The Man Comes Around

[Thornir Alekeg]

Or, if you rage against the dying of the light, you just might be noticed enough to actually get into the afterlife. After all, only the best of the best and the worst of the worst will get scooped up by the gods when the End does arrive. Everyone else will follow the universe into nothing. And if some people know that bit of information, things will get interesting. Oh sure, even with that kind of out available, most people would give in to despair. But others would get all kinds of motivated. Pull out all the stops. No small number of people might work really, really hard at Redemption with what time they have left.

I really like this idea.

My take on it: The gods themselves are dying, but they will use the last of their power to gather the worthy to them to seed a new creation - the afterlife will be a new universe with those who manage to set themselves apart serving as th new gods. The key to how that new universe will be shaped will be the relative success of the mortals battling in the final days. If the "best" significantly outnumber the "worst" then goodness will dominate the new universe, with the reverse also true.

Two additional factions could play into this as well: those who desire balance that will bring about a new universe very much like the current one, and those who have no desire to see a new universe at all and work to destroy everything for eternity.

 

[JoeGKushner]

It's been a while, but doesn't some of that fall pretty squarely into Norse mythology's end times where after the Ragnarock there is a new begining with pretty much all of the old big bads and heroes gone the way of all flesh?

Heck, the Dreadstar series starts off with the Metamorphisis where Dreadstar and friends destroy the Milky Way galaxy and the people who blow the horn are turned into pure energy beings which are essentially gods while Dreadstar and friend are saved in an effort to prevent war like that ever happening again.

 

[Kurtomatic]

heh...

The function of the One is now to return to the source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program. After which you will be required to select from the matrix 23 individuals, 16 female, 7 male, to rebuild Zion. Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to the matrix, which coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race.

 

[arscott]

It's called Dark Matter. The universe is full of stuff that we can't see or touch, that we can only sense indirectly, through the effects it has on the visible universe.

Gravity is the most obvious effect--the stuff's got mass, which means it's got a gravitational pull. But it has other, stranger effects. Magic, psychic phenomena, so-called aliens and mutants--all of that is the result of dark matter interacting with the visible world.

Our goal is to research dark matter, to understand how it affects our world the way it does. This chart shows the change in background dark matter levels over time. This spike here? that corresponds to the destruction of Atlantis. These two bumps here are the Italian and English Renaissances, respectively. This bump is the 1960s--and the two highest points coincide with the Kennedy Assassination and the Moon Landing.

What we've found is that dark matter levels follow regular, predicable patterns. These patterns are not simple, and it took a lot of talented mathematicians and a lot of expensive computer equipment to discover them, but we've gotten to the point where we can predict future dark matter levels with perfect accuracy.

That's this chart. And you see this point here? In December 2012? That's where our patterns say that the dark matter levels will reach infinity.

--Dr. Simon Vanderstock, Head of the invisible physics research for the Hoffmann Institute.

 

[renau1g]

BTW, here's the video from Youtube.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9IfHDi-2EA]YouTube - Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around[/ame]

 

[Voadam]

Dying Earth RPG?

 

[JoeGKushner]

as a reader of the books of Dying Earth, I always got the feeling that the dying was well and long and far away and its practical implications to the everday citizens unfelt outside of the cosmetic story telling changes.

Is the RPG different? Are there actual issues with the setting that are problematic?

 

[MortonStromgal]

Unknown Armies...

 

[Voadam]

as a reader of the books of Dying Earth, I always got the feeling that the dying was well and long and far away and its practical implications to the everday citizens unfelt outside of the cosmetic story telling changes.

Is the RPG different? Are there actual issues with the setting that are problematic?

I thought the dying was considered obvious and inevitable and it colored everything. People (from street level rogues to archmages) try to drink and scam and divert themselves instead of trying to build up anything that will truly last.

My knowledge of the novels is admittedly only second hand though.

I haven't read enough of the RPG books yet to offer a definitive opinion but that is always the sense in which I've heard the interaction of setting and characters working for Dying Earth.