What once existed is now shards of reality, floating in the sea of conflict...
Existence defied definition. It was, will be, and is. Unbroken, whole, and of singular purpose, Existence perpetuated with time in harmony. A single pane of glass, stained with the mosaic of life, and happenings, and thought, Existence seemed perfect.
Energy boiled and grew, contained within what comprised reality. The energy, an accident of cosmic proportions, exploded furiously. Physical boundaries broke, Existence becoming many, not one, harmony breaking into dissonance. The shards floated, unbalanced, rough, existing in three dimmensions, not two.
And each lingered, for a time. Slowly, time started its work again, anew from the Shattering.
The imbalances started to show their effect. With time, the shards of existence came to be tested, pitted against the new dimmension that had been birthed.
Oblivion. Absense. Forgetfulness. Endless, boundless, nothing.
Many disappeared, claimed by the uncaring ravages of nonexistence. Some, fought for survival. Where Oblivion and Existence met, yet another force came to being. Encompassing all of creation, all that does and does not exist, Conflict came into being.
Thus is how the new Universe is.
Existence lays fragmented, endless numbers of separate realities linked together loosely. Each reaches its own event horizon, where the self-destructive tendencies of existence are stamped out- or allowed to plunge that reality into Oblivion. The only beings free to cross between the worlds are the Conflicted Ones, chosen to push realities to that event horizon, so that all of Existence may be saved- or destroyed.
The path to dominion over a reality is now easy. Attaining the status of God takes much less power than before- but all fear the Conflicted One, incarnate of strife, war and opposition. For Oblivion and Existence comprise all that is, and both sit fully within the realm of Conflict. To the Conflicted One, nothing is impossible.
(This submission is laying some of the groundwork for later submissions I hope to get to in due time. I'm not entirely sure if 'plot' was the best choice of submission type because it's technically detailing how a Universe players might inhabit is composed, but all the same, the Shattering was an event that kicked off time (or serves as the reference point for sentient conception of time...)) (woo! Nested parenthesis!)
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- Incarnate Ascension by Ted Bound
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Very atospheric, you've done well in setting the stage. I look forward to more!
Way back in high school i had a similar idea, well or maybe not, it's hard to tell from the information.
Anyway: Sounds awesome. Right up my alley.
Some Ideas you might find helpful:
Godlike Powers are reversibly relative to the size of the world. Any conflicted one can control a world where only he lives, but it takes huge powers, or long work, to exercise them in a bustling city, that power has to be taken from all the other residents. So if a group of conflicted ones come in a small world which has only one inhabitant, he could have nearly godlike powers, if he is conflicted. Newcomers have to “rip” power from the original inhabitant to battle him.
The “Edge of the World” is a mist, through which sometimes other worlds can be seen, as foggy shadows. The fog lifts or goes at least less thick if two world connect.
Memories (of everyone or the conflicted ones) are also shattered. They can only remember some things or nothing of their past at all. Conflicted Ones can shape new memories with their powers, search the shatters for their original memories or even rip memories from others. (This could be three different kinds of learning new abilities, if any kind of rule system is used).
I'm sure I can come up with some more Ideas...
I have read this a few times but I don't really get it. I like the language, I like the tone, but I don't understand the content. It seems too vague and disconnected.
It's a start, but only that, IMHO.
Kindly take a look at the suggest sub and see if that improves the confusion a little.
I like the surreal quality of this piece. But you may as well break down the fourth wall and give us the downlow OCC/Meta game explaination of things.
I would probably use this as a snippet of text from a random book in a wizard's library...