Rekkuza

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

@Vec That's true, we might be getting a bit ahead of ourselves here haha, we've got plenty of time to think it over

@Theyra I would also like to add that while Khthon is of the Earth Domain, his thing isn't really mountains, or fertile soil, or deserts, or really anything under the sky. He's a subterranean God, and his focus is on the deep Earth, caverns, ore, gems, and other minerals. So I really don't mind relinquishing Sand to you if that's what calls to you the most.

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

I've been thinking, if we don't have a God of Death, but we do have both psychopomp Goddess of War and a potential God of Spirits (which would encompass/be adjacent to souls I feel), maybe instead of having a stationary, permanent afterlife, we could work with a reincarnation system. When the body dies, since there's no afterlife in the absence of a God of Death, the soul sheds its old life, is guided by a psychopomp (Goddess of War or another) and goes to inhabit a new body.

It would also open an interesting dichotomy between body and soul. Something something like Life shapes the body and gives the soul a physical form, while Spirit is the spark of intelligence, the emotions and the will that animates it.

Just kinda throwing out ideas here, its not my decision in the end, I just love me some worldbuilding haha

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

Khthon, God of the Depths

Khthon, God of the Depths

Concept:

With a mastery over the Domains of Earth and Secrets, Khthon is the embodiment of the Earth's dark depths, and their many treasures. While most Gods turned their gazes outwards once they awakened, Khthon turned his downwards, seeing a refuge in the black sand that made up their newborn world. He dug down, deep down, leaving the surface and the light far behind, and carved himself a solitary, hidden spot, which he soon filled with precious gems, veins of glittering ore, and deep, silent caverns.

He jealously guards his treasures. Though he is willing share if shown proper respect, whomever attempts to rip away more than what is given will face his wrath. Those who pray to him are often those hoping to find a share of buried treasure, those daring enough to become spelunkers, or those hoping to bury their own secrets for safekeeping...

Appearance:

One who gazes upon Khthon's form might think him an unfinished sculpture. A rough chunk of greyish stone makes up most of his body, with the top half roughly shaped like an armless humanoid torso. His face and expression are much more delicately sculpted, though the proportions are still a bit unnatural. His eyes are completely missing: for what good are eyes in a realm which light never touches? Those who manage to look past the light coat of soil covering him will noticed the many thin veins of quartz, gold and copper crisscrossing over his form.

Khthon's true form is malleable in shape, though always mineral in nature and always lacking eyes, but this one is the form he favors, since Mortals seem to more easily recognize him when he doesn't look like a boulder.

Motivation:

Khthon cares little for what other Gods and Mortals desire, or any foolish notions such as "Good" or "Evil". He cares most for one thing, and one thing only: protecting what is his. One might think, what does a single jewel or a single ore vein mean to a being as powerful as a God? And one would be somewhat right: it is not a matter of quantity, for Khthon could always create more. It is... a matter of principle.

Khthon has answered your prayers, and offered you bounties aplenty, and yet you wish to tear at his realm to take more than is deserved. Khthon was given secrets as offerings, and the bones of mortals were laid to rest in his embrace, and yet you thoughtlessly wish to rip them away. You take and take, without ever giving in return. Such arrogance shall not go unpunished.

Roleplay Example:

Khthon observed as the Mortals, "miners" he believes they called this kind, knelt in silence before his cavern. They had decorated the entrance with colorful glass trinkets, small soapstone carvings, and flower garlands. He could feel their nervous energy as they prayed and whispered promises of offerings. Gold, gold, gold, they repeated in their devotion.

Mortals truly loved gold, that much Khthon knew well. They wished for it at almost any opportunity. They wore it and traded it, set the gems he gave them within it, and even, though very rarely, ate it, though for what reason, he could not fathom. Still, despite their strange ways, Khthon had to admit that he could appreciate the Mortals' craftsmanship: the jewelry and coins they buried with their dead as funerary offerings were amongst his favorite treasures.

The miners rose as they finished praying. Khthon was pleased: they would find their gold today.

Availability:

Once or twice a week during the end of semester, more during winter break.

Experience:

I'm honestly pretty new to PbP! I've done it a tiny bit on an unrelated site about a decade ago, and I've played plenty of TTRPGs, but I've only been on here for like a year. I've still not got much experience, since sadly most of the games I'd joined had to stop pretty quick for one reason or another (not the fault of anyone involved, things just don't work out sometimes).

