The Change

[Avianmosquito]

This is a new setting for this ruleset, which I am going to be testing here. Recruitment for the first test campaign is going on here.

The world used to be much like our current world in all ways. It shared the same physics, politics, cultures, prejudices, oppressions and atrocities. The only difference was one with little bearing on Earth, and it was the existence of an orginazation of celestial beings called "regulators" dedicated to a monopoly on magical energies of all forms.

Magic used to be abundant throughout the universe, with all living things generating magic and dispersing it through their biosphere. The energy spread at the speed of light, and the aura of magic could be felt worlds away. The regulators changed that with their ability to consume all magic that came near them. (Not magical energy, but the magic itself. Magic is technically a form of matter in this setting, and the energy it releases is (more or less) regular energy.) They spread throughout the galaxy, absorbing all magic they could find and sending in their soldiers, known as "changers," to kill any who resisted.

Soon, they had robbed all worlds of their magic, and since magic is only created with any efficiency in the presence of more magic this left worlds deprived of magic. Never the less, the instincts related to magic are so deeply ingrained in all living things that they still feel the urge to use it almost constantly. (If you've ever looked at something and tried to urge it to move itself, went to destroy something and wished you could just blow it up, or broken something and hoped it would spring back together, tried to talk to people with your mind or sense the presence of other people, that's what I'm talking about.)

In Germany, in January 1920, a boy of five years was outside in a back alley trying to amuse himself when he caught a glimpse of a black mass of tendrils and smoke heading around a corner. Certainly neither the first nor the last time somebody had spotted a changer in person, put the difference was that he was a child and was unusually capable. An adult wouldn't have followed it or given it thought, dismissing it as a figment of their imagination or something else unimportant, and most people wouldn't have been able to catch it anyway. He chased it to a nearby trainyard and grabbed it by a tendril, scaring the creature and only narrowly avoiding being set on fire by the creature's response. He avoiding a few more blasts, and managed to talk it down.

Thankfully, the creature was fluent in german, having been patrolling the countryside for hundreds of years, and believed the child when he told it he wasn't trying to harm it. The creature was unusually compassionate for a changer, and was deeply ashamed of its actions. The boy expressed his curiosity regarding these creatures, and the creature (having a schedule to keep) telepathically sent all the child all the information it had on its kind. It was at this point the boy realized it could be killed.

It could heal its wounds almost instantly to a certain point, and even past it would regenerate any wound he could leave in under a minute. That said, it couldn't regenerate if it was dead, and once it was dead its magic would be free for all comers.

He grabbed it again by its tendril and threw it at the station, avoided its counter attacks and kept hitting it until a train came by. He then grabbed the creature one last time and threw it in front of the train, killing it. Once the train was past, he hopped down onto the tracks and absorbed as much of the magic as he could. Now he had a more effective weapon to use against them, although using environmental hazards was still easier and more efficient, and when other regulators came looking for their missing changer he killed them all. Soon he was killing dozens of them every day, and he continued this pattern for one hundred years.

Over the next 206 days and six hours (the exact number doesn't matter, but it's there) he changed the people of the planet, granting them some of his power, and an option of forms for it to take. (The class system, obviously.) This was handled subconciously at first, tuned to their wants and desires, although later they gained the power to redirect new levels of power conciously. (Multiclassing.) The young gained their powers first, and the expansion of power slowed as it went until it finally stopped, with everyone under the age of 100 gaining their first level of power.

Shortly thereafter, the planet's creatures began to change, with most living things taking a small share of power and new creatures appearing into the world. He then created five pantheons of gods, and began work on new realms for them to inhabit. In 2022, this was finally completed, with eleven realms, five pantheons of gods and more magic than any could have previously imagined. He topped this off by changing the very nature of death, making those killed manifest in dedicated realms of death as spirits, and eventually return to life.

