The First Age

[sparkletwist]

THE FIRST AGE

In a time before time, a new world is born, but it was not an easy birth. Geological activity rips the landscape apart, while meteors rain down from space, blasting large swathes of land with enormous, gaping craters. Rumbling earthquakes slowly build up jagged mountains. Constant volcanic eruptions form their share of mountainous regions, as well, in addition to filling the atmosphere with numerous strange and exotic gases. Much of the equatorial latitudes that are not filled with turbulent ocean are one contiguous blasted desert wasteland of volcanic glass and swirling sands.

Yet, this is a world that teems with life. The volcanic activity has created a greenhouse atmosphere that bathes nearly the entire planet in a constant warmth. Lush forests of conifers, tree ferns, and cycads fill the valleys in between the mountains, their growth aided by the balmy climate. Numerous animals inhabit these forests as well: snarling velociraptors, skittering giant myriapods, lumbering crocodilians, buzzing griffinflies, soaring pterosaurs, and many more. Perhaps the most significant is a race of bipedal reptilians known as the synapsids. Most synapsids live in small tribes throughout the forests and surrounding areas, hunting and gathering all they need to survive in the abundance of the forest. These tribes have no literature, but their chittering, hissing languages have a rich oral tradition, telling tales of saurian gods and heroes who were responsible for the creation of the world. Many of them tribes live nomadically, roam from place to place beneath the forest's canopy, while others build their simple villages in places they consider to be sacred. A few of them have even founded city-states that seem to be on the verge of greatness.

Deeper within the forests, the canopy grows thick, and an eerie mist seems to pervade. Where little light reaches, large plants do not grow, and the land is instead given over to mazes of roots from the larger trees, as well as strange mosses, slimes, and other plants that can survive in the low light. In this dark maze, other things reside too:  gigantic amphibians that lie in wait in murky pools for hapless passers-by, a degenerate subspecies of synapsids that have grown accustomed to the gloom, a strange tribe of arboriform entities that are neither plant nor animal and yet somewhat like both, and, at the core of the densest forest, in a maze of vegetation so dark the only light is provided by odd bioluminescent mosses, some particularly large tangles of roots seem to have developed a maliciously cunning intelligence.

These forests are not the only place that darkness and strange creatures reign. In the perpetual twilight far below the turbulent oceans, the god-king Ammon reigns over a race of spiral-shelled cephalopod psionicists, called the Ammonite Imperium. Though they lack the trappings of any real civilization, their psychic powers give them immense control over their environment nonetheless; numerous lesser races of the depths are enthralled to them. The only possible contender for dominance would be the trilobites, a highly diverse race of marine arthropods whose chitinous exoskeletal armor seems to grant them immunity to the ammonites' psionic projections. However, the numerous factions and tribes of trilobites cannot seem to mount any organized opposition, instead preferring to squabble amongst themselves for territory and food sources.

Across the sea, on a ring of large islands, a different race attempts to find its way in this new world. Superficially bearing some resemblance to the large arboreal primates that are one of the few widespread mammals here, these odd creatures have lost both their fur and their proclivity for living in the trees, but have gained remarkable intelligence. They live like synapsids: forming tribes, hunting, gathering, passing on their lore, and perhaps even building a civilization...

[ic=The Hunt]
Issi was used to the heat, but, somehow, the hunger always made it worse. She extended her tongue, tasting the air. The prey was close, she could sense it... but where? She would have to lay her eggs soon, and it would not do to have to leave them undefended while she went out looking for food. No, she had to find food first. She clutched her spear tighter, panting softly in the heat.

It was nothing but watching and waiting, now. Patience. She was patient, but she was also hungry. Still, she would be even more hungry if she ruined her chance for surprise and spooked the prey. Nothing to do but wait.

