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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 6391717" data-attributes="member: 12037">I probably wouldn't use a baby. What would really interest me, as a player, would be how all these avatars react to being what they are. You don't get that if you start everyone too young. I'm thinking, for example, the orc avatar leading a horde of orcs, the avatar of a god of secrets trying to find all the other avatars and kill them, the avatar of a god of the sun becoming a great paladin. Actually, are they influenced by the god's portfolio, or are they their own person? So could you have the avatar of the god of war being peaceful? It could be interesting as all these players enter the scene one by one and the players are some of the only ones who know who these influential people are. Most people regard Mitae as a powerful merchant, but only the PCs know that he is the avatar of the god of luck and trickery in mortal form. That kind of thing.So, I'd start these avatars off maybe as teens. Then, the campaign starts off slowly. Maybe the first adventure happens, and then there's a month lull before the next. At some point you skip ahead a year or two. By the time the PCs are 5th or 6th level, four years have passed. This way, they meet some of the avatars young and perhaps have some influence over how they grow and become adults, what they believe in. The initial avatar they meet could be heavily influenced by how they act when saving him and how they interact over the next few adventures. Do they teach him the ways of the adventurer? Do they drop him off and never look back? Are they sarcastic and mean or helpful and friendly? Their actions shape him as an individual in this difficult time.Personally, I'd probably go with hobgoblins instead of orcs. They have a much stronger tie to goblins, they're more militaristic and approachable. You could even have a hobgoblin "nation" on the edge of human civilization. The hobgoblins, of course, would be dealing with avatars of their own, and they might be trying to use the cultists in order to destroy some of their rivals - the human, dwarf, elf etc. gods so that theirs are the most powerful left standing. They don't realize the deal they've made, though, and its dangers to the world as a whole. Instead, they think this will make their gods the absolute rulers of the heavens.I like how this could create some kind of interplay between religions. Even if those religions are "allies" they might turn on each other in subtle ways. I like the idea that the relative power of the gods is determined by their time in the world and how much they learn while here. So, good gods might use this as an opportunity to find their avatar and help them along while shunning the others slightly. Evil gods might actually turn on any avatars that aren't their own. There would be inter-church struggles, plots, intrigues that could draw in the PCs since they're in the know. I foresee a lot of possibilities as churches go head to head. Kobold, orc, and other monstrous humanoid avatars can show up trying to take over. Assassinations. All kinds of awesome stuff!Also, if its 300 years then different races would perceive these avatars differently. Dwarves would see it as a relatively "common" once per generation thing. Humans would probably forget about it between. Elves... the elven avatar may still be alive when the cycle starts over again!And, I'm not sure just the death of one of the avatars would be cause for the weakening of their power. After all, they're going to die. They're mortal. It's expected. You might want to give a little thought to how the power shifts occur exactly. It could be some kind of Highlander-esque quickening, or as I noted above it could be the amount learned by the avatars about mortal life, or it could be about power gained. It could depend on the portfolio. Maybe the avatar needs to advance the portfolio, and the more they advance it the more power they get. This would create quite the amount of turmoil for a religion in which the avatar has gained free will over itself and doesn't want to follow the religious teachings. Maybe that's how religions die off in your world. Maybe that's how one god usurps another's portfolio.Many many possibilities here.</blockquote>

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