Absolutely you can (although please spend them when the game starts as opposed to before so we admins can keep everything straight) I think a god of War makes perfect sense.
Bravery and Courage... errrr.... You know, I can't really think of a distinction either. They're mostly synonyms, after all.
Maybe defining a god's role in the world by domain isn't the way to go? I can't name any mythological gods of time, cold, or life, personally. I guess you could say that someone like Hephaestus was a god of fire, but that doesn't seem like an important facet of him, and he wasn't one of the first gods, either.
Maybe domains are just a way of saying what people worship (or will worship) the character for? Perhaps it's more important to people that Priuinus challenges them and helps them grow stronger, than that she's a goddess of the cold. Or that Zebus (with all his metroids and space pirates) leads the souls to the afterlife, than that without him death wouldn't exist. Or that Kuranath promotes courage in battle, than that... um... Okay, he seems rather worshipper focused already.
It might mess with the rules too much, but I think that the first gods should focus more on what they will do, than what they look like or "are."
As for Leaf and Sa, that's great, Raven. I think we have a nice pairing, then: Order and Chaos. The plant thing wouldn't be so central, and so its less important that they be different. Topheh, James, maybe your gods also have a similar alignment difference? Priuinus seems rather good-aligned, while from what little Topheh said about Agni, he seems more likely to be evil (and Sa and Leaf might team up with both, depending on their own needs). The alignment difference would be sort of what's important, with the elemental overlap being flavor but, well, as important as the similar flavor between Sa and Leaf? Just an idea.
Not 'evil' per say, but certainly ranking high on the 'callousness' scale. I think that there will be a good distinction between James' and mine's gods.
And I agree with you that the domains are more 'what do people worship you for' rather than funamentally 'what you are.' That said, the domains do serve as a touchstone for other players who want to interact with you. 'God X cares about these things because they are the domains that that God chose to be worshipped for.'
Well, I had been thinking about this as well. I was actually under the impression that we would be ascending in an already established world with other players who were already gods. But now I see we will be starting our own world.
I don't really have an interest in playing an elemental god or a god of something as broad and encompassing as "life" (as an example). I'm liking the idea of playing an orc god.
That said, I can see how he might spring up though. And regarding the god of cold or ice being around at the beginning, I can see that as well.
If we imagine the concept of "cold" as "without energy" or "with little energy", then we can imagine as cold being the first thing around before anything else exists (though with nothing around to feel it). The god of cold can have existed dormant perhaps, before anything else, when nothing was stirring in the universe, and then comes to life when things occur that can feel it and diminish it (sentience and energy/motion).
That's just an idea as to why a cold god might be one of the first gods.
Now, regarding Kuranath... I imagine that he springs up from the first conflict or the first instance where fear was felt. Before the first conflict, courage and tactics do not exist. But in the moment that fear is felt for the first time, or a battle breaks out, courage and tactics manifest. Kuranath is born out of that event, with the courage and mind for battle. Quite possibly, a sibling is born at the same time as well out of the fear that was felt and had to be overcome (but I leave that to someone else if they feel so inclined).
I would have typed more for Kuranath when I posted but I wasn't sure how much of the gods is determined before the game and how much evolves organically in game.
There might be some confusion but I was just stating I was expecting the first gods to control more primal and fundamental forces. I'm under the impression we'll be creating our own planent and for that we need gods able to do so. I see how gods of time, fire, cold, Life ETC can create a planet but I'd just see a god of orcs waiting for it to be built before he can doing regarding his own domains. That's why I thought it made sense for the first gods to emcompass "greater" forces.
Maybe defining a god's role in the world by domain isn't the way to go? I can't name any mythological gods of time, cold, or life, personally. I guess you could say that someone like Hephaestus was a god of fire, but that doesn't seem like an important facet of him, and he wasn't one of the first gods, either.
Maybe domains are just a way of saying what people worship (or will worship) the character for? Perhaps it's more important to people that Priuinus challenges them and helps them grow stronger, than that she's a goddess of the cold. Or that Zebus (with all his metroids and space pirates) leads the souls to the afterlife, than that without him death wouldn't exist. Or that Kuranath promotes courage in battle, than that... um... Okay, he seems rather worshipper focused already.
It might mess with the rules too much, but I think that the first gods should focus more on what they will do, than what they look like or "are."
As for Leaf and Sa, that's great, Raven. I think we have a nice pairing, then: Order and Chaos. The plant thing wouldn't be so central, and so its less important that they be different. Topheh, James, maybe your gods also have a similar alignment difference? Priuinus seems rather good-aligned, while from what little Topheh said about Agni, he seems more likely to be evil (and Sa and Leaf might team up with both, depending on their own needs). The alignment difference would be sort of what's important, with the elemental overlap being flavor but, well, as important as the similar flavor between Sa and Leaf? Just an idea.
