World Creation Superdraft 4: May 2020

[Sociotard]

Okay, this may well get nixed. I don't know. It's just more fun to find out by posting than by PM. My only justification is that Corellon Larethian was, yes, god of magic, music, arts, crafts, poetry, and warfare, but his PRIMARY domain was Elves.

 

God Name: The Fair Star
Primary Domain: Elves

 

God Description: I appear as a very bright star (apparent magnitude of -6), exactly 12 degrees away from the sun and trailing its path. I do not appear until the sun is 6 degrees from the horizon at sunset. This annoys astronomers.

 

Elves: The original Elves are sometimes referred to as "High Elves" to distinguish them from other elf species. They stand roughly 1.9 to 2.3 meters tall, but are so lithe that they only weigh 75 to 130 kg. 

 

Your Elf-Porn is Inaccurate Elves are NOT mammals. Neither males nor females have nipples, much less breasts. They may be classified as some sort of Therapsid.

 

The Androgyny of Elves Sexual dimorphism is minimal among elves, culturally and biologically. Even when other sophonts get a peek at a nude elf, they are liable to be confused. Males and females both have cloacas. While males do have penises, females have ovipositors, and both retract into the cloaca when not in use. Elves themselves use their vomeronasal organs to smell the difference.

 

Elf Senses It's hard to miss the enormous eyes of a high elf, but noting the size alone would not reveal that those eyes are pentachromatic, that they are backed by chromatophores that can deploy and retract a Tapetum Lucidum in response to low light, or that they have a superior ability to change the shape of the lens. At most, a casual observer would notice the nictitating membrane, and hurry on their way. Elves sometimes use their improved color range to hide writing, a bit like those blue-green colorblindness tests.

They also have impressive ears that can move at will, and a nose equipped with a vomeronasal organ. Their most unusual sense, though, is in a gyroscope. Their mid-back contains a ferrous ball, spinning very quickly while suspended in a magnetic field. They use this to maintain perfect balance, and can even "push" against it magnetically, in a way similar to how some species use their tails to correct their balance.

 

The Elvish Language Other species can absolutely learn to understand Elvish, but not speak it. Elves have a complicated trachea that can produce up to three notes at once. Their language is not merely tonal (like Chinese), but polyphonic. 

 

Elf Gestation Elves don't reproduce often. When they do, the female is fertilized, and lays her egg into a telescope-mounted creche. The instrument is kept pointed at the Fair star, so that the growing child is bathed in a concentration of its divine light. More affluent communities have bigger scopes on top of mountains, poorer communities make do. In both situations, parenting is a communal responsibility. Biological parents have no special role, then, in raising young elves. This really bothers sentient mammalian species.

 

Other Features Elves have antlers, but unlike antlers in ungulates, they don't fall off. They do style them using magic. Further, they can connect plant matter to their antlers, and such plant matter is kept alive. Usually, this means a few ornamental flowers, perpetually blooming on their antlers. Elves have digitigrade legs, chambered lungs like birds, and their skulls are a bit elongated in back. (Their large eyes take a lot of space, and that's where their brains got pushed.) Elves reach adulthood at about 30, and can live to be about 500.

 

Elf Package Deal:

+2 DEX (6)

+2 INT (2)

+4 END (2)

Ultraviolet Perception (5)

Running +2 (4)

Enhanced Perception, All +2 (6)

LS: Longevity x8 (3)

Polyphonic sounds (3)

(31)

 

 

[Pariah]

Is there really such a thing as Evil? Or is Evil just the absence of Good, as Darkness (at least in terms of the Maxwell equations) is simply the absence of Light?

 

And is there really any such thing as Cold? Or is there only an absence of Heat?

 

Well, at least in this world, Cold is a real thing, and its Lord and Master is Kylvn.

[death tribble]

So I see a fight developing.

 

And Sociotard ?

God of Elves passes.

[L. Marcus]

My pick this evening is The God of Boundaries, Liminus!

[Sociotard]

25 minutes ago, death tribble said:

And Sociotard ?

God of Elves passes.

 

Excellent. We've never had elves in this draft, so I thought it'd be a fun specialty.

[Old Man]

Behold the arrival of keen Inscissivus, God of Cutting!

[death tribble]

35 minutes ago, L. Marcus said:

My pick this evening is The God of Boundaries, Liminus!

 

5 minutes ago, Old Man said:

Behold the arrival of keen Inscissivus, God of Cutting!

Both of these are borderline.

If you already have an idea what you are doing PM me so I can see where you are going with these choices.

[Cancer]

On one of those at least, I point out the Roman god Janus sounds a lot like boundaries.

[Sociotard]

I know in the past Lucius Alexander took "Boundaries and Limnal Spaces" as a secondary domain.

[Cancer]

Nogrom proclaims Our Primary domain: Money.  Wealth, material goods, success in daily endeavors.  We are the one true Success Theology.  In another world, Our name is Mammon.

[Old Man]

13 minutes ago, Cancer said:

Nogrom proclaims Our Primary domain: Money.  Wealth, material goods, success in daily endeavors.  We are the one true Success Theology.  In another world, Our name is Mammon.

 

But we already have a God of Evil.  ;)

[L. Marcus]

How about "God of Enlightened Self-Interest"?

[Cancer]

Hmph.  Short-sighted. 

 

We strive to be on pleasant terms with all Our fellow Deities.

[csyphrett]

I would like to grab Volcanis, the God of Nature (filling in the Demeter slot on the roster)

CES 

[death tribble]

After review and rows, threats, arguments, bribes, crying and reason debate I have decided to pass both Old Man and L Marcus's choices.

