Faustian Space (OOC)

OP
Location
Where angels fear to tread.
The year has been lost in ancient tomes and data cards. In a last ditch effort to preserve the history of the Blessed Star Network, all calendars and histories were set to the new universal time, starting at 0 AC (After Capture), as everyone was finally free of the dark gods who've plagued us. No longer did people be forced to watch as worlds were subsumed by She Who Will Feast. No longer did governments fall to merry madness upon opening the Tome of the Laughing God. Now, with Seraph guiding our ships, we can explore beyond our network!

However, those dark gods did not go quietly into that good night. They are gods, after all, and gods cannot die. No one knows where they've been imprisoned, and the Blessed Star Network would like to keep it that way.

These dark gods have found openings in their prison, and have made contact with you, the players. They contacted you when you were desperate, needing any help you can get, and bestowed upon you one ability to solve your desperation. But, these come at a price. Because of course they do. You could have been starving on the streets of Ghul IV, then be contacted by She Who Will Feast, bestowing you with never needing sustenance, food, water, air or otherwise. But you will never feel full, no matter how much you consume. There will always be a pit in your stomach, begging to be filled.

Magic exists, though information about it is tightly controlled, simply knowing magic is usually enough to wind up with a hit squad sent after you. But, there are ways to avoid this fate. The main method is by joining one of several Seraph Universities. Of course, most of the major corporations toy with it as well, but that's more of a guessed secret than anything confirmed.

You will also create the dark god you struck the bargain with, or you could choose another player's dark god, if you feel like it. The dark god's I'll use as examples are those found in Shadows of Forbidden Gods. Generally, anything styled like them would be allowed.
I will review any abilities, and anything I find to be either uninteresting and/or overpowered, I will ask them to be redone or say no to all together.

I will accept up to 4 players.

1. Kensai
2. Raku
3. Goop
4.
Backlog:

Name: (Who are you?)
Description: (What are you?)
Age: (How long have you been around?)
Background: (What brought you here?)
Equipment: (What do you bring to the table?)
Desperation: (What forced you to take a bad deal?)
Ability: (Was it worth it?)


Name: Daryl Ingston.
Description: A broadly built man with bandages around his knuckles and a madness in his eyes.
Age: 36.
Background: Tossed into the Orphanage early, he can't remember his parents. He spent his days stealing bread to share with his friends, until he got caught one day. The guards normally didn't care, but a Priest of Seraph was in town, and Daryl chose the wrong day to play tough.
He was beaten up then thrown back into his Orphanage. As he grew out of the system, he worked as a 'collector' for the local gangs, as he found a sort of rhythm when he threw punches, letting him avoid retaliation and land hits quite effectively. He then became a proper bouncer and a bodyguard for his gang, his battle hardened body quite adept at dealing with anyone, and his surprising agility always put any would-be attacker on the back foot. He wasn't too good at guns or lasers, though, so he stayed on as a bouncer when they needed someone intimidated.
Equipment: Fold out knuckle dusters, newtonian light shield, trench coat, spare batteries and a data card.
Desperation: He took a job to protect a cruel gang leader who was hated by much of the community. Over the course of the job, he was shot 5 times, had his liver punctured with a knife, electrified, dosed with psychedelics, then punched in the head about a dozen times. As he lay on the ground, hallucinating, he felt his anger boil over into something new, something… dark.
Ability: Rage Beyond Death: Nothing can keep a good man down, and while Daryl may not be good, the same applies. Whenever Daryl would suffer an effect that would remove him from a fight, he can roll a d8. If he rolls anything other than an 8, the effect seems to not touch him. On an 8, it connects. If this ability triggers twice in the same combat, Daryl's vision fills with rage, and he becomes unable to tell friend from foe. If it triggers four times in the same combat, every opportunity, he must throw an attack at anyone he sees.

Name: (What do you call this madness?)
Description: (Put to words what cannot be unseen.)
Domain(s): (What powers this thing has!)
Gimmick/Vibe: (Infernal? Beyond the stars themselves? A moonstruck sun?!)

