DShomshak

O mortals, the connection between you and the gods is deep and strong. We love you; and when you love us, that connection can be strong enough that we become one. When you forget yourself in ecstasy, your love for gods can draw gods into the world. Mortal and god become one: We know what it is to be mortal, and mortals know what it is to be divine. For a time, our power joins to your will, for what will one not do for one you love? No god may refuse this union. Interference: Trance Possession. At the height of ecstatic revelry, mortals who love a god with all their heart can draw the god into their body. For a few minutes, the god becomes incarnate in the mortal's body. While the full power of the god is not at the mortal's command, some of it is. It helps, though, to have a priest or friend on hand to remind the possessed mortal of what he, she or it wanted from the god. (Though fauns invite the gods to their revels just for enjoy their company, and vice-versa.) Possession can also happen by identifying a lover as the avatar of a god. Okay, so perhaps not many people would choose Xarn Tarsus as a lover, but the Holy Tyrant can be drawn into mortality, and find himself serving mortal will, as much as any other god. (Granted, a person who loves Xarn Tarsus probably intends to use the god's power for some purpose the god would not find displeasing.) (At a guess, this man has called Olandris into himself, or his lover has done so. The goddess reaches down to claim him, while the faces of the Lovers are visible to either side.) Dean Shomshak

<standing on my dignity> I was thinking of circle dances, hoedowns, and other group dances that celebrate the community. (What happens afterward is no one else's business. Unless it burns something down.) Dean Shomshak

Gift to Civilization: Fire. O mortals, let your love be as fire, consuming you until the self vanishes in ardor for the one beloved; or let it smelt you as ore in the crucible and smithy of Thrum until you emerge as tempered steel or shining gold. For Love, you will forget yourself; for Love, you will become greater than you imagined possible. Fire is the emblem of passion, and the principle means of making fire represent this. Flint and steel strike sparks from their union. The bow drill generates fire as a rod moves in a hole. (Real bit of anthropology, there: Encyclopedia Britannica tells me that many cltures see the bow drill in sexual terms. The fire plow, in which a stick moves back and forth in a groove, is perhaps even more explicit.) Lenses and mirrors don't work to make fire, though, unless another god says they do. As a token of this connection, mortals having sex are for that time fireproof. The flames without defer to the fire of passion within. In fact, the first time anyone has sex, they and their partner catch fire and may set other things ablaze. Couples of great mutual passion can do this at will. If Permitted, Second Gift to Civilization: Dance. Guided by music or the joy of togetherness, mortals move in unison without being compelled. Dance is sacred to the Lovers, and a vital part of Their rites. Whether dirty dancing, formal ballroom, or communal dances, mortals forget themselves in the joy of moving together. Dean Shomshak

I'd like to keep the reference to G'Brill in my fiction bit above. I'm OK with G'Brill as an Enigmatic God who has apparently vanished, or is a rumor even to other gods. If you want, Pariah, I'll even suggest that as a Secondary Domain: The Unknown. G'Brill is the god of things not known even to gods. Dean Shomshak

IIRC Jerry Pournelle's stories use jump points like this, though I haven't read much of them. Bujold's "Vorkosigan" series also uses jump points, and makes them an important source of drama. So I agree, it's an excellent serup for SF adventure. The tech-frying aspect of jump drive is intriguing as well -- if only so advances in real tech don't make your "futuristic" technology seem antiquated 10 years later! It also preserves genuine mystery, in that people can't just consult their super-advanced omni-sensors and have their super-advanced computer analyze the results and tell them everything. EG: There's a vault door set in the surface of the asteroid. What's behind it? Somebody needs to go and look, they can't just analyze the bogon scattering to find out everything. (Or the GM has to invent some handwavium to explain why Bogon Scattering Tomography doesn't work.) Dean Shomshak

But you still assume they will both have an Energy Blast. "Must serve deity's plans" sounds like a recipe for endless arguments with players. Perhaps you mean "Must fit within deity's portfolio of interests and influences," in the manner of D&D domains"? (I assume there's a VPP involved.) Assault's comment makes me think of the magic of Egyptian lector-priests, which was freaky cool but a bit outside Generic Fantasy Adventurer's Magic. Dean Shomshak

That's on my list of possible Gifts to Civilization, though there are others. Actually it's Music and Dance, treating them as related, but I've held off because Music might be Thrum's gift. If Thrum takes Music, and the Lovers can take Dance as a bonus Gift (along with the one I'm definitely posting Monday), that would be excellent.(Fauns are great dancers, btw.) Dean Shomshak

