BBeast

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

Ashalla

Goddess of Oceans

In that great chamber where the Architect sat were souls, divine essence and water. The Architect banished all but a handful of chosen souls from his chamber and these chosen souls drunk deeply of the divine essence and became living gods. And with the power granted by the divine essence infused with their souls these new gods conjured matter and sculpted bodies of all varieties to house their spirit.

Yet raw divine essence is a fickle thing. It is creation manifest. It is the power of the gods. It bends the universe and reality to conform to itself. And it is loathe to be inactive.

The room was rich with divine essence, too much for the souls gathered to all absorb. So this free divine essence sought substance to which it could bind. It tried the stone of the cavern, but found it too unyielding. It tried the air within the cavern, but found it too weak. So instead it suffused through the water of the cavern, the water which flooded the bottom of the chamber and which fell in great sheets from the sundered aquifer above. And from this binding of matter and divinity, the water became a god.

Yet what was a god without form, who could not manifest? Gods create, and every god's first creation is their own form. But the water-who-was-god had no notion of its own form. It carried no vestiges of a past incarnation like the souls around it. Nevertheless the water-who-was-god gathered itself together. The great body of water in the chasm began to flow towards a single point, accumulating into a rising bulge. As the water gathered, the flow accelerated and the bulge rose higher, defying gravity and entropy until to stood like a colossal wave, towering over all but the largest beings in the room. Although it hadn't yet a mind to express the feeling, the water-who-was-god felt powerful. By its strength and might it had overpowered the force of gravity to manifest its vast form, and this taste of power left it wanting more, to exercise dominion over other forces of nature.

Yet power was only part of the impetus given by divine essence. The water-who-was-god was missing creativity. What was the use of all this power if it did not create anything? The water-who-was-god had assembled a featureless blob for itself, but this was inadequate. The water-who-was-god felt the divine essence of the others around it and felt their forms, water lapping at the feet of those in the chamber. It felt most strongly the aura of the Architect, so it started by imitating aspects of its form. The blob narrowed at a point near the top, pinching off a smaller blob of water which could pass for a head. Two great protrusions of water stretched out from either side of the water-who-was-god like arms just below its 'neck', water falling in great droplets and being pulled back up through the base of the water-who-was-god.

Finally, the water-who-was-god imitated the Architect's great eye. Water swirled around its head, creating an indentation which vaguely resembled an eye, and the divine essence peered through it and came to see the cavern and everyone within. The Architect dominated the room by his mere presence, but there were other gods too. It inspected the lesser gods and their diminutive forms, both with its eye and by feeling through the water. The water-who-was-god realised that it was not restricted in its creation, that it could create a new shape for itself. There were so many forms to choose from!

Tendrils of water rose up and wrapped around the water-who-was-god. Watery limbs sloughed off, falling with a splash into the lake below and replaced by new limbs with new shapes. Faces sculpted themselves into the water-who-was-god before being washed away by turbulent currents. The water-who-was-god exercised creation in its own form, sampling every shape it could sense.

Yet after a few seconds the water-who-was-god stilled, a blob once more. It had no purpose, no reason, no direction, so had been shifting randomly. Yet this was just as unsatisfactory as having no form at all. It needed a purpose. It needed thought. It needed what the other gods in the room had -- a soul.

The water-who-was-god might not have had the capacity for true thought, but its divine essence recognised its will. So a soul coalesced within the water-who-was-god, a soul shaped to what it knew -- power and creativity. The water-who-was-god looked out at its kindred divines as this soul took shape and it became aware of itself. The water-who-was-god's purpose crystallised and it came to know its nature and identity.

Yet the identity was missing a form. The water-who-was-god looked at the gods and goddesses in the room with a newfound awareness. It felt their souls and essence, then the water-who-was-god found the traits it felt best described itself and pulled the water into a more definite form. The form was wide at the base, so as to be well-connected to the water; the water-who-was-god even extended far into the water below, but that part was formless. The form extended upwards with smooth and elegant curves. Near the top two 'arms' extended, although these too were made from flowing curves which branched at the end into fingers. Above the bulge where the arms connected was a narrowing like a neck followed by a round blob of water like a head. On one side of this blob the water shaped itself into a supple face with two eyes, a nose, a mouth and ears, this face being the most sharply defined part of the form. From the top and back of the head fell water in great streams, running down the form's back. The form resembled a human woman, like a number of the goddesses around her, although many times their size and made entirely from water.

