BBeast

Divinus: The Divine RP, Mk. III

Ashalla, Ocean Matriarch

Name: Ashalla

Their Sphere: The Abyss

The Abyss is the source of the elemental entropic forces which drive change upon the landscape of Galbar. It is a dark and cavernous place, too deep for sunlight to penetrate. Most of the Abyss is filled with sea-water as dark as the depths of the ocean. In stark contrast to the cold, dark water above, the lower part of the Abyss is made of molten rock. A thin layer of igneous stone separates the water and magma, this layer constantly being broken by shifting currents and reformed as the magma is cooled by the water. The heat of this layer drives turbulent currents within the water of the Abyss, which in turn drives the ocean currents and storms of Galbar. The magma also provides the main source of illumination in the Abyss, meaning it is not totally dark, although darkness still characterises much of the Abyss.

In some places, the magma is not content to sit at the bottom of the Abyss, but instead strives to rise through the water to Galbar above. If successful, these spots of rising magma create volcanoes upon the surface of Galbar. However, these rising pillars of magma are unstable things, prone to shifting, collapsing and rising again. This leaves an intricate pattern of igneous rock columns which can be found throughout the Abyss.

Volcanic gases rise up from some of the cracks in the bottom of the Abyss. This injects heat and minerals into the water, and these columns of bubbling gases continue to rise all the way to Galbar, where they emerge from volcanic vents both terrestrial and marine.

As a Sphere of water, lava and stone, air is scarce in the Abyss, and what pockets of 'air' are present is mostly unbreathable volcanic gas. Furthermore, the great depth of the Abyss means that the water is under immense pressure. This makes the Abyss a hostile place for surface-dwellers. However, the Abyss can support properly adapted life, with potential ecosystems leaching energy from the volcanic vents. It may one day become the resting place of great sea monsters, or the home Sphere of elemental spirits of water and lava.

Location of Sphere: The Abyss is a Cthonic Sphere. It is deep beneath Galbar, closer to the Core than the Middle Sphere. It is theoretically reachable via natural connections from Galbar, through the deepest parts of the ocean or in the bowels of volcanoes, but such natural connections are unreliable and dangerous to traverse.

The Abyss neighbours Ehomakwoi, the Sphere of Stone, where these two elemental Spheres complement each other.

The Abyss's influence bubbles up through the Purlieu in a similar manner to how it influences Galbar, although accessing the Abyss from Purlieu is just as difficult as accessing it from Galbar.

Most of the Abyss's magma is channelled through Muspellsheim to fuel its great volcanoes.

Some of the Abyss's magma seeps into the Pit of Trials.

Portfolio: Ocean

An ocean is a vast expanse of water, typically salty, on the scale of continents or even planets. Oceans are large reservoirs of not just water but the entropic forces of wind and heat. Oceans shape the continents with their eroding waves and control the climate with their storms, currents and temperature. Oceans are places where a vast diversity of life can thrive, both along the coast and in the depths, and this life can support mighty civilisations. Oceans are variable, sometimes calm and peaceful, sometimes tempestuous and dangerous. While oceans can be a great boon to those who can use them, the ocean is too mighty to be harnessed and controlled by mortal hands so only those who respect the ocean can benefit from it for long.

As Goddess of the Ocean, Ashalla commands the ocean in all its primal might. Waves, storms, currents and even to an extent tides are within her dominion, so these things obey her will and reflect her mood. She is a strong swimmer, able to move through the seas at an incredible pace, and she is stronger when in the ocean, able to leverage the ocean's vastness to her advantage. She also has an affinity with all ocean life, allowing her to communicate with, command and even create sea life with ease.

Persona: Ashalla is the physical embodiment of the ocean, and her personality reflects this. At times she is calm, approachable, even hospitable. Yet her temper is short, especially towards those who fail to give her the respect she believes she is due or those who exploit what is hers. Her wrath is a terrifying thing, remorselessly destroying anyone and anything unfortunate enough to be caught in her rage.

Ashalla regards mortals as weak and transient, but not with indifference. As ephemeral as mortals may be, collectively they can leave an impact upon her domain, so she pays attention to them. She is willing to offer mortals hospitality and care, provided they respect her domain and provide the appropriate fealty and offerings to her. She is particularly fascinated by beautiful works of art from singing to architecture. Those who instead scorn her may find the ocean to be an unwelcoming and dangerous place.

At her worst, Ashalla can be scornful, domineering, unforgiving, hot-tempered and violent. At her best, Ashalla can be protective, caring, generous and artistic.