Finally, he went about changing the world's powers. He destroyed all the world's nuclear weapons by either making them launch themselves into space and detonate far enough out that they could do no harm (except to the approaching army of regulators, of course) or detonating improperly so that fission would not be achieved. (Even "fusion" weapons use fission to initiate the fusion, and often get as much or more energy from fission as they do fusion.) He spawned three massive armies (complete with advance forces and infiltrators, modern weapons and vehicular support) to assault three regions he saw as threats to the lives and freedoms of his creations, and to freedom in general.

Africa was already a wasteland full of warring tribes that went through governments faster than children go through shoes, so they weren't a threat. Europe disintegrated when the change occured, with more riots, rebellions, revolutions, civil wars, coups, power struggles, religious uprisings and miscellaneous upheavals than anybody cares to count. South and central america were somewhere between them. So the only three places he felt were threats were North America (really just the United States, his residence from 1930-2020), Asia (really just China, the other nations were either not powerful enough to be a serious threat or weren't making a fuss) and the middle east. (They weren't really threats, but the local governments were detestable and had to go.)

So he dispatched an army of nagas, humans, halflings and goblins to take over the US, an army of fey, elves, gnomes and bugbears to take over China and an army of hobgoblins, orcs, dwarves and kobolds to capture the middle east. Each invasion was expected to be complete within one year, and all insurgencies were expected to draw to a close by 2030. Of course, no plan survives first contact with the enemy, but Wandel is immortal and quite patient.

Warning: Rule-related math may be included in the following info dump. If you don't want to think about the math when going through the setting info, just ignore the numbers.

Alignments:

The alignment system itself is a little different from standard. Although, of course, you can choose to not bother with alignment points if you would prefer not to. In this case, the players would decide their character's purity. (Note: purity is highly unlikely, especially for lawful good/evil characters.) You now have a set of points for each direction on the table, and your alignment is determined by the ratio between them. You may increase one set, decrease the other set, or both. However, your actions can only decrease, not increase, any given pool of points. Only your motivations can count for increasing point totals and these are normally determined through dialog, although sometimes the DM might just ask you. (Hopefully the DM is not blind or stupid, and will not accept impossible motives.) Even acts that appear to be entirely good or evil might not be with the right motives.

For instance, freeing a slave. Freeing a slave is benevolent and thus results in a loss of evil points, and it's illegal and thus results in a loss of order points. But why you did it is important. If you freed them for political, religious or legal reasons than it's not an unlawful act. You're just following a different set of rules, and thus the lost order points will be restored. If you free them to spite their master, then it's not benevolent any more and your evil is restored. If it's to restore their freedom or to eliminate the inherent hierarchy present, that's chaotic. It's also chaotic if you do it for any reason without considering the law.

Even actions taken for "moral reasons" are not clear cut. If you did it because not saving them would be evil, than it's benevolent but still not good and no further alteration is made. If you did it to help them, finally it's actually a good act and nets good points. The difference is your priority. In the former, you are doing it so you are not committing an evil act by turning a blind eye. It's your moral standing that's important to you, and while that's not evil that's also not good. In the latter, it's altruistic instead of egotistic and can finally be considered good.

This means that in order to shift towards an alignment, you have to try to shift towards it. You can't just run around doing things and gain alignment points, you have to have a reason that matches the alignment, or it doesn't count. However, you can shift away from alignments that way. It also means that "fighting crime" will never make you lawful if you aren't doing it for the law's sake, and "fighting evil" will never make you good without it being done for good. Also, killing evil characters does not cause a loss in evil points by itself. You actually have to do things that help others for that to happen. So, say, killing a band of raiders won't lose you evil points unless your motive is to stop their raids. It also won't gain you good points unless you want to stop their raids out of concern for their victims, rather than more normal reasons. (Fame, rewards, satisfaction, moral standing, whimsy, boredom, etcetera.)

