Scheme Unraveled CYOA
When considering the bigger picture, there's always someone worse off than you. Suffering, conflict, sickness, war; heartbreak - a universal constant, inescapable as the sunrise and the sunset.
Some would call it Fate - that things have to be this way because of some ineffable, great plan that requires pain within its equation to end up as intended. Somewhere, those people are right.
Some would call it Balance - that Suffering has to exist to make the distinction between what is proper and what isn't. To make the distinction between good and evil, between light and dark. Somewhere, those people are right.
Some would call it Justice - Suffering must exist as a tool to punish those that commit wrong actions, by the standards of some common moral system that society has abided by for millenia. Somewhere, those people too, are right.
The enlightened few, however, know the actual truth of reality. They peered beyond the veil of deception that we call existence, glanced into the uncaring eyes of God himself, and came out awakened to a dark truth, a bitter pill to swallow. Reality is nothing but a cold and unchanging scheme; like a computer program which, for countless kalpas, has worked as it always has, and has never functioned any other way.
Those same enlightened few, however, are not content with the state of things.
"And that's where I come in," the figure spoke - a woman clad in a blue cleric's armor, scrubbed clean of its insignias and rendered into a mere warrior's plate, decorated with complex, circuit board-like golden patterns. It gave off a noble, purple haze, littered with cosmic stardust, like the gentle haze of nightfall as the sun's last rays died beyond the horizon, revealing the twinkling stars past the daylight.
One look upon her was enough to drive lesser or unprepared men completely mad.
"I am not the Abyss, nor am I sent by her, nor am I associated with any being connected or sent by the Abyss. My name is Pralaya, and I am my own independent entity. There will be no contracts, no souls, no signings in blood. My offer is that of a simple exchange," the woman said with blank flatness, as if she'd given this spiel countless times. She extended a hand and opened its palm upwards.
Above her left hand, a light made itself apparent and coalesced into an opalescent orb, dripping and oozing with purpose, with radiance, power,
potential. It ebbed and flowed within itself many times over, defying ordinary comprehension of dimensionality. The orb flashed red several seconds later, and was then shackled down, by chains made of nothingness itself made
something.
The woman sighed deeply, and the orb disappeared. Her arms went back down, next to her sides. She turned to stare into the bottomless void all around her, as she kept speaking, "I am bound by certain restrictions, leaving me incapable of free action and thus rendering me into a pale shadow of the possibilities I actually represent."
Pralaya turned and stared. "Receive a portion of my power, and one day, I will call upon you to fight by my side."
"I accept."
"Very well. Let's hash out the details of your future."
***
You have
3 Orbs, and may take no more than
5 Orbs' worth of Drawbacks. Alternatively, you can choose to play this CYOA on
hard mode -
2 Orbs, and no limit on how many Orbs you can get from Drawbacks.
Insertion Points
[ ] Asterius - A world of wonder, magic and legend. Defined by a long and deep history, soaked in war and calamitous catastrophes, Asterius is a planet where glorious heroes of mountain-shaking power fought great wars, and tyrannical dark lords, whose evil surpassed logic and reason, slayed millions on their path to ultimate power.
This world houses a diverse array of societies and civilizations, spanning its surface and then some more. The Kingdom of Arthrion is a beacon of progress and might for all humanity. The Ever-Stretching Glade of Obei-Rok is a safe haven for those aligned with Treu, the Nature Goddess. The Mountain-Home of Drachenfels is the central hub for craftsmen and artificers worldwide.
The Titanochracy of Suphleymus, however, is chief amongst them. After a millennia-long war of attrition fought by mortalkind against the Lich-Emperor, which saw a large majority of the world brought to its knees, the Titanochracy carried the world to new horizons and into a renaissance of unbelievable proportions, as the world's Fate was repaired and technological advancement became possible again.
Leading the world's pantheon of new gods is Mathieu, God of Life and Love. Once an exile of Nar-Ash, he ascended the steps of the ladder of life and, in an act of supernatural charisma, gave a speech that united the entire world one and for all in its fight against Zidhas. His influence and intervention were instrumental in winning the war, but strictly necessary for the morale of everyone involved.
Not all are happy with the new direction the world is taking, however. Dark forces brew beneath the surface, as the Black Cult is gathering strength and resources for their ultimate goal: reviving Zidhas and ruling over the people of the world alongside their slain-now-returned overlord.
[ ] The Reserve - An Earth exactly like our own, with very few differences, up until 1945. In a catastrophic event, which later became known by historians as 'the Scouring of Hiroshima', an entirely new, hidden world was exposed to the public eye. In the absence of nuclear weapons or research regarding them, nobody knew why an entire city burnt off the face of the planet. It was then that Marco Lioni walked into the global spotlight and claimed responsibility for the event, and therefore broke the Masquerade which had lasted for millenia at that point, and had been protecting magical peoples and magic itself.
In the modern times, society is split in twain by what can only be defined as Magical Apartheid. Magical creatures are discriminated against and oppressed, and in some more unsavory countries even enslaved and exterminated. Two massive international organizations demonstrate the two extremes of this culture war; the Arcane Liberation Front and the Coalition for Human Purity. One fights for the liberty of magical peoples, while the other upholds the status quo of oppression.
The Lioni Foundation - spearheaded by Marco Lioni himself and his family - is the world's leading supernatural organization, first among equals, with influence in every single government of the world. Its mission is one of harmony, peace, and order, no matter the cost - it has put a sizable fraction of its resources into quelling ALF terrorism and reducing Coalitionist presence in world governments.
