Fantasy UPON THE WORLDCORPSE - Post-Apoc Fantasy

[Hral]

Our world is dying.
You cannot save it.

You’ll try anyway.
​

In ruins ancient and crumbling, the walls show us our world as it once was.

Verdant and thriving was the land, ebullient and rich were the seas.

The Gods sculpted the world from primordial turmoil so that they would have a home.

And to share in the joys of their creation, they next sculpted us - body and soul.

The first and greatest of the Gods were the Two.

Life shaped us with her own hands and imbued us with her warmth everlasting.

Death guided our souls back to the Wellspring when our bodies met their intended ends.

The remainder of the Gods carved out their domains; from the roar of elements to whispers of deceit.

​

The Gods loved us.

Thus began their fall.

Each God had their favourites, those mortals who embodied their ideals through action.
We, their flock, split into many, devising reasons to strife; man falling at the hand of man.
The Gods themselves became embroiled, empowering their chosen and attacking their kin.

Life, witnessing this senseless waste of her gift, came to bring the War to a conclusion -

- and the last blow struck her clean.

​

The loss of Life - and the wailing of Death, her love - ravaged the world.
The walls and spires of man’s greatest empires toppled.
The Gods themselves were - nearly to a one - shattered to the void. ​

Now the land lies strewn with the bones of Gods, titans and dragons.
Now Life’s warmth drains from the world, soil falling barren, starving beast and man.
Now we, survivors, carve out our sorry lives without guidance or aid from our makers.

Death alone still sits atop her throne,
Frozen in still mourning.

Her daughter Noxihm, lady of last rites and death’s due course,
The last of the Gods to pray to.


Without their Gods to tend them, the domains of divinity lie fallow.
Mortals who exemplify old ideals have begun to lay claim, showing powers long unseen.
Many flock their way, even worship these “claimants” as heralds of a renewed age.


Are they our salvation - or nothing more than carrion crows​

upon the Worldcorpse?​

~ ~ ~


(oc: Maxim Lingert)​

Welcome, friends, and thank you for reading.
In Upon the Worldcorpse, you will be playing a survivor in a lifeless land and a claimant to a divine domain.

Life in the Heartland - and all surrounding territories - is harsh and unforgiving. Winters are long, food is scarce.
What remains of humanity roams the plains to hunt and forage, or gathers in small communities wherever the ground still bears a shadow of life.
In the century since the Wailing, there has been no thought spared for rebuilding the empires of man - only one's next meal.

To make matters worse, the land is haunted by spectres - the souls of the dead who cannot find their way to the Wellspring, hunting the living to consume their lifeforce instead.
Only fire, weapons made of sacred bone and magic can keep them at bay and destroy them.

The emergence of the claimants has shook the Worldcorpse to its core. It is unclear why divinity can be wielded by mortals without a God's intervention, or why only now.
Still, these extraordinary individuals are to many a beacon of hope and object of worship, offering the first bit of hope for a better future many have encountered all their lives.

How will you wield your domain? How will you rule those who come to worship you?

Spoiler: Rumours abound about the powers the Claimants wield and the following they are amassing.

In the arid wastes of Tarkaën - once the grand Empire of Dragons - the Blacksun Khan, claimant of the Unlife domain, raises the bones of the fallen from the sand.

At the foothills of Urnansif, the ever-spewing mountain, Tender Sankra, claimant of the Flame domain, warms and arms her zealous flock with forges lit by the world’s heartblood.

Among the pillar mountains of Az Mentes, the warlord Fenn Ketter, claimant of the Strife domain, is said to topple stone walls with one punch, amassing a horde of warriors to his name.

Among the ruins of academies in the frigid north, Usir Imon-Tara, claimant of the Weaving domain, braids threads of primordial energy into the arcane spells of old.

Stories abound of the first mortal to start her ascension - Nana Anadi, claimant of the Thievery domain, who with her fleet fingers and silent tread stole divinity itself.

+++

GUIDELINES​

- This is a literate RP for 20+ year old players. I don't make that choice lightly; in order for this RP to stay manageable when the PCs lay claim to the powers of gods, it is vital that you are capable of making mature and collaborative choices within the fiction. There is no competition to be won, no powergaming to be done - you should want to take hits, lose arguments, complicate your character's life to deepen their stories. Above all, be gracious and proactive towards your co-writers; build a story of loss, love and heroics together.