The Lovers would certainly agree. Dean Shomshak

I am sure I'd like to see it, but movies have become too expensive. I never see them until my library gets them and (for Marvel) the 500 or so people who reserve them ahead of me get through them. Feh. Well, maybe I'll check in sometime in 2023. (Really annoying for me, because Dr. Strange is my fave Marvel hero, and I find Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal quite creditable.) Dean Shomshak

All Things Considered and The Daily has run stories on Sec'y of State candidates who publicly endorse the Big Lie. The push goes down from there to the commissioners who certify local results, and then all the way to people say they want to become poll workers to "prevent/investigate election fraud." The trainer who was interviewed said that when she encounteres people who want to sign up for that reason, she thanks them for their interest but never calls them back. She also takes care to explain to the poll workers she trains that there are people whose jpb it is to investigate election fraud, and it isn't them. Dean Shomshak

Okay, what I've got so far is: The Lovers, God of Love * Geography: * Sentient Life: Fauns * Gift to Civilization: * Plant/Animal/Ore: * Interference: * Mythic Monster/Guardian: * Secondary Domain: Connection * Secondary Domain: Ecstatic Revelry * Secondary Domain: Grief I may get one more in later today. Dean Shomshak

O Lovers, cruelest of gods! Why do you curse us with love for other people? It hurts so much when they leave! Perhaps love is not returned, or cools for one before the other. Perhaps one we love is forced to move far away. Or the greatest and final parting, when a loved one departs for Mania's halls. Better to feel nothing! O mortals, the sweet cannot be known without the bitter, nor joy be known without sorrow. Though you feel the world has ended, know by the pain in your heart that the one you love is not completely gone, and never shall be while you remember. Accept your tears, for they are holy. This offering We make to Mania and G'Brill; and in time perhaps Astrasia grants thee peace. Secondary Domain: Grief.

Fauns know all the methods of arousing passions and using them to form new connections. Music and dancing, feasting, drinking, drugs, and more -- they know it all. The physical dangers are slight... for them... though other people who attend faun revels have in rare cases died from overdose or exhaustion. A greater danger is that they lose themselves in revelry and never fully come back. Visitors to a faun party may emerge knowing things about their desires they never imagined, and some minds break from the revelation; on. They may also become addicted to the passionate release they do not know how to find anywhere else. But others emerge with new loves and a sense of joyous liberation. Though any folk might attend a party and end up sobbing or cheering, "I love you guys!" A self is such a burden at times. Forgetting it for a while can give a chance to find other people who can help you carry it. And do not forget to give thanks to Thrum as well! Secondary Domain: Ecstatic Revelry. (I wanted to find a scene from the opera, but the excerpts seemed too slow and tame. This is supposed to be a wild rumpus, not a stately ballet. Eh, let the music carry itself. -- Dean Shomshak)

As briefly alluded to in the fiction bit above... Sentient Race: Fauns. (The internet holds scads of better pictures of satyrs and fauns than this bit of clip art, but until I re-learn how to use DropBox I'm trying to conserve the memory space allotted by the Forum. Also, mindful not to post anything that might make the Esteemed Moderator remind me of forum rules on decency.) Okay, let's deal first with what you all want to know about: The people of the Lovers can be male or female. Most fauns are promiscuous, and most of them are bisexual. They've heard of monogamy, but most of them think it's as strange to love only one person physically as to love only one person spiritually. Not into jealousy. Notably broad-minded about sentient species, too. All but a few criminal perverts understand that "No means no" and won't press further, but most fauns also think it's strange that other folk feel they have to say no. Moving on: Fauns live in bands that seldom exceed 30 adults. Mothers raise their children with help from the rest of the band. Individuals move easily between bands. While fauns are most common in forested regions, some fauns live in other environments. While they live by hunting and gathering, they practice a subtle horticulture by propagating food plants. Though they kill to defend themselves or when hunting game, deliberate cruelty is anathema: Fauns never invented blood sports, and may become very angry at witnessing them. Slavery is likewise a concept foreign unto perversity. Leadership in a band is necessarily informal, as anyone who tried to assert rulership would simply find the rest of the band ignoring them and going elsewhere. Music and dance are so important in faun culture that they receive a separate entry. For here, suffice to say they honor /thrum almost as much as the Lovers. Chroma is also honored for the colors of the natural world, and revels are often timed to appearances of the Great Meteor. Dean Shomshak

It seems like an excellent Intetrference, but I'll accept it as a Secondary Domain if you come up with an Interference that affects multiple gods... as the Lovers will have. Dean Shomshak

