What problems can you forsee with making a scenario like this possible? Your character (male or female) falls in love with a Deity (male or female) they have been commanded to defeat by their own Deity, and decides to renounce their existing Deity in order to worship the new Deity. Apart from the obvious things of : your Deity is pissed, the new Deity may not trust you completely since you''ve ''defected'' before, the new Deity may not want you, the new Deity may be so weakened by your efforts to date that your old Deity would just obliterate you all ... ... what other issues could you see arising? Thing is, one event that can happen in my current "plot" is that a Deity may fall in love with _you_, and may sacrifice themselves to save your life in one of the final battles. Which enrages you enough to force yourself up several levels through sheer Will, to be damn near unstoppable. (*sigh* Yes, like Gohan *sigh*) But I don''t know if a mortal should really fall in love with a Deity, and have that love transcend the loyalty they have to their existing Deity. The way that my world works, however, is that your Deity created you to be independently powerful of them. (Like Anakha in the Elenium/Tamuli). You don''t rely on your Deity''s power, since you were instilled with it when you were originally created. So there isn''t really anything stopping you from deciding to be an Atheist, and just killing off all the Deities, and replacing them yourself (not that I''d recommend that, since they''d all just band together to kick your ass, and then get back to fighting between themselves). So you are free to change Deities, but again, there''s the point of if you switch, will your Deity really trust you (since because of what you are, they can never ''read'' you like other mortals). Right, so yeah, what problems haven''t I foreseen in all this? (And sorry for the gratuitous use of the word Deity, it''s easier than typing God/Goddess all the time) "NPCs will be inherited from the basic Entity class. They will be fully independent, and carry out their own lives oblivious to the world around them ... that is, until you set them on fire ..." -- Merrick

quote: But I don''t know if a mortal should really fall in love with a Deity, and have that love transcend the loyalty they have to their existing Deity.

That''s prefectly fine. Having the player choose between love or loyalty makes a interesting storyline anyway. One question is why did these deities take the chance and create you when they knew there''s a possibilty that you could betray and put themselves in jeopardy. Maybe they were forced due to another another situation ? Maybe they planted a fail safe on you secretly ? Either way, I think the storyline should expand a little on these things.

quote: Original post by Mooglez
One question is why did these deities take the chance and create you when they knew there''s a possibilty that you could betray and put themselves in jeopardy. Maybe they were forced due to another another situation ? Maybe they planted a fail safe on you secretly ? Either way, I think the storyline should expand a little on these things.

The risk never occurred to the them, since they''re used to absolute worship. But in creating you the way they did, they were doing something completely new, and unpredictable.

The situation is that there are eight Deities in the world, which gain their power from the number of worshippers. But since there are only a finite amount of people in the world, they have finally hit saturation level, and the only way to become stronger is to take out each other and take their worshippers (or destroy them).

And that''s where you come in. Since if they were to battle directly, they would destroy the world, and be left without a leg to stand on. So they''ve nominated an Avatar, one of which happens to be you, to battle on their behalf. Now I referred to the case of Anakha, who was a man without a destiny, and this concerned the Gods greatly since they couldn''t forsee what he would do. And it''s a similar situation, the Deities are so hungry for power that not only are they willing to take the risk of you betraying them (which admittedly is going to be rare), but also that you can become powerful enough to confront them directly if they are weakened sufficiently.

Your weak point? Well if you play the game properly, you''ll end up making your Deity more powerful with each successive victory, and so the risk of you being able to betray & defeat them is minimal.


"NPCs will be inherited from the basic Entity class. They will be fully independent, and carry out their own lives oblivious to the world around them ... that is, until you set them on fire ..." -- Merrick

Has every deity created an Avatar? Or is the creation of the Avatar a secret act by one deity?

The way you''ve outlined it sounds to me as if the Avatar is a secret weapon, but it also almost sounds like he''s a peace treaty among the gods. Who is he battling with? If it''s versus another god, what''s to stop the other gods from ganging up against him? It would be in their best interest, because if there''s something that can kill a god without disturbing the balance of this theological cold war, there''s a problem. Could the other gods decide to gang up on the Avatar creating god, divide take his territory, instead?