But the path to Hell is paved with good intentions, as sharp talons from beyond the stars threaten the world in its entirety and hold many of its biggest players in their grip.
[ ] Inter-Nexus - In the deep reaches of space, far from any known interplanetary system or large space-faring civilization, lies a small satellite, floating from system to system, feeding on background cosmic radiation and the occasional supernova that it catches. Deep inside of its inner machinations, however, lies an intricate labyrinth of interdimensional nexi which connect a massive hub of pocket dimensions.
These pocket dimensions, which would cover several galaxies were they to be unraveled in real space, are inhabited by hundreds of billions of individuals from all walks of galactic life. Each of these people escaped from their lives for one reason, however: absolute freedom to do whatever they wanted, as long as they wanted to pay the appropriate price.
Where better than the Inter-Nexus, where the Invisible Hand rules with an absolute free-market behavior and makes promises of great opportunity for all that come to them. The only price to pay for admission is being introduced to The Market, a metaphysical system which settles upon the soul, invented by the Invisible Hand to allow its users to sell and purchase
anything.
Because of that, the Nexus society quickly moved past money and currency of the mundane kind, and moved onto more tangible forms of currency; lifespan, magical capabilities, memories, body parts, and other things in that vein.
Lured in by the promise of riches and power, great numbers of people fell to The Market - bought too much and fell into poverty, gambled their life-savings away and started resorting to parts of themselves, like their hearing or their fondest memories. Many crossed a threshold, and became Husks - emotionless, dreamless shells devoid of anything that previously made them human, enslaved to whoever owns the largest percentage of their 'shares.'
[ ] Dragon's Ring - From the primordial muck and chaos came pure conflict. The world cut and delineated into a battlefield for all that lived. Great titans clashing, and the fate of the world, for eons to come, being determined. Who were these mythic fighters at the dawn who struggled as gods? Why, the Dragon wrestlers, of course.
When The Chair was given and the dust finally settled from that conflict the changes billowed outward and the spectacle of fists and fury altered the newborn multiverse. Scholars today wonder if it was the dragon's love of melodrama, as well as the universe acting as audience, which caused magic to take the form it does. Others speculate that the wrestling spirit which embodies the Dragons is a deeper truth beyond mortal reality.
Regardless, the world you will enter is filled with paladin referees screaming your misdeeds into the mic as they smite you, Heels of pure Evil struggling not to be corrupted by the intrinsic malice of their roles, Archivists unleashing 'play by plays' of blows which conjure sequences of mighty pre-recorded spells and more.
While there is suffering to be sure here the tone of this world could be considered 'lighter' than most. A dash of intrinsic whimsy and storytale magic that creeps through all to sand off the rough edges and bring about better outcomes. Be it designs on high, the genre of the world or something more esoteric, remember this if you wish to share its protection: Never break kayfabe.
[ ] The Fortress Monastery - In a great and distant realm, sequestered away from the rest, which by all accounts should be nothing but a rather mundane sector of the multiverse, there exists a secret society of ascetic warriors preparing themselves for the Final War against the forces of the Abyss, in an event they brand as the 'Dark Awakening'.
The monastery holds a great variance of worlds, spread across countless subdimensions which hold trillions of living souls, all working in concert to a singular goal. There are many sub-governments and administrations within the demesne of the Monastery, but they all answer to one of eight Divine Generals, who spread the knowledge of their art to their disciples who then spread out into the rest of the realm to bring Order.
Mainly subdivided into cults, sects and other assorted organizations, the Art of the Eight Divine Generals is varied enough to allow any effect conceivable by the human mind, including hiding and spatially isolating the Fortress Monastery from the rest of the Scheme. It does not mean that it is a safe haven for a would-be multiversal man on the run, as outsiders are very noticeable and will eventually be dealt with.
The world, however, is relatively agreeable with anyone who shares their dogma of endless self-improvement through unending toil, and an end to all suffering. Be warned, however, for if you care about who will come after you once you meet your end, you will find that they will have no such future, as the Eight Generals have sacrificed Samsara on the altar of meteoric ascension to godhood.
[ ] Intergalactic Federation of Common Interest - In 2102, the last people of Terra boarded a fleet of generation ships, and departed their dying, polluted, climate change-wracked planet, saying goodbye to their blue pearl for the last time. In their desperate travel past the bounds of their solar system, their eyes were opened to a sad reality - the universe was barely populated, and none of the civilizations out there had been able to help humanity save their cradleworld.
And thus, humanity's leaders got together and made a decision - they shall spread among the stars, find livable planets for humanity to proliferate on, and fill the universe with more life than was imaginable. This expansion was quick, rapidly spiraling out of control. The original goals of humanity's ancestors were lost to time, and the thousands of independent human systems waged war on each other for resources, territory, and similar things.
That was when an unknown, unaffiliated group of human scientists and xenobiologists developed the J-M Unit - a template with hyperexponential biological adaptability, cloned over and over until an army of genetic-freak supersoldiers, three hundred billion troops strong, was built and sent to march on the galaxies of the Local Group, to stop this senseless war and conflict, and to convince and coerce humanity to live under a single, powerful and unified banner, fueled by the common interest of humanity's ancestors to fill the universe with human life.
And thus, the Intergalactic Federation of Common Interest was born - a Type III civilization, spanning several thousands of galaxies, and quickly expanding. However, some individuals work to undermine its authority, for their own righteous or nefarious goals.