Minutes passed. They felt like hours. Then, motion. She saw the prey dash out between the trees and she let her spear fly. She was a practiced huntress; the spear soared through the air with grace and skill. With a dull crunch it impacted the prey, running it through. It screamed and fell to the ground, blood pouring out. It attempted to crawl away, but the end was close. Issi drew her knife and efficiently slit its throat, ending both its escape and its suffering. Another one of those strange, upright, hairless primates. She'd been seeing too many of them around lately. They were dangerous, and their meat was not as good as the fat herbivorous sauropods that usually lumbered through here. Still, meat was meat. Her hunger would be sated, for now.
[/ic]

[ooc=Important Themes]
A whole new world
This world is recently created and is brimming with new life and new possibilities, as well as numerous dangers. I have somewhat mingled ancient human history with (much more) ancient natural history and (even more much more) ancient geological history. The First Age contains primitive stone and early bronze age civilizations side by side with forms of life that would have gone extinct millions of years prior, on a world that isn't even really done forming yet. As such, the setting is more of a "creationism salad" than anything that could've naturally arisen-- and that's fine, because worrying too much about the origins of things isn't really what this setting is about. We're at the beginning of time already, so we don't need to go back any more.

Jurassic Park
For the sake of conveying this exotic, primeval feel, the extant forms of life are generally given a distinctly "prehistoric" feeling, although I'm not being terribly strict about drawing from one specific era, and combinations that did not actually exist in real life will undoubtedly appear. Of course there are dinosaurs, but, in addition, other well-known prehistoric animals appear, too. Some representatives of these species are given sapience, so as to expand the range of possible stories that can be told. In all this, humans do exist somehow, too, but mammals in general are quite rare, and many real world types of mammals do not exist at all: essentially, small rodents, monkeys, apes, and humans are all there are. Birds, grasses, and flowering plants are also nonexistent.

Younger Things
As if dinosaurs and volcanoes and such weren't hazardous enough, various bizarre and cyclopean entities that one might refer to as "Elder Things" are here too. However, they haven't yet had time to get elder; they're just Things. Some of them can probably even remember the creation of everything. These fantastic and horrific entities not buried in forgotten chthonic ruins, but instead are here in their prime, casting all of their wonder and terror on the primordial landscape.
[/ooc]

While the main inspiration for this little flight of fancy in particular was an IRC conversation with Xathan about a newly created world ripe for exploration and conquest, something along these lines has been floating around in my head for a while now. It seems like there are quite a few settings focusing on a post-apocalyptic or dying earth, in which it seems that time is coming to an end; even more exist in a world that is still thriving, but there are layers upon layers of ancient past, extending back into unknowably archean times. (My own Asura setting would fit into the second group!) However, this time, I wanted to try something a bit different, and envision a world where such "ancient times" are the here and now, all right here to be experienced actively. Of course, the weird assortment of creatures found in fantasy settings seem to be quite amenable to mixing in some weird creatures that actually existed in the past, too. This feeling also gives us the setting's name: if we are using the popular fantasy conceit of "ages," this is the "First Age."

Inspirations include: the "Lost World" genre, the Biblical book of Genesis, Pathfinder's Kingmaker, various games like SimEarth, and, of course, actual natural history. My own Asura setting also lends more than a few ideas, too.

[ooc=Wait a minute!]An astute reader will point out that nobody really knows that they're living at the beginning of history... and that it's a rather subjective sort of thing, anyway. The Ancient Greeks were focused on how old Egyptian culture seemed to them, by "Biblical times" thousands of years had already passed from when they thought the world was created, and maybe at some point in the distant future our times now will be regarded as the ancient pre-dawn of the "transhumanist era." Generally speaking, it seems like every culture throughout history has had some feelings like they were living in the end of days, so to overtly place people at the beginning of time and have them somehow be aware of it would be sort of counterintuitive and weird.

