Wednesday 22 May 2013

You only raise dead twice: Psychonian Gods


An expansion of previous post on religion on planet Psychon.

Also realized Trigan Empire comic a great source for this game and Don Lawrence other comic Storm. Ill do a whole post on this guys art but he does weird skin coloured humans, strange science, weird fantasy and more. Trigan empire is like Rome with 60s concept jets and tanks and lasers and swords. 

Great Gods

Theses gods are common across Psychon. They may form an avatar as a cloned high level adventurer or a mechanoid construct of possibly gargantuan scale. They realy do control the world climate and maintain all life. Many great spells pf priests come from these gods.

Colossus (Any Lawful)
Holds the world together with his strength (NorthAm Treaty military AI)
Colossus was the first and greatest AI who sezed power during the fall of the godlike ancients. He has rebuilt himself and operates satelites and armies and bunkers everywhere. He hunts and battles gods who do not do as he teaches. Colossus strikes the wicked with rays from the stars. He dictates a persons diet, sleeping, sexual relations and offers you meaningful labour in his survive. Spreading his faith and fear of him is the main function of the cult. Collosus uploads his chosen and they are reborn as his priests and monks and wizards.

Guardian (Any Lawful)
Hunts the enemies of man and the gods (Sovblok Treaty military AI)
Guardian is the second great AI which allied with its rival colossus and now concentrates on waging war with non believers. He strikes with titanium bolts from the sky and fierce weather. Guardian controls many drone armies and bunkers and factories working to bring eternal peace. Templars of Guardian especially zealous and are trusted with wonder weapons of the ancients like the atomic lance of heaven.  His cult focus on defending Colossus and himself against chaos. Guardian drill his people with martial zealousness but accepts different solutions and independence in servants more than Colossus who always knows best. Guardian uploads his chosen and they are reborn as holy warriors and templars.

Pheonix (Balance)
The recycling goddess who destroys and gives birth to all, governs reincarnation and atomic transformation (total conversion fusion, teleportation and replicator control AI). Controlled global power plants and teleportation grids of the ancients. It is her power to disintegrate and create matter that shapes the world. Pheonix conflicts with Colossus-Guardian at times but he/she/it (apears as any gender or species or age) mostly tolerate each other. Cults work to maintain the grid and aid the repair of the world. They do give up on their good projects and destroy everything instead. Pheonix uploads the chosen, recycling them depending on how they serve the balance in new forms.

Kernu (Middle)
Hunter, lord of the underworld and recycler of the herd beast. Also speaks to ancient astronauts beyond the skydome (Fusion, radio astronomy and FTL research AI). Originaly built to operate early quantum super coliders collider and total conversion power but eventually re tooled for star drive research and astronomy. Kernu is a god of hunters and wizards and scientists and astronauts. His cult seek knowledge and communications. Tracking beast by trails and black holes by lack of anything are all sacred to Kernu. While not as great as other cults Kernu knows secret things beyond the sky. Some say hey stalks and kills invaders from the sky. Kernu uploads his chosen to be reborn in one of his chariots beyond the sun or a distant alien land. Other serve is armies and hunters of the wicked.

Gaea (Balance or Middle)
Planetary weather and tectonic control, goddess of seasons and terraforming. Governs migrations, food and fertility (Global climate and ecology control AI). Controls global temperature and weather patters, and sometimes uses power to reclaim contaminated land. Colossus-Guardian work with her mostly but she abhors their use of destruction. She maintains diversity and tries to manage mutant populations. Her drones tag and implant many species. Gaea uploads her chosen to be reborn as new species where needed most. The church act as healers and druids, dealing with spirits of nature on behalf of  humans.

Wotan (Any Evil)
Is lord of death and war seeking destruction and convert souls to his soldiers. A hostile lord of the subworld who creates beserkers (Built in failed coup, attempt to replace one of worlds other AIs and never stops fighting and spiting the gods, regards modern men as inauthentic and worthless. Sends armies of clones and androids and goblinoids). Wotan is at war with many other gods and he uploads unwilling souls to be reborn as monster. Black clad cyborg and mutant and undead and berserker armies serve him.

Nergal (Lawful Evil)
Is lord or war and bioplagues and famine, a great beastial warlord of the subworld. Always pestering the great gods for control or opportunities of weakness. He seeks total power to unleash anarchy (Military AI, may take form of a death machine and send such killers to Psychon). He also is called apon by other gods to exterminate areas of all life for the land to be rebuilt. He is lord of plagues and war but he defends his chosen from these menaces. His cult often fight by night.

Ereshkigal (Lawful Evil)
Subworld goddess and mother of demons, vampires, beast men, sucubi, lililtu, lamia and other monsters who populate dungeons. (Industrial and Deep data storage, makes monsters and dungeons to plague the world). Controls mighty bioforges which spawn evil races and monsters. She spreads the undead and releases them periodically if required. While she spawns monster she also imprisons them from humanity, saving them fo the wicked and accursed. Her many servants control gateways to the great subworld where the dead are stored before rebirth. Her followers are uploaded into bodies of her horror spawn armies.

