Theomachy (A Deity Simulating and Civilization Building Game)

[Emilersej]

Theomachy
From Ancient Greek theómakhía meaning "Battle of the Gods"

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In the world of Fëronët, the divine members of four pantheons - Stasis, Creation, Destruction and Flux - are vying for control over the most powerful resource in the cosmos: The allegiance of mortal men. Partake in this clash of gods as one of the divine spirits who created the world and ramp up your divine power by building your very own civilization that worships you!

• Choose one of the four pantheons - the pantheons of Stasis, Creation, Destruction and Flux - and work together with your divine colleagues to make your divine faction the most powerful one in the universe.

• Play as a god and use your divine powers to shape the land, create new species or whatever your heart desires!

• Create a civilization of worshippers and guide them through the ages, increasing your power as your civilization grows! Your divine abilities grow with the number of worshippers, so the god with the most successful civilization will rule the world!

• To begin with, the world of Fëronët will be populated only by the same animals that populate our Earth, but as a god, you will of course have the chance to create your very own creatures and sapient races, or change the existing ones beyond all recognition!

Join us on IRC! The channel is #Theomachy - to join the chatroom, go here and write “/join #Theomachy” without quotation.

In order to join the game, all you really have to do is fill out the sign-up stuff and read the chapter on orders and turns below. Please do join us!

Getting Started - Anyone can join at any time!
To join the game, you have to create your own deity and civilization. However, if you want to create your own race for your civ first, then you can wait with the civ part (to begin with, civs will only provide small bonuses to power). Here is the sign-up form:

--- Deity ---
Name: You can pick any god from reality or fiction, or create your very own god, it’s up to you.
Pantheon: Choose which divine faction to join: Stasis, Creation, Destruction or Flux. Which one you choose will affect what kind of magic you'll be best at. See the section on Pantheons in the second post for further info.
Sphere: For instance, you could choose to be god of life, destruction or earwax. Must somehow match the pantheon you chose. You will be assigned a bonus ability based on your sphere, so choose wisely!
Bio: Optionally, you can write a piece on what your god has been up to during and before the earth was created.

---Civilization---
Name: Make up a new one or steal from anywhere!
Language: Same as above
Area: Choose the starting point of your new civilization on the world map! Choose wisely, for your civilization will be shaped by the land they live in.
Government: Describe how your civilization is ruled. Your civ doesn't in fact start out as one, it is merely a collection of decentralized tribes.
History and Culture: Post some lore on your civ if you want. Your tech level is early Neolithic, agriculture having recently been developed, but only in some areas.

Course of the Game - Orders and Turns
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. There are two kinds of orders: Divine orders and civ orders.

Divine Orders
The scope and number of these are determined by the amount of Divine Power you possess. You can see how much power you have in the stats doc. Your Power can be used for anything you can think of; it can be used for creative things, such as creating new species of creatures or new races of sapients, or it can be used destructively to cause great disasters and catastrophes. You can use flux-magic to bend the laws of nature or corrupt or improve existing things, and finally it can also be used as stasis-energy to shield areas or creations of yours against the meddling of other gods.

The only limit is your imagination and the amount of divine power at your disposal, but here’s a list with approximate costs for inspiration and an easy overview.

Civ Orders - max 3 of these
These are commands to be carried out by your people. It could be that you wanted societal changes, settling of new land, military action, church attendance duty or whatever. Your orders should be directed at someone, maybe the king or the priesthood, not the civilization as a whole or the GM. The likelihood of these getting carried out depends on how centralized and dynamic your society is. The chance is higher if your society is more dynamic and centralized, smaller if your society is stagnant and decentralized. These orders should be ranked by priority so that the most important ones are most likely to be carried out.

Call for a Divine Council
Any god of Fëronët can at any time call for a Divine Council on the peak in the middle of the world in order to pass new divine rules which all the gods must abide, discuss an important issue or whatever you can think of.

 

[Emilersej]

Game Mechanics
This post is divided into three parts: Civilization building, divine power and pantheons.

