World Creation Superdraft 4: May 2020

[L. Marcus]

Dragons ...

 

The thing about dragons, is that dragons are all about power. Power, domination, wealth, any kind of one-up-manship -- you name it, they want a piece. Freedom, fraternity, equality? Bah! That's for those who can't make their own way.

 

A wise man once said that the closest concept in a dragon's mind to "a friend" is an enemy who yet lives.

 

That mindset is the only thing that dragons are alike in, though. Their body plans are all over the place -- four limbs, six limbs, two limbs, no limbs. Wings or no wings. Bulky or slim. Scale or fur or some kind of fluffy down. Horns, antlers, spikes all over like you wouldn't believe. Pocket size or lumbering mountains. Variety is the spice of life, eh?

 

Oh -- another thing that most dragons have in common are a severe case of weaponized halitosis. But the kind of breath varies between dragons, too. Fire, wind, poison, pure cold -- if it's harmful, some dragon somewhere will spew it. I heard tell about this one dragon from the turn below, a big old one, a hundred feet long, two hundred feet between the wingtips, clothed in steel scales ... Its breath was a gas that made people laugh themselves silly. Poor dragon got no respect.

[death tribble]

Thanks.

 

Now if Shayol wants to mess with them, he knows what he is up against

[DShomshak]

4 hours ago, death tribble said:

I am a little confused. To put it simply is DShomshak saying that Winter is the Interference ?

 

Ah -- to put it in brief, Winter is Kilvn's Interference, because it's implemented as a modification of the Integral Tree. It also trespasses a bit on Liminus' domain of Time by defining what a year is in this world without a sun, but that's secondary.

 

I hope Csyphrett will enjoy the image of the Integral Tree creating winter through big blossoms of ice. Maybe this is how the Tree cre4ates all the seasons, each season with its own flower. And these do not need to be limited to the seasons we have on Earth!

 

Dean Shomshak

[Cancer]

Man, you other gods are making this easy to get lots and lots of worship from the mortals.  What they want most?  Money.  Check.  What do they want second most?  Food ... nope, no check. 

 

So, Nogrom proclaims another of Our secondary domains, to keep Us most prominent in the attentions of Our adherents.

 

Secondary domain: Agriculture, crops, fertility of harvest, etc.

 

Yes, I'll respect others' domains about seasons, etc.  There are crops that need a good winter to ripen (or germinate) properly, for example.  Ditto fire.

[L. Marcus]

Having Dragons around does not make for an easy life.

 

Once a generation, each turn of the Helix sees the ascendancy of a Dragonslayer; a mortal gifted with the powers of a demi-god, for the protection of the nations of the world. A hero, of whatever mortal race, born out of desperate need, fostered by calamity, strong enough to rend stone with their hands and hardy enough to take an ax blow and smile at it, commanding the very elements as weapons against Dragon-kin.

 

Thus, Liminus sets Dragons to keep the mortals in check, and Dragonslayers to keep the dragons from devouring the world.

 

Liminus picks his Guardian: Dragonslayer!

[death tribble]

Well there is a turn up for the books.

 

L Marcus and Psybolt have both been favoured by the percentile dice and thus have another choice each.

 

i rolled for each choice made. And I got 2 00s.

[L. Marcus]

Ooo, should've saved those dice rolls for Rolemaster!

[death tribble]

But not for Cthulhu and Runequest

[Psybolt]

Flora & Fauna:  Roses

[csyphrett]

3 hours ago, Cancer said:

Man, you other gods are making this easy to get lots and lots of worship from the mortals.  What they want most?  Money.  Check.  What do they want second most?  Food ... nope, no check. 

 

So, Nogrom proclaims another of Our secondary domains, to keep Us most prominent in the attentions of Our adherents.

 

Secondary domain: Agriculture, crops, fertility of harvest, etc.

 

Yes, I'll respect others' domains about seasons, etc.  There are crops that need a good winter to ripen (or germinate) properly, for example.  Ditto fire.

As the god of nature, I didn't specify about agriculture. Dang it.

CES

[csyphrett]

This is my draft so far.  

Volcanis, God of Nature. 

Geography. 

Sentient Life. Lemur Legionnaires.

Gift to Civilization: 

Flora. 

Interference: The Integral Tree that binds all together

Mythic Monster or Guardian. 