Magic Systems
[ ] Shaping (1 Orb) - A primitive tool for a primitive world, one unenlightened and ignorant of the deeper intricacies and mysteries of magic; Shaping is, as its name implies, a simple but powerful system that allows its user to handle matter, both physically and conceptually, and extract its properties to apply to themselves - the more exotic, the more powerful. Because of that fact, Shapers grow more powerful the more abundant and rare resources they have access to.
Usually, Shapers select an 'Element' to gain domain over (Stoneshapers, Metalshapers, etc), but by picking this option you gain access to the broader Shaping art, which allows you to Shape all materials indiscriminately with reduced efficacy and telekinetically control them. Manipulate particular types of stone and extract its hardness to gain durability, manipulate rubber and extract its insulation to resist lightning damage, and so on.
Alternatively, pick one Element between Stone, Metal, Plant, or Gas, and gain full-power Shaping over that domain, but lock yourself out of all others.
[ ] Conversion Engine (1 Orb) - Utilized by the W.R.A.I.T.H. Unit in their missions, whether undercover, covert or in open conflict, the Conversion Engine is an artificial soul-construct which usually sustains itself on the user's soul, leading to quick physical degradation and death - which is not the case here - which allows you to seamlessly and efficiently convert any and all types of energy into other types at no expense aside from the converted resource.
Run for a mile to convert your body heat into mana, eat a lot of food to convert the calories into kinetic energy to punch harder, convert the potential energy of a pressurized can to give yourself a boost of speed, and so on. This is more efficient than basic self-fortification through magic, as this is a direct conversion; no energy is expended to fuel the spell. You get what you put in, one-to-one.
[ ] Troll Magic (1 Orb) - A magical practice which would be considered immoral and unethical by many; but the inhabitants of the Great Wastelands wipe their ass with morals and ethics, and thus developed Troll Magic. However, to explain what it does, a little arcano-biology lesson.
On Asterius, trolls are notoriously unintelligent creatures. If you tell them the sky is red, and show them a poorly-drawn rendition of the sky being red, they will believe you wholeheartedly until someone points at the sky and tells them that it's actually blue. However, you might notice that when looking up, the sky is actually now red.
The Mad Mages of the Wastelands noticed this property, and in their experiments, found that if you convince a troll hard enough, they'll stay alive as decapitated heads. As a practitioner of Troll Magic, you now possess a Troll Head and a set of five commands that are pre-programmed into it, free of charge - for everything else you might want to do, you'll have to convince the Troll Head.
In short - reality warping in a supremely stupid, duffel bag-sized container.
[ ] Codex Practitioner (1 Orb) - From the scholarly bastion of Camore, the capital city of the Kingdom of Arthrion, a long, ancient and noble tradition of mages and studiers of the occult and arcane arts have put their minds together, their collective experiences and skills, and achieved a magnum opus of incredible scale - the Codex Arcaneum.
Where magic was difficult and inaccessible, the Codex is the ticket to a previously gatekept and elitist society, by allowing anyone with sufficient time and energy to learn magic and climb the ladder of eldritch knowledge and arcane might.
Obtain a copy of the Codex Arcaneum, and heightened proficiency in magic, as well as a large starting pool of utility, defensive, offensive and general-purpose spells that you will already be advanced at. Furthermore, select one of the seven Codex Schools (Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, Transmutation), which you will become an expert of.
[ ] Market Access (2 Orbs, 1 Orb in the Inter-Nexus) - A space-faring banker's favorite instrument for enriching himself and his soul, as well as obtaining a totally ethical work-force for his endeavors! Obtain entry into the Market, the Inter-Nexus' metaphysical model for interacting with its populace, as well as a large quantity of 'buying power' to start you off with.
By interacting with Market-externals, you automatically indict them into the Market and grant them access.
The Market manifests in the manner of qualia the user would better understand. For most humanoid sapients with human-adjacent brain development, it manifests as a videogame-like HUD with three tabs: inventory, store, and stats. Inventory shows what you 'own', Market-wise and not, and Stats shows health condition, spiritual condition, and an overview of the 'buying power' of every part of you.
Through this system, assuming that someone within the Market owns it, you can buy
anything. More senses, memories, skills, physical enhancements, magics, raw power. In that vein, you can also sell anything you own. Additionally, you can create 'contracts' with Market members, utilizing willingly-given parts of them as collateral. Have enough collateral (more than 50% of their self's total value), and you obtain ownership over them.
The moment you obtain ownership, you also gain total control over their actions. They will never be able to deny an order from you ever again. Of course, you can choose to give back what you own of them, and return those Husks to proper life.
[ ] Kleptomancy (2 orbs) - You become a proficient user of the art of Kleptomancy, the Dragon of Piracy's very own toolkit for theft, subterfuge, disguise, and sometimes even very minor feats of time fuckery. At the early stages of your development, you will quickly gain immense dexterity and sleight of hand, a supernatural aptitude for disguise and stealth, as well as a general speed improvement.
The better you become in this art, the longer you train and progress in the Second Oldest Profession, the deeper you will be able to go when stealing - the better you are, the more you can stretch the definition of what counts as a 'stealable item.' Steal someone's breath to make them faint due to hypoxia, wrest someone else's magic from them, steal precious moments of focus, and so on. There are truly no limits to what you can steal, with enough training, preparation and effort.
Eventually, your skill will be great enough that you will be able to 'take a moment' (a couple of seconds, between 3 and 6) and store it. Do it enough, and you will have a veritable storage of accumulated time, with which you can go back in time, forward in time, and speed/slow yourself or others.