We will therefore continue.

And I do wonder what Psybolt will do to counter my secondary domain.

[Pariah]

4 hours ago, Cancer said:

Nogrom proclaims Our Primary domain: Money.  Wealth, material goods, success in daily endeavors.  We are the one true Success Theology.  In another world, Our name is Mammon.

 

Does Nogrom's liturgy have something to do with multi-level marketing schemes?

[Psybolt]

56 minutes ago, death tribble said:

 

And I do wonder what Psybolt will do to counter my secondary domain.

 

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Evil and elves just to start us off, where to go after that? As a god I grow weary of immortality. Therefore I claim absolute dominion over Death. My name shall be Eternus. 

[Cancer]

2 hours ago, Pariah said:

 

Does Nogrom's liturgy have something to do with multi-level marketing schemes?

 

That's among the multitude of rites practiced by various sects of Our devotees, yes.

[death tribble]

and thus did Shayol blight the world for he found a loophole that the other gods missed. He found an agent to spread evil willingly, or unwillingly, and he exulted.

Second Domain: The Female of the Species

[Pariah]

 How about this for Interference? All of the Elves live at one of the planet's poles, and they spend the entire year making toys for children.

 

On second thought, never mind. It's been done.

[Hermit]

It isn't my fault that the gods left perfectly good crumbs of divinity around. Divine nectar, godly ambrosia, deity snacks, call it what you will. And yes, yes, some of it may have been guarded, but clearly not well enough. Besides, this godhood idea seemed to lead to regular meals, and admiration and getting away with a lot. Good enough for me! I told one god the other god was plotting against them, and when they went to check, I sniffed about for what they might have forgotten, made sure it wasn't bad for me, and gulped it down before trying the same trick on another. 

So I might have stolen some godhood for myself. 

It looks good on me though!

Now? I am Fox, God of Trickery!

 

[L. Marcus]

Shape Of The World: Liminus set out to shape the world and set its boundaries. He formed it thusly: a helix within a well, open in the middle. The span of the helix he set at a thousand miles, while the breadth of the well was ten thousand miles. Each turn of the helix was separated from the others by three hundred miles. No-one has seen the top of the well, nor the bottom; or, no-one who has seen them has returned to tell.

[Sociotard]

Oooh, Tribble just made my sentient species pick FUN.

 

Sentient Life: Cave Elves

 

This elf species lives deep underground. Like many subterranean species, they have no eyes, and their skin is somewhat transparent. They don't have external ear parts. 

 

Culture Naturally, cave elves are mostly followers of Shayol, and not just because they are creepy, underground beings that poach and raid the surface. As they are largely parthenogenic, cave elf society is matriarchal, with most tribes governed by a council consisting of all post-menopausal females. Families within the tribe are composed of cloned females. (see: Parthenogenesis) They raise non-clones (including males) to adulthood and send them away. Males look for a bachelor tribe to join. Females will be welcomed back if they prove their worth (such as proof of a valuable skill, or a treasure)

 

Cave elf language is much trickier than that of the High Elves. While High elves pride themselves in maintaining a pure language across all nations, cave elves are more fractious. Each tribe has a unique dialect! Further, many of their 'words' are echolocation holograms that no other species can really hear, much less reproduce.

 

They do engage in trade with the surface world, but they are notorious for raiding and poaching to get what they need.

 

Toxin Female cave elves have a poison gland located at the nape of their necks. They use it to coat their weapons, or to spray things that think they are sneaking up on the cave elf.

 

Senses Cave elves are blind, but they do have echolocation, an electrosense (that detects muscle movements), and powerful whiskers that can detect subtle movements in the air or water around them.

 

Water movement The underground environment is often flooded, and cave elves are well suited to it. They can hold their breath for up to half an hour, and can extend or retract flippers from their legs at will. Their senses work equally well, on land or water. They can also squeeze through any passage large enough for their heads.

 

Diet Cave elves only eat "normal food" to gain a few vitamins, minerals, and protein, all of which comes from animal sources. They have a separate stomach for their primary source of energy: kerosene. Deep underground, there are few food sources, but fossil fuels are plentiful. They have advanced chemistry that allows them to convert natural gas, crude oil, or coal into oil of the appropriate grade. Those that visit the surface sometimes make do with vegetable oil.

 

Anabiosis Cave elves can enter a sort of suspended animation. To an outsider, they might even appear dead. They sometimes do this when there are inadequate resources, and will be revived when those left awake find more.

 

Parthenogenesis (As inspired by Glory Season). Cave elves have two mating seasons per year. In alpha, the females and males are fecund, but only females are aroused. Children conceived of during this season are simple clones of their mothers; semen is only needed to stimulate the beginning of parthenogenesis. In beta, the females and males are fecund, but only males are aroused. Children conceived during  this season may be male or female, and have genes from both parents. So, in any coupling, one of the two has to just sit through it, possibly as part of a negotiated agreement.

Cave elf eggs have an external organ, something like a placenta with a mouth. The egg is placed next to a tethered and bound animal (sometimes a prisoner sophont from the surface). Domesticated spiders drink blood and carve off bits of meat from the creature and feed it into the egg. Cave elves may get by primarily on kerosene, but their young need blood and flesh.

 

Other Cave elves always style their antlers into close fitting 'bump caps' for their heads. They only ornament them for special occasions.
 

 

 

[Mightybec]

*wonders if fart jokes can be considered sentient spirits