I feel Law and Order are inextricably tied, so there will probably be some overlap; Law is the means by which Order is established in civilization. Would a blessing along the lines of like, "All followers share HP and MP" be acceptable?
Right now, no. Feels like the sorta thing where you just end up turning individuals into walking magical nuclear bombs, and HP is too nebulous a concept to be used as part of one's Divine Protection. Would it be like, if you get stabbed, the knife only goes 1/10th the way because everyone else gets 1/10th stabbed?
Leave the actual physical transformation for the future though. Right now, everyone is still largely unchanged by their shifted status, so Almagest will still physically be human. Ofc, he won't be dead and, outside of having lost one eye and part of his brain replaced by a space rock, would be relatively healthy for his age, but dude'll be an old man for a good while still.
Divine Protection sounds good to me. And here's the template for the Paladin.
[Character Image] Name [Tier 1 Paladin] [Job Title (usually two words. Can change over successive Tiers)] [Single paragraph description of their personality, ideals, and backstory.] Skills One skill associated with either their Job, the Domain they serve, or a combination of both. Grades STR - I | END - I | DEX - I | AGI - I | MAG - I
Lilim [Tier 1 Paladin] [Chain Sorceror]
Bro was a former sorcerer-student who ended up fucking up a ritual and summoning something he shouldn't have. Now that something owns his soul, and he sought out the help of lotsa people to try to avoid eternal servitude. Only one, some suspicious weirdo called Okyuta, actually had a solution that seemed like it has merit though: just marry that something and gain an equal relationship with them that way. Now, he fights under the banner of the Domain of Marriage, in hopes of becoming a man worthy of that something's hand in marriage.
Dude kinda went nuts.
Skills
Bridal Bridle - Better at holding down individuals with restraint spells.
Grades STR - I | END - I | DEX - I | AGI - I | MAG - I
The sheet mentions races. Is it just human? What races live in this land?
Any kind of anime humanoid race, basically. I generally don’t mind whatever you go for, so long as you don’t go for something like “Red Adult Dragon” just for the purposes of gaming.
Ok cool. By party magic, I mean magic that boosts like an adventuring party, magical synergy, etc., since a big part of what makes the Law work is organization and the assignment of specific roles and responsibilities. So real RPG mechanic stuff, but in magic form.
Party-wide buffs work fine for magic. Something that benefits people if they stay in a delegated role seems like a meaningful Divine Protection down the road. Also feels less Law and more Order though, the way you’re talking about it.
I can work with that, ye. Will just mean less OOC planning between other players and you, which may not be too big of a problem depending on how things shake out.
I'm thinking aspect of Law. Would you allow "soft magic" or "geas"-type magic like magically binding contracts or "party magic"?
Dunno what you mean by party magic, but yeah, I'm fine with contract magic being a thing. It'll probably be less a spell that you cast and more of an item that you create though.
[Character Image] Name Race | Age | Gender | Height | Weight 0th Circle | Domain
[Insert basically whatever parts of their backstory matters for you, in terms of expressing their personality, the situation behind becoming Ichor-Blessed, and what they left behind in traveling to Oratorio. Three or so paragraphs will suffice, but cook more if you want.]
Divine Protection of [Domain] At the 0th Circle, you get one passive effect that all your followers benefit from. Try not to word things in an overtly mechanical or numerical way. Examples would be...
Domain of Travel - Walks faster, gets less tired. Domain of Fire - Better at managing the heat of small fires. Domain of Goats - Can imitate goat bleats more accurately. Domain of GOATs - More likely to receive upvotes on the Internet.
I'll be working to modulate these over time. For the purposes of planning, the maximum you'll have in the very, very distant endgame would be 10 different passives, at least through natural means.
Starting Benefit This should ideally tie in with your character's story in one way or the other. Pick one of the below.