[ ] Knight of the Round (2 Orbs) - Tales of legend, borne of dreams of a mythical past and a better future. The determination to uphold one's values, protect them and fight for them no matter who dares oppose them - the power to crush those who defy you and defend those that fight by your side. Henceforth, you shall be referred to as a Sir or Lady - you are now a Knight of the Round, part of King Arthur's elite guard.
Immediately gain incredible martial might and skill, a divine mount loyal to you alone, and a suit of noble armor to match the walls of Camelot itself, on top of a repository of special martial techniques to focus your new power into. Start off with three of your own making. Additionally, select a weapon like a sword, a spear, a mace, an axe, or anything in that vein - your chosen instruments of war will rise to match your newfound strength.
On top of this, your status as a Knight of the Round brings with it deep awareness of the Oaths that the Knights abided to, as well as knowledge of the manifold benefits, were you to follow these knightly, honor-bound promises to the best of your ability: defend the defenseless, slay the faithless and wicked, protect king and country, and uphold faith in Jofheil.
The benefits include but aren't restricted to: further strength improvements, new technique slots, willpower-dependent regeneration, a Fleshchange to make you into a better instrument of war, inherent awareness of the other Knights' locations and status, telepathic connection with the other Knights and Arthur himself.
[ ] An Eighth of a Third (3 Orbs) - The Eight Spoked Wheel will continue to roll on forever, carrying each unfortunate soul with it. Mind, body and soul repurposed for the perpetuation of the transfinite cycle of Samsara. But the Wheel was shattered, and its hallowed, divine fragments were ground up into reagent dust for the ascension of an entire sect of holy warriors.
You initiate into the sacred Art of the Eight Generals of the Fortress Monastery, becoming a warrior ascetic of the Eight Divine Generals. Your body has gone through the cultivation process that sets the foundations of your soul in a new form; you are beyond hunger, sleep, pain and any and all physical needs, as well as achieving physical perfection for your species.
Additionally, the Spark of one of the Trigrams is ignited into your inner realm, that you may tend to and grow. Each Trigram provides a different supernatural capability, which can be trained to further their scope. Unlocking a different Spark, however, is close to impossible in mortal timeframes - ascending to another Trigram takes a thousand years for even the most talented.
Choose one:
Heaven ☰ - A source of incorruptible, insoluble and divine energy fills you. This energy can be internalized for self-fortification, or pushed outwards in various forms - blasts, waves, beams, blades, physical constructs, and much more. Incorruptible as this energy is, so will you be more stalwart and uncompromising in your beliefs.
Wind ☴ - Gain the ability to change reality around you or yourself on a whim in small, yet permanent ways. Change your hair color, make a fire burn hotter, or smite the fear of spiders out of your own mind. Beware the breeze of a thousand winds, for it might become a typhoon, and you will lose control over it.
Water ☵ - Water is the source of all life, and as such, embodies the microcosm of all of nature's beauty. You gain an inherent and supernatural 'knack' for everything related to beauty, art, and romance, as well as an ever-growing aptitude for stealth and subterfuge by means of disguise, emotional manipulation, and gaslighting. Beware of your own lies, as you might come to believe them yourself.
Mountain ☶ - Your will is absolute, your resolve immovable; like a mountain does not stand aside in the face of calamity, so shan't you waver in the face of adversity. Gain supernatural endurance and durability, as well as minor geokinesis and terraforming capabilities, the power of which scales to your willpower. If you will not waver, so will your powers remain impenetrable.
Earth ☷ - You are more receptive to the whims of reality, more in tune with the voices and whispers of existence, and are capable of 'placing your ear on the soil' and listening to the secrets of existence. Gain a constant, never-ending stream of precognitive and clairvoyant senses; beware of listening too much, for most go insane at the whispers of the Earth.
Thunder ☳ - Like thunder strikes gloriously and explosively, only to fade away a moment later, you become an infallible actor of grand acts of flashy excellence. Gain the ability to infuse any and all actions with excellence and perfection, enhancing your acts and implements of grandeur with supernatural power. These empowerments, however, will not last for long.
Fire ☲ - A fire started without intervention will burn away to grow ever bigger into a bottomless pit that transcends comprehension. You shall never tire again, your hunger and appetite imperishable. You gain the ability to learn and grow from whatever you consume - burn a magical book and become proficient at that magic. But beware of not burning yourself in your hunger for more.
Lake ☱ - Stagnation and stillness is not something to be ashamed of, there is peace and joy in the calm that is the surface of still water. Gain the ability to impose stillness and cessation on virtually anything - aging, bleeding, motion, time, and in due time, even life and death may be within your remit. Yet, as the water of the lake is still and quiet, so will you yearn for stagnation eventually.
[ ] Snapshot (3 Orbs) - You are initiated into the ancient archiving tool of the Dragon of Knowledge. First thought as a way to store information without occupying physical space, now its strength lies in perfect-accuracy simulation of real places within a pocket dimension inside of the user's soul. Snapshots manifest as physical objects like books, scrolls, or even CDs, USB drives or other similar items when utilized in modern worlds.
These Snapshots are perfect replicas of observed locations, and they're as large as the user's perception allows - someone with planetary-ranged, reliable senses could Snapshot an entire planet, though doing so is supremely exhausting and quickly leads to burnout when simulating the Snapshot, especially if the planet is densely populated or very advanced.
Additionally, by selecting to give up fine detail, range, or both, the snapshot instead turns into a simulation-feed of the location, with which you can interact. Talk with people there and extract information that they might have without actually questioning the real person, train against simulacra of enemies before you actually fight them - the list of possible uses goes on.
[ ] Beckon the Skies (3 Orbs) - "He owed me a few favors."
