Leliel
2012-08-15, 06:08 AM
Anyway, browsing TV Tropes, I came across the entry for Lineage 2, and found the creation myth really interesting-to the point of the homebrew equivalent of a plotbunny needing to be put to print.
So, here's the god that was inspired. 4E, 3.5E, doesn't matter since I don't bother with avatar stats. Still provided his domains, however.
Umbrae, The Adversary
(The Emperor of Shadows, The Tester of Crowns, The Smith of Waste, The Eremite Warlord, The Dark Man at the Crossroads, The Trickster)
TN Greater God
Divine Symbol: A symbol of another god, dyed pitch black, or a circle of six globes, one for each elemental plane, with each deliberately chipped.
Portfolio: Opposition, Darkness, Adversity, Ambition, Resilience, Self-Improvement.
Domains: Darkness, War, Law, Chaos.
While the other gods do not enjoy talking about it, they are not immune to hubris. Even the most holy of Good gods can act to his detriment out of being unable to admit his idea of what is best for the world is flawed, and even the most crafty of Evil gods can act stupidly or be fooled. This may or may not be a good thing, depending on whether it is a deity one dislikes making the mistake or not, but gods are as vulnerable to excessive pride as any mortal, if not more so.
It is Umbrae who ensures that the gods are punished for their foolish pride, that they are reminded that no matter how grand they are, they are neither invulnerable nor infallible. From the inside of his Monastery of Enlightened Pain, he constantly devises tests of character, mind, and strength for his fellows, sending army after army of living shadows of his current subject's own worshipers and minions, engineers moral dilemmas where the real answer is never obvious (including the idea that it is never obvious), and crafts puzzles that can confound the gods of knowledge working together. He does not hesitate to test mortals as well, especially great empires and nations, and it is for this reason he is viewed as a sinister figure, a Dark Man of the Crossroads who will cheerfully destroy lives and betray for his own amusement. Most of it is true, but he takes no sadistic pleasure in his duties-it is simply in his nature to oppose, to test for faults and exploit them if he finds them, either to help those the Adversary opposes to overcome them or destroy they who refuse to. Let it never be said the Emperor of Shadows is not a fair or dishonorable enemy, though he is ruthless and spares no sympathy to those that cannot let go of their faults.
The living shadow of the Creator, even from the beginning Umbrae was an opponent and mentor of all. When the Creator spoke the Words of Creation to bring matter from the Void, the Trickster composed the Song of Abyss to dissolve all but the strongest and least rigid materials to dissolve once more. When the Creator made life, Umbrae taught the primitive life to eat other life, giving rise to predation, herbivores, and evolution. When the Creator made other deities, the Tester of Crowns sent mighty elementals and spirits to war with the fledgling deities, weeding out all but the strongest, wisest, and most cunning. Oh, how the other gods despised him! More than once the gods went to the Creator and declared "My liege, why do you not destroy the Adversary? He does nothing but oppose us and mock us, and he sends many monsters to destroy Your works." And the Creator would always reply "He only does what his place in the cosmos requires of him, and I am not a perfect being. It is through him that my works become truly beautiful." And the gods were always humbled, for the Creator was and is wise above all things.
Eventually, the Creator left to build new worlds, at which point the warped things that lie in the Outside, which had feared the Creator, began to creep in, eager to devour the young world. The gods tried to oppose them, but the warped things were clever and tenacious, and found their way inside the world anyway. Terrified at the warped beings twisting the Creator's work into a tapestry of madness, the gods turned to the Adversary, and said "It is in your nature to be a perfect enemy to whatever you set your sights upon-make yourself the enemy of the despoilers from Outside and drive them away or destroy them, and we will allow you to build a mortal race in your image". Umbrae, who had long desired to create life that was not meant to oppose other life, agreed eagerly.
