Pre-NES: Whispers- gathering ideas, players, etc at present.

[Immaculate]

Orders due Thursday, March 7th,at midnight.


Acclaim for Whispers!

"I feel Trippy."
-Seon.

"... This is trippy.
I'm in."
-Nintz

"What delusional, LSD-influenced idea did I just find?"
-SamSniped

Intro

You exist.

You existed before but memories of what that was fade rapidly. And are gone… or nearly so.

Blazing ribbon-like trails radiate from you like spokes of a wheel. These burn up rapidly, disappearing into the regions beyond your perception before you can truly comprehend what they are, or were. Like bands of sinew stretched taunt and suddenly cut, they spring away from you. And you are without their brilliance.

In the dismal grey you perceive patterns- dim but present- like a candle flickering in a strong wind. They are complex knots and interwoven designs of semi-luminescent ribbon, similar to the blazing luminescence of the much thicker ribbons that just burned away the same way a tiny candle’s fire is similar to the shining rays of the sun. Except these ribbon patterns are whole, entwined upon themselves, without beginning or end. They form the shell of a form, a torso, two legs, two arms, a face; you recognize them to be the ‘pattern’ or ‘essence’ of men or women, those mortal creatures you barely remember from a time long ago. Except these are not well, even as you comprehend what they are, you perceive them to fall apart and you know the mortals are dying. The patterns slowly tear and unravel- their ribbon-like forms pulled apart- losing their luminescence and structure. Soon all that is left are several piles of grey… once-patterns.

Without the blazing intensity of the spokes which radiated from you mere moments ago and with the dying of the mortal patterns, your existence is suddenly much darker and you are unsure if you still exist.

But you do, though you ability to perceive anything in the darkness is very limited indeed. You extend your perception into the physical and ‘look’ around; you notice that you exist in a large room with high vaulted ceilings held aloft by a grand multitude of thick stone pillars. There are no windows but, on the physical plane, the room is well lit by thousands of thick candles and torches held in sconces throughout the chamber. These do nothing to illuminate your perception however for they have no soul. You can ‘hear’ rats scurrying in the far reaches and the gentle echoes of a thin wind moving through the subterranean room. The ‘once-patterns’ belong to men dressed in ornate and extensively decorated robes. They all wear metal crosses around their necks. The dead men, for they are all men, either hold or have dropped solid ‘looking’ tomes as elaborately decorated as their vestments. You perceive the books and realize they are not written in ‘the language’ but you are none-the-less able to absorb their meaning. They are full of prayers, histories, and liturgical incantations. Amongst the text is your name, written in the language, in the true tongue, unpronounceable in any other and you suspect this has something to do with your very existence.

You are not alone. There are others who ‘exist’ with you, on the same plane as you. You do not perceive them directly, nor can you communicate with them, but you are aware of them and presumably they are aware of you. Their presence disturbs you and you can almost but not quite feel their confusion and curiosity mirroring your own.

Your existence transcends beyond the cavernous vaults of the subterranean room and into space beyond. Here your perception is not so strained. The luminescence of living men and women are present here. You realize you can ‘read’ the patterns as they shift and knot within the form of the mortal; they are mostly serene, receptive, contemplative. You realize they are praying and that you are now in some sort of temple and that you must have been in its basement earlier. Continuing the expansion of your perception, of your existence, you grow and transcend and now perceive a wider array of mortal patterns, men and women going about their lives. Peering into the dim, beyond the luminescence of the mortals, you perceive that you exist within/upon/over a sea-side town.

‘Reading’ the patterns of the citizenry, you realize the town is called Nicaea. The year is 325.

 

[Immaculate]

Background

Spoiler :

What was

You remember little of what you were before your existence in Nicaea. There were a people, who spoke the ‘tongue’. They built a tower. You helped them. In a place they called Babel. God came. And sundered the ‘tongue’ and man could but speak in allusions or shades of the true names.

And when man could not speak the true names, the patterns receded from you. The world grew gray and dim, without light.

And you ceased to be.

