Vec

Greetings, everyone!

Welcome to RPGuild! Hope your stay is long, with numerous posts and countless adventures :)

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

@Cmmelody

I understand. So what we have here is NOT a reluctant savior deity who teaches harsh survival lessons out of genuine compassion. What you've described is fundamentally a chaotic, villainous god of beautiful ruin, an entity that finds societal collapse entertaining, views desperate mortals as participants in a spectacle, and enables chaos because the struggle itself is aesthetically pleasing to them.

Yzechr, to me, seem to be a god of desperate chaos and accelerationism. Yet they don't just save the desperate, they radicalize them. They give weapons to people in crisis and then watch, detached and amused, as those people burn down the systems that failed them. If civilization collapses in the process, Yzechr views that as proof it was never worth preserving.

This god doesn't corrupt people out of necessity; they enable mortals to corrupt themselves and find the resulting carnage aesthetically interesting. The "survival" framing is a justification, not the genuine motivation. The real motivation is that Yzechr finds the struggle, the violence, the moral compromises, the descent into darkness, more interesting than peace or prosperity.

That's not a savior you have here but antagonist villain.

I am not averse to villainous gods, not at all. I love the concept, and in general there would not be any stakes if there weren't any villains for the 'good guys' to go against. What I need from you, however, is for you to commit to this role. If you commit to this, I am willing to give you the Chaos domain instead of Corruption, as 'Corruption' implies active degradation, but you've described Yzechr as indifferent to whether mortals become corrupt. They just give tools and watch, which is really not not corruption at its core...that's just indifferent enablement, sadistic detachment (a god who finds apocalypse entertaining is not trying to save people but enabling destruction because they enjoy watching it unfold) or simply Chaos.

As for the Perception domain, I still am not convinced it fits his thematic narrative you've described so far. What do you think about the domain of Desperation or Survival instead? His followers can indeed cry out to him in desperation during their most dire moments, struggling for survival, and he will answer because that is what he does.

What do you think?

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

@Cmmelody I love your clarifications, the fact that you went through the time to post this shows you want to make this work. I have just a couple of questions for you: In the motivation part of your sheet you wrote a small boy interacting with him; does Yzechr care whether the boy kills guards, inmates, or both? Would Yzechr be disappointed if he used the blade only in self-defense versus slaughtering everyone?

Additionally, does Yzechr ever feel regret about what their followers become? Or is it pure pragmatism—survival at any cost, no second thoughts? If every desperate person became a Yzechr worshiper and "fought for survival" by hurting others, society would collapse into endless violence. Does Yzechr see this as a problem, or is chaos the point?

I am asking these to get a better feel on what will be needed IC to best incorporate Yzechr's existence.

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

@ActRaiserTheReturned Also, I feel that you should clarify that these are techniques/schools under one unified Magic framework that can (or cannot) be combined, not three separate metaphysical systems of Magic.

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

@ActRaiserTheReturned I see, I read through the Wikipedia article that you (should have) referred to. Look, I believe the idea that magic involves accessing transcendent Forms to be philosophically rich, immediately distinguishing our setting from "magic is just another energy source". However, I believe that there are wildly different power levels between the three, especially when it comes to Wizardry.

You could flatten the power curve so Wizardry is the most versatile or prestigious rather than objectively superior. There should be a trade-off to "The Wizard becomes more like what they study." Lean into body horror & transcendence. AKA A Wizard of Fire grows feverish, their eyes glow, they stop feeling cold; A Wizard of Stone becomes slow, patient, and literally harder to wound; A Wizard studying the Form of Madness goes insane; A Wizard studying the Form of Death becomes undead. You see where I am going with this, power in exchange for humanity. A master Wizard of three Forms is barely human anymore.

We could equate Forms to be akin to Divine Domains, however exactly because they are not given/bestowed by a deity to the mortal, they are "impure" and "lesser" and as such, they exact a price from the Wizard in order to obtain said power for themselves. This helps with differentiating mortals that gain power from divine patrons and mortals that specifically study magic itself. It gives meaning to e.g. clerics or priests of a deity.