Name: Yurxil, the Fog of War.
Description: A red and black mist, filled with sounds of violence. From gunshots to capital class ships firing their main weapons.
Domains: Rage, Combat, Confusion
Gimmick/Vibe: A warrior blind with rage, a commander firing blindly into the melee, gunsmoke, fog, betrayal, accidents.

I want players to have influence over the world as I make it, so I understand what everyone wants. Not quite to the level of No Port Called Home, but fairly similar. If you guys want to create a planet or two for your backstory, be my guest. Until this thing starts, everything is in flux as I figure out how y'all want to play this.

If you guys want stats or something, I have an idea, but this is all very thrown together. I mostly just saw the designs of Shadows of Forbidden Gods and really liked them.

In case it wasn't clear, by the way, the Bargain y'all struck, is your Ability in exchange for working to free your respective Dark Gods. Everyone will start separated, but can find each other over the course of the game, though if you have the same Dark God as another player, you may begin together, if you'd like.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
 
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I am interested and plan on making a sheet when I'm less busy at work, but I'm having trouble coming up with a god. I was thinking of a god of the dead or something that can be referred to as the dark queen. Any thoughts or suggestions?
 
I am interested and plan on making a sheet when I'm less busy at work, but I'm having trouble coming up with a god. I was thinking of a god of the dead or something that can be referred to as the dark queen. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Absolutely! First things first, what's the vibe you want? With Dark Queen of the Dead, I'm imagining halls of bones built in victorian/gothic styling, while she sits, a living decayed corpse, grinning smugly from a throne of quivering skeletons.

Am I close? The more abstract the Dark God, the more fun I, the GM can have with it, since it lets me use them in more unusual ways. Take the example Dark God. He's literally made of the Fog of War.

Do you need anything else?
 
I'm thinking a more dark and gothic vibe. Maybe with some Asian influence since I normally use anime characters for faces. While we are on the subject how do you think a dark god of magic would fair? I do want help making it abstract enough to be fun and interesting for the universe.
 
I'm thinking a more dark and gothic vibe. Maybe with some Asian influence since I normally use anime characters for faces. While we are on the subject how do you think a dark god of magic would fair? I do want help making it abstract enough to be fun and interesting for the universe.

I'll admit, I'm not too familiar with Asian culture, though I do remember they have some really cool mythology and legends around the afterlife, so maybe you can draw from that?

As for a Dark God of Magic, it's perfectly viable. I will say, though, gods usually become gods to get what is essential Root Access to magical nonsense.

I'm not sure how to get more dark and gothic than halls made of bone. Maybe skin tapestries, and various other decorations using body parts? I'm always an advocate for body horror, so go wild.
 
I'll see what I can draw from myth. I'm usually inexperienced with body horror, so any recommendations are nice. But I do think a nice hall of bones and a throne of the dead or skeletons would be a nice thing to see.

As a god of the death I can imagine some nice punishments she can give to torment those in both life's. Like living decorations, as you mentioned.

What sort of magical nonsense are you thinking a dark god of the dead can do? Besides the more obvious stuff.
 
I'll see what I can draw from myth. I'm usually inexperienced with body horror, so any recommendations are nice. But I do think a nice hall of bones and a throne of the dead or skeletons would be a nice thing to see.

As a god of the death I can imagine some nice punishments she can give to torment those in both life's. Like living decorations, as you mentioned.

What sort of magical nonsense are you thinking a dark god of the dead can do? Besides the more obvious stuff.
Well, it depends on several factors. Since she's the god of the dead, most death magic will be influence by her, her personality, her desires, her vibe. She has Root Access to all death magic, so, all death magic goes through her, do you see what I'm getting at? Multiple gods can have the same Domains, though they'd definitely be competing for followers then.

As for body horror, if you're not opposed to it, I think Hellraiser is a good movie franchise to check out, for the vibe you're going for. I haven't seen Akira, but I've heard it's good for it too. The Vita Carnis youtube stuff is more good body horror. HP Lovecraft, or better yet, cosmic horror in general usually has some good body horror in there too.

Hmm. Mayhaps stuff like the Stitchers from MTG? Or playing around with immortality through undeath? Vampiric nonsense is an option too.
 