Civilization Building
Your most important resource in this game is your humble servants, the mortals. To begin with, they will all be primitive hunter-gatherers, but eventually, they’ll settle down and form complex societies. When managing your civilizations, these are the most important factors:

Population: The more people, the more power you get to influence the world around you (see the section on Divine Power below).
Devotion: Another factor that is important when seeking to gain more power is how devoted to their god(s) the people are. In order to improve this, try to think out ways to make your people focus more of their worship on you.
Centralization: This determines how effective your civilization is in carrying out orders - with low centralization, there is no central organization of your civilization, so it will struggle with carrying out orders, implementing political changes and acting in unison against enemies. With high centralization, your civilization can act as a powerful tool and war machine, but having one single empire rather than multiple competing city states might also lead to stagnation.
Polarity: Affects your civilization’s ability to make technological and societal advancements - if your civ is mostly static, it is unlikely to do so, but on the other hand, it is more stable. If it’s mostly dynamic, it will make advancement in technology faster, but watch out that it doesn’t break apart! Which one your god prefers might depend on which pantheon he belongs to...
Military: Determines your civ’s ability to defend itself or attack other civs. To improve this, invent new weapons or get more people to use as cannon fodder.
Technology: Technology affects all the other civilization factors and will appear as bonuses to these in your civ’s stats. There are several ways to advance in technology:

A) Your civilization makes advancement in tech all by itself. Sustenance and Military tech will move forward by themselves when there is a need for them, i.e. in this case when the land can no longer support any more people or your civilization is threatened by enemies.
B) You try to incite a tech advancement or new invention with your political orders.
C) You invent something yourself by spending creative power.
D) Somehow your civ gets its hands on tech from other civs, either by intrigue or natural spread.
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You can view your current civ stats here.

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Divine Power
As mentioned above, the amount of power you have depends on A) how many worshippers you have, and B) how efficiently that worship is transmitted to you (it may be interrupted by worship of other gods, or energy lost during transmission). To begin with, all civs will be animist and thus worshipping all gods at once.

What can power be used for? Your raw, divine power can be used to affect your environment in nearly any way you can imagine. However, you cannot save up power for the next turn; you have to use it NOW. It can be transformed into four kinds of power, each aligned with one of the 4 pantheons: Stasis, Creation, Destruction and Change. Although your faction most likely dislikes 3 of these 4 kinds of energy, you aren’t actually restricted to only one of them.

A list of divine inspiration and guidance can be found here, and you can see how much power you have here.

Pantheons
To begin with, the gods will be organized into four pantheons. I won’t force any conflict between them, hopefully this will come all by itself - I know you lot are good at this.
I will mostly leave the running of the pantheons to the players. Will the pantheons end up as loose alliances? Strict top-down structures? Will the pantheons be led by elected leaders or by a council of gods? Or will they dissolve in divine anarchy in order to make room for new, player-made pantheons?

Stasis:
First, we have the Pantheon of Stasis, the deities of which stand for peace, stagnation and order in the universe.

Flux:
The static deities’ worst enemies are the Gods of Flux, who strive to improve the world through changing it. These gods stand for dynamism and change.

Creation:
Then there are the spirits of the Demiurge, members of the Pantheon of Creation. They consider the act of changing existing things a debasement of the art of creation, and strive to create only new things. The gods of this pantheon often hold the more mundane titles, such as god of the seas or mountains, since they are responsible of much of the world’s creation.

Destruction
At last, there are the Gods of Destruction, who no-one else really likes. They mostly like exploding, knocking down and ruining the works of the other gods.

 

[Emilersej]

Player list
Pantheon of Stasis
Argoth, God of the North, Ice and Polar creatures (DG) - Civilization: The Penguins
Usiel, God of Order (iisbroke) - Civilization: Islicuria
The Old One, God of Luck (firelordsky) - Civilization: Isle of Wight
Sepulchrave, God of Mountains and Stone (Tufto) - Civilization: The Bright Carvers

Pantheon of Destruction
Acedius, God of Vice (Tristanxh) - Civilization: The Nisians
Gorkhan, God of War, Defiance and Revolts (CaesarCzech) - Civilization: The Ice Lords
Zyg, God of Sand and Insects (Tapscott) - Civilization: The Horog Tribes
Caein, God of Hunting and Bloodlust - Civilization: The Alpians