Minor Creations

- The Eversharp Axe: A supernaturally durable, prehistoric flint axe head whose sharpness rivals that of steel. Will never lose its edge unless fully destroyed.
- The Subterranean Seas: A vast network of flooded caves and underground saltwater lakes, into which the primordial ocean was drained. Though their creation wrecked devastation on the existing marine life, it still manages to persist underground.

The Sabulon

The sabulo (plural: sabulon), or sand folk

The sabulon are fully mineral, modular, nonliving, yet still conscious hive-minds. They have been created with a purpose: to roam the world, to witness, to learn, and to remember. Just like how stone is eternal, yet ever changing, the Sabulon will persist forever, but never be the same twice. They're kinda like a "living" ship of Theseus, in a way, or if every cell in a human body could survive alone, but still form into a fully thinking human.

What do they look like?

A single sabulo is visually identical to a minuscule grain of sand, and only differs by its ability to move independently, seek its brethren, and the fact that it carries the smallest spark of awareness. A single sabulo is not sentient, or conscious, or thinking. It can only feel and react to its surrounding, similar to bacteria.

A mass of sabulon's form is fluid as long as they are sand, and can take whatever shape they wish, as long as it does not exceed their total mass or volume, of course. They have no sight, sense of smell, taste, or any standard biological sense. They instead sense their environment through thermal radiation (think pit vipers sensing heat, but with a different mechanism at its core), vibrations (which lets them approximate hearing), proprioception, and electromagnetic fields. They communicate using these same sense, and can emit weak electromagnetic fields for that purpose.

Sometimes, a mass of sabulon can solidify into a sedimentary rock, either through voluntary action or environmental conditions. This does not harm the sabulon at all, but does make them unable to shift their shape or break their bond as easily, "freezing" them into certain configurations. The same would happen if they ever were to melt and be remade into igneous rocks or glass. Once the rock or glass is broken or eroded back into sand, they will regain their former fluidity and mobility.

How the heck do their minds work?

When a sabulo manages to find others of its kind, something incredible happens. They merge into a larger sand mass, and combine their potential into a larger, more complex mind. Though each individual sabulo is still fully non-sentient, the collective as a whole starts being able to remember things, and even learn. What they learn is then stored as a kind of "data" in individual sabulo, and can then be innately known by future collectives. The larger the collective, the more intelligent it is.

When hundreds of thousands of sabulon combine together, they can achieve true sapience. A personality will develop, with preferences, dislikes, memories, and all other things that individuality entails. For the sabulon, individuality is only possible through the collective, and conscious collectives intrinsically understand that for them, the conscious "I" is an emergent phenomenon created by the unconscious "we".

This peculiar way of being permits two sapient sabulon collectives that meet to exchange some of their sand with each other, letting them share information and memories, or even fully merge into one larger collective. Such exchanges will almost always change their personality to various degree: "they" as an individual were always the sum of their parts. Change the parts, and you change the individual, though their experience will remain continuous (basically they don't act like newborns or like they just appeared out of nowhere) and if they have been given a name, they will generally keep it out of convenience.

This also means that conscious collectives do not fear scattering and the loss of their current individuality. Their "self" is already constantly changing, destroyed and replaced by something new. It is a natural part of their existence, and individual sabulon will eventually form new collectives, new individuals, bringing with them data and fragments of knowledge preserved from their previous experiences.

What do you mean, they're not alive?

Life is a biological process. The sabulon are fully mineral, with not a trace of organic material. This means that they do not breathe, eat, grow, reproduce, excrete, age... In short, they are nonliving. And since they are not alive, it also means that they cannot die. The closest thing to death to them would be the scattering or modification of a conscious hive-mind, which destroys the original personality, something they already do not fear in the slightest.

To truly destroy a sabulo would be to fully erase the matter that forms it from the world, as if it never existed, which is something no natural force is currently capable of doing. The Divine, however, is another story...

Aside: Sleep and the Dreamscape

Individual sabulon will take turns entering a kind of "dozing" or "resting" modes inside a collective, akin to sleep. This means that while the collective would almost never become fully inactive, bar outside interference or exceptional circumstances, there is always some sabulon "sleeping". These "sleeping" sabulon can access the Dreamscape as any other ordinary dreamer, but will not do so as a collective, but as non-sapient single sabulon.

They still keep their ability to form sapient hive-minds, however, and will do so if they meet enough of their kind in the Dreamscape. This means that some conscious collectives spend their entire existence in the Dreamscape, never knowing the real material world. Their experiences can in turn influence the collectives that individual sabulon are part of in the waking world.

