The Shaper

The Shaper

A vast world-building titan in the game Chuubo's:Creating Creation.

Cosmogony

Out of swirling chaos, an instant of harmony formed. It birthed a being that gave birth to itself, it shaped a being that shaped itself. Out of chaos and Wyld it molded a form and mind, and so became The Shaper. It forged a body in which to live and, for a time, was content to be. But it become dissatisfied with only shaping itself. It sort to mold the raw chaos into form, but succeeded only in molding its own body anew, in creating and recreating itself.

So, instead, it made of its body the world. It wrung from itself the foundation of Creation. It wrought mountains from its bones and oceans from its blood, and from its soul made a new body to inhabit. And She stepped out from the cave made from her chest, in which She had given birth to herself anew, and looked out onto the world and saw that it was good.

Good, but not perfect. And so she set out to Shape again this new world that she had made, for Creation is a task unending.

Description

Appearance

A tall woman dressed in simple but elegant clothes, is at least the form she made for herself.

Personality

She is warm and kind, mostly, in the way that only the source of life can be warm and kind; but her core is a dragon of earth and stone, and sometimes that shows.

Spheres

• The Physical World, and its providences
• Life and living things
• Creative endeavors, and the act of creating

Domains

• The Earth, dirt and stone and mountains
• The ocean and the rivers, the blood of the world
• The green and the forest; trees and grass

Motivation

The Shaper is always looking to improve her work. She will never be truly satisfied.

Skills

• Sculptor 3
• Superior Affinity for the World 2
• Guardian 2
• Superior Land Rule 1
• Perk: Shine 3

Arcs

The Shaper was born as a world-in-itself, a dragon of earth and stone, and though she later made herself a body she is still the world itself, of it and in it. The story of her making the world from herself is expressed as a series of Miraculous Arcs:

Mystic (Persona) 3

The Sight The Shaper can see the world in its essentials instead of its particulars. The mundane features of the world fade away (with an Obstacle of 1 for most sensory tasks and an Obstacle of 2 for finding precise details) but she can clearly see those with a special relationship to the whole of Creation. Those who would guard it, or those who mean it harm. Those who love it or hate it. She can quickly detect problems in the world's functioning or areas that need shoring up, and has a sense for the reality of things, and the potential for new growth. This miracle is free and has 3 free Strike.

Blessing/Curse of the Earth The Shaper can make things a little more real and solid, give the unformed a bit of form, and make something more likely to breed new things, or she can turn things way and make them a little more chaotic and unformed. The effect of this is limited, but present. (0 MP, 1 MP within a few hours)

Shine Bonus The Shaper gets a free Shine Perk with a rating equal to the Arc (in this case 3)

The Auctoritas Magister The Shaper can swathe her mundane actions (1-2 a scene, 1 MP per additional) or both her mundane actions and herself (2 MP mid-scene, 4 MP scene) in an Auctoritas of 3 against miracles and the Wyld.

Living in the Earth The Shaper made the world of her own flesh and blood, and it is a moments thought to live in it again, to flow in the rivers and feel the slow heartbeat of the mountains. To walk with a part of her former self requires no MP. Alternately, she can spend 2 MP, or 4 MP within hours to be in many places in Creation at once, or to once again have the whole of the world as her body.

The World Incarnate The Shaper can take on one of the Properties of Creation as a temporary level 3 Affliction that lasts as long as she sustains this miracle. (0 MP 1/Chapter, 1 MP the second or later per chapter, 2 MP the second or later within hours)

Shaping The Shaper can bless a thing or place with the Properties of the world, and shape thereby the formless directly. This is how she expands the borders of the world, making that which was not of Creation into that which is. She can also make a thing stronger, more enduring, more real... or more finite. (1 MP individual/house scale, 2 MP neighborhood scale)

Exile The Shaper can declare a thing of this Creation no longer a part of it, can remove it from the dharma of the world. Less extremely, she can make it less real or less enduring, make it stale and static, or make it perfect or last forever. (2 MP, 4 MP within hours. This is a Bleak effect)

