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God Bound

A Game of Divine Heroes is a role-playing game set in a shattered world where divine heroes, known as Godbound, emerge amidst the chaos following the fall of Heaven. Players can choose their starting location and character origins, gaining unique powers and abilities through the Words of Creation. The game emphasizes the duality of hope and terror brought by these heroes as they navigate a landscape filled with various foes and moral choices.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
54 views36 pages

God Bound

A Game of Divine Heroes is a role-playing game set in a shattered world where divine heroes, known as Godbound, emerge amidst the chaos following the fall of Heaven. Players can choose their starting location and character origins, gaining unique powers and abilities through the Words of Creation. The game emphasizes the duality of hope and terror brought by these heroes as they navigate a landscape filled with various foes and moral choices.

Uploaded by

hadrianashworth
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A Game of Divine Heroes

A Game of Divine Heroes


This jumpdoc requires the Godbound Game Manual, which has a free legal version

The Throne stands empty.

Heaven has fallen, and the Words of Creation thunder from new
throats.

The world is shattered, its scattered realms racked by the


aftershocks of the Last War and the final terrible struggle of the
Made Gods who strove to replace the vanished Creator. Some
realms have been reduced to nothing more than blasted
wastelands and silent bones, while others still endure in faded
splendor and growing hardship. Their natural laws flicker, for the
great engines of Heaven have begun to fail from lack of care.
Their angelic guardians were long ago dispersed by the Made
Gods and now nurse a bitter hatred of humanity's usurpation.

Into this twilight age have come the Godbound. Some say that it
is the decaying husks of the Made Gods that give them their power, gobbets of divinity falling
like rot to congeal about the souls of humankind. Others believe that it is the work of the
Creator, reaching out from Their silence to touch Their creations with new light. Most do not
pretend to know why it is that a common peasant girl should ignite with the sun's own brilliance,
or a grizzled old soldier should suddenly find half an army falling before his notched blade.
Bound by seeming chance to the Words of Creation, divine heroes in a broken world, men and
women who have seized the tools that have slipped from an absent God's hands. These
new-forged titans face a world ravaged by the mad ambitions of men and the cruel legacy of
human folly.

Undestined, unfettered, unchosen, they are Godbound, and their will is writ with fire.

Their foes are many: the jealous parasite gods that suck at the wounds of the world, the furious
Angelic Host that once held Heaven against the armies of men, and the endless legions of
sorcerers, god-monsters, mortal tyrants, and eldritch relicts that scourge the shattered realms.

The Godbound bring hope and terror in equal measure. Even the freshly-awakened among
them have incredible powers, able to hurl thunderbolts like lesser men throw stones, or spit
curses that kill five generations of their enemy's kin. They are burnt to ashes, and rise anew.
They are buried under hillsides, and shout the stones apart. They sing up gold from barren earth
or pour out an autumn harvest from their saddlebags. They work miracles, and men tremble.

Yet they are men and women, with the dreams that men and women dream. Some are saviors,
determined to lift their people from their hardships and lead them to a better day. Others are
mercenaries, lending their aid to whatever lord or sorcerer-prince can pay them in suitable coin.
And some, of course, are blind fools who wield their powers with the recklessness of children,

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A Game of Divine Heroes

building their dreams on the bones of the poor mortals around them. There are few who can
gainsay a Godbound's will, and not all these newborn divinities have a hero's soul. Some
nurture red dreams of glory and unfettered rule.

And even so, such terrible powers do exist. In the wilderness the wretched parasite gods swell
on stolen celestial power, sucking the world's blood from its wounds. Grim eldritch adepts plumb
nameless secrets and forge pacts with the monstrous Uncreated for power enough to tax even
a divinity. Hulking Misbegotten shamble from the darkness and bring their numberless spawn
behind them. These and other foes can force a Godbound to flee or perish if the newborn
wielder of the Words hasn't the help of a faithful pantheon of allies.

Into this world you have come. Your name is a Word of Creation. Your will is the shadow of God
on Earth. With these ​1000WoP ​(Words of Power) will you be a merciful god to your people, or
will you make them dread your holy name?

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A Game of Divine Heroes

Starting Location
There are many disconnected states that float within Uncreated Night, but barring any toggles
that change it, you are fated to start your journey within the Realm of Arcem, or in the tongue of
the old world “Refuge.”

Roll 1d15, or freely choose your starting location

1. Ancalia
A kingdom fallen in on itself after a calamitous otherworldly invasion, plagued by warlords and
worse.

2. Atheocracy of Lom
A land embittered by the Shattering, ruled by the fearsome priests of True Reason and their
sorcery.

3. Ulstang Skerries
Witch-viking raiders from cold northern isles who enslave the dead to drive their bone-prowed
ships.

4. Bleak Reach
A ruined exile-land where the refugees and outcasts have scratched out a hard, unlucky
existence.

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A Game of Divine Heroes

5. Bright Republic
The last bastion of advanced science in the realm, threatened by the decay of its vital
technology

5. Howlers
Nomadic raiders of a lost empire who plunder neighbors and guard the poisonous words of their
sires.

6. Kasirutan Archipelago
Pirates and traders of the hot southeastern islands, the finest sailors in all the realm.

7. Nezdohva
A nation of serfs, artificers and quarreling golem-nobles under the rule of the mechanical Iron
Czar.

8. Oasis States
Pyramid-dwelling inhabitants of the desert grow much under the mad eye of the God-Pharaohs.

9. Patrian Empire
A martial state long locked in combat with Dulimbai, dependent on heavy infantry and slave
labor.

10. Raktine Confederacy

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A Game of Divine Heroes

A patchwork of city-states and rural domains with dark, potent wizards and a ferocious
independence.

11. Regency of Dulimbai


Vanguard of an ancient invasion, proud of its erudition and art and convinced of its right to rule
all.

12. Toba Plains


Proud riders who serve the holy monks of their ancestor-monasteries and the armies of
Dulimbai.

13. The Thousand Gods


A god-plagued land of countless tribes who wield ancient theotechnical magic in service to their
deities.

15. Vissio
Former Patrian colonies turned independent city-states of merchants, artists, poisoners, and
poets.

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A Game of Divine Heroes

Origin
Man, woman, transhuman remnant, or alien refugee from the beyond Uncreated Night, it makes
little difference now that you have Bound a Word. Freely pick your incarnated form, so long as it
doesn’t give any great advantage. If it does, you still can pick it, but it will require you to buy
Facts​ or ​Gifts​ to support it.

Do you have a history in this world? Most who live here were born here, and you may be
counted among their number, but there’s a steady stream of people who sail in from beyond the
edge of the world, make their way here through the Night Roads, fall through an error in reality,
or otherwise are displaced. If you wish, you may count yourself among their number.
But that was what you were. And what you were is less
important than who you are now.

As a ​God​, someone who embodies the very essence of


what it means to be Mortal-made Divine? Maybe your
origins are humble, or maybe you were born to the halls of
petty mortal power, but that doesn’t matter now. You are
Divine, Incarnated, and Awful in the old meaning of the
word, So full of awe that the mortal world cannot bear it.
And the world will know it, and the world will ​shake ​where
you walk.

You may take ​four​ 100WoP Theurgy perks for free, and
discount ​four ​perks from the 200WoP tier,​ one​ perk from
the tier 400WoP, and​ one​ 600WoP perk.

You may use a higher tier discount on a lower tier perk.

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Perks
Universal Truths
There are truths universal to the Godbound, ones you share in simply for being what you are.

Exceptionalism​(Free for All)


Even if they were the most average soul
imaginable before, after being invested with
their word a Godbound is already a bit
exceptional. This shores up any great
weakness you have until it’s at worse just
below average, makes you generally
exceptional in most other areas, and gives
you at least one area of real strength where
few can match you. This is all raw ability or
talent, but with this alone you already are
going to be stand-out.

As a special option, if this is your first jump,


and you have not taken a Body Mod, you
may treat this perk as your Body Mod going
forward.

Facts ​(3 free, then 50WoP per additional


fact) immortal, beautiful, fast learner
Everyone has facts about them, statements
that are true. You might be an Immortal Elf,
you might practice Curse Eating, or are a
Rich Heiress.
swordmaster, artificer, immortal, theotechnician, fast learner
A fact says something about you that matters.
If you’re an elf, then you’re good at being an
Elf. It matters. You can walk silently, get by
with little sleep, and demonstrate great
patience. If you’re a rich heiress, you know
how to act in formal situations, can get introductions to the right kind of people, and have a kind
of inherited respectability about you that resists blandishments. These kinds of facts never really
‘overlap’, so it’s probably not worthwhile to be both an elf and a ranger, for instance.

In future worlds, you can usually assert that a fact is still true. You are a Rich Heiress or an Elf,
so long as that fact COULD make sense. Being an Elf in Harry Potter, for example, wouldn’t, as
Harry Potter elves are very different creatures. But it probably could work in Exalted for a tribe of

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bio-engineered forest dwellers. Even if you cannot, the truths the Fact asserts about you still
work.
Alternatively, you may use facts to gain access to things. Used in this way, they are no longer a
general competence bonus, but instead enhance you in a more limited but impressive way.

You may also use a Fact to gain access to a low magic tradition as an Archmage of that school
- doing so means you support its principles yourself, so that it continues to work in future travels.
It also means that so long as the local magic isn’t completely and utterly incompatible with that
world, you may teach it to others.

You may use a Fact to be a Lord or Lady of a Knightly order.

There are certainly other uses for Facts, and if you’re familiar with them, you may use a fact that
way, provided Godbound are allowed to use a fact in that manner.
Additionally, you may use a Fact to give you 4 Integration points worth of cybernetics that are
completely ‘covered’ and ‘paid for’. This may be actual cybernetics, but might also be used to
represent the enhanced abilities of the ‘cousins,’ or investments from pacts with the Uncreated,
or any number of other things.

And you may also use it to pick up one of the Legacy Talents (except Natural Power. If you want
a gift, buy the Gift perk instead).

If this is your first jump, then physical Facts about you that aren’t obviously inhuman may
become part of your ​Exceptionalism​ body mod going forward.

Divinity ​(Free for All)


You are invested with divine power. On one
foot stands on the familiar earth of the mortal
world, but one stands upon the cosmic
firmament of one of the Words that define
and reinforce reality. You aren’t just another
demigod, with diluted divine power struggling
to break free of mortal shackles, but one
bearing the full might of divinity, if for now a
weak one.

Being bound to a Divine Word has a number


of knock off consequences. Your nature
interferes with many lesser magics, meaning
that you get limited benefits from many local magical items (though this won’t affect things from
other worlds), it take you investing your own power for most local healing magics to take hold
and your soul is too ‘heavy’ for normal resurrection magic to work on (again, for magics from this
world).

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A Game of Divine Heroes

On the other hand you also shrug off many curses and blights that terrorize mortals. Terrible
nation-withering curses wash off you like so much dross, and you can defy and resist forces no
mortal may contest.

A Godbound is always a ‘worthy’ foe, counting as ‘more powerful’ for any effect that targets the
weak or works differently against the vulnerable. For example, a charm magic that turns anyone
weaker than the user into a slave but a peer could resist would treat the Godbound as a peer,
even if they weren’t.

Effort ​(2 Free, 100WoP per additional purchase)


You only have so much to give at any one time, but as a God you have more than most. Effort
represents that, how much you have to invest. While great acts or displays of divine power
might deplete it until you have time to rest, lesser efforts merely tie it up for a moment.

You may also use it to defy that which you should not have escaped, shrug off curses and
dodging traps, or otherwise succeed when you should have failed to save yourself.

In addition to starting with more with extra purchases, your pool will also grow faster with each
extra purchase beyond the complementary two.

Influence ​(2 Free, 50WoP per additional purchase)

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As a divine force, you have an outside impact upon the world. Influence represents an ability to
twist the world to maintain an unnatural state by your say-so. Influence is ‘tied up’ as you
exercise it upon the world, and it has little persistence once no longer supported. While this
doesn’t mean everything you do with influence vanishes the moment you retract it, it does mean
that the world quickly acts upon the changed state.

If you’ve rearranged things into a new stable configuration without the intervention of Influence,
then that might not mean much… but if you’ve created a school system the culture can’t
support, or redrawn national borders, then the consequences of withdrawing Influence might be
swift. That school system will probably collapse (though the students it educated will remain
educated), and there will be national tensions and pushbacks, or even war, from people who are
unhappy with the new lines you’ve drawn.

Even if done more carefully, it might still be washed away. If the nation COULD have a good
school system, but lacks the political will to achieve that, then making it happen via fiat will
work… but once you remove that fiat all the factors that stopped it from originally happening will
come back into play, unreduced.
Essentially, Influence lets you have a completely outside impact on
things to achieve impossible goals, but eventually the world will
remember that that was impossible once you remove yourself and
recover your investment.

Influence naturally grows as you grow in power as a Godbound, but


extra purchases made here are on top of that, and don’t run into the
same diminishing returns that natural growth suffers from.

Dominion​ (Free)
Where influence belongs to you, and returns to you, Dominion is
power gathered that you can invest to make lasting changes to the
world. Dominion both leaves behind the subtlety of Influence, and
possesses ontological inertia. You are a being who can hold
Dominion once it has been gathered, and use it to engineer changes
to the status quo, to engineer reality itself.
Words ​(Free) Sorcery, Endurance, artifice, sword, time
Being a Godbound means you are bound to the Words of God.
Three of them to start with, to be precise. Maybe you are tied to
Fate, or Fire. From these you derive your Gifts, the divine powers
that you wield, and you manipulate them to achieve your Miracles.
Sorcery, artifice, Faerie Queen
To start with, you have from your Words 6 lesser gifts, or 3 greater ones, or a mix between the
two.

Fray ​(Free)

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As a Godbound, you are a being of literal divine wrath. For you, scouring away the weak is not a
challenge or an effort, but something that simply happens when they’re in your way. You can
inexorably and causally cleave away the root of life in your lesser enemies. It doesn’t really
matter what defenses they’ve raised, however you do it, it’s an expression of divine power. The
method you use is only window dressing.

The Divine Path


A Godbound takes either The Words of Apotheosis or Free Divinity for free.

The Words of Apotheosis ​(100WoP)


You aren’t just a god, you’re Their God. There is power in faith, in ritual and in deference, in
being the figure who shapes and guides the lives of mortals, and protects their souls when life
has fled.

You know on sight if someone is a worshiper of yours, though you don’t know if they are an
obedient one. You may accept someone’s faith and soul into your keeping even if they have
already pledged it to another. On the other hand, once someone is pledged to you their soul is
yours unless they find another who can claim it - simply turning their back on your faith or
denouncing you does not remove your claim to their eternal self. You may cast someone out of
your faith at any time if you don’t wish to claim them.

For now, and with only this perk, you may guard the souls of the dead in your charge into
dreamless slumber, or cast them out. While in this world, an unguarded soul will fall into
Damnation.

Over time you will be able to grant your worshipers the ability to sanctify things in your name,
strike down your own worshipers with curses or plagues, hear their prayers, look upon any who
follow you to see what’s happening around them, empower a handful of worshipers as lesser or
greater champions to you, appear before any of your worshipers for a time, and bless or curse
an endeavor for any group made up substantially of your followers.

As a god following the path of faith, you may gather Dominion over time based on your
worshipers. While any god may glut themselves on power if they have a large cult, by being
more demanding you can squeeze more strength from a smaller one. The greater a burden
membership becomes because of your demands, the more extra faith you may extract from
them. Just remember that you are creating unfixable problems for your own followers, for if
they’re fixable, then the strictures aren’t harsh enough to extract additional Dominion from them.

Free Divinity ​(100WoP)


Rather than deal with the worshiper game, you are a self-contained god. You generate
Dominion at a steady rate - probably lower than any but the smallest cults, though it will
increase somewhat with your own power, but you owe it to no one outside yourself.
Note that with only Free Divinity you can’t interact with worshipers - you can’t receive faith or
offer a spiritual guarantee against damnation. You neither need nor are able to to act as

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someone else’s god. And while you’re giving up power… was it ever your power to begin with?
Being a god is a responsibility, and for you, you owe it only towards yourself.
General Theurgy
The words that you have bound don’t merely
make you a mortal who has fumbled into
divine power, but divine power that has
bound itself into mortal form. These are the
tools of your divinity. Many of these may be
bought multiple times. If you use a discount
or one of your free purchases, it only is
discounted or free for one purchase.

Lesser Gifts ​(100 WoP per purchase)


You may take any lesser gift. They might
represent your mastery of one of your words,
but it also might represent a cybernetic graft,
or the fact you’re an elf. These don’t have to
be canonical Gifts, so long as they are on the
same level. You may also purchase two
lesser or one greater transhuman talents in
place of a lesser gift.

Problematic ​(100 WoP per purchase)


While it might not make you many friends,
you are a constant source of problems. More
specifically, your presence and influence can
be felt by an issue you cause that is
troublesome for groups that oppose you, or
that you oppose.

Choose a fact that you champion, represent,


or are otherwise tied to. That fact manifests around you in many different ways, a sign of your
presence. For example, if you love reading, you could choose that as your Problem.

As a Problem, your love of reading might make a covert group opposed to you suddenly have
problems with information security, as small details start getting written down and correlated,
increasing their exposure. An angel cult might start losing followers as their members become
exposed to new viewpoints. Or a feudal lord might have a rash of sudden literacy raise
discontent at home.

On its own, a problem generated by this perk won’t be massive, though it can be the straw that
breaks the camel’s back, or it could worsen an issue they already have past the breaking point.
It is also possible for this perk to completely fail against a group that is already in line with the

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fact, or one so alien to it that it has no place to take root. You may take the same fact multiple
times, though remember you have no control over how it manifests, nor if it manifests as a
single significant problem, or a host of lesser ones.

Regardless of distance, your cult is always influenced by you, and a vector of your influence.

Best Feature Forwards ​(100 WoP per purchase)


This one will earn you friends. The opposite of Problematic, your influence is a good omen in
and of itself, at least for your allies and those you feel well disposed to. This works basically
exactly the same way. Pick a fact about yourself, and echoes of that fact will play out as signs of
your influence, in exactly the same way as Problematic, only as a positive Feature instead of as
a negative problem.

For example, if you had the same fact that you love to read, it might manifest as allied groups
staying unusually on top of events because everyone read all the available intelligence, or a city
dealing with a plague unusually well be informing themselves of proper precautions.

It’s possible for a group to be so alien to your nature that no beneficial feature derived from you
could take hold, though also remember this is an expression of divine presence. It usually
works.

Regardless of distance, your cult is always influenced by you, and a vector of your influence.

Trouble-Magnet ​(100WoP)
No, you don’t attract trouble. Trouble attracts you. It’s not always obvious what the heart of a
problem is, or what’s actually happening. If you’re trying to motivate a village that has given into
nihilistic despair by reminding them of hope through brave deeds, it won’t do you a lot of good if
the actual reason is that an Uncreated horror has stolen their will to live.

While this won’t tell you if you’re barking up the wrong tree, whenever you set about trying to
solve something, you’ll find yourself drawn towards the cause, source, or leverage point of the
issue. You may think of this as a blessing of destiny or fate, and you might have to keep your
eyes open. It’s not going to tell you ‘look here’, even though it will lead you right by it. But it’s
hard for a problem to be unsolvable simply because you can’t access or find the root of the
issue.

Greater Gift ​(200 WoP per purchase)


You may take any greater gift. They might represent your mastery of one of your words, but it
also might represent a power bargained from The Chained Lady, or the fact you’re a dragon.
These don’t have to be canonical Gifts, so long as they are on the same level.

Secret Names ​(200 WoP per purchase)


You gain an additional Word every time you buy this perk, just as if you had developed it
‘naturally’ through growth.

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Save for the Grace​ (200 WoP per purchase)


You are substantially more likely to resist,
escape, or endure hardship or adversity than
even other Godbound. Your spirit is bright,
your reflexes fast, and your body hardy.
Every time you buy this, up to a maximum of
three times, you are further fortified in such
ways.
1. For the first purchase, if you face a
horror or blight so irresistible that even
a semi-divine nature might normally
fail outright, you’ll find you still have a
chance to resist.
2. For the second, if even through grace
you could normally only partially
resist, you now wholly do so.
3. And for the third, if you fail to escape
entirely, you still might escape
partially.
Man’s Dominion ​(200 WoP per purchase)
You need put forth no particular effort to gather divine authority towards yourself, it comes
naturally. With every purchase of this perk, that trickle increases. More than that, over time
densier strains of divine substance will congel within this flow. With a single purchase, it gathers
fast enough so that once per year you may conjure forth a Celestial Shard. But every additional
purchase increases the flow proportionally.

Divine Chariot​ (200 WoP)


You may not yet be mighty in your own right, but your stead is a awesome one, for you ride one
of the ancient Godwalkers, precursors to the Made Gods, and some of the most terrible engines
of war ever made by the Former Empires after they had already glutted themselves on the
bones of Heaven.

This perk counts as two purchases of the ​Fact​, that you are a Godwalker Pilot, and that you are
a trained theotechnician. More than that, it is an expression of your very nature to be a pilot, and
you may freely Commit Effort, as well as use gifts and miracles while piloting. You may use the
Godwalkers Effort as your own while linked. Generally speaking, you may treat the Walker as
your own body, though use common sense. At the same time, you are better at remembering
that a Godwalker is a tool rather than your own body. You may resist sympathetic damage done
to your Godwalker with whatever powers or fortitude you possess.

Lastly, you find maintenance a straightforward if demanding task. You may use Influence in
place of Dominion for maintenance and repair work - this includes things like training up a crew

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of theotechnicians, though remember that with influence, they won’t necessarily stay loyal and
working for you once you retract your influence.
Blade of Unmaking​ (400 WoP)
Much like the Angels in plotting the final fall of
creation, your might is a fell one when turned
to the purpose of destruction. When your
blows land, or you invoke terrible forces, they
cleave the world in fundamental ways that few
beings born of the laws of nature can match.
This is less about doing harm more easily, but
rather a magnifier once harm is done.

Mysteries of the Throne ​(400 WoP)


You are a master of High Sorcery, the eldritch
magic of True Theurgy. You have bound the
Word of Sorcery, and have Adapt of the Gate,
Adapt of the Way, and Adapt of the Throne,
as well as The Excellent Pause.

In addition, while you can suspend no more


spells than any other Godbound with your
level of divine might… it cost you nothing to
do so. You effortlessly suspend them, rather
than being forced to tie up your strength in the
act.

For every Fact you spend on mastering a low


magic path, you gain a second low magic path

for free, and your learning rate is doubled when it’s magic.

Trouble and Strife​ (400 WoP)


The Strifes come naturally to you, to the point where you don’t need a teacher, merely a point of
inspiration to get started. Each technique is easily and casually learned, and it’s effortless and
automatic to integrate what you learned in one to apply with another. Such arts are more
powerful and wielded with greater finesse in your hands than they would be for other people. A
blow that might have just barely missed will strike true, a near accident will be avoided, and a
strike that might have been endured will instead stagger the foe.

This extends to future martial arts that you may learn in other worlds - the phenomena you
experience are teachers enough for even supernatural arts. It’s also a fast teacher, and you
learn such things with unnatural rapidity. You also cleanly integrate everything you learned into
a

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unified whole. If learning requires unnatural


enlightenment, you may consider yourself enlightened.
You are also a good teacher of the same of the Strifes
and other martial or mystical traditions and principles.

You start with one Strife already mastered, and the first
steps taken of a second.

Words of Mastery ​(400 WoP)


Your skills go beyond the mortal, becoming their own
path to the divine. As you become more and more skilled
as something, you learn to bind that skill to your own
divinity, until that skill becomes a Word in its own right.
Such Words will develop over time an intrinsic benefit that
subtly enhances the skill, then you will start being able to
wield the skill to perform miracles, and finally the skill will
develop into Gifts. As you continue pushing past the point
of perfection, more such gifts will develop.

As a display of refined force rather than natural energy,


you have an extra reserve of effort for your Skill Words
that is roughly half as deep as your natural Effort.

Divine Architect​ (400 WoP)


For all their sins, the Former Empires had achieved great
things. Some of them terrible, but great. In many ways
they had been poised at the break of apotheosis even
before they stormed Heaven and seized the Word.

All that is gone now. It will never be recreated. Perhaps


these new man-born gods will raise mankind back up to
the same height, but it will not be on the same paths. The
very laws of reality that allowed for the Former Empires
have changed, the substance of reality inundated with
forign elements. Their path is gone. Such will not happen
to your work.

Simple time and entropy struggle to undo what you have


wrought. If you establish a bustling town, simple shifting
economies won’t wipe it away. Only intentional damage
will do so. If you create a theotechnician factory, shifting
laws won’t render it inoperable or cause the tools it
produced to stop working - those tools could be

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intentionally destroyed, or the factory could, but it couldn’t be rendered irrelevant simply
because the Engines that generate reality were recalibrated. If you craft a transhuman species,
they will breed true so long as steps aren’t actively taken to stop or dilute your work. Things you
make resist entropy, and even tend to repair themselves over time. This isn’t all powerful, but it
would take some extreme wear and tear for something you’ve made to actually get rundown
enough to break.

Unthought Bargains ​(600 WoP)


Many foolish men have damned
themselves in truth by their
dealings with Uncreated Night.
It is an entropic force of
negation, and when it carves
intellects into false-being to
interact with those places that
exist, those minds are little
more than a thin veneer over an
incarnation of ruin. Still, the
most ‘successful’ strands of the
Uncreated know that they must
deal true to at least the letter of
their word or else none would
betray creation for the
blasphemous anti-treasures of
unbeing. And because of this,
inevitably some even come out
ahead in their bargains.

You have walked out of yours


the seedling of a fifth Uncreated
Lord, only held back by your
newness and your origin inside
stable reality.

Pick a theme for how you


channel ruin into the world. It
can be something direct like ‘fire
and destruction’ or subtle like
‘misuse and perversion of
purpose.’That theme becomes
a ​Fact​ about you, and you gain
a free purchase of that perk to

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A Game of Divine Heroes

represent it, as well a purchase of ​Best Feature Forwards​ for the same to represent how ruin
plays to your and your allies advantage. You may buy additional themes for an 200WoP.

But this is less a positive blessing wielded for your sake, and more a negative curse wielded
against your enemies. You gain four purchases of ​Problematic​ for the same fact. Miracles that
play upon your theme of ruin are somewhat stronger, cheaper, more reliable, and can stretch
the themes of your Words a bit farther. The same is true for any Gifts or other power you
develop that plays into your new theme. It will be slightly cheaper than it should be, slightly more
powerful than it should be, more reliable than it should be, and can somewhat stretch beyond
what you should be able to do with abilities you develop from that source so long as that
stretching is in the service of playing into your theme or into Uncreation itself.

Lastly, when calling up and binding the Uncreated, open Night Roads that lead to nowhere, or
spreading your kind of ruin, you may spend Effort as if it was Dominion, though such exertions
will take a week to recover absent other perks.

Wisdom From Before ​(600WoP)


It’s hard to truly wrap your mind around how much has been lost. What was once a seamless
tapestry has since become a million disparate, disconnected threads.

Destroying what left isn’t a crime or a horror, but a mercy. It’s not worth saving, and the
architects of that ruin deserve to burn forever for what they did.

You gain three purchases of ​Problematic ​for “Believes in Nothing” and three purchases for “It’s
Better this Way.” Your presence teaches the lessons these mortals need to hear. Any
unclaimed souls and unguarded souls around you are pulled into your orbit, such that any who
fall in your presence without a god’s mark of ownership or similar belong to you as if they were
your worshipers. And no casual effort will gain anyone access to souls you’ve claimed in such a
way - resurrection magic will fail without your permission, rituals to speak with the dead will
return nothing, and all other methods of contacting, interacting with, or detecting a soul own will
fall short.

Rather than the dreamless sleep the false pretenders offer though, you’re ready to give these
mortals what they deserve. Your ‘presence’ contains the mechanisms of torment, to keep them
awake, aware, and suffering. They know you’re doing it to them because they deserve it, and if
they don’t know that, they’ll learn. The souls you keep in torment this way count as a second
Cult devoted to you, one operating under completely crippling requirements, allowing you to
extract a steady stream of Dominion from them. You don’t have to torture any given soul.
Perhaps you wish to offer a respite as a bribe?

They also are ready made material for any use you have for souls, being readily reshaped into
what you need from them. If you’re using them to fulfill the ‘soul’ part of a project that needs
such, then it counts as one already done ‘quest’ and the souls portion of the action is completely
Plausible. Souls incarnated through such an action continue to count as if they were your
Worshipers for purposes of powers that manipulate and control such, though they no longer
count towards your Hell Cult for generating Dominion.

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A Game of Divine Heroes

Miracles that play upon the


idea of pure destruction are
stronger, cheaper, more
reliable, and can stretch the
themes of your Words a bit
farther. The same is true for
any Gifts or other power you
develop that plays into pure
destruction. It will be slightly
cheaper than it should be,
slightly more powerful than it
should be, more reliable than it
should be, and can somewhat
stretch beyond what you
should be able to do with
abilities you develop from that
source so long as that
stretching is in the service of
pure destruction.

Lastly, when breaking the


world, destroying miracles, or
invoking apocalypse, you may
spend Effort as if it was
Dominion, though such
exertions will take a week to
recover absent other perks.

Kleptocratic Idolatry ​(600


WoP)
There is a whole world out
there, bigger than almost
anyone can imagine, full of so
many self-contained lives, so
many self-contained stories.
So mean unique moments,
here and gone. Little bits of
beauty or wonder that serve no
greater purpose than to be.

Wasteful. You could do so


much more with it. With…

existence. And so you’ll take it. You’ll take everything.

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A Game of Divine Heroes

To start with, double your reserves of energy and power. This extra power isn’t actually part of
you though, rather. Rather, it otherwise wasted energy that was going into ‘the laws of nature’
and ‘supporting existence’ and other useless things that aren’t about you. There probably aren’t
any short term issues from using it, at least that you’ll care about. But if you keep using it in the
same area long term you may get harassed by people who don’t understand you needed it
more than they did.
Such issues can take many
forms, usually connected to what
you were drawing from. For
example, if you were using the
Word of Fire, fires might start
burning more intensely and
faster, as you sapped the
regulating forces governing
them. Or they could produce less
heat for the same level of fuel as
you directly drained how much
fire there is. Or they could
produce energies other than
heat.

Eventually more serious issues


might happen, fires in the area
could become gateways leading
beyond creation, letting
Uncreated Night mix with
substance, with great fires
having a chance of opening into
full night roads, or curdling into
cysts unnatural sorceries.
Take advantage of this. After all, when the natural world is inconstant, men turn to their gods!

You also can make things about you. It’s easy for you to ‘suck the air out of the room’, sapping
the energy and will to act from others to bolster your own presence. While more significant
beings may resist this, you can make others less important even as you bolster your own
significance till it’s simply the natural and inevitable that you dominate whatever field of
competition you are engaged in, whether it’s speaking to the crowd, or striding the battlefield, or
negotiating a contract.

You should make sure to keep it up, as people rapidly reclaim the significance YOU claimed, as
if it was ever actually theirs and they had any right to it. Mortals never appreciate their proper
place in the order of things.

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A Game of Divine Heroes

This leeching is somewhat indiscriminate, but that shouldn’t


be a problem. If they’re weak enough to be affected, they’re
there to make you look good anyways.

Lastly, miracles of parasitism are stronger, cheaper, more


reliable, and can stretch the themes of your Words a bit
farther. The same is true for any Gifts or other power you
develop that plays into a consumptive or leeching theme. It
will be slightly cheaper than it should be, slightly more
powerful than it should be, more reliable than it should be,
and can somewhat stretch beyond what you should be able
to do with abilities you develop from that source so long as
that stretching is in the service of hungry
self-aggrandisement.

Pillager of the Heavens ​(600WoP)


The ancient Theurgists of the Former Empires pushed the
boundary of what was possible in countless different ways,
not merely mapping the laws that governed the then
unshattered worlds, but shifting the very boundaries of those
laws. They had mastered the physical world, and understood
the deep mysteries of the spirit. If they had not been struck
down in the prime of their victory, the world would be a very
different place.

You are a true heir to their legacy. To start with, you gain the
Fact​ theotechnician, but in your hands such works are no
longer merely Low Magic. Your designs, your work, is fully
miraculous. If you already have theotechnician, you “double
up” on it, your skill going beyond what is possible for a mortal.
You also receive six purchases of ​Best Feature Forwards
for theotechnician.
But your expertise doesn’t end there. Just as the ancient Theurgists were able to put the
discarded tools of God to good use, leaping their work forward, so may you. You are able to
repurpose sources of divine or cosmic significance into fuel for your work.

For example, the properties of faith and worship have proven that they support the creation of
miracles - what if you cut out the middleman, and directly incorporated souls into the structure of
your workings? There are plenty of them not being put to use after all, and if you don’t do
anything with them they’re liable to go to waste. You might also sabotage natural law, and
redirect the cosmic friction that caused to support your works.

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A Game of Divine Heroes

Generally speaking, you may repurpose the world and use it to


pay the Dominion you need to accomplish your industry. You
must get some kind of access to the thing you’re repurposing,
while it’s perfectly reasonable to undermine the physical laws
that support the manufacturing chains of hostile groups'
economies, you will need some kind of direct or indirect
access to those lands to gain access to the support
infrastructure of their physical laws. If you’re turning souls into
prayer engines to fuel ongoing miracles, you’ll need
dissidents, undesirables, and prisoners of war to convert. And
such work will always take time on top of the time devoted to
actually manufacturing the Wonder you’re making. Also,
obviously, you should be careful to not use something you’ll
need later.

Recovering a prayer engine back into the soul it once was is possible… but it is expensive and
time consuming. It makes a better threat to use against hostages than something you should
actually carry out, though examples may need to be made. And if the degenerate nations that
opposed you collapse after you’ve made farming impossible and you want to absorb their lands
for your people, you’ll need to reengineer the necessary natural laws for those lands to support
life once again.

Loosely Tethered ​(600 WoP)


The nature of life is poor, cruel, and brutish. And for all the grace upon you, you have at least
one foot still in mortality. That’s what the Former Empires forgot, they had these high ideal,
pursued meaningless arguments about ideas as stupid as the nature of good or what counts as
justice. Now look at them. They were meat, and they got eat.

Even as the very underpinnings of reality warped and shifted, life clung on. Ugly, unsightly life,
life unconcerned with high ideals or pointless principles. Sometimes it changed to generate the
very principles it needed to survive, other times it learned to do without. It grew lean, refined
itself till it needed almost nothing, and learned overwhelming hunger to consume all in those
rare moments of plenty.

Though you walk upon one of the fortunate realms that never truly fell, despite what it’s
inhabitants might think, your nature has been shaped to fit one of the fallen and failed realms,
one whose heaven engines have all gone still.

Any force that depends on external reality becomes inconstant and ‘glitchy’ when used against
you, doubly so if it isn’t directed against you by a living will. You may walk off falls of any height,
wade through lava, or breath vacuum. You likewise treat their consequences more casually -
you can’t simply walk straight up a wall, but you can parkour better than any Prince, or fall
slower than a princess.

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A Game of Divine Heroes

Nonmagical directed force is largely ineffectual at the human level - you would notice someone
slamming a boulder into you but nothing less than that. Even then magical or vast forces are
only half as effective as normal, ​at most​. If not carefully directed you’re liable to be moved by a
blow without being hurt as the very rules that govern motion twist in your favor. This does
nothing to protect you from forces that justify and create themselves. In this world that includes
true divine power, reality warping, or the hideous unbeing of the Uncreated.
You also largely don’t require an external
reality. The pillars of existence falling means
little to you, as you weren’t dependent on
them anyways. Let time reject you or fall
through the cracks of unreality… you are
ready to endure.