- There are no hard limits on how often everyone needs to post. As a busy person myself, there may occasionally be a few days between my own posts. Such is life. Patience is a virtue, though not a divine domain. I will ultimately arbitrate whether to poke someone to post, whether we move on and whether someone is removed from the RP after continued inactivity.

- This is not a "sandbox" RP; I endeavour to always have clear problems and goals for the PCs to address, and failure to do so (in time) will have consequences. That said, I am also not strongly railroading the story; I depend on you to help fill in the blanks and am happy to incorporate anything I find exciting into the larger narrative. I intend for there to be periods of intense combat, exploration or argumentation, as well as periods of downtime where characters can freely roleplay (feel free to plan said roleplays with your co-writers!).

- I haven't yet decided whether or not I am going to make a Discord server for OOC or just use a thread, I'll ask when I've gathered all the players.

- I beg you to bring me your questions about lore or setting, that is how the world is enriched! Also always feel free to ask me to introject character backstory moments/characters, introduce roleplay moments, etc. I am happy to play with the narrative for the sake of showing off the depth of your characters.

+++

There is much, much more to this setting that will be explained in the OOC and Lore threads, but I will leave you with this list of potential divine domains, so you make a start on imagining what your character might embody.

Spoiler: Domains

Frost
Steel
Light
Beast
Sky
Dream
Earth
Hearth
Hunting
Order
Liberty
Lightning
Blood
Sea
Peace
Revelry
Star
Spore
Bulwark
Psyche
Travel
Lore
Chance

I am excited to learn what you all think ^^

 

[SavannahSmiles]

ooooo so many interesting domains, its hard to pick

 

[SP3CT3R]

Is the list of domains exhaustive or can we make our own? (Interested either way)

 

[ERode]

Will be eyeballing this, fo sho.

 

[BuggaBoo]

Hi!

Interested

 

[Solivagante]

Holy shit this sounds amazing. I'm interested! Though if OOC ends up being on Discord that is a dealbreaker for me, so I guess count me as a 50% interest vote?

Will probably stalk the IC thread even if I don't end up joining, though, because this idea is awesome and I absolutely love the way you've presented it.

In the meantime, can I ask some lore questions here?

 

[sycamore.trees]

 

[Hral]

Is the list of domains exhaustive or can we make our own? (Interested either way)

Good question, it's definitely not exhaustive! These are just the examples I could come up with so far - the parameters of a "domain" are a bit nebulous even to me, so I'm happy to hear other people's ideas for a domain and what it encompasses. We'll likely just tinker with the balance a bit.

 

[Hral]

Holy shit this sounds amazing. I'm interested! Though if OOC ends up being on Discord that is a dealbreaker for me, so I guess count me as a 50% interest vote?

Will probably stalk the IC thread even if I don't end up joining, though, because this idea is awesome and I absolutely love the way you've presented it.

In the meantime, can I ask some lore questions here?

Thanks so much for your kind words! Feel free to ask lore questions, though I'll probably keep the particularly gritty details to the Lore thread.

 

[celestialspartan]

Interested!

 

[Hral]

I'm really happy to see there's already some enthusiasm for the story. I'm going to give it a few days before I launch the CA/Lore threads just so everyone has time! In the meantime, please do come here with your questions, they will help me flesh out the world and give the RP direction.

 

[Pagemaster]

This does look like it has promise, please mark me as interested.

 

[Solivagante]

Thanks so much for your kind words! Feel free to ask lore questions, though I'll probably keep the particularly gritty details to the Lore thread.

Fair fair!

I'll start with some plot-related/character-ideation-related questions, but I am also eagerly looking forward to the Lore thread.

• As player characters will be claimants to different domains, and it sounds like most of the claimants are building their own power bases in separate regions, is there a particular event which will bring them together to interact?
• Is there a standard 'process' for becoming a claimant? It sounds like Nana Anadi is believed to have stolen her domain - thematically fitting - but do most domains require the claimant to do something actively, or is this a 'great power is thrust upon them' situation? (Or something in between - IE a claimant to the Sea domain nearly drowning?)
  • Are there any prominent beliefs/rumors about how claimants occur, whether or not they're accurate? I could see some desperate people seizing the idea that they come from near-death experiences and building a dangerous pseudo-cult around that idea.
• In addition to the bones mentioned, are there also civilization ruins? (I would assume that these would perhaps be further away from the Heartland and difficult to access, but it could be interesting to have/play a claimant of Lore whose power base is built on bringing back ancient knowledge...)

