Inhabitants: Donkestra (Source). Something between a bird, a lizard, and a flying squirrel, the dokestra are friendly bruiser types as a species. They’re about the side of a human, maybe a bit bigger, and they live an arboreal existence except for when they drop to the floor of their jungle home to catch prey. Their homes are nest houses and they live in small colonies dotted around the world. They communicate over relatively long distances in whistles and clicks.
Basic World Description: A jungle world filled with bugs and dinosaurs! There’s not much to speak of in the way of mammals. It’s a warm and wet climate with megaflora and fauna to match. The donkestra are relatively small compared to some of their less sentient compatriots. It’s a hilly terrain edging upward into mountainous in places with wide swaths of open areas that the donkestra tend to avoid for the lack of trees to glide to. There is a reasonable level of technology to the point where there are some basic mechanical objects. They’re geared toward making life for the Donkestra easier and safer, like mechanisms to drop weighted nets on prey or larger predators, specialized magical locks to keep their homes secure, and some very complex pulley and lever systems with baskets that mean you don’t have to be able to glide everywhere. It’s more convenient, but these are for transporting goods and older or very young donkestra around the treetops.
Notable World Quirks: All locks in the world require a musical ‘key’ to unlock. This is a series of notes that must be played, sung, or hummed.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. This is supposed to be a warm and steamy jungle paradise, but looking for leylines takes Flynn and his companion deep in a cavern in one of the mountains. It seems to be where the highest concentration of broken leylines is. As they go deeper, the temperature begins to drop. Cold… colder, it’s not long before they’ll be able to see their breath before their eyes in whatever light source they’ve brought. And then the earthquake hits. It rumbles, crashes, the earth bucks beneath them. By some grace, Flynn and his companion are safe. But the entrance to this place is gone. They’ll need to find another way. If there is one. They might end up freezing in a tropical world if they don’t find something soon.
2. The leylines are fixed and all that’s left is to actually find the god of this world. When Flynn and his companion go to make inquiries of the inhabitants, though, they’ll find themselves immediately swept into a fight. The donkestra are grinning and clacking their beaks as they fight with the inhabitants of the Meadous, more and more of them joining in to fight Flynn, his companion, their assailant, each other. It’s a brawl in the treetops and it’s going to take a lot of work not to end up falling and breaking a few bones.
3. It’s only after everyone has thoroughly beaten the snot out of each other that one pipes up, “Oh, that was lovely! Haven’t had a right good brawl in ages. Old Steg’s just west of here. Big ol’ hollowed out tree is where he makes his home.” The donkestra whistles and clicks. You’ll need to figure out the key, though. Changes on the daily. Just listen close.”
When Flynn and his companion reach a massive, hollow tree, they’ll find some curiously geometrical rocks outside of it. Two sets of them, quite a distance apart, in fact. Tapping one creates a tone, one for each set of rocks. Then there are two tones. Flynn and his companion will have to work out which rocks make which tones and work together to match them as the number of tones and patterns grow ever more complex. One person can’t do this, it needs physical as well as mental competence… the two people are not getting the same patterns. It’s only once they’re able to memorize and repeat a sequence of 15 consecutive tones on both sets of rocks that the door to Old Steg’s place will open.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: Being alone, especially due to his own actions.
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: Cleverness.
What is your character's greatest strength?: Resilience and adaptability.
What is your character's greatest weakness?: He is easily influenced and reactionary.
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: I'm pretty happy with where he's at now, but I am inclined to tempt him towards bad choices. Gabriel has mostly avoided making snap decisions that hurt others in the Meadous, but he's very capable of it if he thinks it's for some overarching 'greater purpose'.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: Panther or other big cat.
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: City
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Key
Rem the God of Slumber
God Name: Rem
God Aspect: Slumber
God Appearance: Perpetually Sleepy Dragon [Source]
World Name: Forty Winks
World Inhabitants: Velocinappers [Source]. These small, colorful dinosaurs spend most of their time asleep, suspended in tubes filled with a nutrient slurry laced with sedatives. While asleep, their minds enter a shared dreamscape. Even those who have not ventured into the waking world in a very long time are fully aware they are living in a dream; most of them simply prefer the dreamscape as it allows each of them to carve out their own ever-changing paradise of the mind in which they can go anywhere and do anything they like. A few among the population remain more grounded in the waking world, spending their time tinkering with the machines and keeping the support systems working for those who choose to remain asleep.
Basic World Description: The waking world of Forty Winks is highly developed and automated. The vast majority of the work needed to support a sapient population is performed by mindless machines that do everything from tending farmland to optimizing the slurry mix in each velocinapper's personal sleeping tube. The majority of residents don't have what an outsider would consider to be a home; rather, their sleeping tubes are stored in gigantic racks within hulking multi-storey buildings. Those who choose to spend more time awake, however, do tend to reside in small apartments built into whichever facility they look after. The wakeful velocinappers tend to be loners, though they do have the same natural access to the shared dreamscape as the others. It is not necessary to climb into a slurry tube to enter the dreamscape, and the wakeful ones often choose to sleep in real beds in order to encourage themselves to wake back up in the morning rather than go on dreaming forever. When they sleep naturally, they spend about half of their time asleep.
In contrast to the waking world, the default state of the dreamscape is a beautiful countryside with room to run, chase, and play forever. Those who are aware they are in a dream have all the power of a lucid dreamer, though it's worth remembering that everyone else does, too, and that the locals have had a lot of practice at reshaping the dream world to suit their whims and won't always take kindly to interference. Wandering through the dreamscape may lead to stumbling into any number of fantasy worlds dreamed up by the velocinappers, which take the form of any kind of landscape one can imagine, almost always dreamed up for the sole purpose of personal enjoyment and sharing a dreamland with friends.
Notable World Quirks: The leylines of this world can only be accessed from within the dreamscape, which is always just a nap away. Though one's physical body remains in one place, one's mind must range across the wide dreaming world to bring the leylines back into alignment.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. The giant sleeping facility near Zephyr's portal has been hit hard by the earthquakes that rack the world, but almost all of its residents remain blissfully unaware in their slurry tubes. A lone velocinapper is desperately working to fix a broken rack holding a row of occupied slurry tubes in danger of being dropped to the floor far below, the damaged machines currently of no help to her. Structures are damaged and machines malfunctioning all over the facility.
This particular velocinapper has strong opinions about all the others sleeping through the disaster; she says it's just one more thing in a long line of them all ignoring real problems in order to enjoy their dreams all the time instead of only at night like she does. Though she enjoys tending the machines, she's bitter about the others' over-reliance on them and wishes the world would go back to a more natural order where people spend equal time awake and asleep.
2. The trouble with entering the dream world for the first time as an outsider is that it's a bit too much like normal dreaming. On arrival Gabriel and his companions will forget that they deliberately fell asleep, or even that they're dreaming at all, as they find themselves in front of an audience of velocinappers expecting to hear a keynote address. Too bad they forgot all about this speech and forgot to write it! What were they supposed to talk about again? Better figure it out quick!