I also agree with this way of looking at gods. It was my intention for Pruinus to affect the world in some way more then freezing it and her personality to be more then "I AM THE GOD OF ICE, ALL SHALL BE FROZEN!!"
I'm considering pick up a domain along the lines of Evolution or Challenge to show these traits pretty early in the game.
Given how Pruinus supports life, whilst having no direct control over it, I can see herself allying or at least having some form of mutual relationship with Leaf. Also not mentioned in your post, considering her desire to challenge life to improve and survive in the long run by setting it challenges, I see her having some involvement with Anke Dui, although how this play out I cannot fathom currently.
Using the 3E alignment system, I view Priunus as Neutral Good.
Not 'evil' per say, but certainly ranking high on the 'callousness' scale. I think that there will be a good distinction between James' and mine's gods.
And I agree with you that the domains are more 'what do people worship you for' rather than funamentally 'what you are.' That said, the domains do serve as a touchstone for other players who want to interact with you. 'God X cares about these things because they are the domains that that God chose to be worshipped for.'
There's a good chance I'm wrong considering I don't have any Psionic powers to read your thoughts on what You're god is going to be like (Or my powers don't work at such distances ;D ) is that Agni will not be evil but will definitely be more aggressive and confrontational.
Let's imagine a scenario where Pruinus and Agni fight for the same side, against evil.
Pruinus will try to hold off the fight as long as possible, wishing not to watse any life in the process and when she does fight, unless the situation is truly dire, she will not put her followers/creations at risk for her own victory. She will not ask others to fight for her.
Agni will have elements of the "Good is not nice" trope will be a bit more anti-heroic. As soon as trouble arises, he fights, bringing the full force of any allies and followers he can against the foe, even if it means that some of them will be inevitably lost in battle.
Yeah, that sounds about right. Personally nice to the other divines, but profoundly uncaring about how his actions are going to affect the world at large, and his followers in specific. I mean, the guy quite literally drools magma :D
This actually is a good segue to a point that I wanted to make earlier.
As mentioned in the guidelines for new Gods, fluff (non AP-using actions) is actually quite powerful in this game and most small actions do not necesarially need AP. For instance, my God drips magma from its mouth. It is logical that this magma may, in certain situations, cause fires to break out in forests or towns if the god is hovering above it for any prolonged period of time. If these fires are going to cause wide-spread devastation (wiping out the whole town, setting the forst ablaze), then AP should be spent. If instead the conflagration only affects a small portion (and particularly if you describe, say, fire crews racing from the wells to attempt to put out the mysterious fire from the heavens) of the world and does no long-term lasting damage... that doesn't need AP.
Other examples:
Pruinus could make all creatures near him cold.
Flowers could bloom wherever Leaf went.
Kuranath could make people who fall under his gaze momentarially feel more confident with themselves.
Or even more 'active' effects... causing birds to burst into song, causing a geyser to go off at a particular moment, etc.
And other things like that. Basically, be creative with your posts and don't limit yourselves because you are worried you need to spend AP to do something small. If we admins think it crosses a line, we'll tell you.
And I agree with you that the domains are more 'what do people worship you for' rather than funamentally 'what you are.' That said, the domains do serve as a touchstone for other players who want to interact with you. 'God X cares about these things because they are the domains that that God chose to be worshipped for.'
Sorry if I wasn't clear. I was thinking that the roles of a god might be separated from the domains. So that we might have an Orc god among the first gods. He would still have the domains of "orc," "bravery/courage," and "tactics," but he'd be the one who carved the dome of the sky from the skull of his ancient enemy, created the oceans from the blood, the clouds from the brains, and created the first sentient race, Zombies with wings, to fly up to the clouds and feast on them. Doesn't mean that he has to have a fundamental domain, just that he take actions that are fundamentally necessary for the world.
This brings up an question I had... what do domains do, in game, exactly? I'm guessing that exarchs give you another character to play in game (but not another god). And that avatars... let you interact with mortals, maybe? But what effect do domains and artifacts have in game? Like, does Leaf's weapon, Thorn, have to be an artifact, or can it just be fluff. And if so, what is the difference between the two?