The water-who-was-god had awareness, understanding, a persona and now a form fitting of her persona. But her identity was missing one crucial element -- a name. The water-who-was-god stalled in thought. It heard the others speaking around her, voices and noises being made, so it started by imitating them. Rushing water within her produced sounds as she toyed with phonemes, finding sounds which had a pleasant flow.

"Shhh...llll...ooaa...shhh...ll...ff...hhhh...ss...ll...aaassshhh...llaaa..." She then stood upright and the water-who-was-god declared her name with a voice like waves breaking on a beach. "Ashalla!"

Then Ashalla let out a joyous laugh which rang like undersea echoes. She had created a name and a form and an identity! She now knew who she was and was revelling in the power and creativity which she now knew she wielded. What else could she do?

Ashalla surged forwards, her form losing distinction as she became a hurtling wave that raced around the room. Yet there was a disturbance in the water, a force acting against her. It was the god with a form larger than her own, rivalled only by the Architect in size, who was a mountain of flesh covered in metal. Its motions and own bellowing laughter was sending waves through the enormous lake. It was influencing her domain, the water from which she was made, and it made her indignant.

Ashalla slowed to a halt and regained some of her appearance. She felt the water of this lake, a lake so large some might have called it a sea, and felt its every wave and ripple. Ashalla's form sunk down as she extended her essence into the water of the lake, then with a great heave she willed the waters to calm, and they obeyed. Waves stalled, currents stagnated and ripples faded.

There were several seconds of quiet, then they were broken by Ashalla's echoing joyous laughter. Euphoria washed over her from her exertion of power, greater than any of her previous feats. She was made for wielding this might.

Diffused throughout the lake, Ashalla took a moment to calmly observe the universe around her. The divines in the room were impossible to miss, but with her broadened senses all but the Architect were indistinct. With the cacophony of the chamber momentarily dulled, Ashalla saw the universe beyond the cavern. The sky dimly lit with the Barrier's magic framed a distant blue orb, and immediately Ashalla felt a connection with that orb. There was where she was meant to be. This lake was just a tiny taste of what lay in that Sphere beyond the cavern!

Ashalla gathered her essence once more and coalesced another watery form in time to hear the tirade of a man of blazing fire -- Sartravius, if the knowledge which had been imprinted into her and her feeling of the god's essence were accurate. Ashalla lurched towards him, and she spoke in answer to his question.

"Can't you see? We have been brought here to create!" Ashalla said in a voice like a sea breeze, carrying the mirth of her existence. She gestured upwards with an aqueous limb. "Look at that Sphere over there. I feel it is much greater than this place here. There we can exercise our might!"

Ashalla's form collapsed back into the water, then emerged a few moments later next to one of the floating crystals. "Come! We have a world to create!" she beckoned to Sartravius and the other gods.

A goddess is born

Ashalla forms, not with a soul who forms a body and collects divine essence, but as divine essence which forms a body then collects a soul. Who needs a backstory?

Ashalla revels in her existence, primarily in her might and creativity.

Ashalla stills the waters of the lake, ceasing Narzhak's disruptive waves.

Ashalla answers Sartravius' question to the Architect, inviting everyone to fly to Galbar so they can get creating.

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

@Doll Maker We are satisfied with the changes you have made. You have also given us assurances that you have coordinated with Vec and TurboWraith and that you are planning a border with the Palace of Dreams. As such, Ekon is accepted.

---

In other news, we regret to inform you that @jetipster has handed in his resignation, with circumstances beyond his control preventing him from continuing with us at present. We wish him the best. This also means that the Cold Portfolio is open.

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

@TurboWraith From discussions on Discord, we are satisfied that you have enough for Foe to do to not get bored. You are Approved. You may add your character and Sphere to the wiki.

@Antarctic Termite You have pages on the wiki. Now please put some actual information on those pages.

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

This is not an easy journey and 9 out 10 will die in the process.

@Kho

While I understand the sentiment, as one of film's most famous heroes has said, never tell me the odds. Unless the journey is literally Russian Roulette, precise odds are meaningless. More powerful beings will obviously have better odds that weaker beings. We'd rather know why the journey is dangerous or otherwise difficult.

A difficult journey also does not need to be fatal. It might just require an enormous expenditure of power to traverse (e.g. spaceflight) or it might be hard to find (e.g. a connection which is only sometimes open).