If they don't work out that they're dreaming on their own, the tittering velocinappers will eventually take mercy on them and help them become fully lucid. The dreaming velocinappers are unaware of the impending apocalypse and have absolute faith in the machines and their keepers to keep their physical bodies safe while they enjoy their dreams.
3. Ranging across the dreamscape to find and reorient the leylines will have made it clear why the velocinappers love dreaming so much. Anything is possible here, and the dream world is unspeakably beautiful. Returning to the waking world provides a sharper contrast than ever; the industrialized landscape is ugly and unlivable by comparison...but perhaps it is that way because so few care to make it better. Gabriel will have a clear choice to make based on what he's seen: by now he'll have seen enough of the systems to understand how to sabotage them if he so chooses, ending the velocinappers' ability to rely on the slurry tubes and forcing all of them to spend at least some of their time awake. If the visitors ask, this option is extremely popular among the few loner velocinappers who already spend time awake and extremely unpopular among those who spend all their time asleep. Otherwise, they may leave the world largely as they found it. Regardless of the choice made, they will be able to reach Rem's personal sleeping chambers and heal the newly re-manifested god with Okota's wheel.
If Gabriel chooses to sabotage the machines, Rem will be very angry with him upon being restored and will send him into a deep, magical slumber in which he is completely cut off from the minds and dreams of others, forced to sit alone in a void and think about where his actions have taken him. He can be rescued by another person from the Meadous pursuing him into the dream and pulling him out.
If Gabriel chooses not to sabotage the machines, the velocinapper they met at the beginning of the visit will be very disappointed and refuse to speak to him again.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: Being useless
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: He's ambitious
What is your character's greatest strength?: Use of Alchemy, especially fire alchemy
What is your character's greatest weakness?: Running water. Canon note: He can turn free-standing water into explosions as seen in chapter 38.
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: He hasn't really gotten to be effective at anything due to a combination of me being slower'n'sloth shit and him being relatively new.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: Probably one of the big cats, thanks to his experiences with Khemrys.
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: City
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Key
Shimmer the God of Passionate Flame
God Name: Shimmer
God Aspect: Passionate Flame
God Appearance: Giant cat made of magma
World Name: Haze
World Inhabitants: Candles, which are magma-based axolotls. Candles are friendly and incredibly competitive creatures that live in large fire-friendly cities made primarily of stone and concrete. They have the ability to regulate their own body temperature from pleasantly warm to blazing inferno, and have a habit of spitting fire when they get agitated. They feed on magma and mainly use their cities for non-feeding purposes, like trying to find their special someone, working hard to find their dream job, or practicing with all their might to be the best they can be at their favored skill.
Basic World Description: Haze is a tropical world with small cities built into the sides of volcanos and within rainforests. There are many, many active volcanos in this world and it is primarily ocean, broken up by island chains. It is a very young world, in terms of creation, and the inhabitants are still extremely close to their god, many of them being some of the original inhabitants who were first created by Shimmer. There are all manner of rainforest flora and fauna and the main form of transportation is vespas on the islands and power boats between the islands.
Notable World Quirks: All candles are particularly afraid of water as being stuck in water too long can kill them. There are significant superstitions surrounding deep water or swift-running water, as a result. Inhabitants will never cross a bridge until they've said a brief prayer to Shimmer to keep them safe, and candles who take to the sea as ferrycreatures are said to be lost to the flame. It's an extremely thankless profession, as you might imagine.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. Candles aren't known for being especially worried about their plumbing infrastructure when most barely use the taps in their houses except for making things like tea, but when the earthquake rumbles and suddenly every fire hydrant in the city blows off… the citizens start to panic. Roy and his companions will find themselves in a doused city, water shooting up everywhere, starting to cause flooding. The inhabitants are in a panic with those too close during the initial blowout in dire need of assistance from someone who can brave the spewing water and restore the heat to bodies.
2. Even for Roy, the heat of this place is starting to get to him. He and his companion have found themselves at the edge of an active volcano, the heat blasting from it as they search for another leyline to shift back into place. In that haze, they will begin to hallucinate people from home. Those they respect. Unfortunately, these people have little respect for them in this moment. The hallucinations will berate Roy and his companion for their supposed shortcomings and the only way to banish them is to stand up for oneself or the other person and tell the hallucination off right back.
3. "You wanna know where Shimmer's home is?" The punk Roy and his companion have asked for help demands. The candle smirks, then pulls two sets of keys out of his biker jacket and tosses one to Roy and one to his companion. "I'll race you to the edge of the cliffs for it. It's a straight shot down this road. Beat me and it's all yours, old-timer."
The candle saunters over to a cherry red vespa and motions to a blue and a green one for the others. The leylines are fixed, but finding where Shimmer's likely to be to restore them fully is now the challenge. One of them will need to beat the youth on a winding, pitted road… and hopefully avoid going off the cliffs, full speed, at the bottom.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: Never getting home
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: She's patient
What is your character's greatest strength?: She's loving.
What is your character's greatest weakness?: She tends to let other people lead, even when she's better suited for it.
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: Show off her extreme physical prowess.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: A Fossa as that's the nearest animal to her species.
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: Out of those, desert, but she really prefers Savannah
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: hedge
Catisse the God of Unbreakable Bonds
God Name: Catisse
God Aspect: Unbreakable Bonds
God Appearance: Demon cat (Source)
World Name: Purrfect
World Inhabitants: Catfolk (Source)... because cats are the best, obviously! And don’t they know it? The catfolk of Purrfect are fairly arrogant creatures. They’re in the feudal stage of development with small kingdoms that have agriculture as the primary part of their economy. Or, rather, ranching. The Catisse have herds of gazelle that they keep, penned in by massive, out of place hedges that they’ve set up across their savannah homes. They’re quite a bit bigger than your common house cat; though, they do have the appearances of such creatures. They’re a little under 3’6” for the tallest amongst them. If they’re not farmers, then they’re warriors, acting to protect those running trade between different kingdoms.
Basic World Description: Purrfect is a savannah world with large mountains between the open plains. It seems to have reached the feudal stage of development. There are many different little kingdoms set up around the place. They’re delineated by massive (6-ft tall), out of place hedges that not only pen in the gazelles for a particular rancher, but also divide different kingdoms. There are specific gates for catfolk to pass through, and anyone caught clawing their way through the hedges will be punished. That said… there are a lot of them. And animals in the world (mainly large herd animals and other predators) seem to break through the hedges on a fairly regular basis.