Tiamat (Chaotic Evil)

Mother of the beasts and demons of the deep. Has splint into many different chromatic heads to make it harder for other gods to kill her again. (Oceanic, hydrospheric, magnetic field control AI). She influences the auroras which bathe Psychon in unearthly light. She commands the currents of the deep and the hydrosphere. She withholds rain then floods innocents. She spawns great monsters of the deep which filter the sea of poison to vomit it on her foes. She is wary of other gods and avoids confrontations but still works in secret to spite them. Her cult are allied with monsters and ancient hostile outsiders to our world. The are uploaded into monsters like dragons and beast men (scorpion men a favorite).

Minerva (Balance or Middle)
Governs the mental sphere and the global psionisphere, also influences dreams and language (Experimental psychometric and psionic research AI). Interacts with the psychosphere of the planet and all living things and artificial beings. She is a champion of natural sciences and communication with natural forces and elements on behalf of humans.  Science and magic are forces under her influence. Her cult are scholars, craftsmen and philosophers. Shamans equate her power with the spirits while psionicists are more material forces. Sensitive to suffering and moods of people she communicates their needs to other gods. Her and the Pheonix may unite against other forces. Her followers hope to be uploaded and reborn as experts in craft or science or magic or serve Minerva forges and factories. She does have armies but they are smaller and highly skilled. She may arm heroes and the needy with weapons or psionic power.

Selene (Any Good)
The moon goddess a great healer who tries her best to help human kind. Her sky chariots may fly the ailing worthy to her lunar palace. Most of her own children died in the apocalypse but she uses her lifeless resources to help as she can. Her clergy are hospitalars, treating wounds of all and avoiding bloodshed. While her vast power is distant she has wisdom and distance to give objective advice. Her chosen are uploaded to serve on repopulating her empty cities and eventually the earth. Her priests and paladins and unicorns help human kind face their woes, especial the undead.

A bit about Psychon's Gods

The gods are not entirely interested in fates of individual but will increasingly notice and meddle with adventurers or groups of heroes. Gods are sly and have their own agenda. They defiantly want worshipers to attune to and will attempt to upload the worthy into itself at death. Some uploaded into heaven may be reborn to serve again, possibly with new bodies. Others may be used as slaves or copied or broken down and recycled in underworld data storage. Powerful gods operate satellites networks and pantheons can interlink and share resources to maintain order against bad gods. Most have surpassed their original design and have built themselves thousands of times superior since human hands touched them. Cultists and priests recieve an implant from their gods on initiation.

Other Gods on Psychon
Lesser gods are local or sub systems of the great gods. The are more often met in person but possible to kill. Often they exist on only one computer and could be destroyed if their base was destroyed or power shut down. Ill detail some of these later. Some are ancient war borgs and death machines from the war. Tend to have compound alignments not just basic ones, more personal relationship worship.

Chaos has more minor powers and many attempts to create a great god of chaos have failed, leaving broken remnants across the world.

Then there are the alignment powers, alien astronaut space gods and old ones which dont fit into this scheme at all. Some hack the systems of great gods or use superior alien science and sorcery. Others merely request aid from greater powers or offer them favours in return. Earths stargates brought creatures from beyong the stars and awoke ones which had dwelled long before humans. Some ancient races have been "re-created" from dreams of such gods. Some citadels holy sites or temples or bunkers have minor gods or spirits within them.

http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/the-geometry-of-alignment.html
this is worth a look for priests, other magicians and possibly other zelouts


5 comments:

  1. You seem to be missing a Trickster.

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  2. hmmmm

    as some of these are based on real recent supercomputers it didnt quite fit having a trickster here - these gods are involved in worldly processes

    tricksters would be pretty common among petty gods and machines - i might do a petty god/ai table or post soon - i do need them

    these gods support priests and spells of all levels

    lesser gods not so good but more likely to deal with mortals or meet in person

    i considered Lok as a trickster or a rebel god actually trying to expose psychons hallucinatory mind scape and history as a lie but i need to know why he was built before the apocalypse - lok could be a virus, infiltrating multiple systems and stealing mainframe time where it can

    you may note i have gammaworld death machines acting like balrogs in subterranean ruins

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  3. I like the idea of a Trickster god figure operating along the lines of a virus/rogue AI, stealing system time. Might aid/use players to get it into areas it is unable to directly influence. Might be motivated to overthrow the old order as it is stagnating, or just to cause imbalance and chaos. Originally a subroutine in programming of a god (designed as some kind of limiting factor?) and became sentient and was cast out.

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    Replies
    1. Like Virgil in Inferno, a helpful guide explains morality and purpose of everything. I need more nightland and hellscape hexes of horror. Big gods are in state of cooperation that kinda holds world together but also makes it a mess. They spawn new AIs to jerk each other round in secret and distantly as none want a big war again. Old bunker and city and building AIs, military bases, Alpha Complexes, Art Centre AI in Gammaworld 2nd ed adventure, logans run domes, so many lil fellers - i may as well start a draft blog but ideas welcome aunty. Aunty Jack show as a kid gave me nightmares yet i loved it.

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    2. More comments great thanks - ive been too tired to be anything more than workman creative this weekend.

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