Thursday, 19 December 2024

Miracles of the Forgotten Gods (RPG BLOG CARNIVAL BEYOND VANCIAN MAGIC)

A post in response to this month's RPG blog carnival: beyond Vancian magic

Magic

The imposition of the will upon base reality, to manifest one’s desires in the Here and Now without recourse to the normal agents of causality… that is magic. Bound as we are by the constraints of the Here and Now we look to those supernatural beings outside of it for assistance: the spirits. See links below for multiple versions of animist magic in PARIAH.

In the proto-Neolithic world agriculture and urbanisation have dramatically altered how humanity interacts with those spirits, and consequently the nature of magic. This is the era of RELIGION and of GOD(S).

This is the Age of Miracles.   

Some forgotten gods of the Real World

Gods are...

  • ...previously minor spirits elevated and empowered by human worship...
  • ...or greater spirits (especially of The Beyond) feeding on humanity's need to experience order in a chaotic universe...
  • ...or simply an emergent property of collective consciousness (an embodiment of a meme: as the genius loci is to the land, so a G0d is to a culture)   

Gods are not:

  • Omnipotent (though they are far more powerful than an individual human, they rely on the aggregated worship of entire communities and thus are subordinate to them)
  • Omnipresent (though not ubiquitous, their relationship with space and time is different to that of individual humans and they might appear omnipresent)
  • Omniscient (though hearing the prayers of thousand grants them access to a body of knowledge beyond human capabilities)  

The City of a Hundred Gods

Jewel at the Foot of the Mountain. The Bridge Over the Great River. City of Many Stairs. Gateway to the Sun and Heavens. The Endless Village. The city has nearly as many names as the number of deities to whom its inhabitants pray... and it is this peculiar feature that grants its most familiar name: the City of a Hundred Gods
The Endless Village's Gods and their priests each tend their own garden: this can be vast and expansive (The Lord of the Sun & Heavens decrees no rain shall fall upon all this land) or discrete and specific (the Good Luck Gecko is the God of the city's proto-currency/lottery the ballot). 

Each day thousands upon thousands of prayers are offered in gratitude or desperation and all the points in between.

All those prayers are heard.

Some are even answered.

Miracles

"Divine" magic manifests as the miracle: at a time of need or other pivotal moment the supplicant becomes a channel for the supernatural power of their deity. They need only know a name any name by which that God is venerated to invoke their power. As the name is invoked  with it the request.

Your prayers are important to us: please consider how well your request meets the following criteria while we continue to coordinate our response:
  • SINCERITY: is the request something the supplicant truly wants? Do they truly believe the God is able to fulfil it?
  • FEASIBILITY: Does the request fall within the limits of the God's power?  
  • ALIGNMENT: does the request align with the values and goals of the deity?
For players of games a prayer meeting all 3 criteria will be answered based on a percentile roll: if you are one of four followers, that chance is 25%. If you are one of 10,000 followers, that chance is 0.01%. If you are but one of a 100,000 followers but also  al high priest of a city of 10,000, then that chance is 1%.
Example:
Ishk is a high priestess of the Sapphire Princess, a solar deity associated with raging thunderstorms. She requests that her deity strike down an unruly heckler interrupting her morning sermon. She is a senior cleric among this popular cult: her congregation accounts for a tenth of the total followers of the Goddess. She therefore has a 10% chance of this prayer being fulfilled.

Often, prayers fall short one one front. In such instances the outcome might be somewhat different:

  • Feasible requests aligning with the values of a God but lacking sincerity has a chance of affecting the supplicant adversely instead (similar to a spell backfire)
  • A sincere request aligning with the God's values but not being feasible has the normal chance of manifesting as a scaled back version of that miracle (see below, tempering) 
  • Prayers that do not align with the values or goals of a God are ignored, regardless of their sincerity or feasibility.

Tempering a request

Loyal followers of a deity do not usually make outlandish requests of their God, even if such requests might yet align with the goals of their deity. Daily prayers are petty and (in cosmic terms) insignificant: lowering one's expectations means it is more likely for that prayer to succeed.

The percentage chance of the prayer being answered is adjusted in accordance with how much of a God's power is required to answer it:

Ω = 1+((𝑥/y)/150)

𝑥 = a God's total power

y = the power required to fulfill the prayer

Ω = multiplier applied to existing probability

Example:
Ishk realises that if she calls on her deity to strike down the unruly heckler, there's a chance her prayer might not be answered, leaving her looking foolish. Instead she tempers her request, praying for a storm overheard, mere fractions of her God's power. The GM and Ishk's player ballparks this at 1% of the deity's power, resulting in a Ω value of 7.6, and improving her odds of success to 76% (Ω x the odds described above). 

In practice players and GM would negotiate an appropriate prayer and response, using algebra only as a guide, because writing that out made my blood run cold.  


Becoming a Priest

Anyone can become a priest, if the current order (and thus deity) approves. Doing so increases your chance of prayers being answered, as you represent a greater chunk of the deity's worshippers. See above.

This does not alter your ability in combat, hit dice or saving throws. Different orders will require different sacrifices, requirements and restrictions, depending on the God.

You may not be a priest of more than one God. What's more, priests may not pray to any other God than the one they represent.