Story of the World The Shaper can dictate how something relates to the whole of Creation. She can make it a guardian to the world, or fate it to enter or leave it. She can choose the key players in the history of the world. (4 MP. This is a major miracle)

She took her body and made it into the foundation of the World, and its properties are the nature of her soul expressed. They are as follows:

Properties of Creation

• Here is the formless given form (i.e. "Creation is...")
• Here things are solid and real (i.e. "Creation endures")
• Here you may make a place for yourself, with effort (i.e. "Creation sustains")
• Here is a soil in which new things may grow (i.e "Creation gives birth to new things")
• Here things are always changing and growing (i.e. "Creation is a task unending")
• There is nothing infinite in this Creation (i.e. "Creation is limited and finite")

Now the world is made, but Creation is a task unending. The story of improving upon the world and the never to be realized job of making it perfect shall be expressed as the following Miraculous Arc:

Shepherd (Keeper of Gardens) 2 0/72

The World, Like Clay The Shaper can shape the world near instantaneously, like it was made of malleable clay (well, most of it kind of is clay, at this point, but she can do this even with the parts that aren't). 1/book, or more often for 4 MP, she can mold a large portion thereof.

Touch of Chaos There is a price for shaping the world. For malleability, for change. The price is that change comes from chaos, from the Wyld, and some of the essence of chaos is in everything she shapes, is in her own body, is in the world itself.

It is the price. The alternative is stasis, is silent order, is that things never change at all, never improve, never grow.

But it means that her creations are necessarily imperfect. That imperfection is the nature of the world, and always will be.

This is a level 2 Bond.

The Great Magic The Shaper can change the nature of her Gardens - though to do so is also to reshape herself, to alter her own soul and thus costs a Divine Health Level.

Theogony (Guide: 0 MP 1/Chapter, 1 MP Chapter, 2 MP minutes. Guardian is the same price for now, but a separate ability) The Shaper can express parts of her soul as beings in the world, or shape new creatures from the substance of herself, to guide and guard the world she has made.

Perks

Bonus Perk: It's like a home to me (Free from Keeper of Gardens, does not count towards 8 Perk limit) Her Garden is Creation, and all the physical world. In addition to the above Properties, it also has the following benefit:

• A level 2 Auctoritas against the influence of the Wyld

Shed Scales Her original form had no size, for there were no referents against which it could be measured. Her new form is as large as it needs to be and no more, and she can alter its scale as she wishes. (0 MP 1-2 times, 1 MP for more, 2 MP unlimited mid-scene, 4 MP unlimited scene)

Power Up: Living in the Earth In addition to walking with Creation, she can move it as though it was an extension of herself. Though I describe this as a Power-up Perk, its most similar to Unnatural Action, or more precisely that ability after a lot of practice, since she can do more than emote with it.

Shine 3 Free from Persona

Quests

Emotion XP: Gratitude Hands

Basic Quest: The Unending Work (Pastoral) 0/9

• 1/Scene, earn an XP for this Quest by uttering the phrase "I see that this is good"

Shepherd 1 Quest: The Story of Your Life 0/21

3 XP conditions, once each

• you make peace with a recent setback where you lost a few days of work.
• you’re unexpectedly shy, vulnerable, or open with someone.
• you have a vision of magic in some thing, place, person, or work, which you might one day be able to bring out.

1 XP 1/Chapter

• admiring the construction and atmosphere of Creation, often while softly lit, obscured by fog, and/or with something weird or unnatural nearby
• enjoying the softness of fur, plush grass, carpet, fleece, etc.
• having trouble because your clothing’s a bit too big for you
• trying and failing to hide your identity
• working, involving slightly larger-than-life or magical incidents
• working, involving simple, honest effort
• talking about your progress on some project and its positive or negative effects on the local environment

Wounds

8 Will

5 MP