Jb — Roleplayer Guild

The Story So Far...

When the Romans crucified Christ, the son and a piece of Jehovah himself (or herself), it is highly unlikely that they had any concept of what this one act would unleash upon the world, and upon their own way of life. 

For centuries they had worshipped their own gods, held to their own customs, and it would be many years indeed before the followers of Christ would gather enough strength to truly challenge the established order; this was the period when the Greco-Roman gods reigned supreme in the world, those of Egypt hanging on like relics of a past age, those of Assyria, Sumeria and other civilisations of long ago now all but forgotten by mortal kind.

With the and death of Christ this would all change, and the once mighty Olympians would weaken and fade much as their predecessors had done. Many new, more virile and active, deities would come to take their mantles from them - Hades would find himself alongside other gods of Underworld domains, his own territory under threat from a being called 'Satan' and his 'Hell', while the other gods powers slowly dwindled, spluttered and finally died, along with the last true followers of the Old Religions.

By the year 2015 the tri-faced God was all - Jehovah, Yaweh and Allah his names - his servants flitting unseen through the earthly realm and his hand now guiding the fate of mankind.

What of the forgotten pantheons? The Olympians, the gods of the Norse, of the Celtic peoples?

Well, most of them simply faded away, unable to sustain themselves or adapt to a life within the ranks of human kind, while others took on the various guises of mortals over the millennia and lived as those they had once taken sacrifices from. For some this suited them well, though for some their immortal memories were slowly driven out by their chosen identities, some even forgetting that they had once been gods at all. The more powerful beings - Odin, Zeus, Osiris and so on - kept their powers, though greatly diminished, while the lower gods retained only hints of their own once they descended from their lofty positions of erstwhile dominion.

Now something is happening, though exactly what is happening is a mystery - all that is known is that power is once again shifting, or should that be that the grip of God upon the world is weakening? Trouble is stirring in the celestial realms, in the lands that cannot by mortal eyes be seen, as well as on Earth itself.

The Parthenon of Athens has began to 'call' to its former occupants, the gods of Greece (and some of Roma) feeling an urgent pull toward the place, like a beacon in a sea of disorder. It is unlikely that they would be the only ones to feel it, but to them it would be strongest, guiding them away from whatever their lives have become to a new path and destiny for each and - perhaps most important of all - a possible reinvigoration of their powers.

The Setting & Of Gods and Men

Greetings, one and all, to what will be my final 'interest' thread for quite some time.

As you might be able to tell, if you have read the blurb above, we shall be taking the role of deities - of the Greco-Roman pantheon for now - that have come to Earth as their own powers faded due to a lack of both worshipers and general belief.

They will have taken on new lives, new identities, and who knows where they will be now? Ares might have become an Lord of War, while Aphrodite might run her own fashion line and produce the worlds greatest perfume! Yet not all have to be so high-and-mighty, for there are those who may simply be living a normal human life, a god who may just be a dustman in a crowded American city, or one who might be a retired office worker in Europe. 

The choice is your own, really. Just no heads of state, monarchs and so forth, if you please.

Their (your) lives are about to be rudely interrupted, as you begin to feel a pulling toward a homeland you may well have tried to forget, a sudden yearning to return to Greece, but most especially to Athens herself and the Parthenon on the acropolis. Of course, you will have no actual idea why, only that there is something wrong and you need to find out what it is. Once everyone has gathered to the Parthenon, or at least to Athens, I - taking on the role of Hermes, your friendly neighbourhood god of travellers - shall begin the narrative and act as just that, a guide. Where we go and what we do shall ripple the narrative, and I shall be there to make that happen - though I am also open to knowledgable co-GM participation.

If you wish to try your hand at a deity from another pantheon - and I'm specifically stating no judeo-christian or 'modern' religions here - then feel free to ask. I might say no, but if we can arrange the hows and whys and wherefores, then I will probably say yes.

I expect this to be an ongoing narrative, one that I will put my time and effort into and therefore expect the same of any participating writers. That said, I also take quality over quantity, and if you write more paragraphs but filled with terrible writing then we'll have problems. Anyone who does show interest can rest safe knowing that I'll give you all time to write, and that you can do so at your own pace. I might just have to speed things up sometimes.

Now, the fun part; what powers do our characters actually have?

Well, to begin with, pretty much none! They're more-or-less just unaging humans, who can still be injured, but cannot actually...at least as far as is known. However, with the changing of the tides, there is potential for them to regain their former powers and wield them once again. That being said, most will have a sort of godly 'residue', Aphrodite being extremely attractive to most people, Hephaestus being great with his hands and having a limp in his crippled leg, Apollo being an exceptional musician and poet and so on - they just dont have the power to blast people with bolts and the like, not yet.

Can they have families? If you like, yes. However, these families and their own children will not really have any of their abilities or powers, so if Aphrodite had a child they would be far less attractive than their mother, yet still more attractive than a lot of children, or if Ares had a child then they might be quite aggressive and so on and so on.

The older gods, and by that I mean gods that have been 'out of the game' for longer will have mostly no power at all - their worship ceasing to exist even before the birth of the Olympian deities. Think of each pantheon as a 'phase', with the gods of Sumeria coming first, then Assyria, Egypt, Greece and Persia, a couple from Rome (we're going with Jupiter being Zeus in a different aspect, or Minerva being Athena and so forth), then God and the like. Those from the Babylonian pantheon, for example, for be really old, but would have little to no powers left in themselves.

Last few lines now, sorry for the essay.

Powers, and indeed the attitude of your character, will be determined by what the writings say about them - Ares, for one, might be aggressive and warlike, Athena would be level headed and calculating, etc. I've always found theoi.com to be an integral source for this RP.

Lastly, but no leastly, no one can play as the head (or heads) of a pantheon, so no Zeus, no Osiris, no Odin as well as no Hera and the like.

Actually lastly, no characters from modern monotheistic religions; the primary reason for this being that they already have all the power! They are the most worshipped deities/angels/whatever in the modern age. 

So, on that not and with many thanks for your efforts in reading my dross, who would be interested in coming on this adventure with me?
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