THEOMACHY II
The Battle of Gods will return!
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Socialize with other divine beings on our IRC-channel!
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In Theomachy, that is, the Battle of Gods, you will play as one of the divine spirits which created the Cosmos and clash with other divines as you fight for control over the most powerful ressource in the Cosmos: The reverential worship of mortal men.The Battle of Gods will return!
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Socialize with other divine beings on our IRC-channel!
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Create a civilization of worshippers and guide them through the ages, increasing your power as your civilization grows! Use the power of worship to mold the world according to your wishes: The forces of Creation, Flux, Destruction and Protection are at your disposal, and you can use them to manipulate lifeforms, populations, continents and much more.
In a world where the power of belief can move mountains, the creation of written or unwritten narratives makes up a potent tool that can change the world around you. Write a chronicle of your civilization’s history or a treatise on the movements of the moon, and, unless your peers declare your writings to be heresy, they will become a true part of the cosmic narrative.
Sign-up
Sign-ups are open. Standard sign-ups through the sign-up template below will be available for at least the first three turns of the game. At some point the differences in power between old and new players will be too great, and from that point on, new players must PM me and we will figure out a way for them to enter the game with style. But for now, the only thing you have to do is fill out the form below and you're in the game!Name:
Sphere: Often, a divine spirit identifies with certain objects or concepts of the Cosmos. It could be something it created or something it likes or something it thinks that mortals like. It could be ancient things such as rocks, or it could be something not invented yet, such as farming. There can be several gods with the same sphere, though it would probably lead to some conflicts. A god can change sphere at any time, so if you don’t want to be anachronistic, you can start out as god of fertility and only later adopt the sphere of farming when it is invented.
Alignment: Gods also often identify with one of the four fundamental forces of nature: Stasis, Flux, Creation and Destruction. Obviously, deities of opposite alignments tend not to like eachother, but the exceptions to this rule are many. Your deity might be an outsider who does not fit into any of these categories. Maybe that's why he ended up in the Middle World. In that case he can identify with multiple alignments or none at all.
Appearance: How does your deity look? Does he have physical form or is he made of pure energy? Keep in mind that the gods probably haven’t even noticed that humans exist yet, so they probably don’t look like them. Unless of course humans were made in the image of gods.
Biography: What has your deity been doing up until now?
Course of the Game
Each turn will consist of three phases: Synod, orders and growth. At the beginning of each turn, the gods may choose to gather for a divine council, or Synod, to discuss recent events and/or adopt new, divine laws. This will be acted out on the thread, although secret backchanneling is allowed, of course. The Synod is the governing body of Gaia, but its form and function is up to the players. It could become a full-fledged divine institution of government with constitutionalized rights for both gods and men, or it could be a mere meeting place where divine disputes are resolved. Note that any laws enacted by the Synod (as with any other body) has to be enforced by the players, unless the gods agree to throw their divine power into it and create a new law of nature (see under ”Actions and Power”).
After Synod, we will proceed to the orders phase in which I will set a deadline and you will post orders and ICs here on the thread before the deadline passes. At this point, it would be beneficial to have downloaded COSMOSCOPE (Classical Greek for ’world-viewer”), is a unity-powered program that allows you, the gods, to view the current state of the mortal world by downloading the save-files (I call them cosmotypes), which I will be uploading as the game moves along. Kind of like in a succession game, except I’m the only one who can unpause the game. You can only use your cosmoscopes to view the game map and statistics; orders will still be posted here on the forums. See the second post for more info on how it works.
When the deadline has passed, I will process the orders using my very own special omnipotent cosmoscope. First, I will calculate how your orders came out - whether they succeeded or not. Then I will hit the "End Turn" button, and the omnipotent cosmoscope will calculate population and divine power for the next turn. While divine power is pretty simple (see below, under "Actions"), population growth is quite complex. Here is a quick run-down:
If the current lands of a civilization cannot sustain the growing populace, its people will seek to settle new, unsettled lands.
If there are no nearby lands to settle, the civilization will try to invent new techs to increase food output and population capacity. The ability of the civilization to do this depends on its polarity - if it is too static, it will be unlikely to invent new techs.