Aside: The Singularity

If every single sabulo join in one single collective, they form a Singularity. The Singularity is sentient and sapient, but does not display individuality in the way that smaller sapient collectives would. With so much raw mental power accumulated in one place, the Singularity is closest to a kind of thinking supercomputer, and has the ability to think in multiple concurrent threads. Anything the Singularity is made to learn would also be conserved for every individual Sabulo afterwards, which makes it the fastest way to teach the entire species things, since you do not have to wait for the knowledge to disperse.

Thankfully, the sabulon do not seem to have any interest in forming the Singularity by themselves. It would bind them to one place, which goes against their nature. Grave circumstances could however shift their opinion...

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

<Snipped quote by Rekkuza>

Adding on to this, I think we also don't have gods whose domain is in wind, sun, moon, nature (tho the life giving gods will probably do), and death (this world still lacking a death system too)

@Cmmelody

War, or Sleep and Oblivion, could fill the role of Death in a pinch, and Sky could cover Wind. As for the Moon (and/or Night and/or Darkness, they're all kind of connected in a way), my guess is that by having a God affiliated with Light could take care of that by opposing it (like if Light's a thing, by necessity there must be Darkness, since something cannot exist without the acknowledging the possibility of its absence, even if it's not a specific God's Domain, y'know? Same could be said with Life and Death I suppose.)

We're obviously not going to fill every single Domain or niche, but I think with enough creativity, cooperation, and diversity in our Domains, we can take care of everything we'd need to make a functioning world.

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

If you're looking for suggestions, then I guess we still don't have any life-giving gods, or any water, fire, light or artistic gods either for that matter.

All of this to say that there's a few niches to choose from.

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

@ActRaiserTheReturned Even if there does end up being a Discord, we'll still need an OOC and IC thread on here.

Better keep it as much on this site as possible too in my experience, makes it easier to both archive stuff that happens, and for prospective players to know what's going on.

That last part's just my opinion tho

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

@Vec For the secrets things, I was thinking around the lines that when people wished to hide things or make them disappear, whether physical evidence or knowledge they wanted to remain secret, they could give it to Khthon and he would keep it hidden. So like, his thing would be hidden wealth and storing secrets, and to a lesser extant hidden truths and forgotten knowledge. He can't control who discovers secret knowledge in general, only the secrets he specifically protects. I also really like the idea of him being able to hear all secrets whispered underground. Before Mortals come around, he'd probably use the Secrets Domain to hide himself and his treasures from the other Gods when he doesn't feel like dealing with them.

For offerings, most things would work if done sincerely. Like mentioned in my cs, Khthon doesn't really need more valuables (though he certainly likes them anyways! Mortal craftsmanship is surprisingly lovely). A peasant uttering a sincere prayer could be more than enough for him, while he'd expect a king to make some more efforts. The more you give, the more you will receive in exchange.

For physical offerings, he has a particular fondness for gems and metals, especially when Mortals have crafted them into intricate tools, coins or jewelry, as well as stone sculptures, glass trinkets, fossils, and bone ornaments. Precious things that do not decay. He does not care for food and drink, nor for live sacrifices. He prefers his prayers and ceremonies to be silent, rather than loud or boisterous.

Some examples: Miners praying to find ore before going down in the mine for their shift would be a proper offering, and so would be burying some jewelry or small sculptures with a deceased loved one and asking for their grave to be protected. Explorers going spelunking can leave some of their wealth in the caverns they explore to ask for protection while within Khthon's domain, and someone trying to hide evidence (or bury treasure for safekeeping) could bury some coins along what needs to disappear so that it never surfaces again. As long as the physical offerings are placed within his domain (so underground in some way) then he can receive them.

If no offerings are made, then no boon will be granted: hidden things can be discovered, no protection will be given, ore will remain hidden, and buried treasures might be claimed by the God and never again be found by the one who hid it.

Taking more than his given is something done with intent. A miner mining the entirety of a gold vein he found in a cave or a tunnel would be fine, especially if he prayed first. If that gold vein was that easy to find, it was probably meant to be found. What is not fine would be doing stuff like aggressively blasting to try and extract just a bit more ore, grave robbing for the valuables that were buried with the dead (Khthon considers them within his domain, and so the valuables are his now), or desecrating and destroying his caverns, and any life that might dwell within them, for any reason at all (visiting and exploring is fine, just don't damage them).

Above all, the selfishness of taking and destroying without asking first or giving back is what he abhors the most.

