Sir Froggington said:

(apologies, I thought I'd responded at least once within the last few responses)

no problem, man! we can all take our time with anything here :) my activity's been a little spotty, lately, so i don't mind waits on posts for any reason or another.

The Ascension thing that TIAPN mentioned reminds me of Disney Hercules and how he became a god and I think in Greek myths there were a few instances of the gods deciding a mortal was special enough to become a god because everyone liked them or they did something special.

it's acfually a thing in general Greek mythology and not just the disney version that hercules went through a bunch of trials (12 "labors," i believe) and got ascended because of it. or at least, he got to live with the gods after he died somce he did such sick shit in life. don't think he actually became the god of anything.

nonetheless, maybe our concept can have them having to do a bunch of trials on order to be considered worthy of this acension, and then in order to complete it, you have to do a sort of "leap of faith" where, to be vague, you get to find out whether you did enough to achieve godhood or you close your eyes for good.

It also reminds me of Brandon Sanderon's Comsere "mythology" and the gods all hold shards which created the world. You can kill the shard holder and then someone else will take up the name and the power of the shard, so the god can be referred to their human name or their shard name. I'm not sure, because i've only read one of his series and I think he's still figuring stuff out/revealing stuff gradually.

we could also go a less dark route and do something similar to this they have to kill one of the ex-gods to take their place. when the demigod fell, perhaps they did so because a new possible god challenged them and they tried to cheat the fight or cheat death itself, and the other gods were displeased and kicked them out?

and there could be a subplot where it'd caused confusion whether the new "god" truly earned their place or not, or perhaps, simce the demigod still exists alongside the new god, their control over their "domain" is split and causing major issues. so the old gods are trying to track down and smite the demigod in order to clear the problem while the demigod is rushing to complete the trials so they can challenge the new god, kill them, and regain their rightful place on the throne.

Also I kinda imagined the puppet master in addition to the god's greater knowledge would have their own contacts and their own skill set for manipulating the world such as espionage, assassination, and any other useful abilities/skills.

yes! i think all of the characters have their own things to add to make the quest easier. normal guy for their ability to traverse the world, puppetmasyer for their contacts and whatever they used to get their position in the firstplace, and the demigod being a literal god.

What would the gods normal interactions be like with humans? Are they frequent? They only interact when the human is interesting or the situation? Is it more common for more higher ranked gods or lower ranked ones because I have no idea what kind of powers the god has?

these are good questions. i think that the person who plays god will have the final say since it's most important what they find interesting. i think a possible interpretation is the typical "each god has their own domain of the elements of life and the universe they rule over" shit like love and lightning and shit in greek mythology, and the different important gods have their own way they do it depending on their personalities, which we can kinda develop if we want detailed lore, sideplots involving them, or we want them to be involved in the main plot. ranking can depend on how important they can make their domain; for example, i think the water god originally had a monopoly on earth until the earth god won a stupid bet with them and got a lot more power as a result, since the earth was originally a shit ton of water. maybe the gods are constantly battling to expand their domain. this concept would be interesting in concepts like love and war, constantly trying to start fights or make people fall in love.

I'm also curious if the puppet master and the god if they'll like work well together and smoothly or if they are both so disgruntled by their loss of position that the random guy has to be the intercessor.

heh. fun character dynamics.

Also another thing that the random guy could be is a con artist and they think he's some well-learned well well-traveled skilled person but he's actually a young upstart and moved to a really big busy trade city so he can hide easier and start up a con. And he's actually more confused than they are because he doesn't know how to figure out the quest but he does know normal human things in that city, but he doesn't necessarily know the most about far distant places and he just knows enough from being in a trading city to B.S. his way with the confidence only a con has.

this concept is like. one-to-one the exact dynamic one of my characters has in one of the stories i'm writing, LMAO.

Freedom said:

I personally feel that once our roles are decided we can wolrdbuild more easily because one of us will have control over each character, and that way we can make personal decisions. I love what y'all are throwing out, and I for sure want to get this started soon if you're willing to! PackName, what are you feeling in terms of who you want to play?

this sounds about right! i think we should start when we all mutually decide we're done developing once we can all decide what we're majorly in control over by deciding characters. deciding personalities and dynamics might make things easier, too, since then we can approximate where the story will go when we come up with a new beat.

i personally like to get as much of the basic background lore out of the way early as possible, but i do think that's unrealistic for keeping interest, so i think as long as we know enough to make a starter it should be fine and then we can spitball what's important from there.

for me, i think i have character ideas no matter which way i go, honestly. from what the two of you said, the cleanest way to do it would be froggington as puppeteer, freedom as god and me as third, unless someone else would rather do the third and i can just switch with them.

Honestly, that's exactly how I thought the roles would go as soon as we came up with the concept :) Yeah, that sounds great to me! So Froggy can decide on the puppetmaster specifics, I can decide on the god specifics, and PackName can decide on the third guy specifics. Give me some time and I too will write a big-ass reply. Sorry mine have been shorter lately.