So, no, the people of the First Age aren't actually consciously aware of their position on the timeline. However, they are aware of the distinct absence of any grand building projects, ruins, or other traces of any civilizations prior to the ones that exist now. In addition, literacy is far from universal, leading to a lack of recorded history; more than a few cultures haven't even gotten around to the concept of literacy yet. There is, of course, oral tradition and mythic history, but this focuses mostly on creation myths. Stylistically, I've also decided that most people believe that they live in a "young" world as opposed to an "old" one. They'd have no real reason to feel one way or the other, but there are actual human belief systems that believe both, so there's no reason why they wouldn't feel this way, either. Maybe some of the (un)lucky ones have even spoken to the Great Not-Yet-Old Ones that were there at the very beginning.
[/ooc]

Synapsids
Synapsids are the most dominant sapient race, at least on land. They are ubiquitous in the central forests, the highlands, and the volcanic mountains of the main supercontinent; some have even begun to explore the eastern islands in small canoes. They are reptilian, possessing a distinctively reptilian face and jaw as well as being oviparous. However, they are bipedal, warm-blooded, and possess smooth rather than scaly skin. They are cunning and highly intelligent, generally living in small nomadic tribes consisting of several family groups, though some have settled more permanently and live in larger settlements. Synapsids are just beginning to develop civilization and culture, and a few tribal chiefs have managed to unite enough families under their banners that they live under what would be considered a city-state, the most significant of these being the Free City of Tsihaas. Nonetheless, these societies are still primitive, with only basic agriculture, stone tools, and other simple technology; many of their smaller settlements don't even farm at all, but instead rely on the ability to continually gather from particularly lush areas of forest.

Arboriforms
Arboriforms are strange, mostly-sedentary creatures that reside deep in the forests. They are part plant and part animal, and yet, like neither, generally appearing like strange, shambling tree-things, covered in woody bark and symbiotic green mosses. They communicate with one another through the release of spores that their own kind can easily detect, but this makes their language utterly incomprehensible to other species. Their hearing is not well developed, and thus, the spoken language of other races eludes them nearly as completely. Due to this fundamental barrier, almost no communication or trade is possible; the exception being ammonite telepaths who are able to link directly with an arboriform mind and perceive the scent-language in their mind.

Ammonites
The undisputed king of the oceans is the god-king Ammon-- and, since it was in the oceans that life originated, he considers himself to be king of all the world. His subjects in his Ammonite Imperium are the ammonites, a race of spiral-shelled tentacled psionicists. Even a common ammonite possesses simple short-range telepathy and telekinesis, and the personal sorcerers of the god-king, the Shaligram Guard, can project their power hundreds of meters. Though they lack any real trappings of civilization, their great powers make up for much, and with these powers, they control the abyssal depths. Ammonite psychology is often as alien to land-dwellers as ammonite physiology, with a thought process rooted largely in the self-evident fact of their superiority.

Trilobites
The one undersea race not subjugated by the Ammonite Imperium is the trilobites, as the thick exoskeletal plates that surround their heads protect them from the ammonites' psionic influence. Free of psychic enthrallment, the trilobites live free, much like synapsids on the surface, in small tribes or family groups-- perhaps even less developed, as under the sea, there is little incentive to permanently settle anywhere. Their settlements are periodically raided by ammonites, but they fight viciously, and the two races have something of an uneasy truce most of the time. There seems to be no capacity among the trilobites to form any sort of a rival imperium, though, as they are as fragmented as any other race.

Humans
Humans live in the eastern islands, as well as in some of the more isolated areas of the mainland. They are an odd evolutionary dead-end: a strange, nearly-hairless, sapient version of the large arboreal primates that dwell throughout the forests of the supercontinent. Their lives are difficult, as they are generally inferior in strength and size to the synapsids, but they are an aggressive and expansionist sort of creature, and will ruthlessly exploit any advantage they can get. Perhaps disturbingly for the reptilians, humans often seem to be more clever than even them (many synapsids generally dislike trading with humans, as it is far too easy to be taken advantage of) and some humans even show a knack for psionic ability.