Ya. I can see what you're getting at. Would having multiple domains weaken the others? Because I was thinking of combining it with something like fears or keep the idea of magic with it to tempt others with magical knowledge that is being tightly controlled. Also fears because I like Chainsaw Man.
 
Ya. I can see what you're getting at. Would having multiple domains weaken the others? Because I was thinking of combining it with something like fears or keep the idea of magic with it to tempt others with magical knowledge that is being tightly controlled. Also fears because I like Chainsaw Man.

Multiple Domains don't weaken even if they overlap. It just means that if one has Lady Death's Magic, and another has Mindless Horde's Magic,
Lady Death would give you cleaner, more efficient spells that generally grant more powerful, singular undead, perhaps even sentient.
Mindless Horde would be more standard zombie apocalypse, you see? Same Domain, different Vibe and uses.

Hmm, name the 3 High Concepts you'd like in the Dark God, like how the ol' Fog of War has for his Domains. So far, the Domains I'm seeing is Death, Magic and Fear, which seem pretty standard to me, with an Asian twist as I understand it.

EDIT: Also, fair warning, trying to tempt people with magic is like being a drug dealer IRL. You have to be very careful, and the consequences for messing up involve the FBI Sci Fi equivalent coming to hunt you down if they catch wind of it.
 
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Alrighty. I'm wondering if you have any suggestions for the ability she starts with. I do think the trade off could be her becoming more dead or lost of humanity.
 
Alrighty. I'm wondering if you have any suggestions for the ability she starts with. I do think the trade off could be her becoming more dead or lost of humanity.
Abilities are always in response to the Desperation. In what situation would be being more dead help? Perhaps they got ejected out of an air lock and was given the ability to endure space, but now their skin is frozen, decayed, and they're pretty sure they have maggots behind their eye.

EDIT: Anyways, I need to get at least a little sleep tonight, so I'm going to do that now. Thank you for your interest, I will try to help you when I can.
 
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Name: Megaera Alanou
Description: A dark-haired woman with a set of intricate tattoos that never looks quite the same twice.
Age: Indeterminate, but youthful; Megaera can choose to look quite young or rather mature.
Background: Megaera grew up in the slums of Clytherea Major, where she became known as a bawd, the local title for a fixer. She has developed a reputation for being able to procure almost anything, however expensive or unattainable She will fulfill her end of the deal to the very last tittle, but it somehow always bites her client in the end, one way or another. In spite of all the rumours surrounding her services, there are plenty of people who are rich and desperate, deluded or depraved enough to chance it.
Equipment: Megaera can obtain just about anything she feels the need for, but she prefers to stay discreet. She is rumoured to have had her nails replaced with monocrystal blades that can deliver lethal neurotoxins, or a cybersnake implant in her throat, or any number of vicious and illegal devices. She merely laughs and smiles when asked about these.
Desperation: In her youth, Megaera once had a wealthy and powerful patron. She pandered to his twisted desires and was rewarded well for doing so. One evening he decided that what he wanted was Megaera herself, broken in body and mind, and he almost got what he desired. Unfortunately for him, in the darkest moment of Megaera's pain, humiliation and despair, she made contact with a chthonic intelligence - one that offered her a way out, and more, much more, if she would only bend her talents to its own purposes....
Ability: Megaera's secret is that she doesn't need to seek out her goods - she can create them, or at least transmute them given enough base resources. But they are cursed to fulfill their recipients' desires in disastrously warped ways, bringing disaster upon them.


Name: The green-eyed witch
Description: An otherworldly beautiful woman whose eyes weep constantly with foul green pus.
Domain(s): Treachery, Spite, Enchantment
Gimmick/Vibe: The bad oyster, the tainted drug, the diseased harlot, the vengeful lover.
 
