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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8832415" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Lovely stuff. I made my own set of "inspired by the originals" Icons*, meant to reflect a post-post-apocalyptic world. That is, a world right at the start of the proper recovery from the apocalypse, which I've mentioned on here a few times. I would need to go through and work out the specific relationships between them, but I imagine there would be somewhat more Complex and somewhat less Hostile or Friendly, as part of my goal with my Icons was to make most of them Ambiguous or at least midway between Heroic (or Villainous) and Ambiguous.For a simple example, there is no Emperor in this setting because the Emperor died when the old world did. (The inhabitants refer to that time--which the people living in it saw as a time of upheaval!--as the Golden Age, which was followed by the Age of Darkness or "Ice Age" because, for reasons, the sun's light couldn't reach the world properly, dooming it to a slow and steady decline. But the spell has been broken, so now people refer to the current world as the Dawn Age, but whether the sun that rises is gold again or crimson-stained is yet to be determined.)Instead, I have the Courtesan, also known as the Queen (or King, but currently Queen) of Coins, an economic leader rather than a military one. She holds delicate soft-power alliances with most major settlements, and can exert her influence subtly to shape things. Scholars of the Golden Age reckon that she is either what the Emperor's mantle has transformed into, or is the first flowering of a new Icon filling the same niche.One of her on-again, off-again allies is the Storm Captain (aka the Orc Sailor, Davy Jones, Ol' Thunderboots.) At present, they are allies, rumored even to be lovers, as the current Storm Captain waged a successful mutiny against his predecessor, who had made a policy of preying upon the Courtesan's cities. His mutiny was definitely supported by the Courtesan, and now the ships of his fleet are focused on exploration and piratical activity in areas not under the Courtesan's influence. This affords the fleet reliable safe havens in the Courtesan's ports, while making sea-going trade safer inside her territory, but some of the pirates are discontent with such an arrangement.Conversely, because worship of the gods nearly disappeared during the Age of Darkness, the Crusader is gone. Filling a similar role, however, is Many-Scars (aka Father Wolf, Woeden, or the Gladiator), the paragon of all those who survive, no matter the cost, no matter the depths to which they must sink, no matter how much they must change inside and out. As a result, he is strongly associated with werebeasts and other dark things. From his perspective, he does not have a specially hostile relationship with the Courtesan, and he respects to a certain extent that she is practically-minded and not above taking an underhanded solution when it arises. From her perspective, he is all that she is striving to tame, the dangerous, predatory wilds and the dark influences that managed to survive the Ice Age and now linger in the new one.Full list, with a summary of their areas of interest/influence. Whenever a gendered title is used, both genders are valid; the one listed first is the "default," but there's nothing wrong with flipping them if you so choose. The only Icon which survived the Age of Darkness** is the Great Gold Wyrm, but even he was meaningfully changed, becoming more independent and somewhat more jaded when it comes to cooperating with his fellow Icons.[SPOILER="Ezekiel's Custom Icons"]<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Storm Captain (sailors, spring, storms/rain, winds, command, exploring); other names: The Orc Sailor, Davy Jones, Thunderboots</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Leviathan (sea creatures, earthquakes, nightmares, insanity, infinity); other names: The Deep Horror, Kraken, Ten-Arms</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Horned God (forests, prophecy, wine, song, mirth, lust, summer); other names: Cernunnos, Seelie King/Queen, The Satyr</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Changeling (trickery, dreams, poison, obsession, art, asceticism, winter); other names: Unseelie Queen/King, Nemesis, the Abhartach</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Great Gold Wyrm (sacrifice, solitude, martyrdom, pride, enduring, faith); other names: The Bulwark, Hidden-Fire, Arjuna</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Council (pragmatism, greed, luxury, pride, scheming, enterprise); other names: the Hydra, Five-In-One, the Zirnitra</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Master Mouse (poverty, revolution, giving, revenge, anarchy, cunning, harvest); other names: Mu'addib, Street-Rat, The Chastiser</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Many-Scars (hunting, fighting, readiness, survival, predator, lycanthropy); other names: The Gladiator, Stalker, Father Wolf, Woeden</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Courtesan (merchants, diplomacy, order, intrigue, manipulation, wealth); other names: Queen/King of Coins, Honeytongue, Netspinner</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Librarian (history, alchemy, education, enchanting, medicine); other names: Chronicler, Rune-warden, the Chymist</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Faceted Eye (divination, mind, dreams, light, vision, secrecy, mirrors); other names: the Blind Cabal, Hagstone, All-Tales</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The High Warlock (contracts, subjugation, omission, portals, sacrilege); other names: Demonbinder, Old Scratch, the Foresworn</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Pale Lady/Lord (death and undeath, disease, decay, night, underground); other names: Deathshead, the White Raven, the Vampire Queen/King</li> </ul>[/SPOILER]*I say this because you can see several symmetries in them, but several are massively changed. The Librarian, for example, is not the Archmage, though they fill the same role as the Archmage did. Instead, the Librarian is literally an extraterrestrial, whose ship crash-landed through Overworld and onto the mortal world proper. Unable to leave, but having a generally friendly (if very alien!) perspective on things, they have chosen to set up shop and offer healing and knowledge using their blend of magic, technology, and alchemy. As noted above, the only Icon who survived in their extant form from the Golden Age is the Great Gold Wyrm, but I have rewritten the story so his "I will fill the massive demon-hole with my own body" sacrifice is the thing which ends the Age of Darkness and allows the Dawn Age to begin. **Arguably the Council is partially unchanged, but the addition/restoration of the Green (who is more neutral and values nature, albeit for instrumental ends) and the White (who is good-leaning, something of a philanthropist, but still a tycoon) has pulled the Icon to be more solidly Ambiguous. E.g. the Blue, White, and Green could form a voting bloc on the Council. A well-reasoned appeal to stability and growth could sway the Council toward "good," or at least beneficial, ends. Hence it is Ambiguous but tends to lean a bit dark because even the "best" of them (the White) can still be very ruthless.</blockquote>

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