Whether or not your Avatar should be able to fall in love with a god is a matter of the nature of your gods. Are they aloof, or intertwined with their worshipers as the Greek gods were? What could a mortal offer a god that they could not make themselves? Realistically, two people who love each other have something to offer that the other needs.





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Just waiting for the mothership...

Anakha was created by a being superior to the gods themselves (Anakha was bhellioms creature). By implementing this, the gods themselves could all attempt to win over your avatar to aid their cause. In doing so, one could potentially fall in love with the avatar character. Additionally, all this flattery from different gods could expose your avatars human weakness--it could fall in love with one of the gods. And this could lead to a joint effort.

Interesting possibility, when the game is won and the opposition is crushed, instead of presenting your player with the "You win" screen, have the remaining god (that the avatar loved) kill the avatar and enslave the people of the worl to ensure that they never stray from him/her again. Now present the player with a "You enslaved the world to an evil god and you''re dea, the end" screen. But only if you''re really crazy and want to make some statement...I just think it''d be a funny twist!

So falling in love with a Diety is ok, but seems inconsequential unless you give the avatar a whooollllleeeee lotta power. Otherwise, the original god destroys him/her.

One last comment: If every god is making an avatar, now one God has two. Is this for the good or bad?

Good--God:"Sweet, I have two avatars, go out and kick a** for me!"
Bad--Avatar1:"Hey Avatar2, come here."
Avatar2:"Whatsup?"
Avatar1:"I hear you fell in love with my God"
Avatar2:"Yeah, isn''t it great?"
Avatar1 stabs Avatar2 in the eye, killing him instantly.

Unity or stife between avatars?

--OctDev

quote: Original post by OctDev
So falling in love with a Diety is ok, but seems inconsequential unless you give the avatar a whooollllleeeee lotta power. Otherwise, the original god destroys him/her.

Well the Avatar will inevitably gain an unforeseeable amount of power, but will not start off that way. So any betrayal would not occur until later into the game, although you could start forming plans & alliances early on.

quote:
One last comment: If every god is making an avatar, now one God has two. Is this for the good or bad?

Good--God:"Sweet, I have two avatars, go out and kick a** for me!"
Bad--Avatar1:"Hey Avatar2, come here."
Avatar2:"Whatsup?"
Avatar1:"I hear you fell in love with my God"
Avatar2:"Yeah, isn''t it great?"
Avatar1 stabs Avatar2 in the eye, killing him instantly.

Unity or stife between avatars?

Interesting point, that''s why I posted this thread

The way I''m handling something like this is having your avatar be the ''original'', and any others created by other Deities will be created after, and hence not quite as strong (since you''ve had longer to come to terms with your power and harness it.

Not all the Deities may elect to create an avatar, however. Each Deity already has an existing group of religious warriors (which I''ve designated as Factions). These warrior priests are capable of some magic and are excellent fighters, and working together are capable of holding their own against a young avatar.

However this is where strategy comes into effect. You can mess around maxxing out your character or running off on quests, but while you do this, your adversaries are getting stronger as well, and potentially forming alliances, so if you screw around you''ll get your ass kicked.

So you could try taking on an avatar first, and risk being killed, or focus on worshippers, and risk letting other avatars get stronger than you.

It won''t get to a point where it''s impossible, since the whole thing is on a sliding scale to match your ability, that way you''ll only meet overwhelming odds on the rare(ish) occasion, and won''t be bothered too much by pathetic opponents (since they''ll avoid you and go get reinforcements).


"NPCs will be inherited from the basic Entity class. They will be fully independent, and carry out their own lives oblivious to the world around them ... that is, until you set them on fire ..." -- Merrick

Sounds cool. I like the religious warrior idea, with their combined might being greater than that of all but a very experienced avatar. Keep us posted!!

--OctDev