P.S. This isn't a critical flaw in your sheet. I just thought I'd bring it up.

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

@Kho

Re: Portfolio

Martial Combat itself is an excellently-scoped Portfolio. However, your description of the Portfolio as it appears in your CS is a terribly scoped description, because half of the description is extraneous fluff pertaining not to Martial Combat but to Conflict as a whole, which is outside the scope of Martial Combat. This extensive definition of Conflict is confusing as it makes a person reading your Portfolio believe that your Portfolio relates to Conflict as a whole and not just Martial Combat. As I said, save Conflict for a Cluster. The Portfolio description should only describe the Portfolio itself. If you must keep references to competition and really can't wait for a Cluster to describe it, make it just one sentence, not a whole paragraph, because at present Conflict and Competition is the primary focus of your Portfolio description rather than a piece of peripheral context.

That you have discussed these matters with Oraculum is a point in your favour. This Divinus is the most crowded yet, so some overlap with other characters is almost unavoidable, so I am glad that you two have figured out how to minimise this overlap.

Re: Bear form

You have come to an agreeable consensus on the Discord. If the bear form is still important to you, you can spend Might on it in your first post, or when it becomes relevant later.

Re: Personality and Ambition

A strongly interaction-based character is very good, and you have a point that this in itself could provide enough opportunity for development. The other GMs might still have holes to poke here, but we shall re-evaluate in light of this clarification.

(P.S. On thinking, it appears that it can be succinctly stated that Seihdhara's personal ambitions are to pursue happiness and build relationships. Would this be a correct evaluation?)

Re: Interactions with other Spheres

Typically the interactions listed in the CS are those which have been confirmed, not a big list of suggestions. We ask that you discuss with your fellow Celestials which natural connections and influences you want the most and provide a shorter list of more definite connections. Some of the suggested connections/influences are good. Some don't quite fit. (I know Mutton was saying, as Kirron's player, that there appeared to be a thematic mismatch between the influence of the Horizon Grotto on the Seal and the Horizon Grotto's actual mood. You can ask him for details.) Discuss everything with the players involved to make sure your connections actually fit.

Re: Transportation after trials.

While your description never explicitly states that people were teleported, it implies that the journey is trivial by its lack of explanation. Travelling between Spheres is a highly non-trivial task for mortals in the absence of a Gateway, if not outright impossible. This lack of apparent difficulty implies that the movement acts using a Gateway. Even if the transportation is not instantaneous, it's still a Gateway. This confusion would be removed if you explicitly stated that the mortals have to find their own way to their destination.

However, there is another issue - why is Seihdhara sending glowstick-wielding champions into the Great Dark? There is currently no explanation or reason for this. It would probably be wise to leave this out of the CS and develop it IC.

Re: Interaction with Vortex

To be honest, Cyclone's objections about the Vortex interactions are entirely his own. This falls under needing to talk to other players about your interactions with their stuff. Another afterlife is fine. Just talk to Cyclone about it (in his role as Katharsos' player) to make sure everything lines up.

Re: Interactions with Galbar

Gateways don't count. We're looking for a passive, pervasive influence.

As for red-haired people, from the CS I fail to see how this is a significant interaction between Galbar and the Seal. They are favoured by Seihdhara and probably great warriors, but that is all that is mentioned. The CS puts this piece of information as a throw-away line down the bottom and does not associate it with the Sphere at all. Now, having the Seal bless rare people with martial prowess with the mark of red hair might be an appropriate influence on Galbar, but the CS does not say this.


Also, why is it called the Seal? Is it sealing anything? Generally seals fall under the purview of the Architect, who has sealed the Barrier and the Core. You might have a perfectly good explanation for this name, but currently it seems a bit odd.


Post a revised draft of your CS when ready.

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

Disclaimer: Contained within are the opinions of BBeast alone. These opinions do not necessarily reflect the official stance of the GM team.

We call these beings gods, they do not have souls as proposed by BB; however, they can.

This appears to be a misrepresentation of my intent. I shall restate what I meant about gods and souls in a more clear manner.

There are two possibilities: All gods are made from a soul + divine essence, OR All gods are made from divine essence only. I did not mean to suggest that some gods may have a soul and some gods may not. I stated these two possibilities because we had no consensus as to what constituted a soul or divine essence.