Starting Capital - 300 Wealth. The trip to Oratorio was expensive, but you made it with a fat purse leftover. Band of Brothers - 5 Followers. Those you met on the way were moved or manipulated by you to joining your cause. Treasured Companion - 1 Paladin. You've granted your grace upon someone whom you trust deeply. An Old Bond - 1 Market Stall. [Property] Your family knew someone who moved to Oratorio before, and they've done you a kindness upon your arrival. Origin Relic - 1 Low-Level Artifact. Some potency remains yet in the relic that granted you a fragment of the Thousand-Faced God, and you've taken it with you. Adventurer's Kit - 5 Supplies, 5 Gear, 5 Medicine [Resources] You've always wanted to be an Adventurer in Oratorio, and had prepared for this long before you became Ichor-Blessed.
Okyuta
Human | 19 y/o | Male | 5'9 | 128 lbs 0th Circle | Marriage
He was just a little guy in a small town.
Then his childhood friend gave him a ring.
WHAMMO, life transformed forever! Married and Godlike, how great!
Alas, the way to Oratorio was a dangerous one, and his fiancee was run over by a bull.
Good thing the Ring still has enough juice in it to do cool stuff!
0th Circle Ichor-Blessed
Ichor: 0 Wealth: 0 Followers: 0 Resources: None. Artifacts: Ring of Yearning [Tier 1] - A ring that allows the wearer to see a phantom of their loved one when under stress. Property: None.
Divine Protection of Marriage
Bond-Forming Memories - If in a relationship, both Followers have a propensity towards remembering the good times and forgetting the bad times.
Starting Benefit
Origin Relic - 1 Low-Level Artifact. Some potency remains yet in the relic that granted you a fragment of the Thousand-Faced God, and you've taken it with you.
I’m thinking Hunger as a domain. Not sure if I want that as physically eating things, tearing the energy from things to feed a metaphysical hole within him or like the drive to do better and want more. Got a bit to work out.
Ah, one letter away from being a little girl. That's fine with me. A cruel god for a cruel age huhuhu.
Hello, I'm interested in this and would like to reserve ancestral reverence if that is good with you.
Seems both a bit specific and a bit vague. If you revere your ancestors, wouldn't it just be like...the Domain of Praying to X? What kind of passive bonus would one receive for being a follower of Ancestral Reverence?
Hello, hello.
I am, predictably, here for the Domain of Wealth. Then again, there are other potentials. Domain of Servants. Domain of Ichor-- well, the other kind.
Sounds good. I'll probably get the basic template up after a few more interested folks poke their head in while debating the pros and cons of learning some Google Sheets wizardry.
Which reminds me.
@Zeroth@Estylwen If this interests you and y'all got the time for it, it'll be nice to have more opportunities to RP with y'all.
1. I get the feeling of anime battle school genre from this, so I'd lean towards the PCs being teenagers. By the time they're adults, it feels like they'd be out in the world doing noble shenanigans rather than just doing more schooling, really.
2. I have a whole buncha systems that I've tried out in the past. A D20 is pretty high variance from my perspective; the 2d6 systems that are more common in Japanese TTRPGs are generally more stable. If you want to push a bit further, you could introduce a stats system too.
3. In an RP I'm currently, I basically had every PC create three or so NPCs that had some tangential relationship with their character. If you apply it here, it'd be easier to generate the NPC pairs and also make the school actually feel like a school where we at least kinda know everything. Allows for more simulated drama as well.
4. Slice of Life school hijinks don't make much sense for Nobles and their Knights. I'd say that we can have low-stakes competitions and shenanigans to start, but there should be a gradual ramp-up of drama and conflicts. Shadow governments, revolutions, etc.
5. From a purely RP perspective, I feel like it'd make more sense for Nobles and Knights to fight together in Duels. Like, Nobles provide support magic and offensive ranged attacks, while Knights serve as frontline combatants that protect their Nobles. The concept of the Duels isn't to prove that you're a stronger Knight, but rather that you're a Knight who's more capable of protecting your Noble from danger. So the win-con would be inflicting an injury on the enemy Noble, rather than just beating the enemy Knight. Nobles probably have something like a magical barrier cast upon them by the overseeing professor, so they don't risk actual injury.