[sparkletwist]

(Reserved)

[LD]

I am very glad to see ammonites and trilobites in play as races. :)

Now the "Trilobite Imperium" isn't so lonely as a setting trapping. :P.

Looking forward to seeing more, although I'm a bit surprised you included humans at all, but I guess you're going for a Lemuria/Tarzan approach?

[Xathan]

We talked about this IRC, but do want to mention you get bonus points for three things in particular:

Synapsids instead of Saurains, since that is A) more likely B) more accurate C) more original.
The whole Younger Things idea. The fact that we are in the time of what you called the "Great Not-Yet-Old-Ones." is just awesome.
Humans are something other than "Jack-of-all-trade baseline" - and, in fact, NOTHING is jack of all trades baseline race.

[sparkletwist]

Now the "Trilobite Imperium" isn't so lonely as a setting trapping. :P

You know, when I was writing "Ammonite Imperium" I had this odd, vague feeling of familiarity. Now I know why. :P

Looking forward to seeing more, although I'm a bit surprised you included humans at all, but I guess you're going for a Lemuria/Tarzan approach?

Yes, partially because it helps the "lost world" feel, and partially because I always use humans in settings since I have kind of a hard time identifying with anything else.

[Weave]

I'm shocked - I honestly thought Asura would be your be all/end all of settings, what with your proclivity towards "mashing." I have to ask: what spurred the creation of this new setting?

I like what I'm reading here. I saw the movie "Meet the Croods" in theaters not too long ago and I'm getting sort of a similar vibe from this (which is intended to be a compliment; I thought the movie was quite good). I'm picturing lush jungles in the vein of Pandora, Jurassic Park thrills, and hints of Cthulhu (the idea of there being not-so-Old Ones is clever). I'd love to see what comes of this!

I would probably be lame and play a human, but if arboriforms were available to try out I'd want to play that (with a psionic partner to help translate for me). I'd like to hear more about each of the races when and if you get around to it.

[Steerpike]

This is very cool!  And, as Weave notes, it's great to see another sparkletwist setting.  You mention psionics in relation to the Ammonites.  Is psionic power the only major "supernatural" force in this setting, or are you planning on incorporating "magic" as well (shamanistic or otherwise)?

[sparkletwist]

Thank you for the kind words!

Don't rule out the queen of mash. It could be that this is some primeval planet in some dark corner of the Asuraverse. While IRC conversations with Xathan and random information about natural history that I learned were big inspirations, it was an Asura campaign idea that was at the root of it, actually; the idea of what would happen if a group of Asuras ended up on an essentially "pristine" planet at a very early stage of technological development. What would they teach? What knowledge would they impart? Would they hide, or be openly worshipped? (Asura inspirations like like Stargate and Lord of Light come to mind here..)

Although I didn't get around to mentioning it yet, one idea for how to play in this setting is that the PCs are some "godling" type of creature, sort of like an Asura, and they have a similar role-- exploring and shaping a new world. The powers of these godlings would be considerable, and I think they could also be lumped in with "psionics" in the sense that it is "power that is internal to the user." (Again, sort of like Asura's Prana...)

In order to contrast "magic" I would probably make it "power provided by some external force," like, spirits or something of that nature. And I'm not sure yet if those even exist. :)

[Weave]

Aha! I should've known not to underestimate your mashing capabilities.

This sounds like it could be made into a cool forum game (given how popular they are!) if the players are godlings of some sort shaping the new world. I'm not sure if that's something you'd be interested in, or if people even have the time to participate in another game, but I can see it taking off fairly well as one.