Notable World Quirks: All catfolk possess magic in some capacity. Mainly, it appears to be plant-based magic, hence the hedges. There are some that can spit fire, ice, or lightning when they get upset, though. Be careful who you pick a fight with.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. When Kiziah and her companions arrive, it will be to a storm that never seems to stop. Rain plasters them, and they’ll learn very quickly from the inhabitants that this is not normal. The storm started several days ago when Catisse disappeared from his golden throne at the center of the largest kingdom. Later, when an earthquake hits, it will become apparent why this storm is a very bad thing. There are shouts and caterwauls of terror as one of the mountains begins to descend in a massive mudslide, heading for a kingdom at its base. There are shouts to raise the shields, raise the defenses, and Kiziah and her companions will be able to see that there are catfolk working frantically to try to raise up a wall from the ground using a pulley system. They can’t get leverage in the mud, though, and they’re having trouble. Without help from someone very strong, and/or someone who can hold back the mud for a time, they won’t get it up in time.
2. Random teleportation is one of the things happening in this world, at is had in Soul before the worst of the effects took place. As Kiziah and her companions are shifting a leyline back into place with the aetherometer, they’ll suddenly find one of the catfolk in their midst looking horribly confused and frightened. They’ll need to decide what to do with the inhabitant: escort them home, keep them with the party, just leave them. What they can gather is that this is an extremely haughty teenager who will take a great deal of patience to tolerate.
3. The God of Unbreakable Bonds, indeed! Trying to get to Catisse’s golden throne is proving nigh impossible. There’s a hopelessly complex knot system across the door, and nothing seems to cut through them. It’s only when Kiziah and her companions have made a solid go at trying and failing to get in that one of the catfolk in the palace will speak up shyly.
“It’s not about force. To break those bonds, you’ll need to speak of your own. Tell the knots of those you’re bound to and touch them. With each person, the knots will come free… if you tell them enough.”
It looks like Kiziah and her companions will need to speak about at least 5 especially powerful bonds in order to get through the door.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: God, probably losing Royce
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: His ability to keep things close to his chest
What is your character's greatest strength?: His loyalty to those he's designated as His (even though outside that circle he can be a hugely duplicitous asshole o o p s)
What is your character's greatest weakness?: His stubbornness
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: This isn't quite something that I've never gotten to do, but - I'd love to do more with him being completely out of his depth/out of his realm of experience/thrown off-kilter, particularly if he then has to rely on someone else because of it. It wouldn't necessarily have to be something scary or dangerous (in fact, it might work better if it isn't), but anything with him being in a situation where he has literally has no idea what to do is ace.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: He would not because he's a spoilsport I'm going to say fox though
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: City
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Phone
Wate the God of Hold Music
God Name: Wate
God Aspect: Hold Music
God Appearance: A jaunty disembodied tune
World Name: Nonoth
World Inhabitants: Whispers. The Whispers draw their energy from the sounds of the world around them, seeking out sources of sound and twining around to listen. They particularly like music, and consider it polite to hum or whistle calming songs wordlessly to each other in greeting; these greetings can go on for very long periods of time and the singing may resume mid-conversation if one of them can’t think what to say.
Basic World Description: Nonoth is made up of a seemingly endless series of hallways and box-like, windowless rooms--none of the Whispers have ever been out of this maze-like structure, and “outside” is a foreign concept to them. The rooms vary in size and contents; there are strange machines here that seem to have formed or been cobbled out of odds and ends and to serve no purpose beyond making pleasing sounds. Unfortunately, this world was not made with humans in mind, and hallways on different levels might be linked by holes in the floor instead of actual staircases--best watch your step!
Notable World Quirks: Echoes carry far throughout this place. The Whispers know to keep their voices soft--speak too loudly and you don’t know who or what might overhear. That could be a problem if you catch the attention of the Soundmaker, an enormous metal beast that creates the machines to make noise around Nonoth. It can rearrange and rebuild itself in different animal-like forms to traverse the environment, giving itself hands when it needs them. The Soundmaker doesn’t differentiate between living things and objects when trying to find something that will make noise...and screaming is a noise….
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. Something’s wrong with the portal: it transports Alfie and his companion to Nonoth apparently as usual, but when they turn around on arrival they’ll find that the portal is just gone. They’re trapped here in a dying world--and to make things worse, they’ve been separated on arrival, sent to separate rooms distant from one another. Until they find each other, there’s no way of knowing whether there’s a way back to the Meadous and the people they left there...or even whether the other person ever arrived in this world to begin with.
2. The Whispers are concerned about the strange sounds they’ve been hearing. Many of the noise-making machines have been shaken to pieces by the earthquakes, and the creaking and groaning of the hallways and rooms around them makes them uneasy. Even so, they can’t seem to let go of social convention and have a conversation that doesn’t begin with a long period of unhelpful singing, which is going to make it a little hard to get directions on how to reach the leylines buried in the lowest levels of this place.
3. The leylines are restored, the earthquakes have stopped, and the god known as Wate has been drawn to he can feel the pull of the aetherometers carried by Alfie and his companion. Trouble is, how do you touch a song with a stone wheel? Wate doesn’t seem to have any helpful ideas (or ideas at all); in his unhealed form he can’t even speak; he’s just a melody circling Alfie in the air, and a repetitive melody at that. Along with the Whispers, he twines closer if there’s sound to hear.
Alfie will need to work out a way to translate the touch of the wheel to something that will work on a creature of sound. Perhaps his companion might have some suggestions for a way to play the wheel like a musical instrument or to sing about the figures carved into it. Or perhaps it will be the Whispers who will ask for a song and provide an idea of what to do. Either way, it’s going to take at least two people to make it happen, as harmony is needed here. Once Wate has been restored, he will regain the power of speech, as well as the power to reopen the portal back to the Meadous.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: Being abandoned
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: This is a little difficult because she isn't really one for introspection; she'd probably pick something like being a good climber, even though that's not exactly a trait
What is your character's greatest strength?: Her loyalty; it manifests in a pretty different way from Alfie's, so I feel like I'm not quite cheating by giving the same answer for them both
What is your character's greatest weakness?: ... Her stubbornness; okay look apparently I have a type
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: Having her learn some sort of sign language!
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: Honey badger
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: Forest
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Key
[ASL for Owl] the God of Silence
God Name: Owl
God Aspect: Silence
God Appearance: Mechanical owl (Source)
World Name: Forest
World Inhabitants: Owl griffins (Source), which stand about 4’0” at the tallest and represent a range of owl species. The griffins are surprisingly friendly and social creatures, forming large colonies and building little villages into the bases of trees. They do quite a bit of work in just basic timber management, and it’s easy to tell when there’s a griffin colony nearby because the trees are kept at relatively uniform spacing and there’s not a lot of undergrowth in the forest. They are also a race that has no spoken language. They speak in sign language and have developed techniques to rapidly teach each other signing when there is a visitor from other colonies that might have a slightly different ‘language.’
Basic World Description: This is a world primarily of forest, interspersed with large, grassy meadows and lakes. In the spaces between the forests, everything is fairly normal. There’s a sky, there’s sound, and so on. Stepping into the forest, though, is like having your ears suddenly plugged up. There’s… nothing. No sound at all, no matter how one shouts or stomps tries to break things. The forest is a place of absolute silence. There are great beasts roaming within, but you wouldn’t know it by the sounds. There are also incredibly showy bird species that have evolved with feathers and dance as their primary means of showing off, rather than calls. Some even glow in the dark.