6. Off the top of my head, Hoshimi Junna and Tendo Maya from Revue Starlight are easy favs of mine. Recent favorite would be Takamatsu Tomori from Bang Dream Its MyGo!!!!! too.
Oh hey, this looks cool, sounds cool, overall very cool.
Regarding Domains, on a scale from War to Table Corners, how hipster is the Domain of Stars / Celestial Bodies?
Treat the Stars as specks of light in the night sky rather than Suns from unfashionable distances away, and it works out for me. Extra funny to be star-aligned when God was killed by one huhuhu.
I am very interested in this and how does having a Domain of Souls sound?
Souls are viable, though obviously on the strong end of things once you get up there in terms of advancement. I’m good with it though. Lotsa scamming material with that. This world probably functions more with cycles of reincarnation than with afterlives n all.
The Thousand-Faced God was slain by the Perishing Star, and with their death, their divinity spilled out to the world, granting unto mortals the gift of magic. At the same time, the lance that slew such a deity pierced into the very heart of the planet, rotting it from within. From that hole, that Abyss, monsters rose, wrecking havoc throughout the lands.
Thus, the Godless Era began.
Civilization became patchwork as monsters infested the lands, cities and villages connected only by adventurers and merchants’ guilds. Few nations can boast a dominion over anything beyond what the eye can see, and with the fall of the divine came the end of divine mandates. Revolutions sparked by the arcane gift ended dynasties or caused the tyrant’s fist to tighten into a chokehold. Meanwhile, the city-state of Oratorio stands at the forefront of the Abyss, having built great walls around the giant hole to block off any monsters that may climb out from the labyrinthian structure that remained after the lance’s exterior had crumbled away.
Explorers plunge into its depths in search of great treasures, or to simply hunt the monsters within for their body parts, dense as monstrous flesh is in arcane power. It is this double-edged sword that had made Oratorio the powerhouse of a city-state that it currently is. But the monsters of the deeper layers can only be driven back, not slain, and the capability of the mortals remain limited still.
You, however, are different.
You possess a Spark within you. A single aspect of the Thousand-Faced God has been grafted upon your soul by fortune and fate, and it is in following the pull of the Spark that you’ve ended up in Oratorio. For within the Abyss, there is one more thing that can be found: Ichor, the radiance that kindles the Spark, that furthers your divine power.
Your blessing grants Divine Protection upon those who pledge to follow you.
Your favour grants Grace upon those whom you see fit to become your champions, allowing them to surpass the limits of their mortal forms.
Your presence grants Miracles subtle and overt, expressing a supernatural influence over the world in the absence of its God.
Through this sublime capability, gather followers and allies, capital and Ichor. Extend your domain and plunge into the depths. Be the guiding hand that grants glory and immortality to your paladins. Until the Spark becomes an Inferno and you claim that empty Throne. Until the End comes once more, and the Perishing Star arrives to claim the heart of another Divine.
But know too, that until you Ascend, you remain mortal.
And the Spark within your soul can be stolen by another still.
Mortals whom, through a twist of fate or the clattering of dice, have encountered a relic possessing a fragment of the Thousand-Faced God. That fragment, that Spark, had transferred from the relic into their soul, grafting upon it the gift of a singular divine domain, the aspect in which their powers manifest.
The Domain of Wealth may grant business acumen and a propensity for uncovering treasures.
The Domain of War may grant tactical and strategic genius and the ability to seize the hearts of warriors.
The Domain of Water may grant the ability to read the waves and the clouds, to uncover wells in deserts.
Through this instilled divinity, one can share such blessings with followers. One can fragment their divinity to raise Paladins. Ichor strengthens your Spark, while Grace weakens it. Miracles alter the world, while Divine Protection safeguards your flock. Through hard work, your following will grow, granting you the ability to ascend further as an Ichor-Blessed.