Secondary Domain. Weather

Secondary Domain. Oceans

Secondary Domain. Volcanism

 

I think I am going to give my gift to civilization which is instant messaging. If you know the name of someone and say it into the wind, or throw a bottle with a message into the ocean, you can talk to that person long distance if he answers the call. I think I can do this under weather and ocean control.

CES

[death tribble]

Shayol would sit in the Integral Tree and let the other Gods worry about what he was up to. It was here that she would come to him. He would vary the location, the time of day or night and how long he would stay there. None the less she would find him there and speak to him.

 

There are various theories and legends as to who or what she is. She can pass as any race but the gods see her as either human or high elf. And what they see is this. She is pale of face but favours a dark colour on her eyelids and blood red colour on her lips. Her hair is dark and short but not closely cropped. Her eyes are blue and she dresses in dark colours. She is attractive in this form but she can change so that she is not so. Usually her face is the only visible flesh unless she is on a mission.

 

She is called The Dark Sister, Madame Chaos, Evil’s Shadow, Light’s Bane and Lady Slaughter. She is Shayol’s ultimate agent. If he wants something done openly, or covertly, and is not doing it himself, she will do it. Her name is simply Malice.

 

Some say she is his daughter and that one day he breathed life into his hands creating her.

Other myths have her as the child of Shayol and Tasha who followed her father when Good and Evil parted.

There is a whole saga built on the premise that she is Shayol’s child by another goddess who died and whose memory is lost to time.

Still more myths have her as Shayol’s most devout and devoted worshipper who was ascended to serve her master.

Another myth has it that Fox once played a trick on Eternus and Shayol using Andrea’s mastery of dreams. Here Eternus fell in love with a maiden and had a child by her. Only it was Shayol in female form. And Malice was the result following in this case her mother. It was a dream that both gods shared but it did have the result that Malice existed. It might explain why Shayol does not really like Fox and why Malice views him with contempt.

Malice is cordial to all the gods except Fox. Once the God of Trickery got the better of her, maybe more than once if Fox is to be believed. She has not forgotten or forgiven him. Neither has Shayol.

Surprisingly Malice goes out of her way to be on friendly terms with Tasha because she likes the Flying Unicorn. The Goddess of Good is wary but has yet to find Malice a deceiver.

She hates dragons but loves the dragonslayer and will happily aid him whether her patron or his want her to or not.

But her favourite pastime is to spend time with the Lemur Legionnaires who she dotes on. Woe betide anyone who would harm one of these creatures around Malice. It maybe for this reason that the Loyahs and cockroachs will not come anywhere near her.

Mythic Monster: Malice. Servant of Shayol

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

The truth of The Banshee is known to very few. It is not a bringer of death but merely a messenger. It is a warning of the inevitable so that people may prepare themselves. Only those very special beings will summon the banshee upon their death. No one knows how many there are, perhaps only the one. It is not the living embodiment of Eternus. Neither is it the avatar of The Lord of Grief. It is, however, connected to both, a living myth that epitomizes both while being its own independent creature. 

 

Mythic Monster: The Banshee

 

[Cancer]

Nogrom, still playing catch-up in the shaping of the world, proclaims Their contribution to the geography of the world.

 

There are many streams and rivers in the world, many lakes and seas.  There are even isolated rivers in desert basins, unconnected to any others.  But there is one river that flows around the world-helix continuously, so that a vessel that floats and is enduring and versatile enough to negotiate all forms of that watercourse could, in principle, start at one end of the helix (wherever that might be) and navigate continuously to the other end of the world (whatever that might mean), without requiring portage or other dryshod carriage.

 

... and you can tell you're in it because it flows up the helix, opposite the downward general pull of gravity.  It is a mistake to call it "the father of waters", for it has many sources and many sinks.  But it is the Forever River that Flows Uphill,  and while it may be that it nurtures the Integral Tree, or it may be exuded by it, it is always present on the surface of the helix strip, no matter where along its length you may be. 

 

A few mortals cast tokens into it (some made of themselves, such as hair or nail trimmings) so that they can say that someday some portion of themselves will reach the top; others send notes in it with no designated addressee, so these "messages in a bottle" might reach someone else unthinkably far away and unknowably separated in time from the writer.  Nogrom makes no decrees about these tokens, written and otherwise, but in some tales they have been literally cast up into some mortals' lives, and provided wisdom and inspiration from sources that are so far away they were never known so they cannot be called forgotten.

[Old Man]

 

 

 

 

 

Inscissivus saw that though He was a god, there was only one of Him, and that this limited the number of cuts that could be made.  So he cut away some parts of Himself, and named them the Raakshss.

