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Message: <blockquote data-quote="paradox42" data-source="post: 3243036" data-attributes="member: 29746">Thank you. Of course, having had 20-odd years to develop it does make some difference, I'm sure. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Something on that level would be quite a shake-up- I never really explored such ideas in detail, but I'm sure it would prove interesting. There are, actually, potential campaign events I've been dropping into my current games which could cause such shakeups if allowed to fully bear fruit. The adventure I had planned, and explained once in the 'Chronicle' thread, is one of them. Presumably in the 'projection' where the demons win, several if not most of the current gods die, leaving the pantheon in tatters.Enlightened self-interest for the most part. Each of the three is a god of Magic, true, but the other three spheres of influence are radically different between them. Good-guy has Heroes, Kings, and High Science/Technology as his alternates; Neutral-sometimes-guy has Change, Opposites, and Energy. Neo-Raist has Death, Pain, and Darkness. So really, each of the three has several methods of dealing with problems that the other two just can't touch, and since each of them is equally powerful what typically happens is that if one of them does something radical, the other two gang up and stop him. So in a way, they are vying for supremacy; it's just contained and relatively under control.Races are a whole different story, on mine. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I have a major and obvious division between 'Elder' races who were around before the Annihilation (the catastrophe mentioned in the previous post), and 'Mutants' who came into the world after it- even though some of them aren't actually mutants in the proper sense of the term (for example, the Crystalloid race I mentioned in the 'First Immortal game' thread came into the world afterward, but aren't evolved from anything that was originally native to the planet). The Elder races, I even have a 'family tree' of sorts going back to the actual Creation event over 200 millennia ago- the first three were Elves, Aboleths, and Dragons. All the other Elder Races, with the exception of Dwarves, came ultimately from them. Dwarves were created after the first war as a sort of peace monument.Oh no, in a scheme this complex, rest assured I know exactly who was around in the Beginning, and have for years. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> One Good deity, two Neutral ones, and one Evil one are original creator-deities of this world. The Good one is the goddess of Nature, the Neutrals are the god of Law and the goddess of Time, and the Evil one is the god of Hate. Every other deity in the pantheon is assumed to be an interloper (for example, I have Bast from the Egyptian pantheon as a member of the Good faction, though her religion in this world bears many striking differences from her religion as portrayed in other game settings where she shows up, or even historically for that matter) or ascended mortal.No, not really, since this world isn't assumed to be dying- it's assumed to be recovering. Slowly. Of course, many things are happening which could put it into the state of 'dying,' but that's what the PCs are for. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Also, I've never assumed that magic and psionics are some sort of super-science that modern people just don't understand, like Vance's novels seem to assume. In my world, magic and technology evolved in tandem, side by side- to levels almost unimaginable by modern Earthers. The only reason that civilization fell is that it imploded in civil war- nothing else in the multiverse, except perhaps the two Sidereals (formerly three), could compete with them.Actually, on a side note, this is what led to the current imbalance between Law and Chaos in my homebrew cosmos- the Devils once made the mistake of trying to invade the Material Plane where this world existed. The people, after driving back the invasion, were so incensed by the attack that they mounted a counter-offensive that literally scoured the Hells and killed every single original member of the Lord of the Nine- except Dispater, who betrayed his own kind and allowed the 'Great Red Fleet' to pass through his realm unmolested in exchange for leaving it alone. Thus, the being calling himself Asmodeus in my game is not in fact the 'real' Asmodeus at all, but an imposter who merely assumed his mantle upon gaining the throne. Anyway, after the scouring of Hell, the lord of Heaven- the original ruler of Lawful Good in the cosmos- set a pogrom upon the mortals for daring to upset the cosmic balance, which the mortals happily turned into an excuse to lay waste to the Heavens in much the same manner right after they finished dealing with Hell. Thus, that being is now quite dead as well, and only the beings of Lawful Neutrality are in any way 'original' to my multiverse. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />It's a mystery. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Honestly, I've never had to figure it out, so I've left it alone until something forced me to decide.Probably, yes, though usually they abide by the ancient compact that kept the factions together after the alignments caused the split-up of the original pantheon (or at any rate, the pantheon that came together to help restore the world after the Annihilation). The alignment split didn't happen until around 2000 years later; before that time the pantheon was one pretty-much monolithic group.Not wanting to shake things up is the real reason they see to it that demigods ascend in threes. So yes, they probably could. No doubt, interesting game plots could revolve around one of them deciding to break the compact and do just that.Law is definitely 'on the ropes' in my version of the multiverse, yes, though as you can see from the above that actually predates this pantheon by several millennia. What I like to say about it is that, although Law is definitely on the losing side and fighting a defensive battle, Chaos (being what it is) has done nothing with its victory but metaphorically sit on it going 'Neener, neener!'Ah, therein lies another story. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Though really, there's no reason to tell the whole thing- they were told about her, directly, by other gods they were meeting with at the time as part of an explanation for why the gods were helpless to fix the problem of missing souls in recently-born children. And yes, anybody who's read through the original 3.0 Adventure Path will recognize that as a story hook to the Bastion of Broken Souls- I ran my now-Epic (then just-barely-sub-Epic) party through that a few years ago. So, the characters who were at that meeting with the gods know the truth about the Lady of Light. They've mostly kept it secret from newer party members, I say 'mostly' because some hints have been dropped in conversations (and we always tell new players the whole truth, with the understanding that their actual characters don't know), but when the new characters try to follow up on those hints the knowing party members basically say 'You're better off not knowing.'That, too, is a mystery, though it's been implied that she does have a partially-seperate personality. That said, after the Bastion adventure was finished, she came to meet the party in person, and among other things remarked that the Defender would 'sleep for now,' and also remarked upon events that shouldn't have been visible to anything but the Sidereal itself. So it's clear that she has some mental connection to her Source. Really, I like to keep my options open as a DM, so that's what I did here.Bah! You caught me. None of those are favored either. I guess, looking over my list again, I must admit it isn't as diverse as it could be. Still, there are several oddities on the list like Light Flail, and Claw Glove/Wrist Razors, so it's not like there aren't plenty to choose from. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Good-guy has the Longsword, Neutral one (being an ultimate-Chaotic deity of Change) has a listing of 'Any one Exotic weapon, chosen at 1st level,' and Evil-guy (being god of Death) has the Scythe. None of the three actually favors traditional Wizard weapons, oddly enough.</blockquote>

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