Appearance/Form: Ashalla's preferred forms are vast and elemental. Her first form is one of water, towering and colossal like the largest waves during the fiercest storms. While she may often adopt a shape which is vaguely humanoid (or whatever shape mortals or fellow gods are) for familiarity, her body is amorphous so it can twist into virtually any shape water can adopt. Details in her shape are often highlighted by foam, sand, algae or seaweed. Underwater this form is virtually invisible unless Ashalla chooses to be visible. While this form wields incredible strength and speed while in water, on dry land this form is significantly weaker.

Musical Theme:

Divinus: The Divine RP, Mk. III

Just to be clear, I've already dibsed playing an ocean god. Sheet will come at some unspecified point in the future. You guys are all too keen.

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

Meanwhile, in Mk 2, who knew that resurrecting gods could be so difficult? One hundred thousand characters and a side plot later and we're still not done. But we're close. Stay hyped.

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

Okay, time to do some writing.

Re: Avatars. I think Avatars should stay mostly the same. Avatars are not simply relics; they are extra bodies for your god. With the introduction of Abilities constraining the forms your god can personally take, Avatars will be even more important. We could tie Avatars even more closely with the Abilities somehow, such as by giving Avatars access to the Abilities system.

Re: Spheres. Okay, this one's a biggie. I may have gotten a little carried away.

Point 1, Topology of the Universe

tldr: Distinctions between Upper/Lower/Middle etc are only meaningful if the allowed direct connections between Spheres are restricted.

My personal preference is option D : There is no formal 'Upper' and 'Lower', with us instead characterising the Spheres purely by their connections and providing no cosmological constraints to how they have to be connected. Then the whole categorisation problem goes away because there are no arbitrary categories.

I'm getting the impression that most people are rather keen on keeping these categories, but the idea of connectivity being the primary feature relating the Spheres is still pivotal. If we can define how the Spheres are (or can be) connected, that is, if we define the topology of our universe, we can work from there.

First, I should define what I mean by a connection. A connection is any physical link between two Spheres. It could be a portal you could travel through. It could be being able to see a feature of one Sphere from another. It could be the border between two Spheres (which is especially relevant if you insist on the Spheres existing in three-dimensional space only). If there is no connection, the two Spheres have no direct interactions and cannot be seen or travelled between directly.

Consider the sample cosmology below, in which we have Galbar in the middle, the Core and Barrier below and above, and three (nominally) Upper and Lower Spheres. (I have drawn them as planes for simplicity. Wrap them around in your head if you want to get back to Spheres, but we're working in higher-dimensional space so drawing them as Spheres will get problematic once I start connecting them.) Note that nothing can get to the other side of the Barrier and Core without first passing through them. At the moment, none of the Spheres are connected. The topology is such that I can rearrange Galbar and the other Spheres freely, making the categorisation of Upper and Lower arbitrary. (There are other possible arrangements which I shall explore later.)

Unlinked Cosmology

Now consider the next example. If we want a strict hierarchy of Spheres, we will have a connectivity where each Sphere links to the adjacent Spheres. Note, however, that one could equally define 'adjacent' as what Spheres a Sphere is linked to, rather than by arbitrary positioning in some kind of hierarchy. If we wanted to cement the distinction between Upper and Lower, we could have U3 (the uppermost Sphere) connect the the Barrier and L3 (the lowermost Sphere) connect to the Core, otherwise from a cosmological perspective there is nothing really stopping us from flipping the Upper and Lower Spheres around. We might decide that such a linkage occurs by default, or we could make it such that each link needs to be created. It appears people have been leaning towards the latter.

Hierarchical Linkage

However, if people are to create their own connections, they would most likely want to connect directly to Galbar where all the action is happening. This will give an initial connectivity like the one below.

Direct Linkage

However, in such a linkage scheme there is no hierarchy or strict distinction between Upper and Lower. An equivalent way of expressing the above linkage is in the scheme below, where there are no distinct layers. If some layers started connecting to the Barrier and some the Core, then the Upper and Lower distinction could be used on them, but why would anyone want to make a portal there?

Direct Linkage, No Ordering

Under natural play, if we don't constrain which Spheres can connect to what, we'll get something which looks like a bunch of organic connections without strict order, as below. This is fine. There will likely remain a thematic upper/lower distinction, primarily on where the connections are placed on Galbar, but it won't be strict. Middle Spheres are just as plausible as Upper and Lower.