Also, if there's anything you'd like to share about dragons outside of the lore thread... I am always hungry for dragon worldbuilding.

 

[Hral]

Fair fair!

I'll start with some plot-related/character-ideation-related questions, but I am also eagerly looking forward to the Lore thread.

• As player characters will be claimants to different domains, and it sounds like most of the claimants are building their own power bases in separate regions, is there a particular event which will bring them together to interact?
• Is there a standard 'process' for becoming a claimant? It sounds like Nana Anadi is believed to have stolen her domain - thematically fitting - but do most domains require the claimant to do something actively, or is this a 'great power is thrust upon them' situation? (Or something in between - IE a claimant to the Sea domain nearly drowning?)
  • Are there any prominent beliefs/rumors about how claimants occur, whether or not they're accurate? I could see some desperate people seizing the idea that they come from near-death experiences and building a dangerous pseudo-cult around that idea.
• In addition to the bones mentioned, are there also civilization ruins? (I would assume that these would perhaps be further away from the Heartland and difficult to access, but it could be interesting to have/play a claimant of Lore whose power base is built on bringing back ancient knowledge...)

Also, if there's anything you'd like to share about dragons outside of the lore thread... I am always hungry for dragon worldbuilding.

Thanks for your question!

Both the NPC and PC claimants will indeed eventually find reason to gather and interact. I can't say much more than that without spoiling the overall story, but trust me when I say these will not be disparate arcs or one-time NPCs.

As far as the common folk is aware, the claimants' divine abilities occur due to their embodiment of certain godly ideals, but the exact mechanism is unknown. It's a malleable process that I will not tightly regulate, it's more interesting to see what the players think it means. Some claimants fully embrace their domain and see it as a reward, others feel burdened by it.

And yes, the ruins of advanced civilizations lie broken and buried, being slowly rediscovered. Several claimants of domains like Lore, Steel, and Lightning may be able to make use of ancient machinery...

 

[Solivagante]

Wonderful! Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

This might be something you're saving for Lore, but other than the struggling humans, what's the natural environment look like? It seems safe to assume that with Life gone, animals and plants are also scarce; are they similarly impacted by the spectres? (If yes, does that also extend to the marine environment?)

Ecology, especially marine ecology, is one of my passions, so I'm turning ideas about a Sea claimant trying to restore that environment around in my head. There's some interesting/haunting imagery to be had in bleached reefs, urchin barrens, etc...

 

[Hral]

The natural environment post-Wailing is not wholly different from how it once was, but basically every life form is struggling harder. You could think of it like a drought; only a percentage of forests, grasses and crops are succeeding. Animals are also less numerous due to the resulting lack of resources. Also, constant fires being one of the few things that ward against Spectres means that forests are being cut down at a large scale around inhabited areas.

I would love a Sea claimant! I should note, as I was planning to in the character application thread, that there is no such thing as a claimant "restoring" life to anything. Life is dead and gone. No claimant can make plants grow, healing magic doesn't exist anymore - any aspect of any domain that would involve the propagation of life simply cannot be done. But there would definitely still be other unique powers the Sea claimant does control.

 

[Solivagante]

Ah, good point! I didn't even think of that aspect. I'll have to mull it over a little more because that might tip me more towards Lore... Might also depend on what the overall map looks like, but I'm sort of thinking that Sea abilities might be limiting depending on how far they are from the coast at any given time?

 

[Develius]

Keeping a tab on this... not sure if I'll join but the vibes are indeed COOL.

Definitely eying a domain already Beast maybe because monsters are my obsession, though don't count me as claiming anything. May investigate further upon seeing a CS.

 

[Lordxana0]

To play the nicest possible character with the creepiest domain or an utter weirdo. Seems solid, and I think most of my questions for things would have to wait until character creation.

 

[Pagemaster]

Hral so if they can’t “fix” anything, we’re just mortals with god powers in an already devastated world?

 

[Hral]

This thread has been momentarily put on hold due to some extenuating circumstances in my personal life. Please bear with me.

 

[Solivagante]

Totally understandable. Take care of yourself!