Microscope--The Mural of Lu the Fatherless

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Microscope RPG--The Mural of Lu the Fatherless

Players: Glyptodont, Muskrat, Yadal, Tetnak


Threads:


The Palette

YES to:

  1. YES to the story being told as if it were one, or more, competing histories rather than reflecting the "real" events of the world. (TV Trope's Unreliable Narrator phenomena at play) (Yadal)
  2. YES to Epic-level heroes that aren't magical but can achieve as much as mages anyway. It's not that they have "powers" of any sort, but that the Laws of Physics in this universe allow for conventional warriors to be as powerful as mages without needing to have any special abilities. (Yadal)
  3. YES to a karmic cycle of reincarnation. When you die, you are reborn--and you may be reborn higher or lower up the cosmic chain of being, depending on your actions in past lives, particularly the degree to which they were virtuous. This means today's gods were mortals in a past life, which could make things interesting. Truly spiritually enlightened beings would rise above the gods to an exalted state where they are no longer subject to the cycle of death and rebirth. (Obviously, Buddhist and Taoist cosmologies and mythologies are heavy influences here.) Some very powerful beings--wizards, gods, etc.--might be able to twist the cycle of death and rebirth for their own purposes. There can also be ghosts who cling to the world and are temporarily not reborn and a Bardo or Limbo, where dead souls remain for a period of time between rebirths. (Muskrat)
  4. YES to secret societies playing a major role in the world's history, manipulating things from behind the scenes for their own purposes. I'm thinking something the Bene Gesserit, only multiplied several times over in terms of the societies (and with widely varied philosophies). This doesn't mean more conventional power players, like kingdoms, empires, republics, religions, etc. aren't important--just that secret societies have an equally important role. (Muskrat)
  5. YES to a large diversity of non-human (and non-Tolkienian) intelligences and civilizations, e.g. caravans of intelligent raccoonoids, swamp empires of warrior-beaver tribes, city-states of hadrosaur philosopher kings, etc. (Glyptodont)
  6. YES to the gods and pantheons constantly at war with each other directly and indirectly via their mortal proxies. (Glyptodont)
  7. YES to magic is created like arts or crafts--anyone can do it given enough time and effort and a bit of talent. Those with lots of money, time, minions and resources can create entire schools of universe-spanning paradigms of sorcery. (Glyptodont)

No to:

  1. NO to societies rooted in the traditional staples of fantasy--medieval and Renaissance Europe, the Norse and the Celts. This doesn't mean no European influences, but it would be more based on the ancient Greeks and Romans--and there would be many other inspirations from world culture and religion. (Muskrat)


Foci

Round Number:

  1. Saint Xavata, revered by the Followers of Lu the Fatherless (Glyptodont)
  2. The Argi as a race. I chose this one due to a mix of three things. First, trying to portray a society with a single alien feature (significantly greater intelligence than the norm) and see how it affects the race as a whole. Second, the philosophical issue of their superiority of otherwise. Three- explaining in detail what thwarts their intelligence from leading to conquest. (Yadal)
  3. TBA (Tetnak)
  4. TBA (Muskrat)

Legacies

After Round Number:

  1. The Bitter Liberation. People have their freedom again, but at the price of renewed strife and bigotry, driven by the Pure Thought Crusade. This is especially bitter for the non-human races being persecuted by the Pure Thought Crusade. (Muskrat)
  2. TBA (Glyptodont)
  3. TBA (Yadal)
  4. TBA (Tetnak)


Periods, Events and Scenes


Color-coded graph of above (no links):

Mural of Lu - Periods-Events-Scenes.png