Example of Natural Unrestricted Connections

But how does this tie in to the options? Well, the different options have different topologies for the Spheres. The examples I have presented above fit in with my option D with no strict Upper/Lower categorisations.

If we want an ultra-strict hierarchy, like the Greek celestial spheres model, then each Sphere would be represented not as a mobile blob in my abstractions but as complete layers similar to the Core and Barrier, as illustrated below. It is not possible to connect to another Sphere without passing through the intervening Spheres. This option has the downside of there being no flexibility in the nature of the connections.

Option: Strict Hierarchy

I have not seen people advocate for this option specifically. One strongly advocated similar option is Option B, having a strict demarcation between Upper and Lower. This can be achieved by making Galbar the border and having it such that Upper Spheres can link to Galbar and each other, and Lower Sphere can link to Galbar and each other, but Upper and Lower Spheres cannot directly link. I illustrate this set-up below. If you drop this restriction, then there is no distinction between Upper and Lower except for in name, and a distinction only in name is a meaningless distinction.

Option: Strict Upper/Lower

But what about option A, where we allow Middle Spheres? There are two possible topologies which allow this. One, illustrated below, is for the Upper, Lower and Middle Spheres to be separate categories, with connections allowed within the categories and with Galbar but not with the other categories. The Upper Spheres can also connect to the Barrier and the Lower Spheres can also connect to the Core.

Option: Middle Spheres are Separate

However, this isolates the Middle Spheres in a manner one might consider strange for a cosmology meant to be built upon a concentric sphere model. An alternative is to have the Upper and Lower Spheres separated by the Middle Spheres, of which Galbar is the most important. This cannot be represented with a two-dimensional topology, but I make a representation below anyway. The Upper Spheres can connect to the Barrier and the Middle Spheres (including Galbar). The Lower Spheres can connect to the Core and the Middle Spheres. The Middle Spheres can connect to Galbar, the Upper Spheres and the Lower Spheres. This gives us good behaviour for the connectivity of the Middle Spheres, but it makes Galbar less special by making it essentially a glorified Middle Sphere. Due to enhanced connectivity, people might favour Middle Spheres to other Spheres.

Option: Middle Spheres are Galbar-like

Option C instead considers subdividing the Upper/Lower categories into those which are close and distant from Galbar. In this topology model, these extra layers can be modelled by having the inner Spheres as a barrier between Galbar and the outer Spheres. So the Upper Outer Spheres can connect to the Barrier and the Upper Inner Spheres, the Upper Inner Spheres can connect to the Upper Outer Spheres and Galbar, Galbar can connect to the Upper Inner Spheres and the Lower Inner Spheres, the Lower Inner Spheres can connect to Galbar and the Lower Outer Spheres, and the Lower Outer Spheres can connect to the Lower Inner Spheres and the Core. This is more simply seen below.

Option: Upper/Lower Inner/Outer

So, that's a lot to take in, so let me summarise below. I have 6 options: Unrestricted Connections; Strict Hierarchy; Upper/Lower; Separated Middle; Galbaric Middle; Upper/Lower Inner/Outer.

Summary of Cosmology Options

My preference is for either Unrestricted Connections or Upper/Lower. Strict Hierarchy is too restrictive and has the complication of everyone having to decide their position relative to everyone else and is broken if any new Spheres are created. Separate Middle and Galbaric Middle feel rather odd in their implementation of Middle Spheres, although maybe some will like it. Upper/Lower Inner/Outer feels like too much added complexity; if a god wants an Inner Sphere, they can connect to Galbar; if they want an Outer Sphere, they can opt not to connect directly to Galbar. It's up to them.

I'll repeat that categorising the Spheres a priori as we are currently trying to do is only meaningful if there is a physical difference between them. The main physical difference we can control without dictating the resultant pantheon and physics too much is controlling the connectivity between Spheres.

Point 2, Connectivity and Access

The portals connecting the Spheres are very important, as they define travel between the Spheres. But the portals are also created by players. Therefore, subject to the constraints we put above, the nature of the connections should be up pretty much entirely to the player creating the connection. The Portal need not be a discrete location.

Consider the hypothetical god of dirt, who wants the Sphere of Dirt to be accessible by digging in the dirt. The Sphere of Dirt is not automatically accessible from Galbar. It influences the dirt to make it fertile and whatnot and it creates dirt on Galbar, but it is not physically accessible unless the god of dirt creates a Portal. In this case, the Portal is a region of dirt, and the condition of access is digging into it. We might rule that having 'all dirt' is too broad to be a Portal, but you could make it a specific region of dirt, perhaps under certain sacred hills. If we insist on Portals out of Galbar being difficult to traverse, then we might attach extra conditions, or make it necessary to dig really deep.