So sad to hear. Alas, I only heard them on the radio. Life as an impoverished, mad recluse has prevented me from seeing much live entertainment, but in my long-gone college days I saw one of musical comedienne Anna ?Russel's final performances. Also a stage play adaptation of Frankenstein that I thought was quite good , and a concert of Beethoven's 9th symphony that was awe-inspiring. No recording can even come close to the majesty of a live performance. The P. D. Q. Bach and Weird Al Yankovic concerts were OK, but so long ago I dn't remember a great deal about them. A local college's musical comedy adaptation of Night of the Living Dead was also gobsmacking. I have seldom laughed so hard. Dean Shomshak

Love binds mortals to each other in families; and beyond that to clans, tribes and countries. But love binds all things, not just mortals. Nothing can exist by itself alone, and We tell you, O mortals, that that need for connection and interaction partakes of Love. The roots of the tree love the soil, and its leaves love the Sun’s light; and by those loves does the tree live. What greater love is there but Cadel’s, who gives light to half the world? If not, perhaps, the love of Mania, who accepts all souls into Her house and always has room for more? The moons of Olandria circle the world for love. The world holds you to itself for love of thee. Even the minutest particulars of all things adhere one to another by bonds of love, without which naught would exist but drifting dust. Secondary Domain: Connection. Well… perhaps We should clarify. Perhaps some things can exist by themselves alone. But if they have no connection to anything else, how would anyone know they exist? Listen, O mortals, to a fable: Imagine there was once a person much like you. Perhaps this person was Alfar, perhaps Human, perhaps Twilighter or Faun. It no longer matters. Nor does it matter if this person was male, female, or something else. We shall simply call this person “It.” It was angry with someone else for leaving it. “Fine,” it cried. “Leave! I don’t need you! I don’t need anyone!” The Lovers heard these words, for gods hear blasphemies against their essential natures. They thought, Have We been denied? Xarn Tarsus replied, They authority has been denied. Punishment should follow. Olandria added, For every blessing there is a curse. And the Lovers decreed, Then We give what is desired: No need for anyone. They took out Their shears by which connections are cut, and snipped. The mortal walked alone for a time. It returned to its community and found everyone gone. “Where is everyone,” it asked. Gone, the Lovers said. You said you did not need anyone, so those connections are gone. They live; you live; but you shall never see them again. It ran to its home, but snip, its home was not there, either. “Where is my house?” it demanded. Gone, the Lovers said. You said you did not need anyone. “Anyone” includes Ammonia, keeper of all houses. The house exists, but it is no longer your house. You shall never see it again. Or any other. A few more snips, and the whole village was gone. It ran, seeking anyone, finding no one. It closed its eyes in exhaustion. Snip. When it opened its eyes again, the world was all gone gray. You do not need anyone, whispered the Lovers, So you do not need Chroma. Then snip, the world went dark. You do not need Cadel or Olandria either, so they too are denied thee. For a time, it blundered in darkness, running into rocks and trees, but snip, snip, the rocks and trees were gone. After a long or short time, even the ground underfoot was gone. “Mercy!” it cried. “Give me back the world!” You did not say you needed Thrum. “Then let me die!” You did not say you needed Mania. And you did not say you needed Us, so We too are gone. SNIP. Perhaps the mortal still exists, somewhere, in a state beyond even the knowing of gods. Or perhaps at the last G’Brill took pity, for surely to be cursed by a god is a cause as lost as lost can be. Or perhaps it never happened at all, for even to be remembered as a fable is a connection of sorts. But why take that chance? Deny not the gods, or each other. Remember that you are connected, never truly alone. And by this you are loved, and owe love in return. Dean Shomshak

Unfortunately, liberalism and conservatism are not arbitrary collections of policies. Psychological research shows they arise from fundamental differences of temperament. Conservatives are conservatives because they feel a deep emotional need to come together as a unified tribe with a canon of beliefs. (Declared to be eternal principles, even when they flip completely, as free markets were replaced by Trumpian protectionism.) Liberals feel an equally deep need to assert themselves as individuals. (Even when they actually parrot the same slogans.) It enables greater compassion for outsiders, but less discipline in getting things done. "Power of the Herd" versus "Look at me, I'm special." The result is that while conservatives may argue for a while which direction to shoot, liberals tend to form circular firing squads. See Mooney's The Republican Brain for more detailed exposition. Dean Shomshak

Love isn't much for rules. Despite every Thou Shalt or Thou Shalt Not, at some point the heart whispers, I want. Or shouts. Or SCREAMS, to break the soul or shake the world. Moonlight, however, is notoriously romantic. Neither the darkness of ignorance or concealment, nor the light of full disclosure. The Lovers offer this gift to the Goddess of Moons. Though with a fixed sun placing half the world in constant daylight... Hm. Cadel and Olandris will have to work this out between them. EDIT: Love and Revenge are not totally separate, either. Because no one can hurt you more than someone you love. Dean Shomshak

