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Amnielos

An exotic plant carrying an exotic drug, in its most diluted form is similar to alcohol in lowering inhibitions without the hit to coordination, known as being Darlian Drunk or In A Rush. In it's most pure and distilled form, the Amnielos Venom often ends in the user's death, not from the drug killing them directly but by them killing themselves, doing something stupid. For some, living life to the fullest, laughing and screaming with joy before you die, this is the preferred method of suicide, often referred to as 'Going Out In A Rush'.

edited 15th Oct '12 2:56:58 PM by God_of_Awesome

Let us hear your idea, then we'll see if it fits.

I still have a lot of ideas for DS but I'm afraid to submit them, not because I don't think they're good enough but because I think our setting was got to wrapped in it's own complexity, it's too big and not focused enough. I don't feel confident adding things until we cut back, and I don't feel confident cutting back until we can answer a few key questions.

What is DS about beyond high concept, what are the themes in play? What will players get out of games in DS as a whole, what type of world are we trying to give people in build in and around? How does are magic system work, what are it's limitations, is there away around these or are they set in stone? These types of questions.

We sorta answered these questions at the start, but I feel our answers may have been too vague and open. I think in order to save DS we need to amputate a few limbs, worse comes to worse we can get just the wizard reattach them.

TL:DR - It short we need to treat DS like a novel. We have a nice first draft, now we need to go through revisions.

Awww, this could get ugly.

Actually I agree with Vyc, I think the project should have been clearer about its limits from the start. However I don't think that much editing is needed. What we need now is to look at the stuff that's already there and figure out how it works together. For example:

• What are the major events going on in the world right now?
• How are the various groups interacting?
• How does the hierarchy of gods work?
• What is life from the POV of the average person?

And so on. Let's discuss this, then make any changes agreed on. (It might even help me get new ideas.)

Right off the bat, I would say their is a lack of overall hierarchy with the gods.

Yup. We can start there. How do the gods deal with each other? Presumably, they have *at least* some kind of arrangement to avoid stepping on each others' toes. Do Celestials feel they are different/superior to the Terrestrials? Is there a method for the latter to gain their own "sphere of influence" or is it whatever happens to be available? Etc.

Celestials mostly don't care about anything that doesn't touch upon their domain. They don't look down upon Terrestrials, they don't even think about them unless the Terrestrial brings attention to himself. Celestials can have lots and lots of overlap with each other, they are like hues on the color wheel, blending into one another, gradients of each other.

So pretty much they are like Titans and Terrestials are the gods in Scion?

I dunno

That is, I'm not that familiar with Scion.

Black Empire Facts: Religions

Matedism

Emperor Hrod did have one who he called soulbrother, Sudonis. He did not take up lichdom and some cynically say it may have been Sudonis Hrod threw upon the altar for his undead ascension. Romantics claim he promised Hrod to meet again in his next life and indeed Hrod has an odd favoritism for random men throughout the years. Some stories that he said those hwords as he threw himself upon the sacrificial dagger.

Veritas

In the the various courts of the Black Empirem, Hrod's and that of his Satrapy Governors, acts of subterfuge are accepted but to confront one's enemies openly, with bluntness and brutality, is respected. Hrod accepts subterfuge as a necessary strategy but his preference is open brutality. The cult of the Truth God does not then have as much problem with Hrod then other powers.

Elena

In her aspect as a wrathful deity, Hrod count Elena as an enemy god for one of the tenets of the Black Empire is the conquest of nature. The Black Emperor seeks to wean all people away from what he sees as unnecessary parts of their primitive roots, making room for cities and factories and the machine of progress.

In her aspect as Selena, she is highly favored.

Cloe

As much as he allows himself too, Hrod shows favoritism for her cult and its presence is strong within the Black Borders.

Veik

Hrod fears Terrestrial Ascension and he has taken a number of steps to avoid it. One of them was the mystical evoking of the God of Weakness to wean away some of the divine spark in him threatening to explode into godhood.

edited 21st Oct '12 10:11:05 PM by God_of_Awesome

I likewise am not that familiar with Scion

• How do the gods deal with each other?

