Broken Worlds (Very Early Stages)

[Crisyah]

Hey everyone, complete newbie here!

I come from the novel writing side of things, but it doesn't satisfy me fully, anymore. So it got me thinking: what if I used all the worldbuilding I usually don't do anything with, polish it up, build a rule system to go along with it and make an RPG to go along with it and let people play in my world? Or, what if I put a twist on it and offered it as a regular tabletop RPG where people could make their characters, create their campaigns, etc, but also have a twist, a sort of "Choose Your Own Adventure" campaign hybrid thing, with a set cast? It'd be great, right? If only I knew more about RPGs and what the people playing them are interested in. I'm starting to learn and getting involved with groups so I can play more seriously, etc, but I'd like a bit of help and opinions on what I have so far and whether it's something that sparks your interest as a possible setting and / or interactive story game thing.

[Crisyah]

Premise

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The world is dying. Heaven and Hell broke and collapsed, creating a post-apocalyptic landscape that is part purgatory, part platonic world of ideas, blighted by the phantoms of worlds long dead.
The sun lies in the east, atop God’s tower, while the west teems with all manner of horrors created by the human mind. There is no day/night cycle, nothing grows, nothing dies, nothing changes, unless magic is involved.
Plants and animals exist, but while some are mere memories, representations of what used to exist in the worlds, others have been modified by their surroundings, creating aberrant hybrids, bloodthirsty sentient plants and minerals that formed imitating living beings.
Humans need not eat or sleep, caught in a state between life and death. They cannot perish from illness, hunger, thirst, or any other natural cause, but they can be killed, either by each other or by one of the creatures they share the world with. All of them, except for the Scions, share a mark on their bodies: the mark of the betrayer.
Vampiric angels roam the ruins of the worlds, hunting and consuming humans and creatures alike, to nourish the still gestating God until it awakens. When it does, its scream will destroy this world and its dying song will create another one anew.

Kayla is the last Scion of a house of heroes that has sworn to cleanse this blight. For that, she must find the other keybearers, Scions of the other houses, in order to enter Eden and kill God, thus releasing the sun and bringing light to the cursed lands. But the houses were long stripped of their best fighters, either killed in their pilgrimages to save to world or slaughtered by God’s angels. And, as Kayla will soon find out, the other Scions are people as damaged as she is, whose memories and sanity are as eaten through as their world is. There are no heroes left, just them. And they will have to do.

A heroic journey through a nightmarish wonderland, where danger can come from unexpected places and mentors are less than sane. A pilgrimage to God’s tower, to make the world whole again. To reclaim the sun and make it run through the sky once more. To cleanse the world of the horrors infecting it. To kill the God who will doom them all with its birth.

[Crisyah]

Bestiary

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God
The Universe is God’s body and Heaven and Hell the two parts of its mind, the conscious and the unconscious. After creating humans, God ripped a part of itself, so that it could love them unconditionally. This part, the one that despised its creations for the sorrow they caused, came to be known as God’s shadow and the enemy of humanity, for all it could do was hate them.

Humans
Beings that differ from the rest of God’s creations by having been made in its image and, thus, possessing a more complex mind. They also have a soul, whereas no other creature does. Humans were made with the sole intent of feeding God their experiences and, so, they were to remain as children, knowing not right from wrong, so their emotions would remain simpler. After eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, human emotions lost their innocence, they started performing actions fully knowing what sorrow they would bring to others and the first devils were born. Still, God lurked in them, looking on through the hole that is their soul, consuming what came through. The Angels desperately tried to filter only the good emotions brought on by good deeds and banning all others to Hell, lest God itself become tainted by consuming too many nefarious emotions.

Souls
Souls link humans back to Heaven, so that they can be fed morals by angels and, in turn, feed God their experiences. If a human becomes too tainted and only provides God with either dysphoric emotions or euphoric ones taken from bad deeds, their soul gets redirected to Hell. Humans are the only ones who have them.