 

Motivated by an insatiable curiosity, these shapeshifting felines wandered the worlds in secret, looking for mysteries to uncover and battles to fight.  They were a solitary people, rarely gathering in groups beyond the size of a family, and then only to raise the next generation of their line.  Other races often viewed them with distrust: they were skilled with claw and blade, asked uncomfortable questions, and bore no loyalty to any but themselves.  Nonetheless, they would accumulate great wisdom through their constant quest for knowledge, and their counsel was greatly valued by those who thought to ask for it.

 

Sentient Life: The Raakshss

[Hermit]

They wonder, you know? How I get any worship at all? I'm a disrupter, a contrary, a gadabout. Other gods are offering whole wheat, predictable daylight and so many practical things. I am the god of independence, but in being so I can hardly bully anyone into worshiping me and it's not so much given as I am it's exemplar. So why, other gods sometimes wonder, do the mortals love me when I so often put them into danger?

 

Because when the leaves fall red and yellow, I nudge a mortal child into it, and the other children raking see the leaves burst up laughing, then see he's enjoying, and soon, are jumping into the piles as well. Two young women free from chores walk along side, each eager to get to dinner. Then realizing they're each going faster and faster? I whisper in their ears 'Race you'  and they break Into a run thinking the other said it, even though there's no grand point to who gets there first? Two old men see this, put down their plows, and I say "A copper says the golden haired girl gets there first" and invite their friends to place bets for a pittance just enjoying the wagering and the camaraderie. A man trips over a stone, and then decides in anger to throw it into the lake. I breathe hard, angling the stone, and it skips across the water! The man stares in amazement, picks up another stone, and hurls it too! This time, deliberately making it skip as it becomes a game!

 

It doesn't matter so of course it matters! FUN matters! The break from the tedium! The escape from the grinding mundane! Causes noble and malefic have their uses, I suppose. Traditions can be quite important. One must fight to live, and so on. But FUN? Fun is what makes mortals enjoy living! 

 

I take what is mundane, and make it magical. I seize the day, or at least the minute, in my fangs and show them how to do the same. Other gods make miracles grand, I can make even the smallest moment a minor miracle of celebration.

 

That's why mortals worship me. I am, among other things, the god of fun! Their every laugh of joy is a psalm! Every wide grin of delight a prayer! Every WHOOP of excitement, a hymn! 

 

Secondary Domain: Fun!
 

[Old Man]

11 hours ago, L. Marcus said:

Dragons ...

 

The thing about dragons, is that dragons are all about power. Power, domination, wealth, any kind of one-up-manship -- you name it, they want a piece. Freedom, fraternity, equality? Bah! That's for those who can't make their own way.

 

A wise man once said that the closest concept in a dragon's mind to "a friend" is an enemy who yet lives.

 

That mindset is the only thing that dragons are alike in, though. Their body plans are all over the place -- four limbs, six limbs, two limbs, no limbs. Wings or no wings. Bulky or slim. Scale or fur or some kind of fluffy down. Horns, antlers, spikes all over like you wouldn't believe. Pocket size or lumbering mountains. Variety is the spice of life, eh?

 

Oh -- another thing that most dragons have in common are a severe case of weaponized halitosis. But the kind of breath varies between dragons, too. Fire, wind, poison, pure cold -- if it's harmful, some dragon somewhere will spew it. I heard tell about this one dragon from the turn below, a big old one, a hundred feet long, two hundred feet between the wingtips, clothed in steel scales ... Its breath was a gas that made people laugh themselves silly. Poor dragon got no respect.

 

[Hermit]

The Loyahs were meant to provoke all the gods, and I admit, I found them distasteful. Somehow, Shayol had stolen from most of the gods, taken two different species and mated them in a horrible fashion in order to produce something inbred in the first generation! 

Between that and making Malice his guardian I was beginning to suspect he didn't like me.

 

Just a hunch.

 

Oh well, not like any of them have the intelligence or the quickness to bother me personally.

 

I heard prayers for help in fighting them. For protection, for weapons, for me to reign fire on the Loyah raiders. Various mortals of different races pleaded for me to provide a solution, but I wanted to conserve my divine energies for FUN things. I'm not a war god after all. 

 

But the prayers continued. And they got louder.

 

I ignored them.

 

Then, that rat bastard calling himself my high priest did it. He gathered an endangered village of Reynardi, and had them sing.

