< SATAN SHRUGGED >
- Basic Information
Generally speaking, if you've read or seen anything at least remotely related or similar to Tolkien, Dungeons & Dragons, or Conan the Barbarian, you probably know what to expect of the journey ahead of you. There are some stark differences, but they can be covered later. For now, let's go over characters.
Your character is supposed to be - at the start of the story - a milquetoast, conveyor-belt-assembled human person. No super-ninja assassins, no laser vision or super-strength, and no sociopath-tier hypercompetent problem-solving ability in almost any situation, no matter how precarious or unlikely.
You could be Jeremy Stewarts, ex-military, a veteran with twelve years of service, sure - but that should only grant you a marginal advantage over the rest of the players, at least in the beginning. If two or three dark minions in armor plating with shields and maces decide to fight you, and you don't have weapons, pre-planned exit strategy, or environmental advantage to tip the scales, you're going to be beaten black and purple, with broken teeth and a hairline fracture on your left cheekbone, then handcuffed and stowed away in the dark lord's dungeon.
Generally, this story will be on the more serious side of things. That said, comedy explicitly isn't frowned upon, but it should stem from situational circumstances, rather than characters. If you make someone for the sake of memery, I'm not going to accept them. If you make someone at least principally realistic and then engage in an act of memery that's relatively plausible, I'm going to laugh with you and give you a golden star.
The characters in the roleplay will advance over time. At first, in the form of skills or learning magics and arcane abilities, but later, they will gradually evolve and begin to turn into something beyond human.
Power Information
Ornias, rechristened as the Adversary, is your summoner into the strange world of Alheria. You come from a different world, not bound by fate or the cycles of the Divinities, and therefore are the ideal vessel to be shaped into a blade against them.
Before the story begins, you may bargain with him to be granted some of the powers at his disposal. Some will be easier to obtain, some harder - mostly because he has a set of portfolios and finds going outside them costly or onerous. Ornias is the one who set the stars into motion and is also a universal 'sun god' and 'magic god' on Alheria, which means he can offer some related perks.
On the more passive side, he could grant you armor woven of metal-sunlight, which glistens like gold and protects from all but the most fell of wounds. Or he may grant you the ability to be a fucking quasi-Kryptonian and metabolize sunlight over time, growing stronger little by little each day.
On the more active side are abilities such as preternatural talent in magecraft and thaumaturgy, a general ability to manipulate electromagnetism (which is the medium for photons, with magnetism being the main defense against the sun in a purely heuristic sense), or similar abilities.
Other blessings can be granted, but the more taxing the blessing is to obtain for him, the larger the cost he will impose. Make no mistake - Ornias is depressed by existence and has already committed himself to the idea that he will essentially commit suicide by plotting to achieve his goal of murdering his fellow Divinities and mucking up their vagaries in the world, but he wishes to do so smartly, and losing the power that could be spent on throwing them off elsewhere is stupidity.
What do you get out of this? Whatever you desire. Once the quest to cast down the gods from their ivory towers is completed, Ornias claims, you will be among the most powerful beings left around. Use this power to your liking to reshape what's left, or go back to the worlds of your origin - he cares not, and indeed, may not be there to care when the deed is done.