Also, I think you should give each school a domain of excellence: e.g., Alchemy excels at persistent effects (potions last days/weeks), Magick excels at large-scale or group effects, Wizardry excels at precision and speed. This solves the power level debate, as they don't even compete against each other anymore, there are simply different uses for each one and they all excel at what they are intended to do.

There is meat to this idea, but it needs further elaboration and fleshing out in order to find what its limits are.

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

@ActRaiserTheReturned Could you elaborate on what Forms are? I see that your changes make the magic very dependent on these.

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

<Snipped quote by Vec>

To play Devil's Advocate, aren't all the gods appearing at the same time? So if a god of hearing/sight is there with the rest as soon as they all become aware of themselves, then it's not like they've been stumbling around this whole time, yeah? And conversely it's not like if there isn't a god of a specific attribute they'd be lacking in that, right? Like... if nobody made a god of Sound, we couldn't speak in the RP.

@TruthHurts

As I mentioned earlier in this post, during the Foundation Arc of the roleplay, the gods will be able to create/shape any cosmic laws that they might feel they should include into the fabric of reality. After that arc comes to an end, any other basic, fundamental concepts that have not been explored will be assumed to exist and act exactly like in our IRL universe.

I did establish previously that deities can, indeed, sense everything around their true bodies regardless of if a concept of 'perception' would exist or not. I could allow Perception as a domain, if my other problems with the sheet are fixed, such as the general disconnect between the two domains as well as the types of follower Yzechr seems to have.

I would propose, however, that instead of Perception @Cmmelody went with something along the lines of Injustice (perceiving unfair treatment, systemic oppression, betrayal, broken promises, sensing when the innocent are punished or the guilty go free, awareness of inequality, exploitation, and abuse of power, etc).

As for Corruption, It is a staple of the deity roleplay franchise as a whole, so I don't see why you could not take it. Now, how said Corruption would manifest in this setting is really up to how @Cmmelody wants to portray their god and their actions, because corruption can go both ways: it can be equally destructive as it is transformative, depending on how you look at things.

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

<Snipped quote by Vec>

It's perception and corruption. I can edit my entry for less confusion. btw are those domain okay with you?

@Cmmelody

Well, honestly, now that I've had a more thorough look at it, no. Your two domains feel like they're from entirely different deities. Perception (awareness, sight, hearing, sensory truth) has no organic thematic connection to Corruption (moral decay, transformation, degradation). The roleplay example focuses almost exclusively on corruption/temptation—perception barely appears except as flavor text about "hearing cries." Additionally, claiming Yzechr invented sight and hearing is staggeringly huge and creates immediate worldbuilding contradictions. Were all other gods blind and deaf before this one arrived?

"Can hear every crying voice in the world and respond no matter how far away" is a campaign-destroying power level if taken literally. Refer to my addendum about divine omniscience that I posted earlier to understand, in broad terms, the power levels of deities in this setting.

Your motivation says Yzechr wants to protect the damned, but the roleplay example describes them as "the cruelest entity in the realm...who preys on the weak." These are opposite concepts. A predator doesn't protect anyone, it instead consumes everything in its path. If Yzechr is genuinely trying to save people, the framing should reflect that. If Yzechr is cruel and exploitative, own that and adjust the motivation.

Lastly, your list of followers mixes people who make sense (outlaws, outcasts, rebels) with professions that feel totally wrong. Artists? Why would artists worship a corruption deity? Unless you mean desperate artists (starving poets who'd sell their souls for fame), this feels random. Scouts and watchmen? These are often lawful, disciplined professions. Why would they abandon moral principles? The "perception" domain connection is there, but it doesn't fit the corruption angle. A bit of specificity would fix these issues; "Disgraced artists," "exiled scouts," "watchmen who've seen too much and lost faith in the law," are more fitting followers for such a deity.