And so in the form of a mighty shadow beast, the Eremite Warlord struck into the outside. The despoilers tried to break him using the raw might of a stillborn universe, but he seeped into the flaws that killed the universe before it was made and tore it from the inside out. They tried to drive him to madness using eldritch secrets damaging to sane minds, but he drafted a language that made the secrets comprehensible, and so only gained their wisdom. They tried to make him doubt himself by forcing to chose between pursuing his mission and saving the one innocent thing in the Outside, but as a shadow, he could simply alter the self-same light of the Creator that was given to him to preserve his form and made himself twain, one to guard the innocent thing and the other to pursue his mission. Finally, the king of the despoilers attacked Umbrae himself for the insult of a sane being showing himself to be the equal of the Outside's challenges, but Umbrae struck him down with weapons made from the dust of the broken universe, drove him mad even by the standards of the Outside through extrapolations of the eldritch secrets, and humbled him by showing the innocent thing, free of the despoiler's influence, now thriving with a family of other innocent things and growing. The king slithered away, defeated, and the surviving despoilers went with him, retreating to the farthest reaches of the Outside, where even the despoilers did not know what was there.
Triumphant, Umbrae returned, only to find the other gods had made mortal life without him. Searching for the meaning of this, the Adversary asked the other gods why they had broken their covenant with him. "We have not", they smugly replied. "You may use what we have discarded in our making of the other mortal races". Enraged, Umbrae asked them if that was any way to reward the brother who had saved both them and their children from the despoilers. "As if we would allow the Trickster the pleasures of creation, when we were constantly tormented by him when indulging in those pleasures. Now you shall know how it feels to create when others oppose you". Bitterly, Umbrae left to gather the paltry materials, vowing that just as they had made beautiful and strong things despite his opposition, he too would make a beautiful and strong race despite theirs-one that would oppose and overcome theirs, made in the grip of the hubris that arose without his ministrations.
From stagnant water, the Smith of Waste gave his race unmatched flexibility, ready to burst into motion at any time. From ashes, he gave his race an understated, smoldering passion, not obvious, but strong and forceful all the same. From violent winds, he gave his race unpredictability and an intellect with the capacity to ignore both limitations and common sense. From broken stone, he gave his race a subconscious sense of being incomplete, leading to unbridled ambition and the capacity to change. From the polluted essence of life, he gave his race a desire to survive and thrive at all costs, making them incomparable survivors. From undeath, he gave them disrespect for boundaries, making them pragmatic and cunning. Finally, from himself, he gave shadow and darkness, giving his race willpower, drive, and the ability to match all challengers, no matter how strong, wise, or moral.
He called this race "humans".
And when the other gods came up to him, begging him to allow them to patron this race that had built empires that surpassed all others, even the precious elves and dwarves, he saw that it was good.
(If you want, I can put up worshipers, plans, all that jazz).
So, here's the god that was inspired. 4E, 3.5E, doesn't matter since I don't bother with avatar stats. Still provided his domains, however.
Umbrae, The Adversary
(The Emperor of Shadows, The Tester of Crowns, The Smith of Waste, The Eremite Warlord, The Dark Man at the Crossroads, The Trickster)
TN Greater God
Divine Symbol: A symbol of another god, dyed pitch black, or a circle of six globes, one for each elemental plane, with each deliberately chipped.
Portfolio: Opposition, Darkness, Adversity, Ambition, Resilience, Self-Improvement.
Domains: Darkness, War, Law, Chaos.
While the other gods do not enjoy talking about it, they are not immune to hubris. Even the most holy of Good gods can act to his detriment out of being unable to admit his idea of what is best for the world is flawed, and even the most crafty of Evil gods can act stupidly or be fooled. This may or may not be a good thing, depending on whether it is a deity one dislikes making the mistake or not, but gods are as vulnerable to excessive pride as any mortal, if not more so.
It is Umbrae who ensures that the gods are punished for their foolish pride, that they are reminded that no matter how grand they are, they are neither invulnerable nor infallible. From the inside of his Monastery of Enlightened Pain, he constantly devises tests of character, mind, and strength for his fellows, sending army after army of living shadows of his current subject's own worshipers and minions, engineers moral dilemmas where the real answer is never obvious (including the idea that it is never obvious), and crafts puzzles that can confound the gods of knowledge working together. He does not hesitate to test mortals as well, especially great empires and nations, and it is for this reason he is viewed as a sinister figure, a Dark Man of the Crossroads who will cheerfully destroy lives and betray for his own amusement. Most of it is true, but he takes no sadistic pleasure in his duties-it is simply in his nature to oppose, to test for faults and exploit them if he finds them, either to help those the Adversary opposes to overcome them or destroy they who refuse to. Let it never be said the Emperor of Shadows is not a fair or dishonorable enemy, though he is ruthless and spares no sympathy to those that cannot let go of their faults.