In the former case, a god's soul functions like a normal soul, but it is strengthened by the divine essence which protects it against the entropy afflicting mortal souls. In the latter case, the divine essence is essentially a better soul. The possibility for heroes (who possess just a mortal soul) ascending to demigods by the consumption of divine essence proves that a god's soul in the former case or divine essence in the latter case is closely related to a mortal's soul.

Because of this similarity, it is meaningless to try to determine the function of a soul by subtracting a god's functions from a mortal's functions. The function of a soul is still poorly defined, though, I will grant you that, although consensus indicates that the function of a soul is much more than growing old. The potential existence of soulless entities is still debated and strongly resisted. However, by giving souls more function than 'growing old' and fraying, many of your arguments are left baseless. However, they do retain this value: a soul must have some function beyond growing old or else we find ourselves in a really tight spot metaphysically.

As for the Architect summoning souls from outside the Universe, I have a few comments.

It has been established that the creation of new souls is hard, although not impossible. The Architect is also only somewhat more powerful than the gods of this setting. When the Architect called in souls from past universes, he did it because it was easy, not because of any deeper metaphysical reason. He called in the souls/entities who would be gods, who either carried over some portion of their own power or were granted power by becoming bound to a Sphere or received divine essence from the Architect or some combination of the three. But the Architect also wanted to make it easy for these gods to create life (especially since they aren't as powerful as some of the gods in other Divinus universes who tended to be created/summoned by individuals more powerful than the Architect), so he also called in billions of other souls to be used in creating life.

You argue that because these souls have been imported from outside this Universe the kind of cycle seen here must be a universal one. This is not necessarily true. I shall cite the Mk 2 Divinus Universe as an example. In Mk 2, the supreme entity in that Universe was Fate. From what I understand, Fate is enormously more powerful than the Architect. The Mk 2 Universe was also much bigger, and the Mk 2 gods were more powerful. This is indicative of a general power nerf between Mk 2 and Mk 3 and that not all Universes are made equal. Like Mk 3, the gods (with one exception) and some other souls were drawn in from past universes, and there were also souls and a reincarnation cycle for mortals. However, the Mk 2 gods had no issue in creating life-forms or with souls - the reincarnation cycle appeared mostly there to ensure that the souls of those who had died didn't linger in the world of the living; we had one god create a type of pseudo-soul which spontaneously generated. This implies that sufficiently powerful entities can create souls ex nihilio. This in turn implies that the more powerful Universes (e.g. Mk 2) can become a source of souls for less powerful Universes (e.g. Mk 3). This doesn't answer where the first Universe and gods came from, but that question is beyond the scope of this discussion.

There is a point which is consistent between the two Universes, and that is that souls (in Divinus) are immortal, in the sense that they persist indefinitely in some state after the death of their bodies. Otherwise, barring some kind of intervention, souls would dissipate and vanish some point (possibly immediately) after death and not require an active reincarnation cycle. As you have observed, the 'decay' of souls observed in Mk 3 is not a loss of material but a loss of form.

But why do souls decay? The simplest explanation is, rather than it being an intentional design feature of a higher being, that souls aren't by default indestructible, but they wear from use unless properly maintained. It is a practical limitation rather than an intentional flaw.

Of course, you hit the true answer in saying that all of this is the contrivance of some higher being, namely us players and GMs.

Further, it functions in this way because that is how the Sphere which dictates the function of souls works. Before Cyclone had submitted Katharsos, it would have been perfectly valid for someone else to create a Sphere which had the effect of creating the souls of all living things. But Cyclone got there first, so he got the privilege of dictating how souls work in this setting.

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

In other news, we have some second round draftees to approve.

@Scarifar. You have added some example powers to the Family Portfolio as requested. As such, your character is now accepted. However, I have one question for your consideration: What other Portfolios might Arae go for?

@Lauder. You made the requested changes to Vakk. As such, your character is now accepted.

@Vec. We have tried discussing more abilities to shove into the Great Dark, but as you already have one (being the entire night sky) this is enough. Others can be sorted out later or developed IC. Your character is now accepted.

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

First things first, I support divine essence being a separate thing to souls. This has always been how I've seen it. Divine essence is the 'stuff' which makes gods godly. Gods may or may not also have a soul, as divine essence is traditionally bound to a god's blood (a.k.a. ichor), which is a part of their body. But with divine essence being a separate thing, this resolves many issues of why gods and demigods are special, regardless of the fine details.

On heroes, part of the cost of making a Hero heroic is bolstering their soul with Might, making them immortal.