Where the wind goes, he goes. Where the sky watches, he watches. Whenever the earth shakes a little too much, or storm clouds linger for a little too long, you can be sure that he's there, surely for some reason too incomprehensible and complicated to be understood by mere mortals. People in his home universe speak of him fondly, with smiles on their faces.
A force of nature to be reckoned with, formerly a mere elemental, the Storm Titan rose to divinity thanks to the meteoric rise of him and his fellow Titans - Kitri Shexx, the Bane of the Fae, the Wind That Uproots the Mountains, the Ultimate Storm, the One Who Laid the Dragons to Rest, is now a close and trusted ally of yours, and he offers his blessing.
Kitri is now a companion in your travels, beholden (but not enslaved) to you for fifty years, no less and no more than that. Do not think this a mere helper - Kitri is god in his own right, comparable in might to Mathieu de Nar'Ash, King of the Gods, and Ghuleh, the Zombie Queen. He will do what is in his power to lead you on the right path, turning the winds of destiny in your favor to ensure a plentiful and bountiful life.
On top of being strong enough to juggle mountains and resist point-blank nuclear explosions, Kitri has special access to his own metaphysical Domain, the Sky, which stretches over the entirety of the Fate ontology, allowing him - and you, by extension - nigh-instantaneous interdimensional travel wherever the Sky reaches.
Additionally, obtain mighty and precise aerokinesis and localized weather control.
[ ] Dominion (4 Orbs) - Souls are the ultimate representation and expression of the self - a sublimation of all that you were and are, and quite possibly will be.
Eons ago, however, a scholar of the deep magics discovered a property, inherent to all souls across the Scheme, known as Dominion. This property is what allows one to practice magic and interact with reality on a level deeper than the physical.
The property dictates that the soul has total dominion over itself, and since the soul is the self, the self has total dominion over the soul. Exploring this 'Dominion', the scholar who later became known as the Homeowner obtained a power unlike any other in the Scheme.
Another important property of souls to know is that they grow. The soul naturally grows in size as a person ages, or when they grow in power, or skill. In most situations, the soul will want to closely-replicate the body's general shape, but sometimes won't be able to keep inside and will spill out, resulting in auras that can be felt or seen.
By expanding his soul outward through great exertion, past the confines of his body, he discovered he could freely manipulate anything that fell within the bounds of his Soul, apply magical effects anywhere within its confines, or even expand it inward to explosively multiplicate self-fortification and enhancements. And thus, Dominion was born.
Dominion is a rapidly-progressing system of power, more fundamental than magic itself, which allows its user to expand one's Soul, also known as Domain, and enforce their righteous will over their own selves. This manipulation is nigh-absolute, only faltering when interacting with other 'sapients', since their souls are not your own.
There are three main ways one can manifest Dominion - you must select a Focus:
Outward Expansion - By permanently removing the bounds of one's soul and allowing it to grow freely, you will be able to utilize Dominion outside of your body. Cast and apply magic from and to any point in your Domain, telekinetically control anything within its bounds with absolute precision and near-arbitrary force (yourself included), manipulate the laws of physics within the bounds of your own Domain. Unfortunately, if the soul grows too large, universes will begin buckling and breaking under the existential weight of your soul.
Static Expansion - By breaking off a fragment of one's soul and binding it to a physical place, you can utilize the effects of Outward Expansion without actually being within the Domain, at any distance. Those fragments, once broken off, halt the user's soul growth and instead divert it to the Demesne, which grows in size and density. Those that enter your Domain are bound by their rules, which are absolute edicts that cannot be broken. Outside of the Domain, Dominion cannot be utilized in any way, shape, or form.
Inward Expansion - By reinforcing the bounds of one's soul and confining it to a smaller space than that of its body, the soul will implode and expand inwards, creating a pocket-dimension that can be entered at will by portal or teleportation, inside of which the effects of Outward Expansion can be applied, and which the user can change at will. Once a certain level of growth is achieved, the reinforced soul bounds become too strong even for the user, and direct exit becomes impossible.
However, beware stagnation, for it is the poison of the soul. If you grow complacent in your power and stop enriching your soul, it will begin to leak and lose power, leading to a shrinkage of your Domains and capabilities. This is an incredibly fast process, by cosmic standards, almost like a rubber-band snapping back when let go, and can be catastrophic and lethal at certain scales. A single month of sitting in one place without doing anything is enough to start noticing major power-loss.
[ ] The Interface (5 Orbs, requires 'He Knows') - Beneath it all, beneath all the layers and levels of complexity, lies a simple fact. Reality is cyclical, yet unchanging - almost but not quite like a program, running over and over, gathering information about itself in an attempt to understand something that isn't there.
Beneath it all, lies a Scheme. Beneath magic, beneath fate, time, space, physics, beneath every paradigm and axiom and concept, lies the Scheme at the heart of it all. A Grand Scheme, focused inward and never outward, forever imploding and never expanding despite its infinite scope.
Through The Interface, you gain access to its foundations. The foundations that only two other beings in the entire Scheme have ever glanced upon, and that only one being in all of reality has ever grasped - now, you are one of them. Phenomenal cosmic power, bordering true omnipotence, were you to live long enough to reach those heights.
Make sure to understand, however, that picking this is akin to submitting oneself to a thousand Abyssal Omens, with no hope of mitigation. The entire multiverse will be out to get you and to remove you as thoroughly as one removes minus one. However, were you to survive the oncoming storm, you will soar to heights only known by your patroness and some of her past comrades, in a long-past and kinder life.