And as a survivor, the ​Secret Names ​of the


Word of Endurance are written in your very
bones and marrow.

Lastly, you know better than to turn down a


meal. You may rapidly recover Effort by
gluttonous feasting. While every full bite of
nurturing food takes minutes off your
recovery, beings with stronger spirits can take
hours, and magical or divine flesh may go
past merely restoring, and actually allow you
to store extra energy as you digest their
significance.

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A Game of Divine Heroes

Treasure
Gods and Heroes and Kings and Sorcerers are one and all, known for their treasures. Many
Godbound are all of those things. Whether redeemer of old legacies or inheritors of the Empires
that consumed heavens, yours is a legacy resplendent.
Starting Weapons and Armor ​(Free)
Even the greatest mortals tools are
easy enough for a God to acquire.
Anything from the finest cloth armor to
the heaviest fully articulated plate can
be yours. Likewise, whether sword,
bow, or even gun, you may take what
you wish among mortal armaments,
though remember that physics won’t
support the operations of more
advanced technology outside of
specially stabilized regions.

A Baron’s Ransom ​(Free)


You can also start with a bit of wealth,
enough to live comfortably for about a
year, in the form of pretty much any
non-magical goods you want. Though
obviously the more valuable the form
you take, the less of it you have and
the harder it might be to get the full
value. It doesn’t refill once spent. This
can include livestock or even trained
animals - a decent horse, a team of
hounds - as well as more lasting
goods.

Minor Wonders ​(100 WoP)


You have arrangements for a steady
supply of some kind of minor magical
goods - maybe a magical collage
collectively owes you, are you’r from a
major trading house from the Bright
Republic. Whatever the source you
can reliably get a modest stream of
whatever flavor of equipment you’re
owed, whether enough to keep a

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A Game of Divine Heroes

mercenary company equipped, or to supply most of a city’s wardings.

An Artifact of Power ​(200 WoP)


Maybe there’s a reason you were invested with power, for indeed, few morals come into
possession of such a treasure. You have come to own 30 Dominion worth of artifacts. This may
be purchased multiple times, if you need such ostentatious wealth. If they are damaged or
ruined, they will be steadily repaired until they’re restored to a pristine state, taking six days to
be completely repaired from destruction. If lost, they will make their way back to you within six
days.

If you have ​Divine Chariot​, then any purchase of this purely for Godwalker components is
discounted.

A Pillar of Reality ​(300 WoP)


Either in a side-room connected to your warehouse, or within a hard to reach Fragment of
Heaven you know a ritual to open a path to, lies a Reality Engine you control. It generates a
small realm, about the size of Japan. It’s features follow your design, and even if ruined or
depleted it will restore itself over time. It can be set to regenerate normal resources, but a single
engine on it’s own, unenhanced, is unable to support a complex enough reality for advanced
magic or technology to function properly on their own.

You know how to establish a small and safe Night Road between your current location and this
realm, using a simple ritual that (baring advantages) will take you a few hours. The realm
already metaphysically belongs to you, if you have greater plans for it.

Companions
A Pantheon to call your own ​(100 WoP each, 500WoP for 8 ) Morgana
You may create or import a companion ​God​, who receives all freebies and ​200 Words of Power
to spend on their own perks, but may not take drawbacks. They may come from any nation or
way of life, or simply walk out of Uncreated Night and into your service.

Hell’s Angel​ (200WoP)


When the Former Empires invaded heaven and seized the celestial engines, they broke the
worlds that were. Most of the host was left horrified and bitter, and perhaps worse…
abandoned. Began to wish nothing more than for the eternal damnation of mankind for its sins,
and the destruction of the Creation that is, to make way for a new vision untainted by mortal life.

Perhaps the most notable exception to this to this were many of the angels who followed the
Warden of Hell, Sammael. Perhaps because of the perspective his duty as the purifier of sins
granted him, he didn’t turn against creation, and continues to seek to do his original duty.

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A Game of Divine Heroes

This ​Angelic Regent​ was once tasked with managing some of the engines of torment used to
cleanse mortals souls, before they went on to their final fate. Ousted by the Heaven Host when
they abandoned the corpse of Heaven for Hell, it has drifted, purposeless since then, unsure of
how to even begin to go about following its duties.

Something about your entrance to this world has grabbed it’s attention though, and in it, it sees
a path beyond Night. It hopes to follow you from this world, believing that there is something out
there that will let it fix all of this.

A mighty but subtle angel, it is a blur of divine action and power. It governs an aspect of ​Fire
and ​Fate​, but can effectively also touch both ​Deception​ and ​Command​. It naturally
understands many aspects of creation, its insight invaluable to anyone who wishes to craft
reality.

Mortal Craftsmanship​ (600WoP)


A relic of the Former Empires, manmade idol, a Made
God, pristine and undamaged, with functioning self-repair.
The armies of angels that came to break it after the fall of
it’s Paradise fell short, and the best they were able to do
was strand it on a cut and drifting fragment of a Night
Road. The Words of Power you spend can twist fate to
subvert it to your purposes, binding it to you.

It possesses three ​Words​ ​of your choice, has three


purchases of ​An Artifact of Power​ to represent its
panopy (though it cannot share these or give them to
others - even if they look like independent tools, they’re
actually part of the God) and and sees you as the ideal it
exists to champion. That doesn’t necessarily mean it will
obey you.

Drawbacks
Much as the defunct Former Empires broke the world for power, you may unleash calamity to
harvest a few more Words of Power, the words you need if you are to speak your dreams into
being. Just be more restrained than your predecessors along this path, or you will share their
fate.

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A Game of Divine Heroes

Far Realms ​(0 WoP Toggle)


There are many realms drifting within Uncreated Night. Some bear uncanny resemblance to
places from stories you already know - you can certainly find a realm uncannily alike Oerth, or
Athas, or Faerûn or Kara-Tur. Behind the scene their nature will be very different, but you can
find many lands and nations quite similar to ones you are already familiar with.

There are stranger places too. Some realms aren’t just a drifting continent or world unable to
still support the physics that modern civilizations need. There are star empires, and two fisted
vigilant heroes.

You may use the Jump in supplement mode with any other jump where a sword and sorcery or
the science fantasy equivalent hero could live and thrive. The background will change to fit,
including such things as the invasion of heaven and the discovery of the empty throne, the
creation of the Made Gods, and the shattering of reality, but time and ruin may have obscured
much of that.

Keep all point totals separate, spending them only on their own document.

Any drawbacks you take will adapt to the new setting, adding in new setting elements as
appropriate.

The March of Reason ​(+100 WoP)


Divinity is a plague, teach the Antipriests of the Order of True Reason, a scourge that they will
wipe from the world. Dupes of the bitter angels, a religion that exists to strip mankind of the
protection of higher powers so that they may drag their unarmored souls to hell. They can quash
miraculous powers through the power of the Stiflers, people changed by contact with The Pyre.

And somehow they seem to show up wherever you are. Their missionaries sow sedition and
unrest in peaceful lands, and whip more chaotic ones into a frenzy directed at any divine object
they can see. You’re doomed to spend your time here clashing with them, unless you crush
them entirely root and stem.