Praying for guidance

Instead of petitioning one's God with their wishes and desires and vainly hoping they might align any worshipper of a God may ask for guidance directly, submitting themselves to the will of their deity. 

Any supplicant may attempt this once a day. Their player rolls 2d6 and consult below:

2: Trial 

The God is disgusted with the worshipper and sets them an arduous or complex task in order that they atone. If they ignore this task they will be punished. Alternatively, their punishment will be a series of misfortunes: if they endure these, faith intact, they get some kind of miraculous reward

3-5: Indifference

The supplicant is met with silence, their prayer for guidance is not heard. 

6-8: Ray of Hope

The god provides them with a small sign that they are listening. If the supplicant is able to travel to a more remote shrine and make a votive offering, more information may be forthcoming. At that shrine, any requests for guidance are made with 3d6, dropping the highest. 

9-11: A Beacon of Light

The deity whispers into their ear a clear instruction: destroy a rival's shrine, venerate a relic, enshrine an artefact etc. They are granted one miracle to help them complete this quest When this is accomplished, the supplicant is granted one miracle (so long as it aligns with their deity's values).

If this call to service is ignored, the next time they pray to their deity (whether it is a prayer request or a prayer for guidance) the result will be as "trial", above.

Alternatively, this result enables the supplicant to call on a minor miracle 

12: A Holy Quest   

This works as above, except that once the task is completed, they are visited by an avatar or other manifestation of their God. A message is revealed to them and they must at once embark on a Holy Quest such as a pilgrimage, holy war or founding of a great temple. 

During this quest they may call on miracles as though they are a prophet (see below). If they die during this quest and a shrine is erected in their name they become a saint.

If they refuse this quest, they will suffer the full brunt of their deity's dissatisfaction, in alignment with that deity's goals, values and portfolio.


Prophets, Saints and Avatars

Prophets 

A prophet is a mortal being that possesses a special relationship with their deity. Most commonly, they are embarking on some kind of Holy Quest, though this may have been thrust upon them rather than resulted through their request for guidance.

Prophets on a Holy Quest roll 3d6 and keep the highest whenever they pray for guidance, and may use a result of 9-11 to manifest a minor miracle to help them on that quest. While on their quest those that proselytise gain followers: roll individual reactions, those who react most positively are won over and join the pilgrimage/crusade etc. A prophet may not proselytise to more than 10x their current following (including themselves) each day.

At times a prophet is chosen by their deity to radically alter the structure of their following: while the establishment might view them as heretics, they might find their prayers unanswered while those of the prophet receive the god's full attention. Their prayers (if in accord with the deity's goals, values and the limits of their power) are answered with 100% certainty.

Saints

As noted under prayers for guidance, a prophet martyred on a Holy Quest is afforded the status of saint. Conversely this status is conferred upon more humble followers of a god in life.

Living saints lead pious lives in service of the priesthood, divine order or other holy tradition of their God. In service wholly of the goals of their God, they are granted access to minor miracles at least once a week, often daily. But in return they must suffer.

For most, this suffering is merely being tasked  with administering those miracles: often their lord, moving in mysterious ways, denies those that might seem to deserve those miracles more. The saint bears the brunt of this, the abuse and the accusations of favouritism, without  giving in to the demands. For others who sort refuge in a life of simplicity and service, their sufferance is the adulation they receive, the attention of a following. Their battle is internal.

Yet some the suffering is physical: their God inflicts great pain upon them. Visible wounds appear upon their flesh in an effort to test and stretch their devotion. In doing so the resolve of the living saint only hardens: their following grows and the miracles they provide grows the ranks of the God's congregation exponentially.

The final act of devotion of a living saint is identical to that of the martyr: in death, they give their soul to the cause of their supernatural overseer. Their is to be rest, no eternal paradise or a second chance at life in the Here & Now. Instead, their soul belongs to the inheritors of their following: an entity that can be conjured by the living in service of their God, in much the same way animist tribes might invoke the power of their ancestors

Avatars

Sometimes a God needs to go beyond the miraculous powers of their priests, prophets and saints (living and dead): the option left to them is to assume a mortal identity on Earth. This occurs in 3 distinct ways:

  1. Conceiving a child with a human(oid) partner, birthing a demi god
  2. Investing a devout follower with the totality of their power so that they become the literal embodiment of that deity
  3. Manifesting in the Here & Now as a mortal being, albeit one with extraordinary power

Final notes

I feel the same way about the RPG blog carnival as I do about itch.io jams. Like game jams, the monthly blog carnival provides essential injection of energy into our corner of this peculiar hobby, not least because the responses nearly always exceed that apparent potential of the prompts. 

I'm also really bad at committing to them and responding in a timely manner: so please forgive this entry. I've been thinking about the City of a Hundred Gods a lot, but I'm not quite at the point of refining my research... so please forgive the very obvious (and somewhat superficial) judaeo-christian overtones, as well as the lack of gameable content.

Links


In other news, the Complete PARIAH Sandbox collection...
https://atelier-hwei.itch.io/complete-pariah-zini
...is available for early access now. Current entry price (19th December 2024) is $3.00, with new material appearing every month.












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