Memories

And when you ceased to be, your memories of existence disappeared as well. You know that you worked with man, guided him and influenced him, but you forget to what goal and how you did so. You remember only the coming of God, the sundering, and the fading of the light.

What is

But now, man has spoken the true language, the ‘tongue’, and a ‘name’ has been given- your name. The men who have done so are dead now and you know not if others will be able to speak in the ‘tongue’. You know not how long you can continue to ‘exist’.

Turns

Spoiler :

Chapters

The game is broken down into three chapters. Each chapter will introduce additional rules to govern new components of the game as it progresses.

The initiation of chapter two is up to the players- there is a particular trigger that you will need to reach.

I don’t know how long Chapter One will last. That will be up to the players.

Chapter One governs the initial ‘existence’ of the ‘entities’. This is a period of exploration and testing- a chance to determine what you are and what you are capable of.

I will edit this section with an overview of what Chapter Two and Three are all about once we reach them.

Turn Length

The length of turns will vary but the turns in Chapter One will be relatively short- at most a few weeks while later chapters will be much longer- years to decades.

Stats

Spoiler :

Your stats might consist of:

Player Name
Entity Name
Knot: 2 (0)
Regency:

• Presence (3/5)
• Reclusion (0/1)
• Influence (2/4)
• Manifest (0/2)

The stats are pretty simple but need explanation.

Knot

Your knot is how capable you are of influencing the mortals and the physical world. It might as well be called presence or power or points- knot just sounds appropriate for entities who see humans as overlapping bands of ribbon.

The number before the brackets is how much you have available (usually also what you generate each turn). The number in brackets is any knot you may have stored (somehow) and which you can access to burn as one-time use. You are not sure yet how to store your knot and so the number in the brackets will be zero.

You spend ‘knot’ on your regencies.

Regencies
These are your powers or spells or whatever else you want to call them. Again, regency just sounds cool so I use that term.

Any actions you perform during your turn will be limited by your powers and your powers are defined by your regencies. Want to be search the minds of millions of men for secrets pertaining to something? Then you’ll need high presence. Want to influence a living thing, ‘speak to it’ or send it dreams or omens? You’ll need to exercise ‘influence’.

The first number in the brackets is your basal ability to use this regency. You’ll all have some basic presence that is continuous and ongoing for example and that is represented by the number before the slash.

The second number is your maximum capacity for that sort of regency.

You spend ‘knot’ on powering your regency. So if you wanted to increase your influence from 0 to 2 so that you could perhaps send an omen to a population, you would spend two knot for the turn on your influence (assuming the second number is at least 2) and this would allow your action.

Rules

Spoiler :

Perception

You are aware of all mortals within your ‘presence’. You can read their thoughts, emotions, etc with a relatively minor effort (so you have to say what you are looking for or whom you are focusing upon). The limit is basically your time and your presence.

Perceiving the physical world is harder. While souls are bright and dynamic, the physical world is dim and uninteresting (relatively). Non-human animals have no soul and are thus part of the physical world. You can be ‘aware’ of the physical world in an area two points lower than your ‘presence’ rating would suggest. So an entity with a presence of 3 (able to perceive all living humans and their thoughts within a large town) can only perceive the physical environment within a few blocks. You can always perceive the physical world in a range roughly similar to a mortal if you truly focus.

While you do not actually speak or read, for example, Greek, you understand the root of the language- the true meaning behind these approximations of language and can read and understand any human language without difficulty.

Movement

In the first chapter, you can move approximately 100 km per day or so- simply by willing it- it is not instantaneous- but its not slow. If you attempt to move away from mortal souls, the physical world will grow dimmer and dimmer and you will lose knot. If you are exiled to a place without souls and are unable to return you will cease to exist. For this reason you cannot go ‘up’, ‘down’ or ‘across the seas’. You can increase the range you can move away from mortals by using the appropriate regency (Reclusion). Base reclusion ‘0’, allows you to travel up to approximately 1/2 mile from people.