Pantheon of Creation
Nym, Goddess of Lifeshaping, Fertility and Monster People (Ranger900) - Civilization: The Demi
Thanatos, God of Time, Bringer of Life and Death (Thandros) - Civilization: Yeuehcauh
Nîr, God of Industry and Craftsmanship (GrandiSlayer) - Civilization: Gonnhirrim
Lucimer, God of Change (DeMarchese) - Civilization: The Tyrexians
Solarus, God of Daytime, Light and the Sun (Brettles) - Civilization: The River People

Pantheon of Flux
Eära, Goddess of Fire, Conflicts and Challenges (Deaghaidh) - Civilization: The Unburnt
Ghuul, God of Marshlands and Maladies (Noco19) - Civilization: The Baagon
Ry'Saleth the Forger, Goddess of Inventions and the Sea (alexander23) - Civilization: The Samirnes Clans
Suliamë, Goddess of Transformation, Change, Artisanship and Art (Clophiroth) - Civilization: The Strelnite Tribes
Omorphia, Goddess of Beauty and Decadence (Mder1) - Civilization: The Aphrosidians

Forgotten Gods (Inactive list - can rejoin at any time, but with lower mana the first turn)
Janarious, God of Death (Zex) - Civilization: The Terrans

Deity & Civ Stats

'Divine Power' doc

Creatures of Importance

Update History
Chapter I: The Dawn of Time

 

[Emilersej]

World
The game will mostly take place in the world of Fëronët. The map was made with the Civilization V SDK so that I will have no trouble changing it whenever you gods decide to make changes to the landscape. Fëronët is a strange world - firstly, it is flat instead of round, and second, it is cold in the north and just keeps getting hotter until you reach the sun-scorched southern end of the world.

 

[CaesarCzech]

*reserved*

 

[alexander23]

Dude this looks pretty great. I will join in. Is that island the only one in the world? How do we sign in?

 

[Emilersej]

With it's 1 670 000 square kilometers, the main landmass of Fëronët is really more of a continent. And yes, to begin with, there is only one, but the players may create even more. Sign-up stuff and game details are almost ready and will be up in a few moments.

 

[Zex]

im in

 

[AzagalTheGreat]

--- Deity ---
Name: Argoth
Pantheon: Stasis
Sphere: The god of the North (Polar creatures, Ice)
Bio: Argoth is one of the younger gods, he was created out of the rib of the elder God. He learned with him for a long time and moved up North. He took a great interest in cold things and settled himself in the North west corner of the cold world

---Civilization---
Name: The Pinguins
Language: Pinguini (For now a simple pattern of screechings)
Area: All over the frozen continent
Government: the Pinguins are still animals, but they have a little bit of intelligence that allows them to effectively hunt .
History and Culture: (They are still animals and thus have nothing in this category)

 

[Tapscott]

---Deity---

Zyg's new form, an eyeless and scaleless dragon.
On an unrelated note, Zyg has no sense of beauty.​

Spoiler: Zyg's first form. He is not the most creative god.

​

Name: Zyg
Pantheon: Destruction
Sphere: Sand, Insects
Bio: Zyg is, to be polite, stupid. As a God it has found no need to be intelligent, and can simply survive by being immortal. As such it has entertained itself in the western sands of Fëronët for almost all of its existence, destroying whatever it fancies, and occassionaly making something to annoy the other Gods with. Zyg, being slightly less intelligent than your average walnut, lacks creativity, and will often take what other Gods have made and tweak it through constant trial and error till he is either satisifed, or bored, with his 'creation'.

---Civilization---​

Name: The Horog Tribes
Language: Horog (Vocalizations little better than grunts of varying pitch. Most communication is done physically rather than verbally.)
Area: Interior of the Long Desert
Government: Gerontocracy (Oligrachical Rule by the Elders of the Community)
History and Culture: The Horog Tribes are remnants of a now mostly extinct people, known as the Stoopugs. The Stoopugs were the 'men before men', that is a more primitive and simplistic kind of human. The Stoopugs were slowly but surely beaten in all the environments they attempted to contest until only the Horog Tribes within the Long Desert (the only name they have for their environment) remained. The Horogs, somehow, cling on and survive, their mindless ambling striking a chord with the simple-minded Zyg. Now, protected by their dim-witted patron, the Horogs may be able to simply out last the competition. Or beat it with a stick until it goes away.