Angels
Creatures that follow God’s commands and have no free will or self-awareness. They function as a hive mind controlled by God, with the orders being broadcast from its tower and relayed by other angels. Their main collective purposes are to drain people of blood and then distilling it for euphoric emotions caused by good deeds so they can feed those to God, protect God and keep it stable while it gestates. However, if an angel consumes too much human pain/sorrow, the link will be broken and they will develop compassion, become a Fallen and start fighting their own kind. These are not to be confused with Devils, who used to be Angels and part of the hivemind, but were cast out for feeding God with pleasure that came from immoral sources. Fallen can be reused by being consumed, cleaned of human emotions and remade into what they used to be.
Angels are divided into nine choirs, each given its own secondary task to help God finish gestating. The higher up the choir, the less members it has. (Order subject to change.)
1. Seraphim – Oversee the Lake of Fire.
2. Cherubim – Keeping the World stable.
3. Malakhim – Deploy and call back angels.
4. Sarim – Provide Devils.
5. Erelim – Provide Gods.
6. Elim – Provide animals.
7. Hashmallim – Dealing with Fallen Angels.
8. Ophanim – Dealing with creatures.
9. Ishim – Dealing with demons.

Devils
Angels that were cast aside from the hivemind and cursed with individuality for feeding God with euphoric emotions born out of bad deeds. They still maintain some of their old beliefs and hunt down Spirits, beings that were imbued with faith, despite not being made in God’s image.

Demons
Demons are born of the human psyche, created by the discrepancies between the angelic mind (morals) and the animal body (instincts), when they are not properly solved. Each one is different, but all are a mix of animal, angelic and human parts barely held together in a non coherent way. Being near one will cause panic and being flooded with dysphoric emotions: they activate the demons in others’ own psyches and cause them to grow. They are also capable of using a distorted version of the angelic song with the same effects as blood magic, but augmented. They can just as easily tear humans apart with claws and fangs or trample them to death, if they so desire. Even if misshapen, their sheer size and brute force will help them along.

Gods
Archetypes that managed to stabilize the pit between an individual’s morals and instincts and grew due to faith. Their body parts are highly coveted for magic and to power technology.

Spirits
Natural forces or animals that became sapient and were elevated from their natural state due to the faith and characteristics humans imbued them with.

Nephilim
People who have become more than human through their actions and how others perceive them: saints did so through good deeds, while sinners did so due to bad deeds.

Beasts
Creatures created by the human imagination. They were locked in Sheol, so they wouldn’t further destabilize the world until the day came, when they all would be thrown into the lake of death. Feed only on the tainted human dregs and leftovers rejected by the angels and have all been driven mad by the emotions contained in them.

Archons
Mysterious beings that rival angels in the amount of power they possess. They form contracts with humans and lend them their powers, but require a blood sacrifice in exchange. The mark they fashion on the Scions’ skin functions as a lock and, once pierced with their key, activates their powers. Their goals are unknown.

Guardians
The main areas within the world are subjected to a guardian’s influence. These can serve as guides or executors for trespassers, offer them help and counsel or send them to their doom. What their motives and goals are, or whether they have them at all and aren’t simply guided by mad whims, is unclear.

[Crisyah]

Magic

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Magic is one’s inner world made physical. It is born of emotions, shaped by the mind, bound by the body and expelled by the breath. Thus, blood, visualization, marks and songs are integral parts of spellcasting, whether used alone or in combination with each other; combinations will result in stronger, more stable magic. Other materials may also be used to aid in spellcasting. Any human can use any of the four types of magic, provided they have the necessary knowledge and/or materials required.

Mediums
A plethora of materials can be used to aid in the casting of magic: chamomile for calming, salt to ward off evil, iron to keep certain creatures at bay, rabbit’s feet for protection and luck. If a superstition or belief exists surrounding a certain object, plant, mineral or concoction, it will work. However, there are additional mediums that are either indispensable for each kind of spellcasting and/or that can drastically influence its power.

Blood – Blood serves as fuel for both magic and technology. It is raw, powerful energy and without it magic would not be possible (even if it remains solely in the caster’s veins), but it is mostly meaningless unless it is shaped and focused through additional means.

Mind – The mind is at the very source of all spells. In order to be able to cast, a person must be able to visualize the results they wish to manifest. The clearer the mental image, the more likely it is for the spell to turn out in the desired way.

Language – God’s alphabet, made up of 21 basic marks. In addition to those, several smaller marks are added to the base ones, to indicate slightly different pronunciation, tonic syllables and other subtleties that help speak it correctly.