On soul decay, I propose this: An intact and healthy body inhibits the decay of the resident soul. Stuff like divine essence and the MP invested to make Heroes heroic further reinforces souls against decay to the extent of stopping decay entirely while they are alive. Part of making an immortal species is spending MP on their ability to keep their souls together indefinitely. Ad hoc solutions, such as those available to mortals, do not prevent this fraying, and self-made immortals will need to work to maintain their immortality (e.g. a lich needs to keep consuming souls so as to replenish the part of their soul which frays).

On the death of powerful beings, typically their death is brought about by something which weakens the being to the extent that the being is too weak to not die. At this stage, stripped of power, the being (e.g. god, hero) is likely (although not certainly) too weak to resist the Sky of Pyres.

On what counts as a body, it is whatever you have spent Might on to make as a body for your species.

But now a biggie, finite souls:

Finite souls is a logical consequence of any reincarnation-centric system, otherwise why do souls need to be recycled? Furthermore, finite souls is the central idea of Katharsos' Sphere, so a rejection of this idea is a rejection of the character as a whole.

A finite soul system will require enough souls to fill billions of mortals in the reservoir of souls to not be problematic (because if you try to push that boundary much further, then the planet's natural resources can't sustain the population), or trillions if you count animals. Since souls are not discrete, we do not need a fixed number.

Considering the backlash to the idea of a soul crisis, I think we should ensure that we do have enough souls that natural population growth on Galbar will never deplete the reservoir. In this case, the limited number of souls only becomes an issue if someone attempts to horde billions of souls or the souls stop being recycled, that is, if IC events intentionally try to create a soul crisis. If Cyclone is wise he won't personally instigate a soul crisis. Leave that to the gods whose goals are to consume all of reality (*cough* Anzillu *cough*).

One solution to a potential soul crisis, if someone attempts to cause a soul crisis, is indeed to find a way to create more souls, or find some other system. There is no reason why the characters cannot invest in some new system if they find the current one flawed. However, the system outlined as part of the Sky of Pyres stands as a good status quo. Spheres are malleable, so we can change the status quo via IC actions. Of course, any effort to change the status quo enforced by a Sphere will be a difficult and challenging task, but that only makes for a better story. Players are allowed to get creative, to find ways to work around the limitations of the system their characters find themselves in.

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

The GMs have discussed the matter of how your Spheres start. We have agreed upon the following:

- The Spheres begin featureless - this doesn't necessarily mean they are an empty void, but it precludes any interesting features. At most, you might have a flat barren plain with whatever passes for sky in this Sphere overhead. (P.S. The space above Galbar is empty. If you want celestial bodies visible from Galbar, those need to be created as per the points below.)

- The gods need to spend MP/FP to put features into their Sphere (subject to normal rules for spending MP/FP).

- The baseline price for producing the general broad features is 8 MP, although especially grandiose Spheres require 25 MP.

- More complex and fine details, such as life, require additional expenditure of MP, as normal.

- The influence of the Sphere on Galbar comes for free.

No changes are necessary to the character sheets. The Spheres entry in the character sheets are taken to be part of your plans for Turn 1 (or Turns 1 and 2 for exceptionally expensive Spheres).

Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™!

@Scarescrow I have some comments on Noc and your interpretation of it.

The main issue is that you have come here assuming Earth physics and tried to shoehorn your vision of Noc into a hand-waved version of Earth physics. This is more convoluted than necessary. Noc is a Sphere. As a Sphere, Noc literally defines physics. Noc does not have to obey rules because it creates them.

If you desire Noc to function on the premises of probabilistic quantum mechanics (or its relatives), then have Noc cause probabilistic quantum mechanics. Then you can be more concrete - first you describe quantum, making sure to mention that this is Noc's contribution to the universe. Then you can link that to Noc's supernovae. Or, alternatively, don't explain the mechanism of the supernovae at all and say it just happens, because Spheres are allowed to say it just happens. (Cyclone would probably be happier with this latter one, but I'm a theoretical physicist so I'm cool with the former provided you can actually write it in a coherent manner.)

In terms of the geometry, how I see it is that the part of Noc which intersects Galbar-space is a fraction of an atom thick, while the web-home is sitting out in higher dimensions outside Galbar-space. Aside from the extreme differences in scale, this is a rather standard arrangement for numerous Spheres. How you transition from web-home to Galbar-space is unclear, though, although this is a rather minor point.

@Antarctic Termite, Chopstick Eyes is accepted.