I do like the fact that having worshippers make gods stronger which makes sense why there is an alliance between the god and the puppetmaster.

I think at least from the puppet master's side that they would be expecting to work well with the god or for the god to know things but once they figure out how clueless the god is then conflict breaks out. Yeah the puppet master doesn't want to spend the second half of their life getting into a position where they can control things. Also maybe the god is concerned that the puppet master will make a deal with the one who has replaced the god O.o. Much easier than reinstalling the old god

It'll be interesting to (maybe) hear about how the god in the rp beat the previous god.

Freedom said:

Okay, I for sure like the idea that the god has gone through the trials before, and thinks they know what they're doing. But since we're doing a combo medieval-modern setting, when the god did the trials is was more like pure medieval. So, for instance, if there's a great monster they have to slay, they'd be like "I got this" and rush out with a sword. But things like guns exist now, so the monster is a little more buffed up than they recall.

yeah, i like this, too! i do like the general idea of the group being overconfident and being beaten down over the course of the story realizing how much trouble they're actually in and how much the others don't know what they're doing. i do like thinking the god thinks this is all gonna be a piece of cake since they're done it once before and then it just turns out to. not be that.

i also like the idea of them having to look for ways to buff up the god, like a sideplot where they have to look for a top tier blacksmith who can get them a great gun, and my character having to teach the god how to shoot a gun in the first place because they're a god who's main experience as human was before these things existed and even though they know what they are from a distance they've never held one in their hands.

I also think the trials thing would give us a very clear road map for the RP. We wouldn't have to decide all the trials now, of course.

yeah, naturally. all we really need to do is decide where the first one is going to be so that they all can get together and start going there, and we can decide the rest on the way.

Perhaps they grow stronger as well through worshippers, offerings, and prayers? Which is probably what the god got out of the Puppetmaster - they had their subjects follow the god to gain him power.

i love this idea! yeah, i think that they can grow stronger through things like that. maybe that's why they bless their followers when they pray to them -- in exchange for their divine worship, they'll give them what they wish in exchange for them continuing to spread the word. if the gods see this as a sort of competition, it would be fun to see the slight divide between people of different gods because of how the more stout worshippers or the blessed by the gods are so intent on converting people.

maybe the reason our god got kicked is because they have rules for this and this was essentially 'cheating'? you can answer prayers and whatnot, but they played too heavy of a hand in making themselves more powerful by creating an entire leader of a kingdom, though they tried to hide it by having it be only a puppetmaster rather than a king. but obviously the other gods found out eventually and struck them down.

I can also imagine, if we want, that there are people after both the God and the Puppetmaster (I mean, and the third guy, depending on their role). Political assassin types sent by one of the few who know about the Puppetmaster, and then people sent by the other gods to eliminate this God. That's just if we want the stakes to be very high.

this sounds fun! if we go with what i said, maybe the ones who have been blessed by the gods are the ones who go after them, or some of the gods struck new people with divine power and told them they could keep it if they took down this fucker or whatever?

I also imagine the fallen god still has some of their powers. Which, of course, is why the other gods need them dead. But, of course, the god can't just be using their powers willy-nilly like they're used to, because then they'll get caught for sure. So it would be more of a last resort thing.

yes! on a somewhat related note, regarding what i want to do with the third guy, i do like the idea that they're a MAJOR on-the-run criminal who the puppetmaster has promised a pardon if they guide them to these places of legend, since perhaps the places the trials take place are told as myth but no one believes they're true except for the few who've found them, and this criminal has found those areas but didn't do any of the trials, so they can help.

and the criminal hears that they're going to get pardoned and live a lavish life and they crack their knuckles and go "fine, make it quick," but since the puppetmaster is a manipulator, they don't tell them quite how much they're getting into lest they run when they hear they're helping a god with a bounty on them by all the other LITERAL and when they finally find out (probably when the demigod uses their powers as a last resort) the puppetmaster tells them that they already have a godly mark on their back so they'd better finish the deal when they freak out.

i say all this because i think it would make for a fun side plot if the criminal doesn't know the extent of what they're getting into and thinks it'll just be a quick A to B to Z plot, but it might overcomplicate things a little and i can think of fun ways to spin it if they DO know, so you guys can have the final say in whether they're told or not.

Maybe when the deity was banished for giving the Puppetmaster the divine right to rule, another person was brought in as a replacement because a certian number of gods are always needed. The now-demigod was supposed to give up his powers. Only he didn't, because the new god didn't officially challenge him, and so he refuses to ackowledge his replacement.

honestly, i kind of forgot about them getting banished because of puppetmaster-related things and jumped the gun, but this makes a lot of sense. also characterizes the deity a lot for their egotism despite quite literally not being a god anymore, LMAOOOO. perhaps they think that they should've been given a chance to fight the new god to the death and are gunning for their role back partially for the principle.