Song – In addition to marks indicating how to read God’s language, there are also those that indicate key, pitch and note. When, rather than only written or spoken, the language is also sung correctly, it strengthens spells to the ultimate level they can achieve.

Types

Folk magic – Faith turns belief into truth. If a certain litany, symbol, herb or small ritual is believed to ward off some kind of evil, it will do so in this world. Some, smaller superstitions need only one believer to work, while others, more powerful ones, need to be imbued with the faith of many. However, if that faith wavers, the spell is broken and whatever protection it offered will vanish. This magic is the most easily cast, for one can rely on the collective belief of humans to power their spells. Its effects are also severely limited, mostly to protection and curing of some ailments. Due to humanity’s dwindling, casters are left with a diminishing pool of energy to draw from.

Blood magic – Blood, either human, demonic or angelic, can be used to perform magic or to fuel technology created from memories. Demonic and angelic blood are especially coveted for they contain more raw energy. Among humans, mages’ blood is the most sought, for it, too, is more powerful. Another way to make human blood more powerful is filling the person with strong emotions, be they joy and pleasure or terror, sorrow and pain. Consuming demonic blood or ground up bones will increase a caster’s ability, as will angelic blood, though that is so hard to come by that few have experienced its effects. Demon blood, however, will cause addiction, as well as bodily deformations if used too often. Blood magic can be used for a variety of effects, from complex healing, to protection, scrying or even magical attacks. Like with other types of magic, specific knowledge related to the spell will add to how well it performs.

Memory Creation – People are able to create objects and goods from memory by making use of God’s language to materialize them, although it makes the memory fade from their minds a little more each time. The only way to regain the memory is by consuming the created object, however, the body still remembers how it used to work and refuses to accept anything but food. Human memory also tends to be unreliable and the created products will manifest exactly as the person remembers them, no more and no less. This type of magic can only conjure things the caster has experienced through their senses, which means that it’s limited to what existed in the previous worlds. If the caster doesn’t possess full knowledge of the internal workings of complex objects, they will not work as intended. In addition, any creation will require blood as fuel.

Dream Manifestation – Creating something that never was is possible through the use of shared imagination. This practice requires a group of Dreamers to attune to the same vision so they can make it materialize, but there are no limits to what they can create. Children often make the best Dreamers, for they’re more likely to believe in the fantastic. The biggest obstacle to this kind of casting is having every member in the group dream the exact same thing, for humans tend to add their own touch and vision to whatever is shown to them. This magic requires knowledge of God’s language and the way it’s pronounced and sung. The creations, much like the ones born of memories, require blood as fuel.

[Crisyah]

People

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The Order
No one remembers the alliance of humans that formed when the world started to fall apart. What little remains of them hints at a past when the four factions were not only unified, but actively working together to fight the corruption, until they broke apart due to differing views. This is reflected in the segmenting of the City into four outwards parts and a central part. Whether the centre served as a neutral ground or sit of a higher power within the Order, it remains unknown.

Factions
Their original denominations have long been forgotten. Currently, they’re known for the sins for which their members were expelled from the Order.

The Blind - They believe God is good and cleansing the world of sinners by sending his angels to slaughter them. They pass on judgement on others and offer them up as sacrifices to the angels in public executions. If someone that was believed to be a good person is taken, they assume they had some terrible hidden sin and God knew best. They idolize contractors for not being the targets of angels, assuming that makes them pure. Rely on faith based folk magic.

The Mad - They believe God is uncaring and so, they don't care for its intentions for the world. They enjoy the power this world has given them, in the form of magic. They keep away from the angels and think that staying out of God's sight and leaving it alone is the best way to live. They envy contractors and want to find a way to mimic their keys, so they can be invisible to angels and have more power. Rely on emotion based blood magic.

The Liars - They state God is either evil or uncaring towards his creation, for sending out its angels to decimate humanity. As such, they're the only faction actively waging war on the angels and trying to reach the sun and God's tower, to slay God and reclaim Eden for the ones they deem worthy. They have their own contractors and their leaders are able to share their powers with their army. Want to use other contractors as disposable heroes in their fight. Rely on dream based technology.