Now consider a hypothetical god of sky, who wants the Sphere of Sky to border Galbar along the whole sky, so anyone who flies up high enough enters the Sphere of Sky. They could put their Portal as the whole sky. If we want to impose a 'difficulty' condition, then there can be storms and wind which makes flight difficult.

The god of the wilderness might like the have forests connect to his Sphere. As previously suggested, the Portals might be very difficult to find reliable, but it is quite possible to just stumble across them without noticing. Perhaps the exact location of the cross-over between Galbar and the Sphere varies, although is in random locations deep in wild forests. The god of the wilderness could control where the Portals appear (possibly as an Ability) because he is attuned to his Sphere and the Portal's location is rather nebulous.

These points indicate that a Portal need not be a discrete location, but is instead any connection between two Spheres of any form.

Another customisable feature should be the ease of access and strength of connection. A god may or may not want a strong connection between Galbar, so should be free to choose. A god might also like an easy or difficult connection. The benefit of an easy connection is that allies can readily access your Sphere and any facilities within. The benefit of a difficult connection is security against monsters, mortals and enemy deities. If you want to reinforce difficult travel, you could specify that a Portal between Galbar and another Sphere must be difficult to traverse, if not by design, then by the pressure of the Sphere's influence flooding downwards. How the traverse is difficult is up to the player. Although I'd argue that we need not be too stringent here.

Also customisable is how it connects. The connection would have to be extra-dimensional (read: magical), otherwise the Spheres aren't special planes of existence but just regions on a planet. That said, if a god wants, they could have what essentially amounts to a physical border with another Sphere, but that would be chosen when the Portal is created.


Now, I've been writing this post all day and I'm out of comments on these matters for now. I've laid bare my thought processes. Let me know what you think.

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

Can I dibs an ocean god for Mk 3? Being a primal force of nature for a change might be fun.

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

Firsly, I never read how Godspeed works. Anyone got a link for me so I can catch up there?

@Muttonhawk

Here you go.

@Cyclone Re: Spheres.

My main issue with a literal concentric Sphere model is that it establishes a tiered hierarchy. The person with an inner Sphere (next to Galbar) will have easy access to Galbar and will experience a lot of interaction, while the person with an outer Sphere (far from Galbar) will be relatively isolated, with very few mortals being able to reach their Sphere while also making it difficult for divine beings (including themselves) to travel between Galbar and their Sphere. Rather than encouraging interaction and involvement, we instead isolate half of the players to the far corners of the universe. And then we also have to somehow determine which player gets what Sphere, since they aren't all equal. It's a cool cosmology, but might work poorly for a game.

I'll hold off from deeper and more specific comments until you have had a chance to properly expound your ideas.

As a side note, I'll raise the possibility of Galbar being flat rather than spherical. In an Earth-like Universe, with planets orbiting stars and the vastness of space, spherical worlds make sense because of Newtonian physics. However, for a highly geocentric cosmology as we are planning, a flat world makes as much sense as a spherical one. Granted, we'll probably have to rename 'Spheres' as 'Planes' and they would be stacked rather than concentric, and there won't be a horizon any longer, but it's an option. (To be clear, I'm not saying we should have a flat world; I'm currently neutral on the matter; but I'm indicating that we can have a flat world if we want.)

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

<Snipped quote>

I am a bit confused here, are you saying these don't exist? Or that they do? (because they really do! We haven't even decided if we are giving those pesky humans the gift of fire yet, so who knows if they will need to steal it.)

@Double Capybara

I was saying via rhetorical question that such legends do exist and are numerous.

I think travel won't be as much of a problem as everyone seems to think, it's just that now everyone will devise their own methods and there will be a stronger sense of permanence.

...

@Double Capybara

I agree with you completely here- methods of inter-Sphere travel should be fully customisable. My point was that inter-Sphere travel will be so not-a-problem that it is a poor measure of godhood (unlike Mk 2, where only fully fledged gods could perform at-will inter-planar travel). While only a fully fledged god would have the power to create links between the Spheres, I still think that owning a Sphere is a much better milestone for ascension (we can also consider that only the god who owns a Sphere can create links to it, which would make owning a Sphere a prerequisite to making inter-Sphere links).

Though in all honesty, I don't know how the spheres are situated physically around Galbar. From what Zeph told, I had this impression that by travelling up, you eventually reach a place between worlds.