I'd say it varies, most try not to step on each others toes too much at least not the toes of gods more powerful then them or whose concepts are allied with them.

Gods like Cloe and Elena might more actively step on each others toes, though that is more due to the forces the represent rather than an intentional provocation though I'm sure those would happen as well.

• Do Celestials feel they are different/superior to the Terrestrials?

Again I'd say this varies from god to god. Elena would feel superior among any non-natural worshiper.

• Is there a method for the latter to gain their own "sphere of influence" or is it whatever happens to be available?

Missionaries

God Terms

Terrestrial God: A sentience, a spirit of any kind, that due to a number of factors, such as worship of some kind, achieves an event generally referred to as 'lighting the divine spark', drastically changing the nature of its being, or more accurately increasing it, with great mystic power and drawing worship. Worship, in fact, will feed the spirit. This spirit can be a mortal soul still inhabiting its corporeal body resulting in that power of the spirit feeding into its body.

Celestial God: A concept that gained sentience in the Aether. Unlike Terrestrial Gods, it does not feed on worship but worship helps it better 'define' itself. Instead, it is fed by its concept being acted out in the Material.

Ascended God: A Terrestrial God that underwent a second event that causes it leave the Material and join completely with the Aether, becoming more akin to a Celestial God. This Ascended God may have the original spirit at its core, but also the overall entity more represents the concept of what it once was and the belief of that being then it is actually that being.

Over God: A Celestial God representing, reflecting, several concepts, the complex tenets of an overall philosophy.

Demi God: A Mortal descendant of a God who by mystic laws rather than genetic heritage may gain a portion of their divine parent's power. This may also happen to parents of gods.

Possible Terms

Infernal God: A God considered, by and large or just by one perspective, 'undesirable'.

Fused God: A Terrestrial God that during Ascension fused with an Nascent Celestial God to become that Celestial.

Nascent God: A concept on the verge of gaining sentience and Celestial Godhood but comparable to an unborn child.

Dead God: A God that fell into a dormant state due to lack of worship.

Abyssal God: A sentient glitch in reality, an outsider from beyond the edge of reason or a progenitor entity that existed before anything else, independent of all other classifications or even being called gods but normally so vast and terrible that they cannot be called anything else.

edited 11th Nov '12 4:45:17 PM by God_of_Awesome

The Face Stealer

The story goes there had been a man, or a woman. His life had taken a turn for the worse, the painful loss of a dream, the violent death of someone precious, something. In pain and madness, he turned to dark magic, of rituals of blood and torture and murder, to seek out the life of another so that he may escape the pain. Some blame Hadhists, others say he simply went mad. Many stories leave out this beginning tragedy and speak only of the monster.

He found someone who he desired to be and he killed them in a sadistic ritual of cannibalism, devouring their flesh, their memories and the whole of their identities. His signature is always the same, the victim has had slabs of meat removed like steaks off a cow, the same particular organs, liver and stomach and reproductive, and their whole face sheared off the skull. He took on their shape then and lived out their lives, forgetting who he was for a time, for a very long time. Who he was though did not die and the face of his victim wore thin over his own. In his madness, exasperated by his layered identity, he did not properly select his next target. One after another he killed but by whatever new criteria his corrupted self wanted, the victims did not fit. His few days to mere minutes in their shoes only brought him brief relief until he killed someone who stuck, for a much longer while.

His lifespan was extended by these kills as well, whoever he took the identity of, he took their years as well until he put on a new face and had their years instead. Often his victims were younger than him so he has lived for many generations. How many he has killed is unknown but of his confirmed kills he has ranked as one of the most proficient killers in recorded history. The Black Emperor has considered a scorched earth policy if he suspects the Face Stealer to be hidden among a population, although he then rejected it, and other nations have their plans in case the bogey man killer is thought to be in their borders.

The Pure

Over to the west near where the Machine Empire once stood, strange things are afoot.

Random murders are not uncommon around that region, given the... quality of its people. But recently the amount of corpses produced seemed to have increased bit, and strange corpses they are too: all of them had their skull surgically cut open with their brains missing, nowhere to be found.

Co-incidentally there are rumors of machines that stalk in the darkest of nights, picking off the homeless and those unfortunate enough to be wandering in the streets. It is said that they call themselves "the Pure"...