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

I got this idea for magic from "Masters Of The Five Magicks"
...

@ActRaiserTheReturned

I am not really comfortable with directly pawing/plagiarizing Magic frameworks from other books. I saw that you made come changes but that's just paraphrasing in the end.

Wizardry is the most changed from the original, but that is also in essence just the 'Rune Language' trope, which to be honest I don't mind having in this setting, if you can flesh it out more.

I am also sure that Alchemy and Artifice (which is what the Magick you have described basically is) can also be implemented if you can incorporate them into a new framework that would be unique to this setting.

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

A sample list of Domains to choose from, with some of the things that they could embody (or could be potentially split off into new Domains of their own. There are a few ways for this to happen...)

For anyone who is having difficulties deciding what they want to play as:

• Fire — Flame, heat, destruction, rebirth through burning, passion, forge-work
• Water — Oceans, rivers, flow, adaptability, erosion, life's essence
• Earth — Stone, mountains, stability, endurance, minerals, foundations
• Air — Wind, breath, freedom, change, storms, the intangible
• Death — Endings, decay, the afterlife, mortality, transition, grief
• Life — Growth, birth, vitality, healing, fertility, renewal
• Dreams — Sleep, visions, unconscious mind, prophecy, imagination
• War — Conflict, strategy, violence, glory, discipline, martial prowess
• Peace — Harmony, diplomacy, cease-fires, reconciliation, tranquility
• Forge — Crafting, metalwork, invention, tools, construction, artifice
• Harvest — Agriculture, seasons, abundance, cycles, providence
• Hunt — Tracking, predation, survival, the wild chase, primal instinct
• Knowledge — Wisdom, study, libraries, truth-seeking, enlightenment
• Secrets — Hidden things, mysteries, whispers, forbidden lore, espionage
• Light — Illumination, revelation, hope, purity, the sun, clarity
• Shadow — Darkness, concealment, the unseen, subtlety, dusk and twilight
• Music — Song, rhythm, harmony, artistic expression, emotional resonance
• Language — Words, names, communication, binding oaths, the power of speech
• Storms — Thunder, lightning, tempests, rage, sudden change, cleansing
• Stars — Celestial bodies, navigation, fate, distant beauty, cosmic perspective
• Stone — Permanence, monuments, memory carved in rock, slow strength
• Beasts — Animals, instinct, the natural world, primal nature, wildness
• Madness — Insanity, broken minds, visions beyond reason, divine frenzy
• Love — Affection, desire, bonds, connection, passion, devotion
• Hate — Enmity, grudges, vengeance, spite, destructive emotions
• Contracts — Oaths, agreements, bindings, justice, deals, cosmic law
• Plague — Disease, contagion, rot, pestilence, corruption of flesh
• Healing — Medicine, restoration, mending, recovery, tending wounds
• Travel — Journeys, roads, crossroads, wandering, exploration, migration
• Home — Shelter, hearth, family, belonging, sanctuary, rootedness
• Luck — Fortune, chance, gambling, serendipity, probability, fate's whims
• Memory — Remembrance, history, nostalgia, records, the past preserved
• Oblivion — Forgetting, erasure, the void, nothingness, what never was
• Truth — Honesty, naked reality, exposure, authentication, the undeniable
• Lies — Deception, illusion, manipulation, false faces, twisted reality
• Beauty — Aesthetics, art, desire, perfection, what captivates the eye
• Ugliness — The grotesque, the repulsive, what is shunned, monstrous forms
• ...

The following domains have been restricted due to their penchant for world-breaking shenanigans. We could come to an agreement for a subdomain of these instead of the full thing, and you could work towards merging subdomains to form the higher domain.

Banned/Restricted Domains:

• Time — Moments, duration, aging, memory, inevitability, temporal flow
• Chaos — Entropy, unpredictability, madness, freedom from order, wild chance
• Order — Law, structure, hierarchy, patterns, cosmic balance, regulation