@Double Capybara

While the idea of concentric Spheres might work by analogy and is what the mortal philosophers will cook up and the dumbed-down version of cosmology which the gods can tell the mortals, we are not confined to three-dimension or Euclidean geometry. The Sphere named the Cosmos might be accessible by travelling upwards for a few hundred kilometers, and the Underworld could be accessible by tunnelling downwards deep enough, but the Spheres need not occupy the same space-time as Galbar or each other. This Shadowy Alleyway Sphere is accessible from cities across Galbar and requires no apparent vertical travel to get to, although maybe because the original access points were caves it might be a 'lower' Sphere. The Sphere of Fire could have portals both in the sun above and in volcanoes below, which blurs the distinction between 'upper' and 'lower' Spheres.

Additionally, if we want all the Spheres to be connected to Galbar, it doesn't make sense to have a strictly concentric model, because then only two Spheres will be in direct contact with Galbar and the other Spheres have to push through the Spheres in between.

As such, I think that the Spheres shouldn't be physically situated around Galbar at all, at least not in any literal sense of 'physically situated'. Any categorisations of the Spheres (e.g. Upper vs Lower vs Middle, Material vs Spiritual, Order vs Chaos, Good vs Evil, etc.) and associations with Galbaric geometry and geography should be left as emergent phenomena and not baked into the cosmology in any way.

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

exist independent of any worship or worshipers

@Cyclone

Ah, yes, I forgot that one. Add that to my list of things which are vital to Divinus gods.

Perhaps this could be solved by extending the Age of Creation or frontloading even more MP into it, but part of me still thinks that it's a good idea to devote at least the first turn solely to sculpting Galbar and the Spheres.

@Cyclone

Dividing the Age of Creation into different emphases on a per-Turn basis as you suggest seems like a good solution.

Speaking of which, I'll bring up a comment. One thing I really liked in Mk 2 was Turn 1 where we all squabbled over creating the Universe together. The events of that Turn made the Universe ours, and that was unique and cool. The New Divinus I would suggest that a similar outcome can be derived from the Spheres. Each Sphere should have an effect in some manner on the physics of Galbar. The Sun might actually be a portal to the Sphere of Fire or Light. Spellcasters draw their power from the Sphere of Magic or other Spheres as appropriate. Wildlife might be drawn from the Sphere of Wilderness. Clouds and rain come from the Sphere of Water. When mortals sleep their souls connect to the Sphere of Dreams. The Sphere of Death is where souls go when they die, either to wallow there for eternity or until reincarnation or until another god brings them to their own Sphere to enjoy an afterlife there. And so on. The first Turn is a good chance for players to define the effect their Sphere has on Galbar and thus make the world uniquely theirs.

Unlike Mk 2, this would have the additional effect of reality changing when we get new gods ascending and creating their own Spheres. Physics won't be fixed but mutable. This I feel would add to the mythic flavour we are going for.

I've had another thought regarding inter-Sphere travel. It appears that the consensus is that we will be building methods to connect between the Spheres, like Bifrost bridges and shadowy alleyways and tree portals. Gods will not have the power of teleportation unless they buy it. This means that unlike Mk 2 gods can't just snap their fingers and travel to other Spheres; they must traverse these portals. However, save for barriers of various sorts, nothing really stops a mortal, Hero or Demigod from also using these portals. Perhaps a god doesn't need the Sphere owner's permission to enter a Sphere? But that still feels like a pretty weak definition of godhood and feels like it would restrict interesting narratives (how many legends involve heroes going to a god's domain uninvited to challenge them or steal something or something?).

As such, I think a better condition for godhood in this cosmology is having control over a Sphere. Owning a Sphere lets you do some very god-like things, such as having a personal plane of existence and being able to exert an enduring influence over reality on Galbar. The mark of a demigod's ascension is getting a Sphere of their own.

As I imagine it, the new Free Points should have mechanics along these lines:

@Cyclone

Those points seem good.

Okay, I tried codifying my thoughts on innate powers and also on the concept of abilities. This is what I came up with.

@Double Capybara

That looks good enough to work with.

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

@Cyclone

Re: Ages

Okay, so let's see if I've got this: Ages have rough time-scales, which already establishes what is and isn't reasonable to an extent. The progression of Ages shall be established via rough player consensus, built from OOC discussions as much as IC events. Ages constitute a set of recommendations rather than strict restrictions.

This seems decent. We can work with this.