Feel free to correct anything that contradicts what is already there. Haven't done this for a while.

edited 30th Oct '12 3:27:10 PM by IraTheSquire

I think the Machine Empire is still about, it's just underground. It's always been underground, or did the revised version change that?

I always thought that it officially fell due to the war, and the implication is that it was driven underground and it is making a return.

I'm more worried about conflicts location wise though. Did we ever make certain of the location of where the Machine Empire is? We really do need a map to map out all the locations we got so far.

edited 30th Oct '12 4:04:49 PM by IraTheSquire

I know I want TED to boarder the water and be apart of a cove and the nation across the water to be racist against dwarves (as that's what was detailed in the TED entry.) I still need to work on that. :p

The Machine Empire, as I originally envisioned it, is physically dispersed but at lease has some large concentrations underneath southern Iropa, overlapping with the Black Empire. Due to some superior communication and transportation capabilities, they could have 'colonies' elsewhere, lurking beneath the surface.

Well, I don't see why not make the case. All I did was pretty much change some details of it (added its cultural hatred towards flesh, believing it to be a source of moral corruption and hence must be eradicated) and gave it a bit of history (a war that saw the only time when Cloe and Elena work together, as Elena hates the Matchine Empire of Purity for obvious reasons, but Cloe sees it as a corruption of her ideals).

edited 30th Oct '12 4:37:01 PM by IraTheSquire

Ya know, what I had envisioned wasn't really a machine-y cyborg-happy guys, they were just a bunch of What Measure Is a Non-Super? racists. Maybe we should split them apart.

Also, re-tweak Cloe as the patron deity of the Dwarfs with the god of the Machine Empire being her evil counter part ala Darlian-Amniel.

Sure, let's do that. "The Empire of Purity" has a nasty ring to it. Though the name "Machine Empire" doesn't seem to fit in a What Measure Is a Non-Super? racist culture.

Alternately, the Pure is the result of a screw-up by the Machine Empire. It was thought that they were destroyed, but only driven underground.

edited 31st Oct '12 10:26:50 PM by IraTheSquire

Black Empire Facts: The Black Watch

The vast body of civil worker under the employ of the Black Emperor are sworn to a single task, to safe watch the safety and well-being of the Empire and if possible the world. While divided into specialized offices each in the end work for the same body with the Emperor at the top. To the best of his ability, he centralizes it organization as much as possible with rank and authority of an individual crossing over quite often so one does not feel as belonging to one particular team and therefore against another.

The Black Police are merely one division of the Black Watch, made of those who've proven themselves of the right mindset. There are more.

Black Guard

The Black Guard covers the armed forces of the Empire, the domestic law enforcement and the safety and rescue personnel. Specialist ranks of military, law and rescue are handed out and they will lead troops of other guardsmen when appropriate.

Black Knights

The Order of the Black Law, technically a division of the Black Watch, is a largely independent body that act as a combination of special forces and heroic public faces although they are a varied bunch. They report directly to the emperor.

Black Scribes

The bureaucracy of the Black Empire. Hrod has a well-hidden antipathy toward them.

Black Sages

The research and science division. Their related division are the Black Healers and Black Architects, who also include engineers.

Black Laborers

Like the Black Guard, the Black Laborers cover several different functions, all delivery men, waste disposal, construction workers, etc. A large portion of them are made up of State Slaves, sent to hard labor for their crimes. All such workers though, even slaves, are exposed to opportunities of training to give them room for advancement. For the slaves, this is so they have skills to seek real work when their denture is ended.

Black Priests

Missionaries of Hrod's message of law and order. This is the division of foreign affairs; diplomats and traders, the latter shared with the Black Scribes.

Black Warriors

Those deemed unfit for regular duty but not so unfit as to be locked up or killed, more living weapons then anything else, also the official rank of mercenaries seconded to the service of more militant divisions. Black Servants is the rank of civilians seconded to the less militant divisions.

Black Rangers

Man of science and action, adventurers of the unknown! Seeking out foreign lands and exploring the shit out of them. Like the Black Knights, they enjoy an unusual degree of autonomy.