Oh, of course. I think we're saying mostly the same things, really. Gods can do whatever they want, so we don't need the 'water' God making the oceans and the 'fire' God creating the volcanoes. Otherwise any missing God would be... problematic. "Sorry, no Time God, so no Time!" and the like
The importance of domains to the game vary depending on the iteration. Our last game, Balance of Powers, domains had the largest effect on the game, in that you had specific AP that could only be spent on actions which related to your domain (in some way). We've gotten rid of that, and domains are now... mostly there for your use and other players use to provide a focus and theme for a God, as well as guidelines for how disagreements might be resolved between players. For instance, if I was the God of Music and the God of Water wanted to take away the songs that the phoeni sing when they reincarnate, then if I opposed that action, as God of music, I should have a greater 'say' in what happens to that domain. Likewise, the God of the Orcs has a greater pull over, say, Orcish Weaponsmithing than, say, the God of Time.
Exarchs are other characters in the game... not god-level, but above mortals. They can usually spend AP if you want them to and (at least when I have them) act as emissaries and servants of the God. (You can also RP as mortals, if you want)
Avatars, yes, let you interact directly with mortals in more than short spurts. I usually use Exarchs for that, but other people like to do things... directly.
As for artifacts... the main difference between Thorn, the fluff and Thorn the artifact is that Thorn the fluff can be manipulated by other Gods at-will (for instance, they could turn Thorn the sword into Thorn the mace). Thorn the artifact, on the other hand, would require the spending of AP to do something with it. (so it would be a 1 AP destroy action to break it, as opposed to merely RP).
Some old guidelines we had were as follows 1 AP: mortal weapon of legend or artifact that has a small, local effect (a gem that lets you monitor what is happening in your workshop from afar, lets say) 2 AP: a divine weapon, or artifact that has a moderate effect (say, a set of gateways which link distant cities to one another by magical means) 3 AP: An artifact that has a broad, potentially game-altering effect (for instance, a mystical river which would flow through every plane in the world, and which had to be included in any new plane which was created otherwise the player who owned the river would automatically spend 1 AP to destroy the plane at the moment of its creation (basically, making create plane actions cost one more AP unless this river could flow through a portion of it))
We mostly took those guidelines out because we really are trying to let people make and do whatever they want without any set-in-stone restrictions on what is 'enough AP' to do a particular action or not.
In the end, what the rules and AP are trying to do is slow players down so they have a chance to interact with one another and with one another's creations before those creations are finished, which allows for a more collaborative and creative process than individual people placing down complete self-created places, races and civilizations and then, after everything has been decided, trying to stitch them together somehow. Beyond that, the sky is the limit in terms of what you can do... we admins are willing to entertain almost any possibility!
So if I am understanding correctly, if I tell the rabbits of Watership Down to go to war against the foxes of The Fantastic League of Mr. Fox, that would take APP to make it happen. And if I have the war domain, I then get a bigger say in the outcome, APP free. But it's sort of like a gentleman's agreement, in that whoever controls the Fantastic League of Mr. Fox should willingly give me that extra say. I don't get to demand it. Right?
Actually, along those lines, if I'm not the god of war, and infact the god of war isn't associated with this Song of Ire and Lice, should I expect whoever is the god of war to step in with a say? Or do people usually take more of a hands off approach to their domains?
I'm thinking of changing my domain to Belief, or Faith. Toe, I think you tried to ascend such a god in Lightvoid to mixed results, so I kind of want to try my hand at it. Not sure if that sets up any nice interaction with any of the other gods, but we shall see. I think it'll be really interesting playing with the rather meta aspects that playing such a god would provide.
Right. A few skirmishes would be fluff, but a war of any size or length (or... damage) would take AP, and as the 'War' god, your say in such 'war-starting' actions should have more weight, but its more of a gentleman's agreement than an actual hard rule... that said, if it does all boil down to an admin-mediated dispute (if the god of foxiness flat out refuses to do anything of the sort and you end up fighting over it), domains would be one component we admins would take into account when determining a winner.
As for your second question... it really depends on the god who is playing War. We've definitely had players who were heavily involved in anything even tangentially related to their domain (one note: Domains don't give you omniscience on that topic. The God of Hansels does not know where every Hansel in the world is, nor whether or not they are looking at a Gretel or a Witch at any given moment. That said... the right artifact might let you do just that.). We've had a number of Gods that were far more hands off. Either is encouraged, really.
@Ara. Good luck. Xiaoxiu's God didn't really work out, mostly because he found it rather... difficult to come up with ways to interact with the other Gods. That said, you know what you're doing. Just please don't make me have to smash your citadel to dust when you end up becoming a mafia boss who skims off 10% of the worship of the world off the top before funneling it to its respective divinities (please do this)