Name: Megaera Alanou
Description: A dark-haired woman with a set of intricate tattoos that never looks quite the same twice.
Age: Indeterminate, but youthful; Megaera can choose to look quite young or rather mature.
Background: Megaera grew up in the slums of Clytherea Major, where she became known as a bawd, the local title for a fixer. She has developed a reputation for being able to procure almost anything, however expensive or unattainable She will fulfill her end of the deal to the very last tittle, but it somehow always bites her client in the end, one way or another. In spite of all the rumours surrounding her services, there are plenty of people who are rich and desperate, deluded or depraved enough to chance it.
Equipment: Megaera can obtain just about anything she feels the need for, but she prefers to stay discreet. She is rumoured to have had her nails replaced with monocrystal blades that can deliver lethal neurotoxins, or a cybersnake implant in her throat, or any number of vicious and illegal devices. She merely laughs and smiles when asked about these.
Desperation: In her youth, Megaera once had a wealthy and powerful patron. She pandered to his twisted desires and was rewarded well for doing so. One evening he decided that what he wanted was Megaera herself, broken in body and mind, and he almost got what he desired. Unfortunately for him, in the darkest moment of Megaera's pain, humiliation and despair, she made contact with a chthonic intelligence - one that offered her a way out, and more, much more, if she would only bend her talents to its own purposes....
Ability: Megaera's secret is that she doesn't need to seek out her goods - she can create them, or at least transmute them given enough base resources. But they are cursed to fulfill their recipients' desires in disastrously warped ways, bringing disaster upon them.


Name: The green-eyed witch
Description: An otherworldly beautiful woman whose eyes weep constantly with foul green pus.
Domain(s): Treachery, Spite, Enchantment
Gimmick/Vibe: The bad oyster, the tainted drug, the diseased harlot, the vengeful lover.
This is pretty good.
My one thing, though, is the Ability has no downside for you. In fact, the monkey paw effect you hand out, can easily be used for your own benefit. Abilities should grant you a solid way out of your Desperation, then make you regret taking the deal. It is, after all, a Faustian Bargain.
My only other kind of issue, is how rich she seems to be. I can make it work, certainly, if that's how you want to run it, but if you're rich right off the bat, it means I can't use money as a motivator for you and those connected to you.
Other than those two problems, you're looking pretty solid.
 
Name:
Leona Dikor was their name, originally, though it's been a while since she's been called it.
Description:
See ability
Age:
She was born 26 years ago
Background:
Born to a middle-class family in Astakakur, Leona Dikor was a promising young woman studying to be a doctor. All was going well in her life- she had her degree, had been accepted to a high-paying job, and was generally happy. That is until the first month of working as a doctor when she was framed for a horrific crime by one of her more experienced coworkers and thrown in prison.
Equipment:
She has a small stockpile of potentially useful items (mostly cash) taken from her various 'hosts'.
Desperation:
Life having gone down the drain so suddenly, Leona felt trapped not just behind bars, but in her entire existence. Even if she got out of prison- a possibility that was a long way off- would it matter? Who would hire her? Worse yet, the trial was publicly broadcasted and had gained a large amount of attention. Everyone would see her face and see the one who had committed this awful crime. For the first time in her life, she just wished she could be someone else. And The Glass Lady answered: her mind was instantly transmitted to the body of some poor woman who lived alone. It was confusing at first, but she managed to adjust to her new life surprisingly quickly- in just three days, in fact.
The body began to stink on the fourth day.
Ability:
Leona can take over someone's body through touch, ejecting their mind and replacing it with her own. She gets none of her target's memories (except for a couple stabbing flashes of them in the first hour or so) or knowledge, and if the body dies while she's in it she also dies. Unfortunately, her new body only stays fresh for the first three days and begins to slowly rot at the beginning of the fourth, slowly deteriorating until it completely collapses at the end of the seventh day, killing her. This means each body has a hard time limit before which she must switch again, resetting the timer.
She must wait a day before switching from a body she stole, and if she switches before the three days are up the body's old mind is replaced with no memory of the time it was possessed. If it is after three days the body merely becomes a corpse instead.



Name:
The Glass Lady

Description:
A humanoid figure with a sphere of layered masks for a head, each appearing differently for two different people. One identity falls and two more take its place; an infinite cascade of mask after mask, lie after lie down to a singularity at its core. Is it their true self? An infinite compression of more falsities? Or both?