The Fools - They believe that the God who rules this world is a false one and they must endure and wait for the true one to come save them. They refuse to take part in any war against God, for it is not their place to interfere with such matters. Their goal is to keep a pocket of humanity and its virtuous teachings alive to populate the world after their saviour comes; create fake suns to sustain themselves. Demonize contractors for apparently being under the protection of angels. Rely on memory based science.

The Houses
Branches with specific spheres of interest, they seem to have been associated with the Order at some point, falling under its hierarchy, but somewhat removed from their influence, having their own leaders and members. Their headquarters also weren’t located in the City, but rather on different areas of the world that might or might not have belonged to it initially. Dwelling deep within the blight, their status was always seen as partly compromised by the Order, who used them when necessary, but were ready to eliminate them should they prove a threat. There are twelve houses, divided into groups of three, that fall under (or lend their power?) to the Order’s four factions.

Aries House - The warriors.


Taurus House - The merchants.


Gemini House - The messengers.


Cancer House - The monks.


Leo House - The builders.


Virgo House - The engineers.


Libra House - The judges.


Scorpio House - The undertakers.


Sagittarius House - The hunters.


Capricorn House - The biologists.


Aquarius House - The scholars.


Pisces House - The healers.


Scions
Heirs who have entered contracts with the Archon of each House, although their memories of doing so are vague. They can be easily identified by the chain growing out of the back of their neck, which connects to their key, and by their own distinctive marks, different from the one all other humans bear. By inserting the key into the flesh where their mark lies, they feed the Archon with their blood and gain access to various powers that regular humans don't possess, even through magic. This includes elemental powers, psionic abilities, manifesting magical objects and summoning creatures instantly, without needing complex rituals. Since they’re tapping into the Archon’s own pool of power, along with their own, the magic is more stable than a regular human’s. To control and direct these powers they have to make use of blood, mind, marks and song, much like other casters. The use of these powers is submitted to several rules:

1. Whenever a power is used, a part of the user’s mark becomes faded. While the raw power expended has no effect on this, it seems that certain abilities will use up more of the mark than others.
2. The more blood a user sacrifices, the more powerful the effects of the ability, but the aftereffects will also be stronger. These can range from simple headaches to loss of consciousness.
3. The more faded the mark becomes, the worse the aftereffects of using the powers will be.
4. The abilities are time restricted and using them for more powerful attacks makes them run out faster.
5. After the time runs out, a new activation is needed to use the powers. Considering the aftereffects of activation, however, the contractor might be rendered unconscious and completely helpless before they are able to do so.
6. Upon lethal danger, the powers are immediately activated to protect the contractor, without them being able to control it at all. This automatic activation fades a large part of the mark.

There are several types of keys, ranking from least to most powerful:
Zodiac Keys – Twelve Keys held by the Scions of the Houses.
Worlds Keys – Four keys held by the older Godlings.
Syzygy Keys – Two keys held by the leaders of the Liars.
Demiurge Key - One key broken in two, each half held by one of the twin Godlings.
Lastly, there's a rumored lost key, the Monad Key, belonging to either God or its betrayer, whose powers are unknown.

[Crisyah]

Landscape

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Beneath the black, starless sky, scattered along the white dust desert that makes up the landscape, there are a panoply of settlements, ruins and biomes that are constantly, subtly altered, shifted and reformed according to human memory and belief. The Cherubim continuously sing to stabilize the world according to God’s vision, but where their voices reach faintest, so is their effect diminished. The City, being the place where most humans gather is the most susceptible to these changes, with streets suddenly leading into dead ends, houses moving places or building fronts changing. Some areas that are further removed from human memory, intervention or even understanding, remain mostly unchanged.

Underworld – Lying to the west, the biggest areas it houses are Sheol, the Fields of Blood and Fire and the Caverns of Silence. Protected by Cerberus.
Sea – Sitting in the north, its most important areas are the Desert of Rain, the Lake of Death and the Mountains of Chains. Protected by Leviathan.
Land – Located in the south, it’s home to the Swamp of Illusions, the Pools of Lightning and the River of Time. Protected by Behemoth.
Sky – Positioned at the east, it is made up of the Forest of Eternal Limbo, the Spring of Youth, the Plains of Salt and Eden. Protected by Ziz.