[sparkletwist]

DIVINITIES

[ooc]
I like the idea of having different "layers" of gods and such, so I've tried to work that into the First Age in a form that fits with its rather open-ended design. For example, there is no specific event like the Titans being usurped, and I would encourage players to help come up with the mythology of the cults or tribes that are most relevant to the game. Since this world is inspired heavily by Asura, I also think a game in which players play the part of Terrestrial Gods would be something quite fun that I'd enjoy doing.
[/ooc]

The Creator
The Creator is infinite. The Creator is omnipresent, yet also unknowable. It was by the hand of the Creator that all of the splendor and horror of the First Age came to exist, and it is by the hand of the Creator that the world continues to be shaped. A few cults (almost all human) worship the Creator directly. Many people are not even aware of its existence. Indeed, it is actually not even possible to verify that the Creator exists at all, save for the circumstantial evidence of the creation of the universe, as its involvement is otherwise always seemingly indirect and minimal. Nearly anything that can be credited to or blamed on the Creator's influence could just as easily be the result of the actions of some lesser god, or, for that matter, natural forces that bend to the will of no divine entity.

Celestial Gods
The Celestial Gods are the first creations of the Creator, and the inheritors of its universe. Whether it was bequeathed to them or they usurped it is something unknown to those beneath them (even lower gods, like Terrestrials) and they are inscrutable beings who would not be fond of answering such questions. They are gods of the sky, the moon, space, time, and other abstract concepts, with motives as vague and yet vast as their purviews. It is believed that there is a perpetual, ancient war going on among numerous shifting alliances of Celestial Gods, a grand struggle in which all lesser beings are but pawns.

Celestial Gods occasionally speak to Terrestrial Gods, or even directly to mortals, but the message is almost always shrouded in riddle and mystery. They are incorporeal beings that exist both inside and yet out of reality, so, when they appear, it is as a disembodied voice, combined with visual manifestations. Should something more permanent be required, they can incarnate in a physical form, called an avatar, but this is not required, and, indeed, many find the effort to do so not worth it, particularly when Terrestrial Gods make far more reliable messengers.

Terrestrial Gods
The Terrestrial Gods, sometimes derisively referred to as "godlings" (though rarely to their faces, as their power is still considerable) are the lowliest and yet most relevant gods of the First Age. Unlike the aloof and mysterious Celestial Gods, the purviews of the Terrestrials are all the things that actually matter to the so-called mortal races, from mighty war gods to tiny sprites that bless harvests. They are simultaneously ruler and servant, blessed with immense power but also bound to the wills of their worshippers. The only thing that can truly sustain a Terrestrial God is the life energy of those whose souls are aligned with that god; without followers, a Terrestrial God will simply fade away. Thus, to speak of "mortal races" as a completely different thing is not completely accurate, for there is a mortality to these gods, as well.

As their name would suggest, Terrestrial Gods are bound to the land. They have a physical form with which they walk the lands of the First Age; unlike the Celestials, they are corporeal beings, bound to a body, just like the races they exist to rule and serve. Many resemble the race they are found among, but this is not an absolute truth: more than a few synapsid or human tribes worship strange tentacled ammonite gods that were displaced when the god-king Ammon's rule over the core of ammonite civilization became absolute, and there are a few isolated Terrestrial Gods with bizarre forms that resemble nothing seen elsewhere.

[Xathan]

I love the way you've layered the Gods - it feels very organic and natural. I'm curious as to where some types of purviews fall: Love, for example, matters deeply to the mortal races, but it also is an abstract concept, so I could see it being a Terrestrial God's domain or a Celestial God's domain. Also, how powerful are Terrestrial Gods? Strong enough where mortals pose no challenge to them? Enough where mortals are a threat in large numbers? Small enough where a single mortal can slay a Terrestrial God if they are incredibly skilled and/or lucky?

I'll have more thoughts later on when I'm more awake, but as a final thought, not to pimp my own thing, but I'm curious if Keldora influenced this at all. >.> (Even if not, there are definitely some ideas in here I could steal and mash because they are awesome, and may very well do so because that's what we do. :P)

[sparkletwist]

Love is abstract, but it's also something that I think is essentially too important to the mortal races and too unimportant in the vast cosmic scheme of things to be anything but the purview of Terrestrial Gods. The Celestial Gods are connected to things that are deliberately more sweeping and vague, and I like the idea that it's actually sort of difficult to concretely define a Celestial God's purview-- if you can say it as concisely as "love," then it's something on the Terrestrial level.