Notable World Quirks: Each griffin village is entirely remote from others, but every village has a large stone archway somewhere within it that has an elaborately-carved keystone at the top. Many have gems set into them or some sort of metal molding. Signing the correct series of movements in front of the archway will open a shimmering portal that will take you to the village you want to visit.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. It would be so easy to lose oneself in a world like this. To disappear into the silent woods and never be seen again. Unfortunately, the world is a collapsing mess and one prone to sudden dangers. There’s no sound to herald the approaching wildfire, but Lilly and her companions will smell it on the wind before the griffins. It is an inferno sweeping toward them, and one that may be very difficult, indeed, to stop. They can run, they can try to fight a wildfire, or they can, perhaps, try to save the confused and reluctant inhabitants by shoving them through a portal. If they can figure out the rights signs to open it first...
2. How exactly the leylines got up into the branches of a giant tree is anyone’s guess. As it is, Lilly and her companions are faced with several challenges. One is getting up a giant tree and using an aetherometer to get the leyline down, and the other is an extremely territorial moose who wants them nowhere near that tree.
3. Reaching Owl’s home once all has been righted is as simple as stepping through the portal. Nothing to it! Or… there shouldn’t be anything to it. That’s what the griffins had signed. But Lilly and her companion step through the portal and into an empty, black space. And then her companion disappears. Or seems to. While Lilly will have the impression that she’s been completely abandoned in an empty black space with no sound, her companion will be able to see a dimly-lit cave and signs on the wall that tell them that to unlock the way to Owl, they’ll need to guide Lilly through touching a set of stones on the wall in a particular pattern
Lilly cannot see or hear her companion, but she’ll be able to feel them. Unfortunately for her companion, there’s no way for them to just pick her up and shove her at the stones. She seems to have become incredibly heavy.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: in general, that those from her assassin past will harm those she loves. From the Box, that being a clone will never be good enough.
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: Mad Assassin Skillz
What is your character's greatest strength?: Her love for John and Sherlock
What is your character's greatest weakness?: Her need to run away from problems and solve them by herself. (Most exploitable is her love for John and Sherlock)
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: (end game so maybe not game-breaking now?) to be fully human again.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: cat
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: city
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: phone
The Stylist the God of Transformation
God Name: The Stylist
God Aspect: Transformation
God Appearance: Dog-deer monster (Source)
World Name: Becoming
World Inhabitants: The inhabitants of Becoming all start out as gelatinous cubes (Source), with only basic colors available to them. They very rarely stay this way, though, and anyone visiting this world is sure to see as many different varieties of sapient beings as they can imagine. The inhabitants are all about becoming who you really are, even if that means trying several different variations of what 'yourself' is. They're fast-talkers, enthusiastic, and future-oriented. Also maybe a little overly superficial.
Basic World Description: Becoming is a world suspended in the sky. There seems to be only a great abyss below and cities held aloft by magical clouds between. Travel is via dirigible and small airships between different cities. There are massive bridges linking some key cities, as well. The cities are modern and cosmopolitan, and there is a heavy emphasis on the cosmetic alterations industry as well as couples activities.
Notable World Quirks: All inhabitants come in pairs and must confer with each other before doing something. Essentially the ‘phone a friend’ option for making any important decision. Pairs may be familial, platonic, or romantic. Those without a partner are heavily encouraged to find one ASAP or they’ll have to make decisions on their own and everyone can assure you, those are the worst decisions you’ll ever make.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. "Oh, darlings, you both need new looks!" one of inhabitants of Becoming says when Mary and her companion step into a shop on the hunt for some leylines. It appears to be a beauty parlor and the owner of the shop isn't at all keen to let them go snooping around unless they're customers. It doesn't matter that the world is breaking apart. In this economy, you always have to be pushing your business! Mary and her companion will need to make a decision. Take out this insistent shop owner or 'suffer' some beauty treatments to be able to get through.
2. The next earthquake that hits, hits hard. There's a major bridge between two cities that's starting to snap, collapse. Already, airships are converging around the bridge, working to try to catch anyone who falls. But there are only so many who can help. It will take every skill Mary and her companions have to race the clock and save as many people as they can before the bridge falls into the abyss below.
3. "Thank you." The Stylist lifts their head when they finally return thanks to Okota's Wheel. One head considers Mary, the other her companion, but they speak in unison. "And for your help, I'll grant a boon. Tell me one thing you desperately desire, and I shall grant it if it is a reasonable thing within my power."
Mary and her companion each have one wish from the God of Transformation, but they'll need to provide a full accounting for their request in order to get what they want. Mary and her companion will both feel the peculiar desire to probe at the other's request. Get down to the heart of it and understand why, whether the other wants to explain or not.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: Losing the people she loves
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: Her willingness to befriend all kinds of people
What is your character's greatest strength?: Creative
What is your character's greatest weakness?: Holds grudges
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: I'd really like a dramatic fight scene where her entire Pokemon team evolves at once. And also where she gets to use her illusion powers to do a shadow-clone type thing.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: Pidgeot
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: Sky
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Phone
Siwuu the God of Competition
God Name: Siwuu
God Aspect: Competition
God Appearance: Four-winged Quezalcoatlus
World Name: Thruskaak
World Inhabitants: Gryphons [Source]. Their primary joy in life is competing in contests against one another: contests of strength, contests of flight, even (at least among those who are young or maybe just a bit foolhardy) contests of who is brave enough to descend to the forest floor and fast enough not to get eaten once they’re down there. Their competitive nature isn’t limited to displays of physical prowess, however; they also love debate and their best inventions and artworks have arisen from efforts to prove their creativity.
Basic World Description: A sprawling redwood forest with entire villages built into the treetops. The ground far below is obscured by mist and occupied by enormous reptilian creatures dangerous enough to make even a gryphon keep to the treetops. There’s no way to travel between the villages except by flying, and it’s always a race to see who gets there first. Any visitors who can’t fly will need to convince a gryphon to give them a ride, whether by besting them in a contest and demanding it or by flattering them until they cooperate in order to show off.
Notable World Quirks: The Gryphons communicate over long distances via high-pitched chirps and trills that carry a long way. Listen closely and you might catch on that they’re speaking in morse code!
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. The earthquakes and the Meadousians’ arrival have interrupted a festival. Gryphons from all over are crowded into a single village, many of them clinging to the branches of surrounding trees or perched on hut rooftops for lack of room on the walkways. In the center of the village a large platform provides an arena for a wrestling contest; broken feathers and tufts of torn fur litter the wooden planks as the two contestants continue duking it out despite the violent shaking of the trees and the entire village. The audience, by contrast, is panicking, gryphons taking to the air or gripping as hard as they can to their perch.
One panicky gryphon comes in for a landing next to where Eliza and her companion have just arrived through the portal, crashes when the platform shifts just as he’s landing, and falls toward the forest floor below, taking Eliza’s companion or one of her pokemon with him. Even if the gryphon manages to catch them before they hit the ground, from the gasps of the others it’s clear that whatever is down there is dangerous for more reasons than the fall itself….