The Lovers we are, for Love exists only as a relation: a lover and a beloved. We take no name or image for Ourselves, for We are seen in the face of the one you love. We are all forms of love: the mad crush, the comfort of spouses grown old together, the parent and child, the child and parent, friend and friend, and so many more. O mortals, you can live without Us, but rarely do you then find life worth living. Do these gentle sentiments encompass Us? No, mortals, no. For Us do parents toil their lives away, suffering that their children may live. Yet for Us do mortals abandon their families and betray their countries. A lifetime thrown away for a moment of passion. For Us will you tell any lie, commit any theft. For Us will you murder the rival, or die for your despair. Be warned, O mortals. We are the most terrible of gods. The Tyrant thinks he is mighty, but Love conquers all. Primary Domain: Love in all its forms, from raw lust to patriotic fervor... and all things done becauswe of it, from the highest self-sacrifice to the most appalling crimes. Dean Shomshak

That rules out my other choices, so I choose The Lovers. A domain others have used before, so no bonus, but I trust I can make it interesting. Dean Shomshak

Just heard on BBC: Over the weekend, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov opined that there was nothing nutty about accusing accusing Ukrained Jewish Pres. Zelenskyy of Nazism because, after all, Adolf Hitler may have been part Jewish. Reaction from Israel has been, hm, vehement. Here's a story with the details: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-61296682 Up until now, Israel has kept quiet and tried not to take sides in the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Ye gods, is Russia's government trying to gin up more enemies? Dean Shomshak

This is kinda stupid of me, but I have three concepts I'd like to try (which I don't see how to merge). So I'll let other people decide which I take. Two of them involve defining the Shape of the World, so consider that as you vote which you'd like me to do. * The Lovers, God/Goddess/Nonbinary of Love. Plural, because Love exists only in relation to another; nameless, because the name and face of Love is the name and face of the one loved. Or hated. Love can be complicated, and often is not kind. * Tethras, God of the Sun and the Center. When Tethras emerged, His light drove back the Nonebefore and set the boundary of the World. All live in the hollow sphere of the World, with Tethras shining in the center. Blessed are the gifts of light and life, which come from Tethras. Honor and repay him with blood! * Etterskell, Goddess of Multiplicity. When the Gods shaped the World, Etterskell was supposed to add her part and pass it on to the next God. But, butterfingers, she dropped it and it broke. There are now seven suns and dozens of worldlets, swirling in a cloud. Fortunately, they don't collide very often. Etterskell divides greater wholes into lesser parts, and decrees that nothing shall be unique except by special creation of the Gods. Then too, if someone else realy wants to present a Love God, Sun God, or (less likely) Multiplicity God, I am willing to step aside and develop one of the others. Let me know which deity I should choose. Dean Shomshak

Legend of Vox Machina. Okay, so the drama is not on the order of, say, Ibsen or Chekhov, and it's possible that Aaron Sorkin writes better dialogue. But it tires to be fun, not to be Great Art. This 12-episode animated series, adapted from the "Critical Roll" D&D online game, is amusing and captures the feel of a well-run game. (Including the moments, aggravating at the tine but funny in hindsight, when the dice screw you over and a task that should be simple becomes impossible.) The charaters are pretty standard Fantasy types, but introduced clearly and promptly. It is generally clear what everyone is doing. I have seen worse storytelling on TV. I will note it is quite a free adaptation. For instance, the spellcasting characters don't run out of spell slots: They exhaust their magic because they get tired. They also push their magical powers, suffering additional fatigue as a result, and "stunt" their magic to do things that do not fit within the narrowly defined affects of D&D spells. The result is that the whole series feels a lot more... Hero System. Dean Shomshak

Possibly of interest as another case of, "Um, that wasn't the plan": Some in the British Parliament want to reform libel laws that make it very easy for well-heeled malefactors to squelch inquiries into them and their ill-gotten gains -- laws that Russian oligarchs use with great enthusiasm. https://www.marketplace.org/2022/04/29/brits-push-back-against-slapp-lawsuits-that-gag-critics-of-oligarchs/ Linked from this, an interview with a sociologist who studies oligarchs. He says the sanctions are hitting the oligarchs a lot harder than the mere financial impact -- because the world of the giga-rich is a lot more like middle school than you may have thought. https://www.marketplace.org/2022/03/11/russian-oligarchs-elite-sanctions-sociology/ Dean Shomshak