 

[Ranger900]

I so want in on this too, actually played something similar way back long ago.

Editted in stuff
--- Deity ---
Name: Nym
Pantheon: Creation
Sphere: Lifeshaping, Fertility, Monster-peoples
Bio: A goddess of ever changing appearance and indeterminate age. She says she's old enough to have had a hand in creating the foundations of reality, and in creating many of the wild creatures that roam the land. Whether she is telling the truth or not is not known, though one may be more inclined to believe the later then the former. Nym has a compulsive urge to create, and well she loves all her creations, she has a bad tendency to move on and make more without warning, and then come back just as without warning. This results is to the mortals a somewhat flighty goddess, but when her attention is turned toward one group of her worshipers, the results are usually quite noticeable. She is also believed to regularly place herself onto the planet and live short periods as her creations do, usually resulting in the spawning of demi-gods

---Civilization--- (ON DELAY UNTIL SUCH TIME AS NYM CAN CREATE A NEW LIFE-FORM)
Name: The Demi
Language: Assorted Demi languages
Area: Forest-plains area in the north eastern part of the main land that's surrounded in mountains.
Government: Various patriarchies and matriarchies, mostly a mix of tribal federations and early hereditary systems. Only really fully united by shared ancestor and primary deity.
History and Culture: A collection of numerous smaller groups of species created by Nym, the Demi aren't so much a unified civilization as they are a number of much smaller civilizations that unify against outside threats. The title 'Demi' is actually one granted to any species that can prove (through religious texts, divine vision, or similar rituals) that they were created by Nym, and the species that earn the title become known by Demi-*Name chosen in relation to their appearance*, like the Demi-Horse people, that live on the plains.

 

[Noco19]

---Deity---
Name: Ghuul
Pantheon: Flux
Sphere: Marshlands, Maladies
Bio: According to Ghuul, he once was a fat toad who ate a special berry brew of his own concoction, which then raised him to godhood. Basically every other god, Ghuul included most likely, regard this as simple poppycock, but so the story is. Regardless, Ghuul does indeed have a fondness for the dank and dreary, and all that which resides within. But foremost is his love for his crazy alchemical experiments which he happily shares with the world.

---Civilization---

Name: The Baagon
Language: Baagon (Guttural grunts and excited clicks)
Area: Nestled within the mountains and hills in the south of the continent, along the little river in the center of the southern coast.
Government: Tribalism under mystic wisemen
History and Culture: If you were to ask a Baagon, he would probably not understand you or even listen, but he would nonetheless believe that his people had always lived along the river, raised from the mud and muck to live better lives ruling over the mud and muck. A wild people, there is constant low-intensity in-fighting over nonsensical and often silly claims, but at the end of the day, the people are united by their common mythos and love for the wetlands.

 

[alexander23]

---Deity---
Name: Ry´saleth the Forger
Pantheon: Flux
Sphere: Inventions(like technology, tools etc) , The Sea (as understood by seas, oceans etc)
Bio: Ry´saleth is sometimes called the reclusive god by others. Not liking the interaction with the rest and preferring to play with his "toys" upon the land. As many other of the flux pantheons Ry´Saleth is never happy on how his creatures are and continues changing them and introducing new variables to see what happens if done so, all in hopes to be entertaining in the monotonous live that is the immortal one. very adapt to making new things and tools to give to his creatures Ry´Saleth have taken up the forrging of wepons and artifacts for other gods too. There is one thing that Ry´Saleth love above all things in the world is the sea and the creatures that live within it as they are so varied and have so much modification oportunities, there is nothing to hate about it!.

---Civilization---

Name: The Samirnes Clans
Language: Samirness (At this point a pictograph and growls)
Area:

Spoiler

Government: Clanship organization (the clans are ruled by a clan chief, whom is elecetd in combat every time the previous die, ala Wolf packs)
History and Culture: The Samirnes clans are organized around extensive families in the east coast of the continent. With so many other people in the area as well as other clan-ships, the clans rellay in the leading of the strongest and most able man to keep them safe. The humans in the Samirnes worship many gods but have caught the attention of Ry´Saleth for their inventiveness and able way to solve problems they come across. What will happen with this new toy of Ry´Saleth we will see as he boots up the programming for it.