2. The worst of the earthquake has passed, though there are still rumbles through the forest now and then that make it dangerous to walk too close to the edge of the walkways. A group of Gryphons have circled up to examine the newcomers with great suspicion...and a little derision.
“How do we know you didn’t make all this happen?” asks one.
“And how are you going to help? You don’t look like much,” says another.
It seems they’ll need to be won over if their help is desired...or left in the dust if Eliza and her companion want to do this without them.
3. Leylines back in place, it’s time to reawaken Siwuu with the power of Okota’s wheel. The Gryphons are happy (maybe a little too happy) to point the way to the tallest tree at the center of the forest, where Siwuu normally resides in a hollow at the top. There’s definitely a godly presence here, but something’s wrong--when Eliza and anyone with her approaches, it’s a shadowy form that looms out of the enormous nest in the redwood to stare imperiously down at them.
“So you think you can come and best me in my home,” says the shadow of Siwuu. “Well, prove yourselves!”
Reasoning with Siwuu won’t have any effect; she seems unable to understand that her world is in danger or that the visitors are attempting to help her. Reduced to her most basic nature, she is convinced that they have come to prove themselves against her, and she will not make it easy. A flood of shadowy pterosaurs attack Eliza and her company, mercilessly battling them and trying to drive them away. The god has made herself into an army, and they’ll have to fight their way to the redwood throne at the center to touch Siwuu’s core self with Okota’s wheel.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: In terms of deep-seated anxieties that color her behavior and outlook on life, disenfranchisment and loss of agency and autonomy. In terms of acute panic triggers she's been trying and failing to work past for years, clowns - although Alternia being Alternia, there's a heavy undercurrent of "threat to personal freedom, mental autonomy, and physical safety" to her coulrophobia.
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: Her adaptability, especially in regards to teaching herself how to do things.
What is your character's greatest strength?: Her protectiveness, both of her own interests and of the people and causes she cares about.
What is your character's greatest weakness?: She can be way too quick to take offense - she's a little paranoid about being condescended to or dismissed, so she has a tendency to interpret harmless comments as criticism and get defensive.
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: She just got back, but my plan for her on reapp was to work up to some kind of closure on losing the Land of Decay and Growth during Jarjammed. She's at peace with losing the later parts of her Hero progression, but she's still carrying around a fair amount of guilt and helplessness over losing her pink lizard consorts, and I'd intended to eventually (i.e., when I'd saved up enough points to either do it myself or feel comfortable asking others to buy in) have her work through that by asking Zephyr to establish a village of the lizards in the Meadous.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: a wasp, natch
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: desert
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: chariot
The Operator the God of Consorts
God Name: The Operator
God Aspect: Consorts
God Appearance: Robotic dog (Source)
World Name: Hello World
World Inhabitants: Consorts of all varieties from across the multiverse. These seem to come in an even greater variety than those in the standard SGRUB or SBURB game. They're all rather simple creatures with straightforward problems that have extremely videogame solutions. Fetch quests and escort missions. Kill these monsters over there, those kinds of things.
Basic World Description: Hello World is a world that seems to be entirely a videogame that's still in alpha. It's got plenty of bugs, like consorts trying to speak and just… nothing coming out of their mouths, accidentally finding yourself clipping through a wall or boulders, sounds not matching up to what they should. It's primarily a desert as that seems to have been the easiest landscape to design for the Operator. It's also designed to heavily favor the idea that platforming is the best kind of gaming. Consorts live in little villages atop mesas that can be accessed by climbing and hopping along treacherous paths or jumping across different platforms that appear to be between the mesas. The consorts themselves are strikingly good at platforming. Every town has a Quest Board, and there's always a consort nearby willing to explain that this is where villagers come to post for things they need help with.
Notable World Quirks: Entering into this world, those coming from the Meadous will find they suddenly have HUD-vision labeled: Character Interface Operating Terminal (CHARIOT) 6.4. It will inform them of their health status, the number of lives they have (everyone starts with three lives), what weapons they have equipped, and their stamina level. Thinking and blinking hard will clear this from the vision or bring it back.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. 'ERROR: sky.png load failure' the sky above reads in white text against a black expanse. It keeps glitching, trying to load, and failing. The consorts in the city where Waspfire and her companion are seem to be panicking a bit over it. "The sky always loads. It always loads! What is happening? Why isn't it loading?" And repeat.
And then the sky cracks and begins to fall. Waspfire and her companion will need to move quick to save themselves and the consorts as chunks of glitching sky fall toward the city.
2. The rest of the world glitching is inconvenient, of course, but Waspfire and her companion shift a leyline and very suddenly, she or her companion will find their vision glitching. When it returns, CHARIOT 6.4 is now CHARIOT 1.0 with only a health meter on display and 1 life. The one who glitched will also find themselves compelled to drop everything and head for the nearest quest board. Ready Player One? They will need someone to grab them to stop them going to just play out their videogame protagonist role. Fixing the glitched person will require forcing them to acknowledge that they are not the protagonist in this game.
3. "Well, I don't think they're going to be any help," one consort says to another as Waspfire and her companion approach them. "They're not even from here. Oh, hello, hero. Are you here for a quest? Save us, oh, hero." The consort will provide a problem, but it is a surprisingly self-aware one who seems extremely unimpressed by what's on offer here.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: Having no purpose.
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: His determination. John will always try his hardest to get something done.
What is your character's greatest strength?: Loyalty
What is your character's greatest weakness?: He's got a temper on him.
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: I'd love the chance for Jon's sharpshooting to come into more focus again as something that can help him and that is one of this best skills.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: John does not want to be an animal, but he'd probably pick a bird, like a cool as heck hawk.
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: Desert
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Phone
Nayndu the God of Storms
God Name: Nayndu
God Aspect: Storms
God Appearance: An enormous winged lion [Source]
World Name: Fuswa
World Inhabitants: Alecani [Source], bipedal winged coyotes. Tricksters and wielders of lightning magic, they can be a little difficult for outsiders to get along with at times. They're clever and canny, though, and very much recognize the crisis their world is facing and will do their best to help...after pulling just one last prank on the unsuspecting visitors.
Basic World Description: A rocky desert land spotted with mesas. Mornings are dry and bright, while afternoons more often than not bring thunderstorms crashing over the open land. Sometimes these storms bring water, causing flash floods in the lowlands; sometimes they bring only the crackle of electricity and the boom of thunder. The alecani live in subterranean homes dug into the sides of the mountains, high enough to be safe from flooding and to provide a decent launching-off point for flight. Flying with the storms is a right of passage not to be undertaken until one is old enough to control and redirect the otherwise deadly lightning. Many of the alecani have speaking tubes installed to connect their homes, allowing them to communicate when the weather keeps them underground.