The living shadow of the Creator, even from the beginning Umbrae was an opponent and mentor of all. When the Creator spoke the Words of Creation to bring matter from the Void, the Trickster composed the Song of Abyss to dissolve all but the strongest and least rigid materials to dissolve once more. When the Creator made life, Umbrae taught the primitive life to eat other life, giving rise to predation, herbivores, and evolution. When the Creator made other deities, the Tester of Crowns sent mighty elementals and spirits to war with the fledgling deities, weeding out all but the strongest, wisest, and most cunning. Oh, how the other gods despised him! More than once the gods went to the Creator and declared "My liege, why do you not destroy the Adversary? He does nothing but oppose us and mock us, and he sends many monsters to destroy Your works." And the Creator would always reply "He only does what his place in the cosmos requires of him, and I am not a perfect being. It is through him that my works become truly beautiful." And the gods were always humbled, for the Creator was and is wise above all things.
Eventually, the Creator left to build new worlds, at which point the warped things that lie in the Outside, which had feared the Creator, began to creep in, eager to devour the young world. The gods tried to oppose them, but the warped things were clever and tenacious, and found their way inside the world anyway. Terrified at the warped beings twisting the Creator's work into a tapestry of madness, the gods turned to the Adversary, and said "It is in your nature to be a perfect enemy to whatever you set your sights upon-make yourself the enemy of the despoilers from Outside and drive them away or destroy them, and we will allow you to build a mortal race in your image". Umbrae, who had long desired to create life that was not meant to oppose other life, agreed eagerly.
And so in the form of a mighty shadow beast, the Eremite Warlord struck into the outside. The despoilers tried to break him using the raw might of a stillborn universe, but he seeped into the flaws that killed the universe before it was made and tore it from the inside out. They tried to drive him to madness using eldritch secrets damaging to sane minds, but he drafted a language that made the secrets comprehensible, and so only gained their wisdom. They tried to make him doubt himself by forcing to chose between pursuing his mission and saving the one innocent thing in the Outside, but as a shadow, he could simply alter the self-same light of the Creator that was given to him to preserve his form and made himself twain, one to guard the innocent thing and the other to pursue his mission. Finally, the king of the despoilers attacked Umbrae himself for the insult of a sane being showing himself to be the equal of the Outside's challenges, but Umbrae struck him down with weapons made from the dust of the broken universe, drove him mad even by the standards of the Outside through extrapolations of the eldritch secrets, and humbled him by showing the innocent thing, free of the despoiler's influence, now thriving with a family of other innocent things and growing. The king slithered away, defeated, and the surviving despoilers went with him, retreating to the farthest reaches of the Outside, where even the despoilers did not know what was there.
Triumphant, Umbrae returned, only to find the other gods had made mortal life without him. Searching for the meaning of this, the Adversary asked the other gods why they had broken their covenant with him. "We have not", they smugly replied. "You may use what we have discarded in our making of the other mortal races". Enraged, Umbrae asked them if that was any way to reward the brother who had saved both them and their children from the despoilers. "As if we would allow the Trickster the pleasures of creation, when we were constantly tormented by him when indulging in those pleasures. Now you shall know how it feels to create when others oppose you". Bitterly, Umbrae left to gather the paltry materials, vowing that just as they had made beautiful and strong things despite his opposition, he too would make a beautiful and strong race despite theirs-one that would oppose and overcome theirs, made in the grip of the hubris that arose without his ministrations.
From stagnant water, the Smith of Waste gave his race unmatched flexibility, ready to burst into motion at any time. From ashes, he gave his race an understated, smoldering passion, not obvious, but strong and forceful all the same. From violent winds, he gave his race unpredictability and an intellect with the capacity to ignore both limitations and common sense. From broken stone, he gave his race a subconscious sense of being incomplete, leading to unbridled ambition and the capacity to change. From the polluted essence of life, he gave his race a desire to survive and thrive at all costs, making them incomparable survivors. From undeath, he gave them disrespect for boundaries, making them pragmatic and cunning. Finally, from himself, he gave shadow and darkness, giving his race willpower, drive, and the ability to match all challengers, no matter how strong, wise, or moral.
He called this race "humans".
And when the other gods came up to him, begging him to allow them to patron this race that had built empires that surpassed all others, even the precious elves and dwarves, he saw that it was good.
(If you want, I can put up worshipers, plans, all that jazz).