 

[Deaghaidh]

Deity: Eära

Pantheon: Flux
Sphere: Fire, conflict, challenges
Bio: Eära is The Cleansing Fire, the personification of creative destruction. She consumes the decadent, destroys the weak to make way for new growth. Hers is the Flame Imperishable, and she grants her favorite to those who endure and grow. Her wrath is terrible and easily kindled, her blessings dangerous and powerful.

Civilization

The Unburnt
Language: Karnaklan
Area: The larger stretch of desert in the center-West
Government: Tribal nomads with a sacred High Priestess and sacred city of Karnak
History and Culture: The Unburned are sun-darkened humans who are proud to flourish in the least likely places. Their ways are harsh and seem cruel to outsiders, but theirs is a pitiless land and a Goddess who punishes weakness. They live off their herds, fighting amongst themselves over honor and water, and preying on the softer peoples who live in fat, wet lands. They follow chiefs who they deem worthy, and leave them if they prove weak.

Their holy temple-city of Karnak is the seat of the High Priestess. The only blood shed there is in the form of sacrifice. The aged, crippled, or those who simply wish to end their trials offer themselves to the Holy Fire. Here the Pyro manners work their spells, and the oracles gaze into the flames for visions.

 

[CaesarCzech]

Deity: Gorkhan
Pantheon: Destruction
Sphere: War,Defiance,Revolts
Bio: Gorkhan is the Personification of Anger and Opposition. He is the God of War, Defiance of people against the order and Revolts.

The Ice Lords
Language: Farix
Area: North along the river crossing.

 

[Emilersej]

Thank you for joining everyone! I should note that we only have normal creatures without magic abilities to begin with, although this may easily change when you go about reating and changing stuff. Also, all humans are tribal hunter-gatherers to begin with, and worship no specific gods, but are animists who worship everyone.

 

[Deaghaidh]

So we don't start with a civilization/ religion, but have to 'earn' one?

 

[Emilersej]

Well, yes, I guess the beginning stadium of your human isn't very civilized, that's why this is a civilization building game - you have to build it. Note that your people will start becoming more civilized all by themselves too, so you don't have to do all the work.

The reason for the religion being animistic to begin with, is that you will start out with sharing all the worship produced by your people so that the gods who wants to create their sapient beings before starting civ building get a chance at that.

Hint: It is much easier to change something that already exists than creating something totally new. Why else did you think all aliens and fantasy beings always look like humans in some way?

 

[Thandros]

Diety: Thanatos
Pantheon: Creation
Sphere: Life, Death, Time
BIo: Thanatos is often thought to be one of the oldest gods stated to have brought forth the dawn of time long before this current world was born. As the creator of time he has become the god of both death and life which he gives out in equal measure to all people. Regarded as fair and just he does not take a life when it is not i's time and never gives life to those who are not yet ready for it. His only enemy is stasis since stasis is the enemy of time and as such his enemy. He may well accept creation, destruction and change as part of the passage of time but for things not to change at all as a result of time passing is what he will resist eternally.

Civilization
Yeuehcauh
Launguage: Tlatoaya
Area: The Tropical Jungles of the South West
Government: Clans led by powerful Chiefs living in small to medium sized Wooden Villages.
History and Culture: The Yeuehcauh believe themselves to be the first people of this world and when man was created it was members of there tribe who walk onto the surface of this world and they began to drive the lesser beings from the world replacing them like they should as the rightful people of the gods. Now they believe their tribe has fragmented with the others who live in the distant places being lost members of their tribe who must be found and returned to the righteous cause. With the small villages growing in size year on year and the first places that resembling towns beginning to appear along with primitive stone buildings there belief to be growing in strength may just be accurate.

 

[Emilersej]

Map updated with pretty blobs on it. If you don't like where I've placed you, I can still change it. Some of the locations you stated were a bit vague, but I hope I got everyone right. Two players are missing from the map, since they want to create their species before making their civilization.

The game won't start today, as I'm hoping a few more players will sign up.


Hint: To begin with, all people are animist, which in practice means that they worship all pantheons evenly. This also means that gods in less crowded pantheons will get much more power for themselves...