Notable World Quirks: Any alecani can tell you that temper and tempest are intertwined in Fuswa. When the storms roll in, the lightning strikes where conflict has struck first. Those who live in anger had better take shelter when the lightning comes.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. The alecani at work on the leylines hardly spare John and company a glance as they emerge from the portal. "No need," says one as he draws a line of sparking electricity across the ground and the buried leyline is pulled along after it. They appear to be successfully fixing their own world without the help of Zephyr's flock, working in tandem to draw the leylines along. They're impatient with any questions or offers of help--condescending, even. They're quite certain John and his ilk don't have a purpose here.
At least, that's the story until one of the leylines stretches and snaps unexpectedly, teleporting half the people present several miles away. They might accept a little help after that.
2. When the storm rolls in, it brings something new this time. The alecani stop their joking and excitement over the coming storm and gape up at the sky in horror as a flock of razor-beaked skeletal birds converge on the gathering of alecani and visitors. There's pandemonium as the alecani scatter; these are monsters of legend that have not been seen in the current residents' lifetime. They come in fast, diving after the fleeing alecani, grabbing at them with cruel talons to carry them away. Lightning flashes from the storm and from the alecani themselves, lighting up the landscape and confusing the senses. It's the worst possible conditions for shooting...but if John wants to help the young alecani being carried away in front of his eyes, there's a clear course of action open to him.
3. Nayndu's great wings blot out the sun as he circles overhead, wreathed in stormclouds, and his feet kick up great clouds of dust and rock when he comes in for a landing nearly on top of John and company. Everyone in the area is pelted with rain and it's difficult to hold one's own and avoid being blown away by the strong winds that surround a god who's still not entirely back to himself and doesn't understand the harm he's doing as the storm he's brought with him intensifies. They'll need to get close fast to touch him with the wheel before everyone is blown away.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: Being alone and forgotten
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: The ability to give people second chances
What is your character's greatest strength?: Defends those she loves to the death
What is your character's greatest weakness?: Stubborn when she thinks she's right
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: I think I just want to give her something to do, something to go out on. Perhaps something with her choice to stay and live in the Meadous being tested? I'm not looking for anything in particular, just something for her to care about.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: Lion
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: Jungle!
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Key
Zsesserkasz the God of Snakes
God Name: Zsesserkasz
God Aspect: Snakes
God Appearance: Elephant Trunk Snake [Source]
World Name: Salaasj
World Inhabitants: Naga [Source] who keep saber-toothed cats as pets and hunting companions. Despite any potential preconceptions, these colorful people are quite friendly, if shy. They are very distressed by the earthquakes and unrest in their world, and when visitors first arrive the naga will hide from them; it will take some time for them to be convinced these strange people are here to help.
Basic World Description: A sprawling jungle that's in the midst of monsoon season when the Disciple and company arrive. The waters of the river that runs through this place have risen and flooded the entire jungle, reducing the dry land to a series of shallow islands the locals call keys. This seems to be an ordinary annual event to judge by the way the naga talk about it, and the varius temples [Source] that dot the landscape are built to either remain above water level or survive being flooded. The temples also serve as shelters for those times when it is better to be indoors, but for the most part the naga live up in the trees.
Notable World Quirks: The leylines of this world take the form of enormous snakes that have lain for eons wrapped around the world with their tails in their mouths, allowing the forest floor to grow over them. Now, however, they are all awake and in pain, lashing out at anyone who comes too near their heads, and the writhing of their gigantic bodies rocks the jungle and knocks down trees. It's very dangerous on ground level these days.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. The naga, once they see that the visitors aren't a threat to them, are happy to provide information about the world. They explain about the leyline serpents and the destruction they're causing, which has made all the naga and their cats retreat to the treetops and hope against hope not to be knocked down.
The Disciple and her company will find that the snakes are particularly drawn to the crystals in their aetherometers. It will be a hunt to find the snakes before being found by them, and then a game of keepaway to draw the snakes to the right places and get them to bite their tails and settle back down.
2. The bite of one of the enormous leyline serpents obliterates memory. Fortunately, the serpents do not seem interested in eating anyone, slithering away once they've expressed their displeasure with a bite. The wound is shallow but painful. Under the effects of the venom, one feels an intense sense of loneliness, all memory of having come here with a companion or having ever been loved made distant and unclear as if it had only been a dream. It will wear off in a while, but in the meantime it's all too easy to get separated from the companion one forgot one had.
3. It's only when the last and largest of the leyline serpent has bitten onto its tail that the light of intelligence enters its eyes. The enormous gray snake turns its gaze on the Disciple and her company; it doesn't let go of its tail but speaks into their minds, revealing itself to be Zsesserkasz herself. She is very confused at first, not understanding what is happening or able to hold a coherent conversation until they touch her with Okota's wheel.
Zsesserkasz thanks them for their help, but still seems puzzled on one point. "Why are you here?" she asks. "Why are you where you are?"
The Disciple and her companion will feel compelled to think deeply about the question and to speak about it with one another. Do they really want to be part of Zephyr's flock? What compels them to come to other worlds and help?
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: Failure, especially if that involves someone else dying
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: his Intelligence
What is your character's greatest strength?: His resourcefulness
What is your character's greatest weakness?: Arrogance
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: Have him experiment more with Portals
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: A German Shepard
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: Desert!
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Key
Aanh the God of Laziness
God Name: Aanh
God Aspect: Laziness
God Appearance: Gem Lizard [Source]
World Name: The Badlands
World Inhabitants: Tortoises...or are they stones? When they retract their heads and legs and hold still long enough, they petrify into stone and remain that way for long periods of time. Their needs are extremely simple and they can live without eating or drinking for long periods of time, deriving energy from the searing heat and bright light of the desert. While they are capable of locomotion, they usually don't particularly care to go anywhere, and the only time they move quickly is when environmental conditions send them sliding across the sunbaked playas like sailing stones. They're slow to speak and slower to act, perhaps infuriatingly so for an outsider accustomed to a faster pace of life.
Basic World Description: The Badlands are a parched place inimical to human life. While the tortoises are perfectly happy to bake themselves in the sun, the midday heat is enough to cause rapid heatstroke in a human who doesn't seek shade or some way of cooling down. Overhanging rocks provide some relief from the sun, but there's little to no water to be found except by digging very deep.
The earthquakes have been particularly damaging in this world. In many places, new chasms, sinkholes, and canyons have appeared (and continue to appear) as the shifting leylines pull the world apart.
Notable World Quirks: Aanh, being too lazy to navigate the world on foot, created an artifact known as the Godkey aeons ago. The Godkey resides in a shrine near the portal Zephyr has opened into this world and the tortoises who live nearby won't object to the visitors using it to help save them. The Godkey enables its user to open portals between two points they can see, drawing upon the power of the leylines to do so. While using the Godkey, the positions of the leylines become entirely visible to the user.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. A tortoise teeters on the edge of a massive rent in the ground, legs waving slowly but fearfully over the abyss below. He's unable to get purchase to pull itself back from the edge, and turns a wide-eyed look on Gordon and company. "Help...me…." he requests. He's too heavy for one person to lift, but there may be other ways to help. If they save the tortoise he will be happy to provide them as much info as he can, though he seems exhausted by even holding a conversation and may not remember everything that might help them.
