registration -Taevanshu

(1) What name will your deity go by during this round?
Taeuvanshu (TAY-oo-VON-shoo)

(2) Please give at least three examples of terrain you'd enjoy having in your area.
Mountains, sandy desert, Cacia trees, Palo Verde trees, Cypress trees, you know, deserty type trees.

(3) If you could would you please give us some ideas about the sort of people you want in your area?

Nomadic with the occasional permanent settlement in prosperous areas.

(4) Would you like to give us any information about your god and his/her/it's initial plans for this game?

To be god of travellers (Shadow Walkers) who are adept at traveling and surviving in many different adverse environments, able to forge and summon weapons from the Shadowlands and use them very effectively.

(5)Please design a combination of colors, smells, sounds, or shapes that represent your deities power.
Black, grey, silver. Rushing water, wind, heavy rain, thunder. Triangle.

These are the notes I mailed myself while talking to the player in person about his plans/birth action:

Travis' birth action -

Shadowland is the first area of the afterlife, and is 1600 square miles in area.

Spell system allows access to this afterlife, and you can leave that afterlife appearing anywhere you've been within the real world, this is one spell.

Within the afterlife you can conjure several types of objects as follows:

Ritually destroyed real objects, animals, or people. can be temporarily be summoned back for a limited time in a shadow form. Remember living things need a soul, so the soul is attached.

Shadow creatures of types created by travis' deity can be summoned forth by the proper spells in this area.

Objects crafted from shadow using a spell within the shadow realm, this would be a technology the people would have to learn, and the created shadow object, obviously non living things.

interesting! just, am i the only one suddenly thinking of the Lasombra?
awesome concept though, will be interesting to see how this shapes out into a fully defined workable setup. good start, and can think of at least one group in play so far that would have some very interesting ideas on this power being proposed...good....

Just to add some structure, I want to build the Shadowlands to have three levels. The first level should require very little magical ability to access. The first level is for conjuring weapons and utilities, and while these weapons and objects are very powerful, they can only exist for a limited time outside the Shadowlands. For an object to be initiated into the Shadowlands, it first must be forged or created by the people. Once this object is ritually destroyed, it becomes a part of the Shadowlands and assumes a magical power bonus when conjured back (though its TTL is limited). The second level of the Shadowlands is for traveling instantaneously to any place in the world that a follower of the Shadow God (Taeuvanshu) has been. When any Shadowman (any follower of Taeuvanshu regardless of sex) explores a new region, that region is automatically added to the second level of the Shadowlands, and any other follower can move through the second level to appear out of the Shadowlands and into that area. The third level (the afterlife) is very unknown by the people for many generations, it remains only a rumor or superstition for thousands of years until a young prophet missing his mother performs a very specific ritual to conjure the souls of the dead. It is found that by performing this ritual, living people can converse with the dead and gain their knowledge in the second level, and only in the second level, because to reach the third level means that you are dead. This means that the souls of the dead can enter the second level when summoned and share their knowledge to passers-by but the living can't enter level three and the dead can't enter the world of the living... UNLESS... another prophecy millions of years from the dawning of Shadow Walkers is satisfied.

LEVEL ONE: To commit a weapon or object to Shadowlevel 1 it must first be designed with whatever materials are handy. This physical property must then be touched by the blood of a follower. A small non-mortal wound will satisfy this requirement. Once touched by the blood of a follower, this object will be automatically assumed into Level 1 (and gain the magical properties therefore). Followers of Taeuvanshu can conjure these objects. ONLY FOLLOWERS OF THIS GOD MAY USE THESE OBJECTS. Followers may use their own uninitiated weapons but they lose the magical bonus unless they sacrifice and then summon their weapons from the Fist Level. The magical properties of LEVEL ONE can allow a primitive to develop a crude arrow and bow made of wood and stone and recall them as precise and deadly weapons, never missing and always killing.

Very interesting. So the first level is simply a shadow manufacturing plant, A plain of this weird shadow substance where people can destroy objects, animals, or each other, and summon back a "shadow" copy forever after. It's supposed to be easy to access, even if you don't know much/any magic, so I'm guessing your area will be studded with gateways of some sort that worshipers can use to enter this level and see how awesome you are right off the bat. I'd suggest giving you one such gateway right away, and perhaps allowing you a ritual that would allow the creation of more as part of your deal. Details are needed here.

Also for the creation basic copies can be made using just one spell, but for enchanting them, like the arrow that never misses/always kills we'll need to work out specific spells that can be attached to shadow objects. Otherwise we limit you to just that bow you mentioned, or whatever I THINK you'd add to say . . . a sword, a gun, a nuke. Let alone a shadow plow or whatever.

Second level . . . ok this one could get expensive eventually but that's ok. Basically what your telling me is that your god is using his people as remote exploration drones to map out the world and leave a shadow copy of the landscape in his "shadow realm" which followers can walk, ride, etc . . . through to appear at that spot on the surface of the real world. Definitely need more details here, for example how are you preventing a person from materializing in an already mapped out area that suddenly has a giant stone block placed there? How are you preventing them from materializing inside a tree or a wandering animal/person? The real world after all does change after your people leave the area and can no longer actively observe it. This is an effect that would work very well in you cities, but it seems very dangerous anywhere you aren't constantly monitoring with your worshipers and thus updating the map for.

Third level would be the standard afterlife you get automatically simply by being a god, and you could give spirits some ability to move from that to the second, perhaps their own portals leading to the shadow image of sacred places would work.

Ps - also if you have facebook I use a group on that to share news with people about the progress of the game, it would be nice to add you. If not I can continue sending messages via steven as I've been moved out of easy chatting range at work.

Yes please add me. facebook.com/tpowell

yeah, the issuewith the shadowslands map not being updated for a long enough time reminds me of the 'fog of war' that many rts games used.... you explore a bit early on, ages later you send some troops through there, and there is a enemy outpost sitting there that was built in the meantime. if you want something that needs to updated that is one thing, if you want it to always be connected and update automaticly...thats get complex, and COSTLY given a large enough zone....
Good concept, just needs tweaking is all, do love the shadow teleportation idea, can be formed into something workable.

The player hasn't replied to this yet, but his turn zero is ready to launch so we can continue this discussion there. In person he told me he did want some sort of active protection against landing inside things, maybe moving the person to the side a bit if a tree, animal, or building would be in the way as they came out, but he hasn't posted it yet and if it isn't posted it didn't happen. That has to be the rule because last game too often things were simply told to me and I had to write down what the player wanted and it really looked like I was playing the game for them, especially on the times when I didn't fully understand what they were saying and wrote something totally different from what they expected I'd get from their conversation.