Sir Froggington said:

How many trials are we thinking? Should it be however many main gods there are?

this sounds good to me! so i suppose we should figure out how many gods there are, or what the gods are if we'd like to.

I do have a Pantheon outlined that I used for a roleplay on here if we want to use that, but I figured we'd want to work more together.

maybe you can show us the pantheon and we can use it as a base for the new one and add or remove whatever we see fit? it'd be kind of boring to go with just elements and lame to just use the greek pantheon, so basing it off of one of yours sounds nice.

I think at least from the puppet master's side that they would be expecting to work well with the god or for the god to know things but once they figure out how clueless the god is then conflict breaks out. Yeah the puppet master doesn't want to spend the second half of their life getting into a position where they can control things. Also maybe the god is concerned that the puppet master will make a deal with the one who has replaced the god O.o. Much easier than reinstalling the old god

fun conflict! i like the idea of the two of them initially getting along and progressively getting more and more suspicious and angry with each other. i think my character, who just wants this quest to be over with so they can get to their life of relaxation and luxury, is just constantly interrupting their fights and pushing them apart when they go nose-to-nose so that they can move on. it would be very tiring to be a quote unquote "normal" person having to break up the fights of two ex-incredibly powerful people.

It'll be interesting to (maybe) hear about how the god in the rp beat the previous god.

maybe it can be kind of like a backstory moment where they're all sitting and telling stories out of boredom and learning more about each other. one of them asks the god what one of their most fun stories is and they, puffing out their chest, talk about killing the old god and taking their place, and the one of them toasts the guy for how awesome that is while the other stares in abject horror.

i do think that our god/demigod should be one of the more powerful domains, since it adds extra stakes to the story if a powerful god is less powerful than they should be because the old god is still out there, and also makes what our guy is doing a much bigger crime.

Sir Froggington said:

How many trials are we thinking? Should it be however many main gods there are? Is Freedom's god a demi-god or a god or are we saying that the god was demoted to demi-god because they kinda got defeated but not fully? I do have a Pantheon outlined that I used for a roleplay on here if we want to use that, but I figured we'd want to work more together.

It'll be interesting to (maybe) hear about how the god in the rp beat the previous god.

As soon as you said that, I had an idea for that story, so yeah, that can for sure be part of it. Also curious to find out how the Puppetmaster got into such a high position and made a deal with a god :)

ThisIsAPackName said:

yeah, i like this, too! i do like the general idea of the group being overconfident and being beaten down over the course of the story realizing how much trouble they're actually in and how much the others don't know what they're doing. i do like thinking the god thinks this is all gonna be a piece of cake since they're done it once before and then it just turns out to. not be that.

i also like the idea of them having to look for ways to buff up the god, like a sideplot where they have to look for a top tier blacksmith who can get them a great gun, and my character having to teach the god how to shoot a gun in the first place because they're a god who's main experience as human was before these things existed and even though they know what they are from a distance they've never held one in their hands.

That makes sense. I wonder if the Puppetmaster would know about this stuff? Like, they probably know how to use a gun. I feel like the thing the two of them would be worst at is just interacting with common people, and surviving without their usual luxury. Which, of course, the third person would be pretty darn good at.

maybe the reason our god got kicked is because they have rules for this and this was essentially 'cheating'? you can answer prayers and whatnot, but they played too heavy of a hand in making themselves more powerful by creating an entire leader of a kingdom, though they tried to hide it by having it be only a puppetmaster rather than a king. but obviously the other gods found out eventually and struck them down.

That sounds perfect to me!

this sounds fun! if we go with what i said, maybe the ones who have been blessed by the gods are the ones who go after them, or some of the gods struck new people with divine power and told them they could keep it if they took down this fucker or whatever?

Yeah, that makes sense. Probably some of the gods' devout or people blessed by them. It seems there's a limited amount of divine power in the world, based on the constant shifts and struggles. So I imagine the gods might pool their resources to give a couple of people enough power to be more powerful than the demigod.

i say all this because i think it would make for a fun side plot if the criminal doesn't know the extent of what they're getting into and thinks it'll just be a quick A to B to Z plot, but it might overcomplicate things a little and i can think of fun ways to spin it if they DO know, so you guys can have the final say in whether they're told or not.

I'm fine with them not telling him much. I think they both need a sense of control, especially over what they consider just a plain subject/mortal. They wouldn't want to give him the chance to betray them or screw this up in any way.

i do think that our god/demigod should be one of the more powerful domains, since it adds extra stakes to the story if a powerful god is less powerful than they should be because the old god is still out there, and also makes what our guy is doing a much bigger crime.

Yeah, I'll have to decide on the domain. I think once Froggy shows us what they have, and how the gods and their domains work, I could figure out which one works best for the plot.