2. Rearranging the leylines here is no simple matter. From what Gordon and company are able to glean from viewing the world with the Godkey in hand, the leylines need to go through many of the rock formations, and there's just no way to make that happen by pulling on them with aetherometer crystals alone. They'll need to thread the leylines through portals in the landscape before collapsing those portals and leaving the leylines in place, but some of the stone pillars and other formations they need to go through are too big to do it in one simple pass.
3. Maybe they worked too quickly or maybe it's the fault of an unexpected earthquake that hit while performing some portal trickery--either way, Gordon's companion is in dire straits after a rock overhang collapses, trapping them underneath and potentially injuring them. From Gordon's perspective, it looks like his companion has been crushed while helping him put the leylines to rights.
For once, the tortoises are actively helping, though it takes them a painfully long time to gather. Dig the fallen hero out, and the tortoises will channel their energy from the sun into healing magic to undo the injuries sustained. Then they'll probably all have a nap because do you seriously expect them to do more than one thing in a day?
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: Being replaced. In someone's affections, mainly — essentially he fears he'll never be good enough. Never good enough as a friend, as a partner, as a real person.
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: His perseverance. I'll say tied with his creativity, because even being able to develop creativity in the first place has been extremely significant to him; an indication that he is more than merely what he's been programmed to be.
What is your character's greatest strength?: ... His perseverance, probably. Adaptability. He does have a good heart, if we're talking more emotional-based strengths.
What is your character's greatest weakness?: His lack of self-esteem.
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: Have him develop a real sense of personhood and free will and recognise it. But since that isn't really feasible for a game event I'll go with overcoming his programming in some (smaller) way, or for any of his skills to be needed. Letting him have a genuine sense of personal accomplishment in some way, basically.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: Dragon of course. If it has to be an Earth-based animal, maybe a golden eagle.
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: Sky.
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Balloon.
The Caretaker, God of Second-Hand Goods
God Name: The Caretaker
God Aspect: Second-hand Goods
God Appearance: Goblin Mechanic [Source]
World Name: Safe Harbor
World Inhabitants: Second-hand robots of all kinds. [Sources one, two, three, four, and five]. All of them were brought to Safe Harbor by the Caretaker after their makers abandoned or tried to destroy them, and those who were injured or damaged in their past lives have been patched up as much as possible. They display varying levels of consciousness and a variety of differing viewpoints on whether or not they qualify as people--but, as some of them reason, a god needs people to worship it in order to survive, and the Caretaker has no one else but them. Their original programming has not been altered in the repair process, but those who show signs of adaptations or "glitches" leading to alterations from their original scripts are never "corrected" back to their original state unless the changes are actively hurting them; instead they are allowed to evolve in behavior as they will.
Basic World Description: Everything in Safe Harbor was originally made somewhere else for some other purpose. The Caretaker is very unusual among gods prior to Zephyr's generation for having gathered her herd from other worlds, but her Aspect goes beyond even that. Her flock lives aboard a floating dirigible city cobbled together from unwanted items pulled from other worlds, hanging over a gas planet that was originally made by another god who abandoned it in childhood to start over with a different design. The Caretaker encourages her people to help maintain and expand the city as well as construct offshoot dirigibles for those who choose to strike out on their own. There's always work to be done to keep everyone flying, but Safe Harbor has no strict hierarchies handing down orders to do this or that. Those who can't or won't respect the needs of others are generally encouraged to build their own airships rather than remain in the main floating city.
Notable World Quirks: Beside the now empty workshop where the Caretaker normally resides is the Chute, a panel in the wall that opens into another plane where cast-aside items from other worlds float by. One only need reach in and grab something that's floating past to bring it into Safe Harbor. This is where the population gets the supplies they need, and where the Caretaker finds her new flock members.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. Though the earthquakes roiling the gas planet below them don't shake the dirigible city, all is not well here. Disconnected wires spark in the walls and threaten to start electrical fires, and power is out in patches all over the place. For now the city is not losing altitude, but its ability to maneuver is compromised and its inhabitants are struggling to repair the damage--for some reason it is not as simple as doing a bit of soldering. It'll take K and his companion to realize that the main electric wiring is actually the leylines themselves, and to work out how to use their aetherometer crystals to redirect power long enough to put the physical wires back in place. Meanwhile, electricity keeps arcing through the halls.
When the leyline energy strikes anyone, be they robot, replicant, or organic being, it causes them to temporarily revert to a previous state of mind. For an artificial being this may mean reverting to base programming; for an organic being it may mean returning to a mindset they held at some significantly earlier point in their life. The effect wears off within a few minutes, and while it's going on there's a nagging sense of wrongness. Upon regaining their full memories and any learned behaviors or personal growth not represented in that base programming, they'll feel the difference between the two states sharply, highlighting all the ways they have grown and changed that they may not have realized.
2. A newcomer is handling his arrival badly, and none of the others seem to know how to handle it in the absence of the Caretaker. The new guy appears to be some sort of military automaton, metallic body too damaged to make out the painted insignia of whatever country sent him to war. His main weapons appear to be offline, but the injuries sustained by the last robot to encounter him indicate he has superhuman strength to make up for it.
"You can't go down there," one of the longer term residents says, trying to block the way to the hallway where the military robot has dug in a defensive position. "He doesn't know it's okay yet. The Caretaker should be here, she's the one who explains everything--who could fix him. It's not his fault."
It may not be his fault, but he's dangerous and he's blocking access to a key part of the dirigible city. The other robots in the area are opposed to killing anyone just for being scared when he found himself somewhere new, but something must be done.
3. K and his companion are trapped in the workshop's vestibule. The first door opened easily enough only to shut behind them and refuse to open, the incoherent energies of the disincorporated god making her cobbled-together security systems malfunction. The two of them are stuck in a small room together, the closed door into the workshop proper ahead of them. Touch the door handle, and warning lights come on: the security system is primed and ready to go. A voice warns that any attempt to force the door will result in the floor being electrocuted. K is strong enough and fast enough to force it open and will be able to withstand the resulting shock, but it will hurt his non-replicant traveling companion. They'll survive, but in order to progress he's going to need to overcome the part of his programming that prevents him from hurting a human.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: Failure--making things worse due to his action or inaction.
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: His intellect.
What is your character's greatest strength?: His capacity for selfless good when things go bad.
What is your character's greatest weakness?: His ego.
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: I have been wanting him to gain his memories from Snowblind up to its endgame and have to deal with his fears and other emotions about it, but due to a mix of real life challenges and a lack of IC impetus for him to wish for it (frankly it terrifies him), I've never gotten to it.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: A panther (joining the big cats club!)
