Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
I have an idea.
Sorcery is practiced by everyone, every day. Anyone can attempt sorcery-under-fire, which is when you try to perform rituals while in deep shit; mechanically, the Workings are represented by temporary Special Effects. You decide how many benefits you want your Working to have, and you roll any relevant skill; Duel to enchant swords, Deceive to craft a lie, etc. This is a slightly altered version of the Doing Science subsystem in Atomic Robo. Failing the roll doesn't mean that you're not successful, but that additional costs get piled up. You succeed, but at what cost? You can also take a Special Effect that makes sorcery-under-fire attempts more successful.
You can also get a Special Effect called Preparation. Basically, they give you a pool of Fate Points, which you can turn into ready-made Workings. You want a curse that targets someone's foot? A blessing that makes you more attractive? Pull it out of your pocket, it's there.
I don't know how to balance Preparation. Should it all refresh every session? All points every arc? Or one point each per session?
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
Breed Attachments
Attachments for Beast characters are based on breed, which is both their occupation and subspecies.
Servitors
Backbreaking Labor, Welcome Back To The Grind, Working Hard Or Hardly Working, Jaded By Retail, Tyrannical Management, Gears Of Industry, We’re The Surplus Population, Nobody Wants A Grease Monkey, No Job Security, Empty Pantry Empty Life
Soldiers
Under The Command Of Major Disaster, Honor Guard For The Shameful, Always On Duty, Nothing More Than A Living Weapon, Warring For Stupid Reasons, We Don’t Fly And We’re Not Letting Anyone Else Either, Join The Army They Said, We’re The Reserves
Entertainers
Love The Money But Hate The Crowds, Unreasonable Manager, One Hit Wonder, Outdated Talents, Dead Artists Sell Better, Instrument In Hand Hat On The Ground, Dance Your Cares Away
Courtiers
Diplomacy Always Fails, A Lie On Every Face And A Dagger At Every Back, Taken By Princess Charming, Don’t Know Who To Trust, My Charges Don’t Listen To Me, Horrible Masters, Always Cleaning Up After, Paperwork A Mile High,
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
I'm trying to work out a system for spiritual breakthroughs/enlightenment/regression/ignorance.
So far I've got this: after each arc, you get an Experience aspect, which is a boost, representing a lesson you learned, good or bad. You can cross out any Experience at any time if justified, to add a free invoke to your action. When three Experiences are crossed out, you get a major milestone.
And if all three experiences are of the same type, like wisdom or ignorance, then you are able to rename your Incarnation. Wisdom pushes you higher to Buddhahood, ignorance to becoming Tianshen, anger to becoming an Asura, animal-like lessons into becoming a Beast, that sort of thing.
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
At present, marriages - a union of any of the Five Bonds officiated in both bureaucratic and religious capacities through a ritual - are rare enough that either the Jade Emperor or Empress may officiate, standing in as father or mother respectively. Those who have truly caught the eye of the most high get the dubious honor of having both personages in attendance.
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
Okay, I have a problem.
The Xiang River Sisters, Er Huang and Nu Ying, were the daughters of mythical Emperor Emeritus Yao, who were married to his would-be successor, the virtuous peasant Shun. In the last years of Shun's legendary and virtuous reign, he toured the nation, but died of illness near the Xiang River. His wives, in trying to find his body, wept into the river for days until they ran out of water and cried blood instead, putting red spots on the bamboo for all eternity. Then they drowned themselves, and for their devotion, were made goddesses.
When I first read about them, I thought they were wives of two brothers. And in their grief, forged a bond that shook the world, and were deified for it. A bond that eventually, after eons in Heaven, became romantic.
Now that I know the full story, it now comes to my attention that this is now incest.
The question is: is it still a problem? As deities, they have no father, no mother. They do not have mortal human bodies. Is it outright wrong?
I don't want to be "that incest guy" but I do want to include complicated things that have no real right answer.
...erm, well, I think an important factor is 'eons in Heaven'. When you've spent that much time alive with a person, the boundaries between non-romance and romance can understandably blur a bit.
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
Yeah, okay, we'll see where that goes.
Meanwhile, I’ve changed the name of the leader of the Housecats clan a hundred fucking times - Nine-Headed Lion, Thirty-Eight Heads, Grand Lion Saint, Many-Headed Lion - and I’m still not happy with it.
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
There's a bit of overlap between the Gods of Heaven and the Devils of Earth. Both have deities of the sword, the flame, the doors, as well as lions, monkeys, and dragons. New Devils that embody new concepts are born every day.
It is for a simple reason: Heaven actively preys on the deities of the instinct. There is brisk trade in the live capture of various Devils, to render down their identities, so they can copy their very beings and mass-produce servants that catch their fancy. Most of these procedures create Beast-type templates (stored in the Progenitors), while a "privileged few" have the dubious honor of becoming the seeds of a new line of Officed god types.
What do you think? This could play into a lot of things. Devils being the true outcaste/casteless peoples to contrast the Beasts being the downtrodden underclass, the Devils' singular diversity being transformed into Heaven's homogeneity, and so on.
The Celestial City did not disappear from existence the moment that the PRC proclaimed itself misotheist. The gods did not disappear when temples were burned down, altars were shattered, clergy massacred, and statues broken. Divinity existed in spite of belief, not because of it. What did happen was that there was a massive drop in divine employment. Those icons, statues, rituals, prayers, and so on, while not essential to the lives of deities, nonetheless served as strong links to the mortal world, allowing them to either use them as interfaces to manipulate mortal surroundings or travel there directly. Millions of deities went out of work, which in many ways, was all that they had.
Heaven turned to guiding the mortals that continued to chant their names, that still worshipped in temples and offered sacrifices in their name; the migrant Chinese in foreign lands. But even that was not enough to do much more than dent the unemployment crisis, as one appointment was departmentalized into a number of separate positions, cut into individual assignments, and then broken down into even smaller gigs, mere crumbs for job-starving deities. Those that could not find work soon organized into crime syndicates and feuding factions, leading to the worldwide Civil War.
The unemployment glut has not been quelled after the end of Civil War hostilities and the establishment of the Offices. In recent years, the PRC once again allowed temples on mainland soil, and no longer criminalizes religion to any but ruling party members. The jobless watch eagerly, hungry for work, while the Offices strain themselves to police the desperate tide. The vast criminal syndicates see the end of their power, and plan accordingly. The PRC’s citizens, raised on decades of misotheism and human reason, feel unsure and apathetic to the new revivals.
In this perfect storm of exploitation and desperation, what will happen is anyone’s guess.
Comments
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead