Dominion & Cults

[Krul]

Player Dominion (Will be updated as used, gained and lost)

•  Dread: 2 Dominion
• Tanith: 2 Dominion
• Sigil: 2 Dominion
• Gary: 2 Dominion
• Kamala: 2 Dominion
• Maia: 2 Dominion
• Aurea: 1 Dominion
• Sota: 1 Dominion

So What Can I do with My Dominion Points?

• Dominion is the most powerful means of altering a fact, and represents a Godbound's direct mastery of their Words of Creation. Utterly impossible changes and wholly magical alterations can be performed by spending Dominion and invoking a suitable Word, though the most drastic changes will require some heroic deed to be accomplished to clear the way for the new fact.
  • Example: A Godbound of Health who wanted to maintain a village's health in perpetuity could spend Dominon to banish sickness entirely from the boundary of the village forever after. The locals would simply never grow sick again. Optionally, he might share his powers in a limited way with chosen acolytes among the villagers, granting them the ability to cure any sickness and accomplishing the same general effect in a different way.
• The more drastic, expansive, and impossible a change that Dominion makes, the more costly it is to enact. The opposition of other supernatural forces in the area can hinder these changes, as can the presence of mundus wards in the area to be affected. If these limits are overcome and a sufficient amount of Dominion is expended, almost any change can be wrought on a group of mortals or a piece of terrain.
• Dominion expenditures take time, and generally aren't fast enough to be useful whenever time is an issue. Dominion expenditure can't imbue an army with permanent water-breathing abilities when it's suddenly crucial they pass a strait, but given a few weeks of divine manipulation and a sufficient amount of Dominion, the change can be worked. Most Dominion changes take no more than a month to accomplish, and that only for the more complex and involved alterations.
• Once a Dominion change is enacted, it remains until some power destroys it. If this involves Dominion expenditure, then the opposition must spend just as much Dominion as the creator did to undo the change. If it involves more physical violence, the enemy might have to simply kill all the acolytes of Health or strew the village confines with magical curses. A splendid magical academy established by Dominion might be undone by a rival spending enough Dominion to blight its students and curdle its teachings, or they might simply march an army through the halls, knock down its towers, and kill all its faculty. Without organized opposition, however, a change made with Dominion will persist indefinitely.
• Dominion changes that alter living creatures are constrained either by location or by lineage. The power either changes the creatures so long as they continue to be born in the same area, or it changes them so that so many generations of their offspring will share the blessing.  In both cases, the scope of the change determines the breadth of the effect; a hero who forges a race of intelligent animals could extend the effect to an entire region, causing their offspring to be born intelligent so long as they are born inside the region, or they could extend the power to a region's worth of descendants wherever they may be born. In the latter case, the gifts of the bloodline would gradually fade out of following generations once the population maximum was reached.
• Domionion needed for each change
  • Scope         Cost        Discription/Area/Population
    Village         1              Villages, a few square miles, 1,000 people
    City               2              Major city, ten miles square, 100,000 people
    Region         4             Province/Arcology, a thousand square miles, 1 million
    Nation         8             An entire kingdom, 100 million people
    Realm         16           The whole world, Billions of people
  • The basic cost of a change depends on how far-reaching it is. As seen above, A change that affects only a village, neighborhood, or other small community of people, or no more than ten or twenty square miles, has a base cost of 1 point of committed Influence or spent Dominion. One that affects an entire city or a hundred square miles or so has a base cost of 2 points. Affecting an entire province of a nation, a small nation-state, or a geographic region within a state costs 4 points, and affecting an entire kingdom worth of people or land costs 8 points. Attempting a change that reaches an entire realm costs 16 points, and doubtless requires many great deeds on the way.
  • Once the base cost is decided, this is multiplied by the difficulty as the GM sees fit. A change that is modest and plausible, that does not require violating the laws of nature or angering local powers is a Plausible change with a x1 multiplier, costing no more than the base cost of the effort. Convincing a lord to take a course of action that is not obviously harmful, establishing a new industry in a location that might reasonably support it, banishing a harmful social custom that doesn’t underpin local society, or discovering new resources that might possibly be found all are all examples of a Plausible change.
  • Implausible changes that require bending the rules of nature or human behavior are Improbable, and have a x2 multiplier. Convincing a lord to take a course of action that probably will bring him harm, establishing a new industry that the locals have no original skills in whatsoever, adding a new social custom that harms the elite of society or would upset the common people, or calling up new resources that have no natural place anywhere around the site would all be changes of an Improbable level. Complete violations of nature or political behavior aren’t possible at this level, but most acts that don’t rise to that pitch of implausibility can be done with this expenditure.
  • Extraordinary changes that are politically unthinkable or physically impossible are Impossible changes that add a x4 multiplier. The only limit to this level of change is what the GM finds plausible in a hero’s description of their efforts, and even then a sufficient number of great deeds and mighty labors can overcome reservations. Convincing a lord to undertake a suicidal crusade, establishing a new magical industry that produces something impossibly advanced or enchanted, upending a society’s entire value structure in favor of a radically contrary model, and calling up miraculous new resources that have some magical effect are all examples of this kind of change.  
    • Impossible changes usually require at least one mighty deed to be accomplished in order to find the necessary components, persuade reluctant locals, discover needful lore, or best an opposing force. Particularly dramatic impossibilities might require several feats.
• Create Artifacts 
  • When a Godbound hero wants to create an artifact, the first thing they need is a justification. They must have a Word or a Fact related to the artifact they intend to create, and its powers must reflect their abilities. Godbound of Artifice are particularly talented with artifact creation, however, and are treated as having justification for almost any artifact, though they can't create ones that allow free miracle access to other Words.
  • Creating an artifact costs Dominion. The various options listed on the adjacent table describe those costs. At least half the cost of an artifact must be paid by its creator, though allies can help with the rest if they have some justification for it with their own powers.
  • Once the total Dominion necessary to craft the artifact is determined, the creator needs to assemble the raw materials. A suitable physical shell for the artifact must be fabricated or found, but this is usually a relatively simple matter. More difficult is the acquisition of the necessary number of celestial engine shards to connect the new artifact to the primal power of the Words. Every artifact requires at least one celestial shard, plus one more for every six full points of Dominion it took to build it. These shards are destroyed in the creation process.
  • A single artifact can contain only so many gifts and special abilities. The artifact can contain as many gifts as the creator's level. Conjuring any miracle of a Word counts as five gifts, a Word's special abilities count as two, and greater gifts or dispelling powers count as three.  Effort is capped at half the creator's level, rounded up.
  • Most artifact powers are broken down into two basic forms. 
    •  The artifact grants access to a gift that the wielder may use as if they have mastered it, allowing them to Commit Effort from the item or automatically gain the steady benefit of a Constant gift. 
    • • The artifact provides a pool of Effort that can be used to fuel the gifts it contains. This Effort can't be used for other purposes, such as powering the wielder's own gifts, even if they're the same.
  • Artifact Dominion Costs
    • 2 Dominion For each lesser gift
    • 4 Dominion For a lesser gift that is Constant or requires no Effort
    • 4 Dominion For each greater gift
    • 8 Dominion For a greater gift that is Constant or requires no Effort
    • 3 Dominion  Gives the special abilities of a bond to a specific Word
    • 6 Dominion Allows dispelling effects as if with a specific Word
    • 10 Dominion Allows any miracle permitted to a specific Word
    • 2 Dominion For each point of Effort contained by the artifact
• With a Paradise Seed, create other worlds, cost for the size of creation is indicated below, more details can be found within the Deluxe version of the Main Book.
  • 7 Dominion - Village, a few square miles
  • 14 Dominion - Major city, ten miles squares
  • 28 Dominion -  Province, a thousand square miles
  • 64 Dominion - National size, An entire kingdom (Australia Sized at the Maximum)
  • 112 - Realm - A whole world
• NOTE: Influence can also do some these things, but is more limited, as it can not do anything permanent, so nothing with paradise seeds or artifacts it only continues as long as the Influence is dedicated.