A Celestial God will govern something like "the moon," which, while it's an actual thing, it's not exactly clear what that means. The people in the First Age have no idea of all of the roles that the moon has: for example, in an echo of real science, the Lunar God will command the Terrestrial Gods of the seas to influence the tides, but almost nobody in the setting is aware of that relationship.

I can't point to any single conscious influence, as this idea just sort of popped into my head. However, as you well know, my mind is definitely focused on "mashing," so fairly I'm certain that Keldora as well as bunch of other influences all got mixed around in there.

Edit: Oh, I forgot to answer the question about how powerful a Terrestrial God is. The answer is, "it depends." Because they gain power from their followers, how well they stand up to opposition depends on who is on their side. I think that to truly destroy a Terrestrial God will require "something special," though I'm not sure what it is, but a powerful mortal could defeat a Terrestrial God without followers.

Mechanically, I'm going to model this in the Asura system by basing their Traits on how many (and what kind) of followers they have. As you might know, in Asura, to generate an effectiveness value used in a roll, you add Trait+Skill. For example, something like Power+Weapons for swinging a sword, or Grace+Deceit for telling a lie, or Senses+Perception for spotting someone, or the like. For humans, a Trait reflects natural aptitude while a Skill reflects training. Someone quite naturally gifted but only moderately trained may have a Power of +2 and a Weapons skill of +2, for a total of 4. This person will be an even match for a completely average person who is a well-trained soldier, i.e., Power of 0, Weapons of +4. Gods, on the other hand, will add to their Traits through their followers: a Terrestrial God with no worshippers will have traits of 0 in everything, and be no better than a completely average human. However, a war god with legions of fanatical followers may manage a Power of +6, making him greater than almost any human in combat, even not counting his own skill.

[Xathan]

I mentioned this on IRC, but it bears repeating; I love the mechanics of how Terrestrial Gods function. Are Celestial Gods vastly more powerful than Terrestrial Gods? Or does it depend in thar area too?

A Celestial God will govern something like "the moon," which, while it's an actual thing, it's not exactly clear what that means. The people in the First Age have no idea of all of the roles that the moon has: for example, in an echo of real science, the Lunar God will command the Terrestrial Gods of the seas to influence the tides, but almost nobody in the setting is aware of that relationship.

That...is awesome. I would love to see more of these echos of real science in play, just because the interactions could be fascinating AND hilarious.

[sparkletwist]

Are Celestial Gods vastly more powerful than Terrestrial Gods?

On some level, yes. However, I think they're much more poorly understood, and quite a bit more removed from the world.

Terrestrial Gods are based on sort of "Greek" archetype of a god, where it is someone who is immensely powerful but has essentially human thought processes and motivations, especially for those Terrestrial Gods who appear among human and synapsid populations. Ammonite and trilobite Terrestrial Gods are probably rather strange, fitting the archetype of Lovecraftian eldritch horrors, but they are still something that people will worship and at least try to comprehend (and maybe go mad in the process)-- on the other hand, Celestial Gods are based on the idea of the "inscrutable cosmic god" that shows up in other religious traditions. There's probably a bit of Lovecraft thrown into that one, too.

[Xathan]

I love the mythology that's developing here. :)

How "alien" are Ammonite and Trilobite Terrestrial gods? Or really, ammonite and trilobites in general, actually. Are we talking totally incomprehensible to Vertebrate minds, or their motivations can be understood but not their logic, or totally able to relate to them, even if they are still unsettling or something else?  (re-reading lovecrafte and playing as Llandri makes it interesting to think about how these are portrayed). I can see it going both ways because, as I understand, Ammonites and Trilobites in First Age are still OF the terrestrial world as opposed to out of space and time.

Given that Celestial Gods are of the inscrutable cosmic variety yet, I'm presuming, have physical forms...what do they look like?