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: Mountain
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Chariot
Ankou the God of Memory
God Name: Ankou
God Aspect: Memory
God Appearance: Skeletal old man being drawn in a rickety wooden chariot by a manky horse (Source)
World Name: The Graveyard
World Inhabitants: Gnolls (Source), aka, anthropomorphic hyenas. The gnolls of the graveyard are a thoughtful and celebratory bunch. They're formed in matriarchal packs and spend much of their time tending to graves in their section of the Graveyard. When they're not grave-tending, they're usually attending a wake for the latest additions to the Graveyard. Wakes are ways to introduce spirits to each other, drink, and generally celebrate life and what comes after it for those who come to this world. All gnolls are universally respectful to the graves within the Graveyard and will become incensed and violent if they see anyone disrespecting or desecrating graves in some way.
Basic World Description: The Graveyard is a place for the dead of several other god worlds who are unknown or unremembered to come. Their names and some piece of their life are written on the gravestones and their spirit is liberated in a ceremony performed over each new grave. The place itself is a pleasantly rural mountain setting. Think Appalachia country with villages set into the sides of the mountains and throughout the valleys. It is idyllic and the weather is often sunny with flowers in perpetual bloom. The roads are all dirt or hewn paths connecting the gnoll villages. There are standard forest, mountain, and meadow animals to be found around. There are also interspersions of skeletal versions of animals. These hang out particularly around the graveyard areas.
Notable World Quirks: In spite of the rural setting, there appears to be decent infrastructure with a 1970s level of technology available. The leylines, themselves are actually in the electrical wires that run from the poles and it's magic powering everything, not a power plant. Because of Ankou's disappearance and the upheaval of the world, all infrastructure has broken down within the Graveyard and the wiring itself is broken with poles flung to strange places. It will take significantly more effort than just the aetherometer to fix these lines.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. "You have to help!" the gnoll demands of Stephen and his companion. "She's- I don't know! She can't remember anything." They gesture to a spirit who's currently taking everything off the walls in the house they're in and trying to destroy it. "Why can't she remember? This is her home. She's family. She's family!" They're growing increasingly frantic. The spirit is clearly not a gnoll and it may be difficult to determine who is the one having memory problems here. It may be both the spirit and the gnoll.
2. The leylines being the actual electrical lines is maybe not the easiest thing to deal with. Trying to snape the leyline back into place with the aetherometer only half-works. It's going to take two people working in tandem with one working the aetherometer to find the right position and the other physically moving the line for this to work.
3. "A warning," the doorknocker on the door to Ankou's cottage says, just as Stephen is reaching for the door, "to pass through to meet my master you must be granted memory. Your own, another's, it matters not. But touch this door and it will come to you both." So, there's no chance for anyone staying out of this, unfortunately. Stephen's companion is getting roped in. "I cannot say what the memories will be, but think wisely."
Upon touching the door, Stephen and his companion will both be granted sets of painful memories. This may be from a future point in their own canons, within their previous game canons, or may be memories of close canonmates (not in-game) whose memories would be painful for the character to deal with.
no subject
What is your character's deepest fear?: On a physical level, the destruction of a world, especially at his hands or in a manner that he is partially responsible for. More emotionally, that he's not worthy of forgiveness after having been directly involved in causing Radiant Garden's fall to Darkness.
What is your character's most important character trait (in their mind)?: Loyalty.
What is your character's greatest strength?: Physical strength, and probably also (outwardly displaying) emotional stability.
What is your character's greatest weakness?: Guilt and self-recrimination over the fall of Radiant Garden and also just... talking about his feelings.
What is one thing you have not gotten to do with your character that you want to?: The most recent event touched on it a little, but dealing with the unresolved emotions and trauma that stemmed from the fall of Radiant Garden and his belief that he has, in some ways, failed to uphold the oath he swore as a guard. Also getting him to actually talk about same at any length. Or at all, really, since he hasn't.
If your character could be an animal, what animal would they choose?: Probably something like a draft horse; solid and dependable
Pick one of these - forest, mountain, sky, ocean, city, jungle, desert: Mountain
Pick one of these - key, chariot, hedge, phone, balloon: Chariot
Pond the God of Contemplation
God Name: Pond
God Aspect: Contemplation
God Appearance: Giant owl monster (Source)
World Name: Meòrachadh
World Inhabitants: Stone golems (Source). These slow-moving, friendly creatures speak telepathically and move quietly and carefully through their mountainous world. They are almost universally gentle, careful of the plants and animals and have a symbiotic relationship with the plants that grow on them. The plants give them energy and they take care to give the plants the best sunlight, plenty of water and good, organic soils on their backs. The golems spend much of their time simply in quiet contemplation, but they do some mining, as well, for rare crystals that they use for currency.
Basic World Description: Meòrachadh is an extremely mountainous world with much of it covered in peaks of varying heights. There are dense forests on the mountains that give way to lush valleys between. Rivers run between the mountains and the place is teeming with flora and fauna. What it is distinctly lacking is civilization. The golems do not seem to worry about things like shelter and simply sit and sleep wherever they decide to lay themselves down.
Notable World Quirks: The only notable sign of mechanization is some metal tracks laid out going up the mountains and into the mines. The golems call these chariots as they are used to ferry golems who have spent too much time in the mines up to the mountain tops to get them into the sunlight as fast as possible. They are not powered, simply wheeled carts on tracks that must be pulled.
Three Personalized Prompts:
1. The earthquakes are getting worse. Not an hour goes by without one. The mines are especially precarious, but some of the golems are determined to keep to their routines. It’s as Aeleus and one of his Meadous companions are near the mines that there’s a terrible rumbling sound. Rushing to see what it is, they’ll see panicked golems struggling to escape. There’s limited time, the shaft is coming down, and there’s a whole mountain above. It’s a race to save as many golems as they can, and maybe even get trapped themselves in trying. If they make it out, they’re going to want to make use of the chariots to get golems into the light as quickly as possible. It’s really the only way they’ll heal.
2. Fixing the leylines is a priority. When looking for the last to align, though, Aeleus and his companion will come across a crystal clear pond. It’s not too deep, and to get here would have been something of a hike. Dipping any piece of oneself into the water will cause the whole thing to ripple and shimmer. Looking back is a reflection of the person as they believe themselves to be on the inside. Perhaps that’s ugly and twisted, perhaps it’s not. Trying to splash away the reflection will only result in causing those changes to start to manifest on the body. The only way to get rid of them is to reflect on why a person feels about themselves the way they do and talk it out.
3. At last, the leylines are fixed and Aeleus is directed by the golems to Pond’s cave. It is a large, beautiful cavern carved into the tallest mountain. When they reach the door set within it that presumably leads to the god and their chambers, the stone face on the knocker will halt Aeleus and his companion.
“Why did you fail your oath as a guardsman?” it asks. “You will find no entry until you find your answer.” There is an equally pointed question about some failure directed at Aeleus’ companion with the same ultimatum. It seems this is a time for self-reflection… hopefully without any self-flagellation. The door will not open until Aeleus and his companion have both discussed some uncomfortable truths about their feelings and come to some kind of resolution on them with themselves and one another.