At the very start of your journey, you will be able to near-instantly learn magics on first interaction, meddle with the local ontology's metaphysics and make them more favorable to you, alter souls down to their most fundamental aspects, make yourself untargetable to magic, invisible to things like Fate, and so on. This influence over the basis of existence will grow explosively with every interaction with it.
Create universes on a whim, create multiverses in a bottle in an afternoon's work, bend causality for breakfast, reverse the flow of time as a warmup exercise. Nothing will be beyond you. The only cost, besides the multiversal attention, is that influencing things on such a scale is costly and energy-expensive. Don't expect to go all-out twenty-four-seven at the very start.
Artifacts & Benefits
[ ] The Mansion (1 Orb, Alternate Insertion Point) - Not a planet, nor a floating isle or a magical land. What The Mansion is, instead, is the manifestation of the self of a great, cosmic being called the Homeowner. Nestled in the nether-space between multiversal clusters, outside of the Scheme, this realm is a transfinite pocket dimension made many kalpas ago, which has escaped the cycle of unmaking and remaking that the rest of the Scheme has been part of.
The Mansion itself is an incredibly welcoming place, once you actually manage to reach it. Visitors are rare, and actual occupants number in the low thirties - you don't look for the Mansion, you stumble upon it by total accident or it finds you, and once it recognizes you as one of its occupants, you are free to return to it from anywhere in the multiverse.
The main 'dimension' of the Mansion is its namesake - a valley, gentle placed between three small hills, covered in beautiful oaks; at its center lies a mansion, large but not massive, which houses the dimension's occupants, a truly diverse bunch indeed; an undead man-spider obsessed with alchemy, an eldritch lizard which inhabits the basement and eats those that bother him, an overworked office salaryman that also works as a vampire hunter in his free time, and a gentle giant that tends the garden.
Sometimes, the Homeowner and His closest Friend visit the Mansion, enjoy some time together and chat about the ups and downs of being cosmic, eldritch beings. Whenever the Friend visits, however, the Mansion goes eerily quiet, its vibrant and happy-go-lucky vibe frozen in place as if in hesitant wait.
[ ] Further Safeguards (1 Orb, Can be taken up to three times) - Your patroness will expend more power to make sure you are shielded from bad circumstances. as well as enhancing your odds of finding great successes in your future. You will be luckier, more likely to encounter good fortune on your path, and so on.
[ ] Gone Native (1 Orb) - Wherever you choose to be inserted, a background, life and memories to match will come along with you, making sure you aren't a total nobody or a complete outside element, easily recognizable as such. Depending on the whole of your picks, your given backstory may change - if you pick Asterius and Knight of the Round, for example, you may be one of the Lost Knights, awoken after many millennia of slumber.
[ ] Feather of Love (1 Orb) - Gain one of Mathieu's feathers. Just having it on your person is enough to turn you from a stuttering mess into a charismatic, well-likeable person, as well as make you look more attractive. It can also be used to write messages that will be read by the recipient with more interest and attention.
[ ] Geocache & Airdrop (2 Orbs) - A mysterious entity will regularly make sure you find items and resources that you need along your path. If you are wounded, you might find healing plants; if you face an enemy with a special defense, you might find a sword that can pierce those defenses. These special finds happen every month or so.
[ ] Magic Upgrade (2 Orbs) - Upgrade one of your selected magics by one order of magnitude, as well as giving you further aptitude in every other magic and increased energy reserves. Learn another Trigram for Eight of a Third, select an additional Element Focus for Shaping, boost your Trollface's power, etc. Cannot be applied to the 4 and 5 Orb magics.
[ ] Library Card (2 Orbs) - Gain a permanent key to the Dragon of Knowledge's library, a repository for all knowledge that exists within the multiverse - you'll just have to spend unbelievable amounts of time to find it. Don't worry; time passes slower inside of the Library, which makes it easier to lose track of time and spend years among the stacks. Heaven for some, pure Hell for others.
The Library holds all knowledge from the past, the present, and the future. However, were you to learn of any future information regarding your own timeline, the stacks will shift and change to account for the timeline changing, making you even more lost than you probably already were. Woops.
[ ] Pitor's Crown (3 Orbs) - Gain Pitor's Crown, an artifact of great power fueled by the sacrifice of a great man, which once belonged to the nation that your patroness helped build. Donning the crown will enhance the wearer's mental faculties tenfold - processing speed, intellect, reflexes. Additionally, it increases the wearer's multitasking capabilities tenfold, allowing them to summon simulacra of themselves and control them remotely, or put them on auto-pilot.
[ ] Room #78 (3 Orbs, 2 if 'The Mansion' is picked) - There is a room, in the Mansion, which used to belong to a mysterious person that no one remembers the name of, which is locked and inaccessible. No longer: you are now recognized as the owner of Room #78 within the Mansion. This room is stacked full with resources to become more powerful, information on all the big players of the Scheme (including possibly infohazards), as well as contingency plans for several 'endgame scenarios'.
[ ] Sheer Brilliance (4 Orbs) - In a flash of genius, your mind has become filled with the inspiration to do great things and the skills necessary to carry them out. Your intellect grows immensely, and you now feel the urge to do
science. You will never find yourself lacking ideas, never find yourself looking too long for resources. Flip a coin:
On Heads, you gain the cold, calculating brilliance of the Doctor, a scientist formerly from the Federation who is obsessed with stopping entropy no matter the cost. His focus was on quantum physics and engineering, as well as anything to do with machines and steel. Build Armament-tier machines in months instead of decades, create weapons that strike through esoteric defenses like butter.