Now I should mention chaos does NOT work the way most people think it does. Being chaotic is not about breaking rules, it's about not being influenced by them. A person who goes around constantly doing the opposite of what they are told because they were told to is NOT chaotic. They are lawful with a twist. They are still obeying a stricture of a form, specifically one that says they break any rule given, and the rules still impact them for no reason other than being given. This is how lawful people believe chaotic people think, as lawful people are incapable of understanding those that think differently from them and purposefully so. It's just like how many elderly people will say "all modern music sounds alike." (Rascists and religious people are a better example, but I'd rather not piss any of those whackjobs off offend those people any more than I need to.) It doesn't. There are differences between any two genres that are massive and definite, the people saying this are intentionally decieving themselves and others so they can remove all chances of ever, perish the thought, liking any form of modern music. In this same manner lawful individuals prevent themselves from understanding those that think differently so there is less chance they might change their thought process, opinions or worldview.

Being chaotic is different. Being chaotic means giving little or no value to rules, orders, codes, edicts, axioms and dogmas. It means that your thought process does not include these things. This doesn't mean they won't follow orders, it just means they won't do it for it's own sake. They may still follow for fear of repurcussion, for convenience, for gain, for gratitude, or out of gratitude. Of course, it may also be to help or harm the person giving the order, or to help or harm other people that the order will impact. And that's all being chaotic really is.

Being lawful is fairly straightforward, however. All it means is giving priority to rules, orders, codes, edicts, axioms and dogmas that you recognize over other factors. Generally, sets of codes are prioritised and any conflict will be resolved by simply following the higher set of rules. These rules are the most important thing to a lawful individual, and they will only break them if they are left no other choice. (If you think about it, this technically makes all lawful people morally neutral, but we normally judge them based on the code they obey.) If they put anything, including their morals, before the rules they follow they are not lawful. If they are willing to break their rules just because it'd be better not to follow them, they are not lawful. If they question or want to change their rules, they are not lawful. Any of these things will make them neutral instead. These rules don't have to be laws, they could be religious edicts, traditions, cultural inclinations or naked conformity. Although at their core all the others are there to enforce conformity and when all is said and done lawful individuals only act to enforce their particular brand of conformity and nothing else. (And they wonder why I consider them inherently evil and stupid.)

Neutrality is just the state of not being lawful or chaotic. These people will follow rules for their own sake, but will break them should they prove a detriment. They do give value to rules, oftentimes large and undue amounts, but do not give them priority over other factors. They may question their rules, want them changed and even attempt to do so, and they do not see anything inherently wrong with breaking rules. (Although they still usually don't.)

The game WILL follow this setup to the best degree a machine (the most lawful thing in existence) can. So it'd be best to understand each of these things fully before you enter.

Each alignment now has a colour. This colour shows on “detect alignment” spells, as your caster aura, the colour of your aura in forms that have an aura and in all other instances when your aura shows. Violet is lawful evil, indigo is lawful neutral, blue is lawful good, grey neutral evil, colourless true neutral, green neutral good, red chaotic evil, orange chaotic neutral, yellow chaotic good.

There are now "grades" to each alignment. Basically, each grade has requirements and determines your access to alignment-based features. The grades are for each scale, and each grade has new requirements. For starters, you need 100 more of one alignment than another to be considered of that alignment. Note that the scale goes to 10,000. To get to the main grade, you also need to have less than 10% as much of the opposite than you do of that alignment. The final grade requires you have less than a 1% of the opposite alignment. So with the bare minimum 100 of an alignment, you could not have more than 9 of the opposite in order to be in grade 2 (true) and could not afford a single point to stay in grade 3. (pure) Choosing an alignment gives you 100 in that alignment to start with, so you start off pure, but it's unlikely you'll stay there. This impacts aura colour, with greater brightness for higher purity in morality and greater saturation for higher purity in ethics. (For instance, pure chaotic good is a bright, vibrant yellow while relative chaotic good is a dark, dull yellow.)

Finally, while each class retains its alignment restriction and some actually get stricter (rougues, for instance, must be chaotic) all good/evil restrictions are completely removed. For instance, paladins can now be neutral or evil, but they still may only be lawful.