Sleep and Rest

You require no actual sleep or rest. If you are exhausted (no knot left), you will be unable to take any actions requiring additional expenditure of knot but can otherwise still move and perceive the world within your presence. If you are somehow forced into negative knot you will cease to exist.

Communication Between Players

In chapter one your ability to speak with other players or influence them will be relatively limited. You can see some of the ‘shadows’ of their actions- in particular their use of knot upon mortals- if you share presence with them. You can also tell approximately where they are- you are simply just aware of them in some primitive and primal way even if you are unable to really influence or communicate with them.

As we progress you’ll be much more able to communicate and interact.

Communication with Mortals

This requires use of the ‘influence’ regency. Be creative. The easiest form of influencing mortals is to influence their ‘subconcious’ to make them think or do something relatively likely (Do something they want to do anyway). The more mortals you influence at once and the more unlikely they are to actually do that action, the more influence you will require.

Success
I roll dice to determine success. I will roll a random number with a range defined by the difficulty of the action and if it rolls under (or equal to) the appropriately (boosted?) regency, then you are successful.

So, as an example, lets say you want to send dreams to a thousand people and I say its going to be a relatively moderately-difficult task, I will have the computer choose a number between 1 & 4 or 5 and if it comes up lower than (or equal to) your influence regency, then you will be successful.

Commanding the World

Spoiler :

What are the regencies?

• Presence:
  You all possess presence. This is your ability ‘be’ in a physical space- in existence. The larger your presence, the ‘larger’ you are and the more you are able to perceive or co-exist with at once. It, in a way, is simply, omniscience, at least within that range.
  Remember to treat presence as two ranks lower when considering the purely physical world (and any non-human animals)
  
  Ranks
  • One: A small village or hamlet or a few city blocks.
  • Two: A large village or small town.
  • Three: A large town or small city.
  • Four: A large city or small province.
  • Five: A larger province- ~ a thousand square kilometers.
• Reclusion:
  As mentioned under ‘movement’, you cannot travel far from mortals- you cannot fly straight up forever or try to cross the Mediterranean without staying with people aboard a ship for example. Increasing your ‘reclusion’ allows you to travel further from mortals. Try to end your turn near mortals however unless you want to end up investing in reclusion the following turn as well. Be careful moving far from people. What would happen, for example, if that ship you were piggy-backing upon were to sink with all souls aboard drowned?
  
  Ranks
  • One: Five miles
  • Two: Twenty-five miles
• Influence:
  Your ability to affect the ‘minds/hearts/thoughts’ of mortals. It is easier to convince the subconscious then the conscious mind. It is easier to influence people to do things they inherently want to do. It is easier to influence a smaller group of people to do something than many. Dreams are an excellent gateway to the mind.
  
  Ranks
  • One: Influence one person to do something they would not do but which does not endanger their life.
  • Two: Influence twenty people to do something they would not normally do but which does not endanger their life. Influence one person to take extreme action against their nature or own interests
  Note that an individual who has been influence by one entity then becomes more susceptible to influence by that entity in the future, for a limited time. During this period they are also hardened against the influence of others.
  You can use your influence purely to defend against the influence of other entities. To simply prevent others’ influence is much less taxing (and requires less regency/knot) then it would take to cause the influence. Note that while influence can be used to counter influence, it cannot be used to counter other regencies- this requires a reinforcing weave
• Unravel
  Do direct harm to an individual or group of mortals by attempting to unravel their pattern.
  
  Ranks
  • One: Kill a child or weak individual. Sicken a group of twenty.
  • Two: Kill a strong healthy individual. Kill twenty weak or sick individuals. Sicken a hundred.
• Knit
  Repair an individual’s health by mending its pattern. Only applies to mortals with patterns- not animals or plants or entities such as yourself. Cannot create pattern where it gone (ie- you cannot bring the dead to life). As long as the pattern exists (ie- the individual is alive), almost any injury can be healed- blindness- loss of limb- lethal disease.
  