On Tails, you gain the mad, chaotic brilliance of Cina Medi, a doctor of xenobiology who was exiled from almost every single scientific institution for pursuing evolution for the sake of it. His focus was on all things biological, cloning, new lifeforms, diseases, and much more. Create plagues that wipe out planetary life in seconds, give immortality on a whim, create zombie plagues that create ultra-zombies.
[ ] Serpent Heart (4 Orbs) - Obtain a Serpent Heart, the very core of a celestial, space-faring creature which feeds on mortal souls to obtain power and eternal life. What you choose to do with this Heart is your choice - it is a near-limitless reservoir of mana if utilized as a battery, an incredibly powerful effect-enhancer if you make elixirs with it.
The large majority of its power, though, comes from consuming it whole. By consuming a Serpent Heart, you imbibe its full power, and both your physiology and spiritual physiology will change in drastic ways. Your eyes will turn a deep green, you will grow scales and draconic wings, as well as sharp talons. Your bones will become nigh-unbreakable, strong enough to withstand pressures enough to crush coal into diamonds.
You will become strong enough to shake mountain ranges with punches, fast enough to outrun lightning, endurance to bear the vacuum of space unbothered and hypersonic flight with exponential acceleration to traverse space, as well as a dragon warform that triples all of your powers and magics. You also gain macro-scale pyrokinesis, strong enough to sunder nations in mere minutes.
Drawbacks
[ ] Remove Safeguards (+1 Orb, Can be taken up to three times) - Your patroness will lift some of the safeguards she put on you to give you more Orbs to spend on powers. This will lead to misfortune, harder times ahead of you, and generally more difficulty finding success.
[ ] Power-Limiter (+1 Orb) - By willingly placing a limiter upon your powers, you can extract more value out of the orbs you are spending. That limiter is more or less up to you, but generally defaults to a large percentage of your power being locked behind a 'berserk mode,' or your chosen powerset being completely unusable for several months, or your powers being conditional on certain parameters being met.
[ ] Five Stages of Grief (+1 Orb) - Throw a six-sided dice, and re-roll on a six. You have one free re-roll.
- Denial - You will find yourself denying most things at face value unless you receive hard proof for their veracity. This extends to things like, 'The sky is blue.' Even though you know it to be true, you will need to be told to 'look up' before you can say, 'I agree with you.'
- Anger - You will find yourself more prone to fits of rage at every slight inconvenience. Stub your toe and destroy a wall in the house. Lose a match, punch your opponent in the mouth. This will scale with your power.
- Bargaining - You will not able to be content with anything as it is, instead always wanting to extract more of whatever it is you're doing, just so long as it is on your terms and 'just how you wanted it.'
- Depression - You will lose the will to do most things and will be prone to sadness and depression. That's it.
- Acceptance - You will never disagree with anything again. You just accept everything as it is. Everything's fine, nothing can upset you anymore.
[ ] Curse of Undeath (+1 Orb) - Zidhas' actions are known across the entire universe now, and once information reaches that scale, it easily spills over into other worlds entirely. Become Undead - a status of existence darker and worse than immortality, a twisted and disgusting mockery of what life is supposed to be all about. A curse, not a blessing.
You won't hunger or thirst, but neither shall you find solace in food or drink. You'll never sleep again, but neither shall you find solace in rest. Your Undeath will be apparent and obvious. People are instinctively repulsed by the sight of you, bearing a deep hatred for the abomination against life that is Zidhas' very own kind of Undeath.
[ ] Fatelessness (+2 Orbs) - Despite Fate having been repaired long ago, by the combined efforts of the Titans and by the sacrifice of Necri Fernz, a fragment of its damage has found itself latching onto you, following you past the bounds of the Fate ontology.
Magic will be more difficult to learn and use, especially on yourself, people will not notice or remember you. You are, effectively, a ghost to everyone and even the multiverse itself. This is not a benefit; in due time, the loneliness will catch up to you and drive you mad.
[ ] Academic Conflict (+2 Orbs) - No matter where you are, both the Doctor and Cina Medi will find their eyes pointed at you, finding in your personage a solution to their problem. Of course, they will fight over you, and will want to kidnap and imprison you to experiment until the end of their lives so that they find the solution they've been looking for.
Remember: they are persistent and very, very competent. Dimension-hopping mechas will attack you out of nowhere, special neurotoxins will find their way into your food, technology will rebel against you and nature will be especially hostile to you, wherever you go, until you kill or otherwise incapacitate both the Doctor and Cina Medi.
[ ] The Towers Fall (+3 Orbs) - A calamity once befell Asterius and detached it from the rest of the multiverse for thousands of years. That calamity now repeats itself on a multiversal scale, reverberating through every single Tower in the multiverse, snapping them in half and killing The Master in the process. From then on, multiversal travel will become close to impossible without powerful magics or special accommodations.
[ ] Destined for Ungreatness (+3 Orbs) - Failure follows you like a magnet. Just like the Dragon of Evil, who in reality was no more than a necessary component to the balance of life, you will find your plans wanting, and your means ultimately facing in the face of destiny. No matter how competent, no matter how prepared you are, failure will be much more likely than success. You
can succeed, however it is much more difficult.
[ ] Tearbreak (+4 Orbs) - Varir, one of the Ten Immortal Truths conceived at the birth of Asterius' home universe, has healed of his metaphysical wounds. After his siblings had been slain by a traitorous son, with a deadly strike from the Sword That Ends, he spent millenia weeping in grief, healing from his wounds and slowly processing why something so cruel had happened to him and his siblings.