The City - The last bastion of the human race, located at the center of the world, between the four zones. With humanity almost decimated, most of it is empty, although two different pockets are still inhabited, by the Blind and the Mad. The Fools were the first to leave it to build their own sanctuary, while the Liars tore off a chunk of it to act as their flying fortress, when they departed for their war.

Sheol – An island lying directly across from Eden, in the west, the Cemetery of Keys is home to the Tree of Death, also known as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Keys. All of humanities’ imagined creations were locked here, so they couldn’t further destabilize the world while God gestates. Acts as a dumping site for the angels to excrete the tainted blood and human remains that they have no use for.

Eden – Protected by twelve gates and surrounding God’s tower, bathed in the light of the sun hanging suspended above it lies the Garden of Locks and its namesake tree, also known as the Tree of Life. All manner of life flourishes here, as it was in their worlds, not tainted or disfigured by human memory. God’s tower lies at the very center, topped by the Angel’s Fountain, where angels flock to discharge the blood they’ve gathered to feed to God. It is also the home of the highest choirs of angels, who never leave the garden, the tower or even the fountain itself.

Fields of Fire and Blood - Seat of the Aries House.

Caverns of Silence - Seat of the Taurus House.

Cemetery of Keys - Seat of the Gemini House.

Desert of Rain - Seat of the Cancer House.

Lake of Death - Seat of the Leo House.

Mountains of Chains - Seat of the Virgo House.

Swamp of Illusions - Seat of the Libra House.

River of Time - Seat of the Scorpio House.

Pools of Lightning - Seat of the Sagittarius House.

Forest of Eternal Limbo - Seat of the Capricorn House.

Spring of Youth - Seat of the Aquarius House.

Plains of Salt - Seat of the Pisces House

Garden of Locks - Seat of God’s tower.

Fauna & Flora
The animals, plants and minerals that sprouted in this lifeless land were made by the collective memories of the ones that inhabited the previous worlds. Thus, a variety of flora, fauna and minerals that never did -- and most likely never could -- exist together, now do.
Animals – Coalesced into a pair for each solitary binary species, a group for every social one. They roam the land as giant wraiths, seemingly possessive of a sapience they are unable to express, due to the difference between them and humans.
Plants – Developed a kind of animalistic sentience and, being forced to sustain themselves differently, have developed a thirst for blood. Agglomerates of them will act as a pack, helping each other trap prey so that the soil may be flooded with blood for them to feast on.
Minerals – It is questioned whether or not they have become some sort of living beings, but they became capable of growing and extending out of the earth, carving themselves in ways that mimic trees, plants and flowers. When cut, mined or crushed they let out a peculiar smell, similar to that of freshly cut grass.
Bacteria & Viruses – Coalesced into small, hard agglomerates that run alongside each other, similar to strata or veins of precious metals and stones. Why they entered this stage, how and if they can be reawakened from it or are simply dead and fossilized now is currently unknown.

[Crisyah]

I have yet to write proper descriptions and such for the characters, so all I have for now is a characterization table that I've been using.

[Characters]

(Well, that and the meme version.)

I also made surveys so I can more easily get the feedback I need, so if anyone is up to it, here are the links!

[Premise Survey]

[Bestiary Survey]

[Magic Survey]

[People Survey]

[Landscape Survey]

[Characters Survey]

All very much up in the air for now, but I'd love to hear any ideas and opinions! Also, if anyone would like to follow the project as it unfolds, I set up a mailing list and a subreddit! Thanks in advance!

[Lacuna Caster]

I'm afraid I'd have to revisit this setting with more time on my hands to give it proper feedback, but two thoughts off the top of my head-

A lot of this reminds me of the background material to Kult, a horror RPG where humanity's divine potential is arrested by the illusory prison of reality, currently a battleground between the Demiurge, Archons and Death Angels. Was this an inspiration to you? The mention of 'Liars' also reminds me of GRRM's The Way of Cross and Dragon, in which an interstellar cult of psychics and memetic engineers create religions, and is probably my favourite short sci-fi story.

Is there a particular game system you're planning to use in conjunction with the setting? The new edition of Kult is apparently adapting Apocalypse World's ruleset, so maybe that would be apropos?