  Ranks
  • One: Heal the mortally wounded. Heal a handful of cripples. Heal twenty sick. Strengthen twenty weak.
  • Two: Heal five-twenty mortally wounded Heal hundreds of sick or weak.
• Braid
  Weave an mortal's pattern and make him or her stronger, more energetic, capable of what they once were not. Perhaps, in conjunction with knittingthese changes might even be permanent. Note that without influence the person so influenced is not necessarily going to be loyal to your entity's will.
  
  Ranks
  • One: Give a mortal the strength of 5 men, keep him or her awake for five days without tiring, sustain him or her without food or water for five days without thirsting or growing hungry. Strengthen a man or woman's charisma, alertness, etc.
• Reinforcing Weave
  Harden an Individual or Group's patten against the manipulations of other entities.
  
  Ranks
  • One: Treat the ranks of another entity as two less when affecting one individual mortal or one less when affecting two-fifty mortals
• Other Regencies exist and will be uncovered by players as we progress.

 

[Immaculate]

Entities (angels? demons? aliens?)

Spoiler :

Thomas.Berubeg
Lacazar
Knot: 2 (0)
Regency:
-Presence (2/3)
-Reclusion (0/1)
-Influence (0/2)


Arrow Gamer
???
Knot: 2 (0)
Regency:
-Presence (2/3)
-Reclusion (0/1)
-Influence (0/1)
-Unravel (0/1)


merciary
???
Knot: 2 (0)
Mana: 1 (0) early forms of mana serve essentially as extra ‘knot’
Regency:
-Presence (2/2)
-Reclusion (0/1)
-Influence (0/3)
-braid (0/1)


Seon
The Flame in the South
Knot: 2 (0)
Regency:
-Presence (2/2)
-Reclusion (0/1)
-Influence (0/2)
-Braid (0/1)


Nintz
???
Knot: 2 (0)
Regency:
-Presence (2/3)
-Reclusion (0/1)
-Influence (0/1)
-Braid (0/1)


Bonefang
Lucifer, the morning star
Knot: 2 (0)
Regency:
-Presence (2/2)
-Reclusion (0/1)
-Influence (0/2)
-Unravel (0/1)


ħ
???
Knot: 2 (0)
Regency:
-Presence (2/2)
-Reclusion (0/1)
-Influence (0/2)
-Knit (0/1)


LDiCesare
???
Knot: 2 (0)
Mana: 2 (0) early forms of mana serve essentially as extra ‘knot’
Regency:
-Presence (2/3)
-Reclusion (0/2)
-Influence (0/2)


Vertinari118
Guardian
Knot: 2 (0)
Regency:
-Presence (2/2)
-Reclusion (0/1)
-Influence (0/1)
-Reinforcing Weave (0/1)
-Braid (0/1)

 

[Arrow Gamer]

So we are at the council of Nicaea? What are we supposed to do, exactly?

 

[Immaculate]

So we are at the council of Nicaea? What are we supposed to do, exactly?

determine what you are- see if you can maybe continue your existence somehow. Find out what happened to the humans.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

I am... I have no name... I have never needed one, though now, that omission seems... Stupid? Well... the mortal world has names, and since I now inhabit some part of it, I shall be... Lacazar. That seems right. But what am I? I am not a Man, not one of the many talking... I pear into the mind of the nearest one... Can I?

 

[Immaculate]

You can peer into soul - or existence... mind- its subjective- but certainly you know its thoughts. The pattern is that of a healthy man. He brings onions from the fields to the market. He guides an animal and straining your perception beyond your plane you see that the animal is an mule and pulls a cart of onions.

It is easier to read a man's pattern then it is to perceive the physical world around him.

Lacazar is an approximation. Your true name cannot be spoken in the broken tongues of man. This is perhaps a 'Greek' version of what God destroyed?

 

[Arrow Gamer]

I swim through the air, unsure in my new yet worn body. I stumble over nothing, bumping into the nearest mortal. I see others like me, around me, before me, behind me. I run, spiraling up, up to the rafers, up through the ceiling. I burst into the air. What do I see?