Whenever The Glass Lady's fell presence graced a world, the entire populace slowly and subtly began to lose themselves, first merely questioning themselves; 'Who am I?' 'What do I want to be like?' Normal questions for one coming into their own, or suffering a crisis of self, but eventually the questions graduated to the aberrant; 'What is my name?' 'Is that what I look like?' and worst of all, 'Am I them?'

Eventually the population would become a roiling sea of freely swapped and stolen names, monikers, jobs, thoughts, faces, bodies, until the entire planet fell to madness. Whispered rumors say that if The Glass Lady stayed for long enough, even inanimate objects would have begun to slowly drain of their identity…

Domain(s):
Identity (rather, the lack thereof), persona, disguise

Gimmick/Vibe:
True colors hidden, the liar desperate for their peer's approval, those who hide their faces
 
Okay, the Glass Lady is pretty cool, but I feel I have to ask, since as it stands, the Dark Gods are as follows: The Dark Queen of the Dead, The Green-Eyed Witch, and the Glass Lady.

I mean this in the best possible way, but why are they all girlbosses?
I'm just curious, is all. Also, the Glass Lady reminds me of Annihilation and that is the vibe I like to see.

EDIT: I was expecting stuff like this:




 
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Name:
Leona Dikor was their name, originally, though it's been a while since she's been called it.
Description:
See ability
Age:
She was born 26 years ago
Background:
Born to a middle-class family in Astakakur, Leona Dikor was a promising young woman studying to be a doctor. All was going well in her life- she had her degree, had been accepted to a high-paying job, and was generally happy. That is until the first month of working as a doctor when she was framed for a horrific crime by one of her more experienced coworkers and thrown in prison.
Equipment:
She has a small stockpile of potentially useful items (mostly cash) taken from her various 'hosts'.
Desperation:
Life having gone down the drain so suddenly, Leona felt trapped not just behind bars, but in her entire existence. Even if she got out of prison- a possibility that was a long way off- would it matter? Who would hire her? Worse yet, the trial was publicly broadcasted and had gained a large amount of attention. Everyone would see her face and see the one who had committed this awful crime. For the first time in her life, she just wished she could be someone else. And The Glass Lady answered: her mind was instantly transmitted to the body of some poor woman who lived alone. It was confusing at first, but she managed to adjust to her new life surprisingly quickly- in just three days, in fact.
The body began to stink on the fourth day.
Ability:
Leona can take over someone's body through touch, ejecting their mind and replacing it with her own. She gets none of her target's memories (except for a couple stabbing flashes of them in the first hour or so) or knowledge, and if the body dies while she's in it she also dies. Unfortunately, her new body only stays fresh for the first three days and begins to slowly rot at the beginning of the fourth, slowly deteriorating until it completely collapses at the end of the seventh day, killing her. This means each body has a hard time limit before which she must switch again, resetting the timer.
She must wait a day before switching from a body she stole, and if she switches before the three days are up the body's old mind is replaced with no memory of the time it was possessed. If it is after three days the body merely becomes a corpse instead.



Name:
The Glass Lady

Description:
A humanoid figure with a sphere of layered masks for a head, each appearing differently for two different people. One identity falls and two more take its place; an infinite cascade of mask after mask, lie after lie down to a singularity at its core. Is it their true self? An infinite compression of more falsities? Or both?

Whenever The Glass Lady's fell presence graced a world, the entire populace slowly and subtly began to lose themselves, first merely questioning themselves; 'Who am I?' 'What do I want to be like?' Normal questions for one coming into their own, or suffering a crisis of self, but eventually the questions graduated to the aberrant; 'What is my name?' 'Is that what I look like?' and worst of all, 'Am I them?'

Eventually the population would become a roiling sea of freely swapped and stolen names, monikers, jobs, thoughts, faces, bodies, until the entire planet fell to madness. Whispered rumors say that if The Glass Lady stayed for long enough, even inanimate objects would have begun to slowly drain of their identity…

Domain(s):
Identity (rather, the lack thereof), persona, disguise

Gimmick/Vibe:
True colors hidden, the liar desperate for their peer's approval, those who hide their faces
The Glass Lady reminds me of this, from her description:
 
Hmm, you know, I have an idea.
Considering one of them is a literal Witch, how would you all feel about your Dark Gods being part of a Coven/Pantheon, where each works to further their own ends and helping each other out a touch?
I mean, we got a death magic dark god, a monkey paw Witch dark god, and the wonderful abstractness of the Glass Lady?