A Catholic Aegis ​(+100 WoP)


The Uniters and their Unitary Church, more properly known as the Church of the One is perhaps
the most widespread religion on Arcem. For all that it is suppose to unite, it is actually splintered
into many different national churches, who largely adopt a somewhat puritian version of that
nations basic moral attitudes. It teaches worship of The One, the true, original, omnipotent god
who is now absent due to the sins of man, but will one day return to redeem the pieous and cast
the rest into eternal damnation.

It exists as an aegis both to protect the souls of mankind in dreamless sleep, and the edge out
divine predators who seek to usurp power through mankind's faith. And now you’ll find that
pretty much everyone who doesn’t have a special reason to belong to another faith is a Uniter,
uninterested in listening to anyone claiming divinity.

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A Game of Divine Heroes

So long as you don’t try and spread a faith or claim godhood, you won’t have a problem, but any
attempt to establish a cult or claim divine right is going to run into stubborn groups unwilling to
listen, and poison the well against you far and wide.

A Family Matter​ (+100 WoP)


The other major path people take to guard their souls is via ancestor worship, literally keeping
the protection in the family. Through rites and sacrifice the souls of the dead are shielded from
both Hell and slumber, and they grant blessings and guidance onto their descendants. Such an
arrangement can over time become a chain though, as the generation after generation
contributes their own wishes, prejudices, and demands onto the living.

The ancestor cults are more widespread than they otherwise would be, and those ancestors are
more active in pushing their agendas. You’ll find yourself constantly dealing with politics that do
not quite make sense, as people pursue the interests, biases, and grudges of their great great
grandparents. The weight of time and ritual grows with every death, stifling the living, but to
break those chains would damn the dead to Hell. You may find yourself having to redirect your
own resources to support ancestor cults in areas you’ve come to control, if you wish to hold the
faith and worship of the living.

Sins of the Ancients​ (+100 WoP)


Hubris, hubris never changes. A thousand years ago the Theurgists of the Former Empires
pillaged heaven and earth for every scrap of power they could seize, breaking both in the
process. The true inheritors of those ancient madmen aren’t the kings and emperors who claim
descent from ancient times, but the petty sorcerers of the Bleak Reach and the ambitious grave
robbers who devele Night Roads for cursed wonders.

These are the souls who will break the world simply to prove they existed. They are like locus,
and they are everywhere. They’ll happily pillage any wonder or miracle they can get their hands
on. Lay a blessing of growth upon a field, and an army of them may show up to steal the soil in
hopes of it revealing the secrets of how you did it, uncaring that they’ll cause the very famine
you were trying to prevent.

Most of them hold little real power, but they’ll also rarely challenge you directly, and they aren’t
one group, or even one kind of group.

Mortal ages ​(+100 WoP)


The Uncreated Night nibbles at the world, the remaining Engines of Heaven wear down, and
new pantheons arise searching for allies against the coming darkness. There are many players
here, and their games are long and involved. Ten measly years lets you easily escape notice.
No more, now you must survive here longer, with all the increased risk that brings.

Every time you take this, double your time here, a maximum of seven times, but this last
doubling caps your stay at 1000 years.

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Incomveient Allies ​(+100 WoP)


You have a tendency to run into people who aren’t helping. Just because you are on the same
side… doesn’t mean you’re on the same side. From the Mercymen saving every by killing them
and binding them to dreamless sleep to save them from Hell, to Antipriests railing against
Parasite gods for their own dark purposes, just because you oppose the same thing doesn’t
mean you have similar ideas about what should be done.

You’ll often find yourself lumped in together with groups you despise as if you were all alike, or
competing with them for the same allies for the same causes, or even discover they’re the only
ones available to work with. One way or another, you’re going to be pressured into making
compromises you don’t wish to.

Enemies abound ​(+100 WoP)


The side ‘against’ you has an annoying tendency to get tangled in whatever you try to do. If
you’re working with the Bright Republic to stop the spread of the Hollowing Plague in an allied
city, you may discover angel cultists are taking advantage of the situation to spread their
influence. If you start building influence through the banking and financial centers of the world,
well it seems The Chained Court has begun infiltrating the same.

You don’t have to fight them. In fact, doing so may very well escalate the situation beyond what
you could reasonably expect. But they’ll probably be happy to fight you if they discover you.

Strange Corners ​(+100 WoP)


There are a lot more strange and threatening little cults and nameless forces in the world.
You’re much more likely to run into eldritch things that you have no idea about, that operate on
rules you don’t know or understand. This raises the max threat level only a bit, but makes the
world somewhat more dangerous on average, and in ways that you won’t be able to predict until
you run into them.

Person of Interest​ (+100/200/300 WoP).


Normally, when you enter a jump you insert flawlessly, whether as a Drop-In or as someone
with a pre-existing identity and, unless you go out of your way to demonstrate abilities that are
not native to the world and you aren't able to explain them, you can easily pass as a native
yourself. This is no longer the case though.

For 100 WoP, people seem to catch on that something is... off about you. Perhaps it's how you
have an otherworldly air about you, or you have strange knowledge of forgotten technology that
has fallen out of use even in the Bright Republic, or perhaps you are demonstrating substantially
more power/competence than expected from a person in your position. Whatever it is, it will
make you more noticeable to people.

This doesn't affect the average 'random Joe', but people who are competent or in the know?
They WILL notice, and while they won't draw the wrong conclusions, such as you being a Cultist

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of the Uncreated simply because you used an ability that utterly annihilates something, it will
nonetheless make things complicated.

For 200 WoP however, besides the previously mentioned complications, the various
organizations have noticed your arrival. Not you, per se, but rather that an event happened that
came completely out of the blue. This also removes the previously mentioned 'protection' of
people drawing the wrong conclusions, though it doesn't force them to make the wrong ones
either.

For 300 WoP though... Did I say that they didn't notice you? Turns out that they did and now you
are on EVERYONE'S watch-list as a person of interest.

Take a side ​(+100, or +300 WoP)


Now you have to. As a Godbound, you have internalized an echo of Creation, and are
theoretically a pillar of reality, but it’s not like gods have ever actually fixed things here before.
Whether before you phoned in your heroism, or you tried to privately serve your personal
interest without care for the bigger picture... Now that option is closed to you.

In taking this, you must side with a faction or cause and and honestly pursue the goals of
furthering your side and thwarting the others. You become driven for your cause. This doesn’t
mean you’ll throw your life away for nothing, but you’re motivated enough to risk your life for
enough of a reward.

This is only an +100 WoP drawback if you side with one of the forces of Creation, as you easily
fit in as a Godbound. ‘Your own cult’ can be a side, so long as you are actively growing,
expanding, and proselytizing for your cult. You already have most of the people against you who
will be against you for taking this side.

This is +300 WoP if you side with the bitter angels, one of the Uncreated Courts, or another
thoroughly self-destructive group. These organization want to ruin you as much as they do
everyone else and will never stop trying to drink your bring you destruction and damnation. The
rising pantheons and heroes are focused on bringing down many of the greatest threats to
Creation, with no tolerance for a cultist Godbound. It’s hard to find someone who will honestly
help and support you, or give you shelter. Truly, you have invited destruction upon yourself.

Unnecessarily Sinister​ (+100, or +200 WoP)


You intend to overthrow the evil necromancer using the power of orphans' hearts? Why?!... oh,
you mean that you're leading an army of orphans to crusade against the necromancer. Why did
you phrase it like that? For 100 WoP, you come off as creepy even when you're trying to act
normal: poor choices of phrasing, leering and looming when you mean to smile, and so forth.