 

 

[Krul]

Cults & Apotheosis

It is never necessary to purchase apotheosis gifts, once the godbound decides to accept apotheosis, all gifts of the word are gained automatically at each level. Should they refuse apotheosis, they become a free divinity as indicated below.

Free Divinities
Not all Godbound are suited to having followers. Some might be naturally independent, while others might have players who don’t want to bother with a cult. At the player’s discretion, a Godbound can become a free divinity rather than one that cultivates a faith. This decision is made when the character reaches second level, and may only be changed afterwards if the GM finds it appropriate. Even then, a great deed or adventure might be needed to change it.

Free divinities lose all the usual gifts of the Apotheosis Word. Instead, they preserve their own celestial force, becoming self-generating fonts of Dominion. A free divinity gains one point of Dominion each month, plus one more for each three full character levels they possess. No cult is necessary to generate this power, and indeed, free divinities cannot even have true worshipers, though they might have a few devoted allies and enthusiasts who consider themselves faithful.  If their pantheon forms a Paradise, they can participate in it as usual.

Apotheosis

Once the Apotheosis gift Receive the Incense of Faith is obtained at second level a Godbound can accept willing disciples and begin to benefit from the reverence of their faithful. This worship strengthens their divine authority, allowing them to form a cult faction and use it to gain Dominion points each month, quite aside from any Aid an Ally faction actions the cult might perform on their behalf. The more demanding the faith, the more abundant the Dominion it grants its god.

The Faithful
Any intelligent mortal being may choose to become a worshiper of a Godbound possessing the gift Receive the Incense of Faith. The Godbound need not be present, or even in the same realm; all that is required is that the aspiring devotee know who the Godbound is and voluntarily choose to pledge themselves to the divinity. This choice cannot be magically compelled, but more mundane inducements can be used to "encourage" a new believer. The Godbound can always tell whether or not a given person is their worshiper.

This dedication can take place without the Godbound’s specific attention. If the Godbound is then displeased with a devotee, they can always reject them at any point. Once rejected, the worshiper may not return to the fold without the Godbound’s specific permission.  A mortal can be dedicated to only one Godbound at a time. If they give worship to a full pantheon, their devotion is given over to the Godbound of the pantheon most fitting to their personality and desires. If there’s no obvious reason to rule otherwise, a group of mortals pledged to a pantheon are evenly divided among them.

Once pledged to a Godbound, a worshiper cannot voluntarily leave their service. They might leave the cult, they might serve a new faith, they might make war on their former deity, but they are still treated as worshipers of the Godbound for purposes of their gifts of Apotheosis. This leaves apostates in a very vulnerable position, prey to whatever rebuke their gods might deliver to them. Only by finding another Godbound or divinity willing to accept them as a worshiper can they be free of their former allegiance.

Forming the Cult
A Godbound needs at least one village worth of devout adherents before they can form a useful cult. Smaller numbers may provide all manner of useful mundane services, but a minimum of one village's worth of believers is needed to fuel their patron with a flow of Dominion.  These adherents must be willing to accept the rituals, sacrifices, and laws of the cult. Backslidden, suppressed, or careless believers are still believers, but only religiously-active worshipers count toward a Godbound’s cult.

This number of believers forms a faction with a Power of 1 and one beneficial Feature related to the Godbound's values and beliefs. Thus, the devotees of a Godbound of the Sword might have the Feature, "The cult has a strong martial tradition.", while one of Wealth might be "The cult is very wealthy." The player chooses the Feature with the GM's approval. This new faction has no existing Problems, except for those burdens that the Godbound might choose to deliver as part of their new holy writ.

Cult Power increases at the GM's judgment, when the PC has managed to accrue enough new believers to merit a Power increase. They must have some formal association with the existing cult to count.

Holy Laws and Dominion Gains
Once the Godbound has mustered a cult faction, they can begin to give them holy writ, sacred teachings, or other religious instruction. For some Godbound, these religious strictures are very much about living a life in line with the hero’s beliefs, dutiful obedience to a moral code, and outward-focused obligations to the world around the believer.

For other Godbound, these strictures might involve meditation, group worship, glorification of their name, or more ego-satisfying demands. A Godbound can lay almost any set of rules or demands on their cult, so long as the focus is ultimately the Godbound and their glory or desires for the world. The more exacting and demanding the cult’s strictures, the more generous the flow of Dominion it grants.

A Godbound decides how harsh and demanding their holy laws might be, and the cult gains a number of Problem points related to these requirements, as described under the faction rules on the following pages. These Problems can never be solved or lessened; they're intrinsic to worshiping the Godbound. A Godbound can spend a faction turn changing their theology, but this stress inevitably costs the faith one point of Power as it shrinks due to the loss of traditionalists and the surge of heretical interpretations.

A Godbound who makes only nominal demands on the worshipers in terms of sacrifices and personal behavior doesn't need to add any Problem points. Worshiping them is easy and low-commitment. Their cult grants them Dominion equal to its Power each month.

A Godbound who makes only a few sharp demands from their believers, such as occasional costly sacrifices or some firm, restrictive code of personal conduct will have a cult with related Problems equal to a quarter of the cult's action die, rounded up, increasing as it grows in power. These cults grant an extra point of Dominion each month, however, compared to more clement faiths.

A truly grueling faith with many harsh requirements has Problems equal to half the action die but grants an extra two Dominion points per month. Cults with so many requirements and sacrifices that the believers can hardly function without direct divine oversight have Problems equal to three-quarters of the action die, rounded up, but grant an extra three points per month. Such cult factions are likely to need their patron to actually get anything done, and can explode into chaos if they suddenly get a few more Problem points from some cause.