DISCUSSION: To Plot and Beyond

[thusiamods]

Hey guys, your resident mods here with a... not quite a full-out discussion post, but we'd like to get some ideas and points of note out there and your feedback on the matter. Particularly involving the latest plot and currently running plotlines. There have been a few discussions on plurk, but we'd like to have something more formal to make sure everyone has the opportunity to read and get their input on things that'll affect them.

There's a few things we'd like to touch upon with this post, the main points revolving around current/past/future plots and how we as mods can make things more fun for you in the way we handle them. Also on our agenda are things like State of the Game, God Functions, Player Accessibility, and probably more. To keep things organized, we'll be using header comments to cover specific topics and linking them in the post for easy navigation, so once you see a topic linked here, feel free to jump right to it.

CURRENT PLOTS: Moving HQ | Bitey Dogs | Weres

Week of my Life Posts | State of the Game | Affecting the Gods | Nature

Comments

Re: AFFECTING THE GODS

[growsintheshade]

HERP didn't see your edit--

See Ten's comment for the current reason why Nature gods have kept their power while civilized gods haven't.

Obviously we do want to make it so god-players really invested in keeping their god a certain way don't have to bow to attempts to erase them if they OOCly don't want to, but we do also want to be careful about not invalidating the basic motivations of the mechanics that keep the game working. If another mechanic can be worked out that's stronger that "they just think they need people" I think it'd be better?

Hrmhrm...

Re: AFFECTING THE GODS

[confined]

They think they need people is more of a plot twist mechanic.

Them actually needing people in order to stay as they are or grow stronger or take new domains - entirely true.

Re: AFFECTING THE GODS

[growsintheshade]

BRACE YOURSELF FOR LONG-WINDED-NESS.

OK, after rereading a bit and having other mods clarify a couple things for me, and noting you've mentioned this is just headcanon (which I assume means you’re posing all this to us as a suggestion?), I figured I'd work with you to try to reconceptualize some of those things as part of the Thusian world canon and talk about what options there are for people to shape their Gods. (IDK if this will result in too many spoilers so feel free to ask to move this somewhere private if you don't want too many details about your god floating around before you get to play it out).

So firstly, going over the founding mechanics (basically one of the Natural Laws of the Thusian world, like on the same tier as gravity): Humanity begets gods, and the oldest of gods are as old as the first humans. This is something established in the god docs and ICly where charas have asked about it, and it’s something we've asked everyone to adjust their god concepts around, so I think that's something that we don't want to move on. This doesn't mean, of course, that their domains aren't older than humanity, especially concerning gods aligned with nature.

I think, similar to your point about Greek Gods being shaped by humanity—but not quite the same—a Thusian God is like a personification of an idea or aspect. The collective energy of the "ideas" of humanity came together and gave them form, but it’s from an essence that is produced by human existence, not something that’s been there since the universe began. And from there they gained power over domains, either because of the aspects they were born out of connecting them to a domain the moment they came into existence (Dellen and Human Creation, Sv’x and Primal Fear), or they attracted or were attracted to certain domains because of their personality. Basically from there they changed and gained and lost domains through various means (evolving, devolving, splitting in two, affected by humans, the world, or each other, etc.) which we leave to the player to decide.

So like, the stuff that makes up a Thusian god originated from humans and humans (and as of the start of the game, any beings with a soul) produced that energy or essence by existing. This essence isn’t in the world unless people are in the world. This is the founding element that we’re really reluctant to change, especially after asking everyone to work within this framework and building some essential mechanics of the game around it.


Umm, you may be thinking at this point that this means Thusia isn’t a sandbox, since I’ve just presented this strict framework we’d like people to use, but I think the mods probably use the term sandbox in a slightly different way than I’ve seen others use it? Where by saying “sandbox” others mean absolutely anything is allowed, we mean we want players to be able to customize and grow in many directions while keeping in mind a few basic elements that keep the game cohesive. We have mechanics we’re willing to adjust and make better and as far as the development of the world and the things gods and charas can effect in the game and how they can grow and change we do want everyone to take things and build big and amazing stories out of everything we give people to expand on, but (to be metaphorical) in this case the box that holds everything in is still important, and no matter what elaborate, beautiful, crazy thing is built inside, it still ultimately started as sand (the unchanging elements of a sandbox).


SO THEN, if I haven’t scared you away—which hopefully I haven’t—what can we do? I think a lot of your ideas are great and I'm sure they'll be really awesome to see played out! Some of the others may need tweaking in order to fit in with the fundamental elements we’ve laid out for Thusia, but if you’re open to fiddling with things a little on your end from how you imagined it, we can see how the framework can be stretched a bit so they fit together.

For example I think that your classification system still works perfectly fine, even if you acknowledge that the Gods themselves may not have existed at the same time as their most basic or oldest domain was created. Your ideas for how Gods might shift, gain, or lose domains too seem perfectly within the bounds of our framework, especially with the changes we’re trying to implement to how a God can evolve, as listed in the top-comment. Gods fighting, and gods injuring each other is totally a thing that can happen and I think it’s a great aspect to consider when building a God’s backstory so I'm glad you have that in there. Your two comments about how lighting, plasma, and electricity domains might interact are also, I think, a great analysis of things that would effect various gods relationships with each other and how one God might get stronger than another at various times while sharing similar domains. And you're right that we're interested in a mix of methods that players can use to give their gods development.

As for the gods depending upon belief to have power, they do get power from it, and it’s a good boost, especially in times like now when society is less unified in their ideas about gods, but that’s not the only thing they rely on. As I mentioned earlier in this comment, humanity’s mere existence gives them power. How this works is that as long as a God’s domains have an effect on humanity, as long as their domain is a strong part of the human experience, then the god too continues to exist. The more that domain is a part of human experience, the more power a god would get from it. That’s why a god like Sv’x would be focused on having a lot of people fear him.

ANYWAY, sorry if any of this seems like I’m going back on some of what I said in above comments, I may not have been clear on what you were getting at, and since I wasn’t one of the founding mods I don’t always remember to reiterate their founding principles for the game either. But I hope this gives you an idea of what’s working and what parts might need tweaking if you want to move it from headcanon to canon for Coren!

Re: AFFECTING THE GODS

[growsintheshade]

OH YEAH, you're free to ask if you feel like you need any help seeing if something works or not. I think overall most of what you have does work, so it's not like it all has to be picked apart or anything. But that sometimes makes it harder to decide what might seem like it needs an adjustment so it's cool to ask me! Here or on a private plurk or anywhere you're comfortable with.