The five pantheons:

There are five pantheons of deity in this setting. These include the Guardians, Olympians, Aesir, Vanir and Alignments.

Guardians:
The gods of this pantheon are the weakest individually, but likely the strongest overall through sheer numbers. These deities are normal people for the most part, other than being level 100 and of deific grade, and having the ability to transform into a celestial form one per day for one hour and forty minutes. They have one greater deity for every hundred million people, one deity for every ten million, one lesser deity for every million, one greater demigod every hundred thousand, one demigod every ten thousand and one lesser demigod every thousand. These can be found out around the world, acting primarily on their own, but oftentimes forming groups. Their purpose is mostly to defend the people of an area, the communities these people are part of and the nations these people belong to. Generally, the weaker ones defend the people directly, the more intermediate ones their communities and the stronger ones their nations.

Olympians:
Technically, this pantheon includes the gods of mount Olympus, the Titans and many others from the same mythology. They are concerned with earthly affairs and politics, and are all fairly powerful. All of them are level 100, of deific grade, and may assume celestial or greater celestial forms for one hour and forty minutes. The former only once each day and the latter once each week. They also have a number of special abilities, including the ability to shift up or down one size class at will. (They are medium by default.) They are primarily casters.

Aesir & Vanir:
The Aesir and Vanir are substantially more powerful than the Olympians and have greater numbers, but are more spread out and weaker outside of the celestial realms. Their primary concerns are celestial affairs and politics, handling the same job as the Olympians, except in eight realms instead of one. (All but Midgard, Hades and Wandelheim.) They are level 100 large humanoids of deific grade, with celestial, (100m every day) greater celestial (100m every week) and divine (10m every day) forms at their disposal. However, outside of the celestial realms they are reduced to medium size and take a -4 to all attributes and in their home realms they are increased to huge size and gain a +4. They are primarily warriors.

Alignments:
The 18 alignment deities are the strongest deities individually by a fair bit, with limited shapeshifting capability (age and race, but not sex) in addition to being level 100 greater deities and having all four alternate forms. (Celestial 100m/day, greater celestial 100m/week, divine 10m/day and greater divine 10m/week.) There are two for each alignment, one male and one female. Their purpose is to keep the other alignments in check and make sure none get too powerful, but they do it mostly by trying to conquer their opposites.

Lawful evil: Censorship and Slavery (m/f)
Lawful neutral: Law and Order (m/f)
Lawful good: Justice and Security (f/m)
Neutral evil: Greed and Spite: (m/f)
True neutral: Balance and Nature (m/f)
Neutral good: Altruism and Empathy (m/f)
Chaotic evil: Bloodlust and Entropy (f/m)
Chaotic neutral: Chaos and Choice (f/m)
Chaotic good: Freedom and Truth (m/f)

The six neutral gods are adult nagas by default, but may assume human, Halfling and goblin forms and be children or elders if they should so choose. The six lawful gods are elder hobgoblins but may assume dwarf, orc and kobold forms and be adults or ancients. Finally, the six chaotic gods are fey children by default and may assume elf, gnome and bugbear forms and be babies or adults at will. Changing age or race takes one minute and only one can be done at a time.

The eleven realms:

There are eleven realms in game: Midgard/Earth, Hades, Helheim, Svartalfaheim, Muspellheim, Vanaheim, Niflheim, Jotunheim, Alfheim, Asgard and Wandelheim. Each realm other than Midgard, Hades and Helheim is counted as a celestial realm, which grants a +2 to the attributes of all beings within them, and is a home realm to a number of species. While in their home realm, all beings gain a +4 to all attributes. Each of these, save Hades, can be reached by entering the portals on Yggdrasil, which places you on Yggdrasil in that realm, in the same position facing the same direction. In order to enter a portal, you must cast “plane shift” while in the correct position. To get back, find the spot on Yggdrasil that corresponds to your realm. Hades may be accessed much easier, either by casting planeshift anywhere in midgard or by casting any teleportation spell along the banks of a number of rivers. (Styx, for instance.)