I hope that clarifies what I'm going for with the Secrets Domain! I feel like I might a gone a bit overboard haha
If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask ^_^

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

Khthon, God of the Depths

Khthon, God of the Depths

Concept:

With a mastery over the Domains of Earth and Secrets, Khthon is the embodiment of the Earth's dark depths, and their many treasures. While most Gods turned their gazes outwards once they awakened, Khthon turned his downwards, seeing a refuge in the black sand that made up their newborn world. He dug down, deep down, leaving the surface and the light far behind, and carved himself a solitary, hidden spot, which he soon filled with precious gems, veins of glittering ore, and deep, silent caverns.

He jealously guards his treasures. Though he is willing share if shown proper respect, whomever attempts to rip away more than what is given will face his wrath. Those who pray to him are often those hoping to find a share of buried treasure, those daring enough to become spelunkers, or those hoping to bury their own secrets for safekeeping...

Appearance:

One who gazes upon Khthon's form might think him an unfinished sculpture. A rough chunk of greyish stone makes up most of his body, with the top half roughly shaped like an armless humanoid torso. His face and expression are much more delicately sculpted, though the proportions are still a bit unnatural. His eyes are completely missing: for what good are eyes in a realm which light never touches? Those who manage to look past the light coat of soil covering him will noticed the many thin veins of quartz, gold and copper crisscrossing over his form.

Khthon's true form is malleable in shape, though always mineral in nature and always lacking eyes, but this one is the form he favors, since Mortals seem to more easily recognize him when he doesn't look like a boulder.

Motivation:

Khthon cares little for what other Gods and Mortals desire, or any foolish notions such as "Good" or "Evil". He cares most for one thing, and one thing only: protecting what is his. One might think, what does a single jewel or a single ore vein mean to a being as powerful as a God? And one would be somewhat right: it is not a matter of quantity, for Khthon could always create more. It is... a matter of principle.

Khthon has answered your prayers, and offered you bounties aplenty, and yet you wish to tear at his realm to take more than is deserved. Khthon was given secrets as offerings, and the bones of mortals were laid to rest in his embrace, and yet you thoughtlessly wish to rip them away. You take and take, without ever giving in return. Such arrogance shall not go unpunished.

Roleplay Example:

Khthon observed as the Mortals, "miners" he believes they called this kind, knelt in silence before his cavern. They had decorated the entrance with colorful glass trinkets, small soapstone carvings, and flower garlands. He could feel their nervous energy as they prayed and whispered promises of offerings. Gold, gold, gold, they repeated in their devotion.

Mortals truly loved gold, that much Khthon knew well. They wished for it at almost any opportunity. They wore it and traded it, set the gems he gave them within it, and even, though very rarely, ate it, though for what reason, he could not fathom. Still, despite their strange ways, Khthon had to admit that he could appreciate the Mortals' craftsmanship: the jewelry and coins they buried with their dead as funerary offerings were amongst his favorite treasures.

The miners rose as they finished praying. Khthon was pleased: they would find their gold today.

Availability:

Once or twice a week during the end of semester, more during winter break.

Experience:

I'm honestly pretty new to PbP! I've done it a tiny bit on an unrelated site about a decade ago, and I've played plenty of TTRPGs, but I've only been on here for like a year. I've still not got much experience, since sadly most of the games I'd joined had to stop pretty quick for one reason or another (not the fault of anyone involved, things just don't work out sometimes).

Finished my character! It was a good excuse to whip out the charcoal again too, so that was fun (pls ignore my complete lack of understanding of anatomy, I usually only draw landscapes, so I never learned how to draw people lol. Just think of it as Khthon not really knowing how to look convincingly human ig)

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

Very very interested! Got an idea for an Earth and Secret domain deity centered around the underground, deep caverns, gems and ores, a bit inspired by chthonic deities if you get my vibe. Will try to post my application later tonight, if I've got time (it will be up tomorrow at the latest).

"Who wants to rule the world?" Roleplay about evil geniuses fighting superheroes, but with meta-jokes.

Oooooh, I absolutely LOVE this concept! You can count me in! ^_^

I've even got a character concept already. I can see it, some kind of scientist struggling to get government research to continue his otherwise perfectly harmless research, so he and their lab assistants resort to less legal means of funds acquisition. Like this is a "your uncharismatic middle-aged neighbour and a bunch of undergrad students work together to dress him up in Spirit Halloween costumes and rob banks" level of supervillainy, except they're actually really competent at it and manage to pull it off, and then it just kinda grew from there.

I can also always go for a more traditional evil genius if you'd prefer, of course. There's a ton of excellent material there as well :)