If it failed to invent new technology or the technology just isn't enough to sustain its growing populace, it may attempt to trade techs with its neighbors (if it has invented trading). However, this is also unlikely to happen if the civilization is too static.
If the above isn't enough, the civilization will try to take lands from its neighbors. Its ability to do this depends on its centralization/efficiency level and, of course, viable invasion targets that aren't too strong.
If the civilization still struggles to sustain its populace at this point, stuff will start getting ugly. Rulers might be overthrown if the civilization is too dynamic or, if it is too static, it will stagnate and become more inefficient.
Finally, if your civilization managed to get through all this without collapsing, it will prosper, and new techs will be invented along with other good stuff.
... And then we start over again with a new turn.
Actions
Each turn, you post a set of orders on the thread. I’ll set a deadline, which I’ll try to make fixed, but we’ll see about that. All orders cost power, and the only thing limiting the amount of orders you can make, is how much power you have. The amount of power you have is dependent on how many worshippers you have and can be viewed through the Cosmoscope by clicking the menu and selecting ”God Stats”. Your power will always be at a minimum of 10. You cannot save power for the next turn.
Poetry – the Power of ICs
In this universe where the power of belief litterally can move mountains, storytelling is a powerful tool to shape the world around you, especially if you are a god. Each turn I will offer ideas for ICs based on recent developments – for instance, if two cultures within one civilization come to have the same beliefs, you may tell the story of how they melted together (or how they divided the civilization). In civilization-specific cases like this, only gods of the cultures’ pantheons will get the opportunity to use the power of the narrative, but in other cases, all gods will get a chance, and which story is true and which one is heresy will depend on both the opinions of your peers as well as the superdivine judgment of the Supreme Being (me). You may also write your own unsolicited narratives, but these may not contradict anything explicitly present within the Cosmoscope – so if you write a song of the glory of your holy empire while it is really characterized as a mere alliance of city-states in the cosmoscope, your IC will be regarded as untrue heresy, but if you write about something that is not contradicted by the Cosmoscope, for instance a story of the birth of the Cosmos or a treatise on the cuisine of your civilization, your IC might be true (depending on the opinions of your peers and me) and even have an effect in-game.
Politics – the Unpredictable World of Mortals
For civilization-related orders where you wish to engage in contact with mortals, the amount of power spent on getting the message across determines your chance of success. Furthermore, a well-written IC describing your interaction with the gullible mortals will increase the likelihood of your success, as will building up loyalty. Here are the three methods of communication I’ve come up with:
Oneirophany – Appear before a carefully selected individualsin a dream in an attempt to convince it to do your will. However, it is quite likely that the recipient will perceive it as ”just a dream” – 10 power
Eonophany – Intervene in the physical world of mortals by making some kind of omen or artefact – this can be anything from a comet to the manifestation of a holy scripture, but it cannot be supernatural. Keep in mind that it often requires som prerequisites among the recipient civilization: In the first case, they must know how to interpret the comet – is it good or bad? Does it mean ”go to war” or ”make friends”? You could tell them this through a dream first - and in the second case they need to know how to read and write. - 20 power
Ensarcosis – Endow a part of your spirit in a mortal body for more lasting, direct control – 40 power
Theophany – appear before the people of an area in all your mighty splendour (any form you’d like) in order to make sure that they are listening - 60 power
Noulepsy – sometimes you just have to make sure that things are done right. In these cases, civilization-wide mind control should do the trick - 80 power
Whether you wish to convert mortals to worship you, change their form of government, create alliances or get them to invade their neighbors, the ways of mortal societies are unpredictable so you’ll have to spend power on the above and hope it works.
Theopraxis
Theopraxis is an Ancient Greek word that I just made up, and it denotes the manipulation of objects by means of the four fundamental forces of this universe: Stasis, Destruction, Creation and Flux. With these forces in your hands, you can ravage nations, bring the passing of Time itself to a halt, create new lifeforms of any kind, or mutate existing races to your liking.
The Theopractical List contains mere examples of what you could do.
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