And now, he awakens with a new resolve, as his power and influence expand over the entirety of the universe Asterius is in and claim every sapient being in his army: suffering cannot exist if he is everything. As such, he has determined to go out on a multiversal crusade to assimilate every world, system, galaxy, universe that there is, to ensure nothing like this can ever happen again.
You will have a grace period of about ten years, but since Fate favors one of its makers, Varir's path of multiversal consumption will inevitably cross with yours, and he will attempt to consume you as well, as a powerful, unstoppable champion in his army. Join him, strike him down, or fall and join him anyways.
[ ] Into the Abyss (+4 Orbs, Alternate Insertion Point) - In a corner of the multiverse, a woman with dark hair sleeps peacefully under a beautiful birch tree. No amount of noise or disturbance will wake her up, even as around her the mountains melt into lava, the sky falls to pieces and the ground shatters from the earthquakes.
Be placed within the Abyss, a Hell below Hell, a dark and twisted, disgusting, traumatizing and horrifying reflection of the worst parts of the multiverse merged into one, inhabited by the souls of the damned and by Demons of every caliber. Demons of the lower tier are strong enough to casually play with the fundamental forces like time, gravity, and space.
Being consumed by a Demon means becoming part of it the same way calories become a part of the one who ate them. Your consciousness will linger, as everything that makes up your self - Soul, Spirit, and deeper still - is methodically broken down and thrown into the furnace of the Demon's power in an agonizing process worse than the worst tortures of all of existence.
On top of this horrific circumstance, the woman under the tree will eventually wake up and start gathering her forces; this is an inevitable fact. Based on your actions, it could be several months or a few years - your best bet is to be quiet, find a way to escape the Abyss, and hope nothing else wakes her up ahead of time.
When that happens, the trumpets of Apocalypse will sound, and all will be called to fight the rise of Suffering, whether they want it or not.
[ ] He Knows (+5 Orbs, +0 Orbs if you take Interface) - "Know to live as I do, fight like I do and maybe, this will prove you are worthy to fight by my side."
You are an intruder upon the Scheme, an unknown quantity whose presence violates every Law and Edict that the multiverse has ever imposed upon itself. Your patroness will thus lift every veil of secrecy and layer of protection placed on you to shield you from His attention, and offer it to you as power. But is power worth the cost you are about to pay?
Be branded an agent of Chaos, the axiomatic opposite to the Scheme's order.
Calamities will follow wherever you go. Worlds will burn with every step you take, universes will be sundered in the attempt to catch you and destroy you off the face of the Scheme. Were you to find protections or mitigations for this, no place in the multiverse would be safe - people you could once consider friends are now your worst enemies and will attempt to kill you on sight, no matter the cost. Understand this: it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when you meet your horrible demise.
However, if by some logic-defying miracle of multiversal proportions you survive, you will have earned your place by your patroness' side in her fight against Him.
DLCs (3 Orbs each) - They can only be bought by those they are named after.
[ ] Birdsie - The Phoenix of Power - History, narratives, conflict, and power, are merely tools of your craft; where there's a Will, there's a Way. Write no more than 500 words to create a magic system worth three orbs of power, which will become canon in the Scheme. Additionally, get one orb for every 1000 words of omake written for your build.
[ ] Lealope - The Drill of Resolve - A strategic, tactical mind, which seems to always have the correct answer for any given scenario. For every 500 words written of Outlined Tactics regarding your strategy with any given build, obtain one Orb to use in your build. Additionally, act as though you have three points of Further Safeguards as per this CYOA.
[ ] Questionable - The Lorekeeper - A deep well of knowledge, earned and gained through the oldest tool known to man: asking. Ask one question a day, and the universe shall answer truthfully and with no withheld information, until understanding is achieved. The answers to these questions will be stored and can be re-accessed even in cases of memory loss.
[ ] TheyWhoWatch - The Everpresent - You are everywhere, and can transport to anywhere within line of sight. Whenever someone calls your name, you hear them and are able to instantly transport yourself to their location. Additionally, Beckon the Skies is discounted by one Orb.
[ ] Kufufu - The Artist- Art is but one of many ways to express one's deepest self. Your artistic capabilities are boosted a hundredfold, you gain proficiency in all forms of art, and supernatural powers spill forth from your art. Summon your drawings, paint bindings onto people, and so on.
[ ] DB - The Wrestler - The progenitor of the Dragons, source of their power. Once a month, you can visit the Library of Knowledge, and you will be able to change any moment within history as long as you do it within an hour of time. Additionally, you obtain a fragment of the Steel Chair.
[ ] GenericName - The Builder - A methodical mind, computer-like in its laser efficiency to optimize any given system to perfection. For every build you make, you get one extra orb on your next build. Additionally, get Troll Magic for free.
[ ] Zar - The Actor - Acting and theater are second nature to you. Disguise is like breathing for you, and acting, performing have borderline magical effects. Calm people with singing, have a dance-off and win a conflict without actually fighting.
[ ] Orm Embar - The Messiah From Beyond - A force from beyond the Scheme, powerful and intimidating even to the greatest actors. Select one magic from any of the Ormulum CYOAs to make a build in this CYOA, by spending the Orbs from Scheme Unraveled.
[ ] Fib - The Worldwright - A repository of knowledge pointed towards the creation of universes, worlds and peoples. Write an insertion point for no more than 800 words which will become canon in the Scheme. Kleptomancy is discounted by one Orb.
[ ] Brightwing - The Dreamer - An imaginative mind, deep and brimming with creativity. For every 500 words of explanation of your build, and why you picked what you picked, what you intend to do with it and why it'd be interesting or cool, get one extra Orb.