 

"You don't know who you're listen to, but have a listen here to us!
We're a bit of a mob we are, but we serve you faithfully
We have a rough idea how this came about, that Shayol guy's a jerk
And all we're asking is that our gods, our survival you do not shirk!
The Loyahs are menace, they'll kill us all one day
So we'd like to remind you might be standing in their way!"

"You are the Trickster Fox you are you are, Trickster the Fox you are!
You've caused trouble for us before, and your divinity we adore!
Now everyone begs Trickster!
Help us help us save our land!
We're not ready for a battle mixer , MIXER
You're our god you are, you are!"

 

That part, it turned out to be the chorus.

And they kept singing it, and singing it ...over and over again, off key, not so much singing as screaming it in terrible accents.

 

"ENOUGH" I appeared "I'll help you, I'll help you, just.. never sing that hymn again" 

 

"Thank you, O Divine Lord of the White Tipped tail!" The illustrious Potentate who, frankly, I was thinking of demoting to Church Chamberpot boy (I didn't have that rigid a hierarchy but in his case I might make an exception).

 

"Yes.. now all of you, grab onto my tail, and shake it, shake it I say!" I told them

And they did... and dozens and dozens of loose hairs scattered all around the village. And where it landed wild flowers,  scragly but with fluffy bits of orange and white on the tips bloomed.

 

"Gather your weapons, and prepare to fight, but lead them into the weeds" I told them, "Learn this. If you can't or won't run, and can't or won't hide- cheat."

 

And the raiders came, swarming forward... them, and my followers fell back, leading their would be murderers into the weeds.

 

And the Loyahs had cruel eyes and crueler hearts. The eyes, at least? Began to water. Then, the horrid creatures began to sneeze, violently!  Rashes began to break out where they touched the weed and did more than inhale the pollen. They become a sneezing, rashy, nearly blind mess. The tide turned, and the village was saved. 

 

"Foxhair" weed it would be called from that day forward. I had constructed it as something that would set off every allergy the Loyahs had without doing the same to other peoples but I knew it might have SOME effect on them eventually.

 

Weeks later, as they rolled up the weed into thin slips of papyrus, set the end on fire, and inhaled blissing out. I realized what it did to to others, at least Reynardi. Oh well... groovy is the Trickster God.

 

Flora Pick: Foxhair Weed! (Loyahs are deathly allergic to it, Reynardi can use it to get a mellow high. Other species effects.. unknown at this time but nothing as bad as the Loyah effect)

 

[Old Man]

 

 

 

One morning Inscissivus met a swordswoman in the ruins of an Elven city which He had destroyed.  Not knowing who He was, and seeing that He was a skilled warrior, she challenged Him to a duel.  For she had dedicated herself to the blade, and seeking perfection in her cuts, wandered the worlds challenging any worthy opponent she could find.

 

She had yet to be defeated, and much to his surprise, even Inscissivus could only fight her to a draw.  Indeed, the only reason she failed to win was because her mortal weapons could not cut a god.

 

Inscissivus realized that the swordswoman had made herself into the perfect embodiment of all He stood for.  So He anointed her his Avatar, and endowed her with a weapon suited to her skill: the Finity Blade, which could sever anything.  Even a god.

 

Mythic Monster or Guardian: Bestimm the Determinator, Wielder of the Finity Blade

[death tribble]

Shayol would like to point out that the Loyahs are not to be sneezed at.

[Hermit]

34 minutes ago, death tribble said:

Shayol would like to point out that the Loyahs are not to be sneezed at.

 

Agreed, THEY can do the sneezing

[death tribble]

I can always introduce fox hunting.......

[L. Marcus]

That'd please the Tories.

[Hermit]

21 minutes ago, death tribble said:

I can always introduce fox hunting.......

*Points to Malice*

 

You already DID

[L. Marcus]

Civilization depends on full stomachs. Or rather, the stomachs can't be too empty all the time -- Humans and Elves and all the thinking beings of Helix could never get anything done, ever, if their tummies kept on growling all day long.

 

All along the mighty Forever River That Flows Uphill, all kinds of cereals is the staple food crop -- wheat, corn, barley, rye, even rice if some local clime is hot and wet enough (get yer mind outta the gutter). Millet. Maize, for those desperate enough.

 

But for Liminus, the eatings is purely secondary. What really, really warms the cockles of his heart, is the orderly fields with their neat boundaries of hedges and fences.

 

It takes all sorts.

 

Liminus Flora Pick: Cereal!