I have a mechanical effect to suggest: bonus Might which is specifically to be spent on things pertaining to the Age. We still give out enough Might for players to do what they want to do, but they have extra to do what the GMs want them to do too. In-game, it is easier to make things which fit in with the current state of the world, which is mechanically reflected by not consuming the Might you would use for other tasks.

As for the Age of Creation, I'd suggest that this Age is a perfect time for populating the world with (mundane) flora and fauna, under the caveat that the terrain would likely still shift around (so it would indeed be safest to wait until the end of that Age to create life if they rely on particular habitats). We want there to be a full global ecosystem before we start trying to add monsters and civilisations.

Re: Power level

I still prefer leaning towards 'powerful'- rarely does one get the opportunity to play god, so if you're going to do it you may as well go all out. However, I concede that a lot of the mythologies from which Divinus draws inspiration do tend towards more limited gods.

We should figure out what a reasonable base level of power is for gods in this new Divinus.

• A god has the power to travel between Spheres. This travel won't necessarily be instantaneous, but gods will possess means which allows them to travel between Spheres in a manner much more easily than a mortal could. How this manifests would be dependent on details of the Spheres which will probably only emerge once we begin play. On this matter, I would suggest that a god can freely, easily and quickly travel to and from their own Sphere, but that would come under Sphere powers (a god is probably also much stronger within their own Sphere, but that's a separate discussion).
• A god wields enormous creative power, literally shaping reality to their will. Inter-Sphere travel is something specific to New Divinus; the power of creation has been the hallmark of gods for all iterations of Divinus and allows players to freely world-build. I would caution against restricting gods to only be able to make things pertaining to their Portfolios, as this would remove this freedom and make it difficult to diversify to new Portfolios.
• A god is overwhelmingly more powerful than any mortal. Gods are also immortal and generally cannot be harmed by natural phenomena. The only thing which should be strong enough to personally threaten a god is another god or their divinely enhanced proxies (e.g. Heroes), and the latter requires some strongly skewed odds. This does not mean gods are omnipotent, but gods should be able to trump mortals in everything they do.

These three points are at the core of what I think are important characteristics for gods in Divinus (well, the latter two anyway; the first point is important only for this particular cosmology). If you have objections now would be the time to speak, because it is no use trying to iron out the details when we are not on the same page.

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

@Cyclone@Double Capybara

Re: Ages

Ah, you're right. My idea makes it more of a game of Sid Meyer's Civilisation with rather rigid technological progression rather than something to sculpt interesting histories from. Looser thematic Ages rather than technological Ages may work better (obviously, technologies can be the theme of particular Ages- I strongly suspect that the emergence of metal-working will warrant its own Age).

But we should still think about how players can direct what the next Age will be. If we go 'you can only do things within the confines of the current Age', then no in-world actions shape the course of history and we'll be stuck in the same Age forever; that or GM fiat decides the course of history, which runs against the grain of Divinus. If we go 'you can do whatever and that will decide what the next Age is', then the concept of Ages becomes meaningless. So what is the mechanical effect of Ages?

Re: Portfolios

Permitting Portfolios to be traded (both willingly or under duress) seems like a good idea.

Re: Abilities

In Mk 2, we have used levels to represent the general power level of a god and the extent of their abilities. Portfolios provide dominion over particular themes for their creative powers but are generally only tangentially related to their personal abilities. As such, if we are doing away with levels, it makes sense to replace it with acquiring special abilities using Might.

We would still require a standard set of abilities for all gods. I would lean towards more power rather than less, since Divinus gods are meant to be powerful. We can take some of the most powerful standard abilities from Mk 2 and make them suggestions for purchasable abilities. We also need to consider the power level of these abilities. If we make default gods too weak, then everyone will be spending all their Might on levelling up rather than creating things. If we make the acquirable abilities too weak, then gods in general will be too weak. If we make acquirable abilities too strong, then it could get unbalanced.

Although, perhaps Godspeed's model for Hero Items and Divine Items can be extended to abilities in general, whether they be tied to an object or an innate part of an individual. The vague power outlines given for divine objects seems to work reasonably well, so we can use that system. This also removes the complexity of building a whole new system.

Over levels, this has a benefit of making power progression much more customised. As Capy pointed out, the power Xos wields for being Level 9 and the power Ilunabar wields for being Level 9 are completely different. The numbers suggest that Ilunabar should be able to beat most of the pantheon in a fight, but how the character has developed says otherwise. Progression by ability acquisition instead of abstract levels solves this paradox.