But though your Paladins may be individuals possessing unnatural power, though you yourself may move the clouds with a wave of your hands or command armies numbering in the thousands, do not forget.
The easiest way to ascend as an Ichor-Blessed is not by gradually gathering Ichor from the Abyss or from your followers' Offerings, but by ripping it out from the beating hearts of your rivals.
Mortals who have bound their lives to serving an Ichor-Blessed. A fragment of a Spark serves to ignite their soul, and from that point onwards, they have the potential to become heroes. The proof of their deeds is seared upon their back, and they possess Skills that grant them an advantage over unmarked mortals, Skills born from the legends that they had craft for themselves.
Most importantly, however, Paladins universally gain more strength from overcoming trials and tribulations. So long as they survive, so long as they’re successful in their endeavors, greater deeds are ascribed to them, and greater Grace can be bestowed upon them. Their potential is crystallized by hardship and the Ichor-Blessed’s will, until they truly are heroes.
Zealous loyalty, however, is not part of the relationship between the Paladin and the Ichor-Blessed. Though the Ichor-Blessed possesses the ability to sever their connection to a Paladin, fundamentally rendering the Grace within them inert, Grace, once given, can not be retrieved.
Thus, it is a dangerous thing for an Ichor-Blessed to manufacture terrible trials too overtly for their Paladins to oppose, no matter how much character can be built through suffering.
It is at once a city and at once a fortress, the frontier and the capital. Great walls surround the Abyss, that labyrinth formed from a god-slaying spear, but perhaps greater darkness lingers within the city itself. No king rules Oratorio, only a coalition of guilds, organizations, academies, and gangs, and with neither law nor order, the rules that govern the city fluctuate from block to block and are too-often a mutable thing.
So long as you have either strength or money, you may act as you wish.
So long as you have neither, you’ll be nothing more than a cog for another.
Great disparities persist on all levels and Oratorio is a cesspool of brewing tensions, prevented from breaking out into open warfare only by the knowledge that the first to draw their sword may very well be charged at by all sides and swallowed whole. And yet, people still travel to the city, still dream of the heights they can rise. For within this merciless meritocracy, a lucky break can send you to heights you’ve never dreamed of. And if you fail? Well, the worse that can happen to you is still only death.
As the Ichor-Blessed enter this city though, whether to start their own following within the backstreets or to seek out existing guilds to join and then coup, it is inevitable that Oratorio will change.
Trying something outta the norm for me this time around, inspired by Danmachi, Honkai Star Rail, and a touch of Revue Starlight.
Basically, players will play as Ichor-Blessed individuals for the purposes of starting up factions, gathering power and Paladins, before using that power to explore the Abyss and/or deepen your Divinity. At the start, you'll basically be not all that different from a common mortal, outside of having access to strange powers that do not stem from magic as other mortals understand it. So ya gotta scheme and strategize your way to the top, while either managing alliances with other players or trying to subvert and consume them. There'll definitely be the possibility of PvP as a result, but it'd be good if none of y'all starting griefing off the bat.
There will be a dice system in place, and a buncha resources to manage. I'll be doing the calculations in private most of the time, so don't worry about having to learn it. What I will need of you, though, is to be relatively active on Discord, which will serve as the OOC, and to post at least once a week in the IC (unless I give you an exemption). Discord participation is particularly important, because IC negotiations will probably be handled via collabs, or it'll take way too long.
If you've got questions, hit me up. If you want to immediate claim a Domain, feel free to slap it down here as well. I personally prefer interesting Domains rather than the usual shenanigans of War, Storms, etc. The Thousand-Faced God has a thousand faces, so why pick the basic ones?
Also, I guess character creation will be kinda involved too, and you'll end up at least doing a mini-CS for every Paladin your Ichor-Blessed promotes, so, ya know. Don't join if you don't like thinking up characters.
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