 

[Immaculate]

I swim through the air, unsure in my new yet worn body. I stumble over nothing, bumping into the nearest mortal. I see others like me, around me, before me, behind me. I run, spiraling up, up to the rafers, up through the ceiling. I burst into the air. What do I see?

The air, the rafters, none of these provide any resistance to your movement and in a way you are where you were before. You expand your existance and you do not cease where you once were, though perhaps your perception and concious is stronger where you are now.

You perceive no others like you- at least not easily. You are aware that perhaps others like you exist, and that they are close... but as you have no pattern or physical form- neither do they.

You see patterns- mortal men and women moving about the town. It is easier to read their patterns then to try and see what they see and so you realize that a great council of 'clergy' are assembling. They will speak regarding the nature of God and a man, or God, they are divided on this- named Jesus- that you have never heard of.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

I fall, back to the building. The sun... it blinds me. I hit the ground, passing through, or so I imagine. Nothing is felt, everything is sensed. I raise to the floor, coming up through an altar. I move my consciousness inside of the man behind it. I attempt to overwhelm him.

 

[Nintz]

... This is trippy.

I'm in.

May not have an actual intro thing up for a day or two because of my schedule though.

 

[Immaculate]

OOC: The sun doesn't blind you- you barely differetiate between night and day. You see only souls unless you make an effort to see beyond souls- to the physcial plane- when you do everything seems grey and 'faded'.

Your existence is much 'larger' than the man- roughly the size of several city blocks now. Part of you extends itself to this 'priest'.

IC Arrow Gamer:
The man shivers. Pauses. Shrugs and continues. He felt you but your influence was incredibly limted.


IC for others:
Within your perception the pattern of man ripples and sugres back and forth in a strange way and you worry for him. The pattern is so delicate and you worry that it will tear. Then it stops and returns to normal.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

I thought so, but this guy doesn't exactly understand what is real now. He is imagining being blinded.

 

[Immaculate]

I thought so, but this guy doesn't exactly understand what is real now. He is imagining being blinded.

He never percieved the sun as bright. There is no association of bright and the sun for him. You were never a mortal man. Your drives and mind are not that of a man. Childlike and yet something beyond man entirely.

The brightest thing you have ever seen where the ribbons that seemed to tear themselves away from you- snapping like elastic bands cut with scissors- during your 're-existence'.

EDIT: This back and forth role-play is really excellent- an excellent way to introduce the climate and content- thank you for engaging.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

See, but he was real at one point, right? So he knew the sun should blind him, and because he is so disoriented, he just made it bright in his mind.

 

[Immaculate]

no- sun never blinded him. It exists on the physical plane and so is dim and dull to him.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Whatever. Anyway, expand further. Attempt to envelop the entire world.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

As I peer into the man's soul, I feel others. Peers? Maybe? I lose interest in the man... An Onion merchant. Onions? I see if those are more interesting than the man. Or the Beast? Maybe? what is this? I feel something vast and great around me. A peer? Push through it, break it's overwhelming presence.

 

[merciary]

I must know more about how I am here and why....
I search the books of the dead men (or the knowledge I "absorbed" from the books) for references to myself and search for any other clues to explain the situation.

 

[Immaculate]

Whatever. Anyway, expand further. Attempt to envelop the entire world.

It requires effort. Your consciousness does expand but you feel your link with the physical world weaken. You worry that if you try your strength too greatly you will be severed from the world and cease to exist. Your existence is greater now and when you stop exerting yourself you return to some form of stability. Your existence now covers several city blocks. You feel 'weaker' but otherwise whole.

As I peer into the man's soul, I feel others. Peers? Maybe? I lose interest in the man... An Onion merchant. Onions? I see if those are more interesting than the man. Or the Beast? Maybe? what is this? I feel something vast and great around me. A peer? Push through it, break it's overwhelming presence.

The onions exist on the physical plane uniquely. They are uninteresting. The beast, the mule, also only on the physical plane- no soul- uninteresting.

You sense a peer but know not where and cannot feel its presence beyond knowing of its existence. There is nothing to break.