It feels fitting, and I would like your input on it? Like I said, I have ideas of what I want to do, but I'd like to check with all of you before I set anything in stone.
 
Hmm, you know, I have an idea.
Considering one of them is a literal Witch, how would you all feel about your Dark Gods being part of a Coven/Pantheon, where each works to further their own ends and helping each other out a touch?
I mean, we got a death magic dark god, a monkey paw Witch dark god, and the wonderful abstractness of the Glass Lady?

It feels fitting, and I would like your input on it? Like I said, I have ideas of what I want to do, but I'd like to check with all of you before I set anything in stone.

Still working on amending my sheet, but I like this idea and I'm on board for it.

A tripartite coven is quite common in myth, after all. Maiden, matron and crone....
 
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Oh! Sorry for the repeat posts, but I just realized I forgot a big thing, so I'm going to ask it before anything goes off the rails:

Is there any topics I should avoid, or any triggers you would be not okay with? Because I have plans to explore your characters, and I need to know whether I'm cracking them under pressure, or taking an icepick to their forehead?

EDIT: This will leave the fourth member of our merry band a little ostracized, since their dark god isn't tied directly into this little coven. On the other hand, they could play off this dynamic to do something quite cool. Plus, it's not like all's well within this little Coven's agents group anyways. Just because your bosses are chill with each other, doesn't mean you are.
Hmm, I can work with this.
 
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This is pretty good.
My one thing, though, is the Ability has no downside for you. In fact, the monkey paw effect you hand out, can easily be used for your own benefit. Abilities should grant you a solid way out of your Desperation, then make you regret taking the deal. It is, after all, a Faustian Bargain.
My only other kind of issue, is how rich she seems to be. I can make it work, certainly, if that's how you want to run it, but if you're rich right off the bat, it means I can't use money as a motivator for you and those connected to you.
Other than those two problems, you're looking pretty solid.

Addressing these issues -
Megaera was broken. And the Green-Eyed Witch doesn't do healing. Instead she gave Megaera a full-body replacement, subject to the same curse as everything else she creates. So Megaera is now a living soul trapped in a marionette of porcelain and orichalcum, her every action and sensation mediated through a magical technology designed by an utterly non-human being with no idea of (and no care for) how people actually think and feel.
And she has the classic problem of people with money: expenses. While she can create stuff, it comes with the curse - so anything that she personally wants to use, or wants to provide to others without saddling them with the curse, needs to be sourced and paid for. This requires not just cash but favours and other resources, which quickly become expensive. She also needs to keep up appearances, which means spending on high-quality everything. And because of her personal condition, her own body requires significant upkeep, and she is able to find respite from her agonies in only a few, rare, accordingly expensive pleasures. So while yes, she is rich, she is also constantly facing issues of wealth management - cash flow, debt, ensuring income flow. It's as much a problem as it is a solution.
 
Oh! Sorry for the repeat posts, but I just realized I forgot a big thing, so I'm going to ask it before anything goes off the rails:

Is there any topics I should avoid, or any triggers you would be not okay with? Because I have plans to explore your characters, and I need to know whether I'm cracking them under pressure, or taking an icepick to their forehead?

EDIT: This will leave the fourth member of our merry band a little ostracized, since their dark god isn't tied directly into this little coven. On the other hand, they could play off this dynamic to do something quite cool. Plus, it's not like all's well within this little Coven's agents group anyways. Just because your bosses are chill with each other, doesn't mean you are.
Hmm, I can work with this.

Sorry for the double post, but let's keep site rules in mind always, and also personally - stay away from anything involving child abuse. Which is pretty much covered under site rules but is also a specific request on my part.

Regarding the coven, I'm seeing it as a dysfunctional familial relationship. They're tied together in some arcane way and have goals that are somewhat aligned but they're also immensely petty and egotistical and prickly, so they clash and fight and work at cross purposes a lot of the time. Which of course gets reflected in the actions of their agents as well.
 
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