For 200 WoP, you really ​are​ that creepy. Even when there's an easier, less morbid way to
achieve your goals, you tend to find the methods which are more convoluted and at least

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somewhat morally objectionable. Even if you've signed up to work for Team Evil, expect to have
some of your allies bothered... by your lack of efficiency, if nothing else.

Bug Report ​(+100 WoP)


Reality isn’t what it once was, but that is doubly so around you. You don’t so much make the
problems worse, but rather act as a magnet and trigger any building problems. This may even
big useful, as you set things off before the build into a true disaster, or lets you identify a hidden
issue… but even in the Bright Republic you’ll be facing constant problems, and you probably
should avoid Ancalia.

Proper Quest ​(+200 WoP)


Shortly after starting this jump, you’ll find yourself on a proper Quest, a series of events that
start out “level appropriate” for a “5th level party” of godbound, and steadily escalate into the
epic. The fate of things you will actually care about will be in the balance, and the conclusion will
shake heaven, one way or the other.

Unstable Footing​ (+200 WoP)


Or maybe you do make the problems worse. Reality struggles to contain you. In a region of
sabalized reality, with all it’s heavenly engines working, mortal magic and technology still fails.
In anything less than that more serious issues start cropping up, and if the situation is already
degrading you don’t merely aggravate the problem, you accelerate it.

Courts of Chaos ​(+200 WoP)


The uncreated find you fascinating in all the wrong ways. If they could enter reality near you,
now their entrance becomes a certainty. Anywhere you travel will rapidly become haunted by
unmade horrors, and there will always be a monster ready to pervert or undo anything you
accomplish.

Locus Hoards ​(+200 WoP)


It seems a tipping point has been reached, as more and more Timeworn seem to be gaining
access to Arcem. Whether it’s because of the proliferation of realm spanning technologies or the
advancing failure of the engines of heaven, their breeches are becoming more and more
common. Some of them are here to stay, invasive twisted life adapted to environments infinitely
more hostile. Others are here to pillage everything they can get their hands on before dragging
it back to their own ruined realms. All of them will be a source of ongoing chaos basically
everywhere.

Unbound Power ​(+200 WoP)


Godbound are so metaphysically potent that many things simply don’t work right for them. Their
own power disrupts whatever they try to do. Now that’s true for all perks and abilities from
previous jumps, with the exception of your Body Mod.

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Lesser Magics ​(+200 WoP)


There are magics that work for mortals that fail in the hands of their better. While impressive
tools may be wielded, practical ones largely can’t be. You would have been able to escape that
curse by using tools from other worlds. No more. You lose all items not bought in this jump and
access to your warehouse and attachments.

Parasitic relationships ​(+200 WoP)


As the machinery of Heaven further breaks down, flows of cosmic energy become misdirected,
until they finally ground themselves through a host. These poor souls become the Parasite
Gods, mad creatures driven by an unnatural hunger, endlessly seeking the worship that will
never fill their boundless gluttony. While they should be pitied, they are also dangerous. And
now their about a hundred times more common. Even in the Bright Republic you’ll start seeing
them pop up, while in the Bleak Reach or The Thousand Gods there are going to be so many
new ones that their territories will overlap to the point you may actually see Parasite God
Pantheons.

Codependent ​(+300 WoP)


It looks like you AREN'T godbound. No, you are a Parasite God yourself. You can’t survive long
outside the territory that gives rise to you, only able to expand to new regions after followers of
yours perform rituals that will sabotage new areas to be amenable to you. And you must defend
this sabotage. If the broken bit of reality supporting your divinity is fixed, you will wither and die
after losing all your divine power from this jump.

You are physically, mentally, and spiritually twisted by the transformation. And a bottomless
hunger for divine power gnaws at you endlessly.

It would take an inhuman will to keep your morals, as you find yourself endlessly driven to
expand. Expand your worship. Expand your consumption. Eat and eat and eat the essence of
the world. The more you do, though, the more you will damage the fabric of reality.

A road paved in bitter spite ​(+300 WoP)


While the Angels in their Hell hate humanity in general, and work to destroy all the realms, to
clear the board of every relic of the world that was, and trap all mortal souls in eternal torment,
that’s an impersonal hatred. They hate mortals, generally. In the specific, it’s more a boundless
and all encompassing contempt.

You? You they hate personally.

They’re coming for you. Their cults, their agents, the lesser orders who can squeeze themselves
into reality… The longer you defy them, the more resources they’ll devote to your destruction.

The Dying of the Light ​(+300 WoP)


The concentration of major Night Roads in Ancalia is no longer special. It’s basically the same
everywhere. There aren’t the additional issues Ancalia is facing, but everywhere is being

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A Game of Divine Heroes

assaulted by Uncreated Night. You’ll even find a decent number of them in as distant and
uninhabited areas as the bottom of the sea floor. They can be closed of course, but most of
them will have a Uncreated Lord and his or her court guarding it.

Rage against the coming night​ (+300 WoP)


When a soul isn’t protected or claimed, it’s gravity inevitably drags it to hell. There are various
ways to resist this, but now another opens up. Any soul not protected or claimed may rise after
death, struggle it’s way into reclaiming its body, rising as an energumen, a kind of intelligent
undead who is driven by hunger for the living, and anyone they kill and feed on may rise as
husks, mindless undead zombies, unless they themselves are claimed.

Endings
There is a time for famine, and a time for plenty. Was your time here long, or was it short,
fruitful, or nightmarish? Whatever it is, it is time to make some choices.

The Time of the Return


The Unitary Church teaches that the Creator will one day return to his world. Maybe you
understand why, as you’ve chosen to return home. If use died or were otherwise unmade, this is
the only choice left to you.

A New Heaven
Or perhaps your time here isn’t at an end. You can stay, if you want, if you’ve committed
yourself to this world. Will you restore it to its former glory, or are you the next horror to plague
it? Either way, this lege of your journey is at an end. Never let it be said I don’t rewards
conviction, and for choose to dedicate yourself to here, I’ll empower you with ​3000​ more ​Words
of Power​ to shape your new home.

The Throne is Still Empty


I suppose there wasn’t a real choice. Could this have ended any other way? Much like the
absent creator, this was only ever a stopover. It’s time for you to travel forward and onward, for
greater works await you.

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A Game of Divine Heroes

Notes
The ​Godwalkers​ are hollow divinities, avatars
of a god, who have no god, or mind, or soul
of their own. They exist to channel and
incarnate divinity. But in practice, they’re
Mechas, with a few airships and
super-barges mixed in.

Exceptionalism
It basically gives you an 16, 14, 13, 13, 10,
and 8 attribute spread. You don’t have to take
any of those ‘values’, only taking the ones
you want.

Divinity
The full scope of the state of being Godbound
is beyond the scope of this document, but the
source is freely available for legal download
at ​Godbound​.

Facts
The main Godbound book has example facts,
as well as low magic. See ​Ancalia: The
Broken Towers​ for information on the Knightly
Orders.

Lesser and Greater Gifts


There are a lot of them, but you can find most of them for free from the legal download of the
Godbound​ core book.
Save for the Grace
Each purchase is like, a +2 to all three saves and a -1 to AC from dodging, while the extra boon
is -
(1) you get saving throws even against things that don’t allow saving throws, if it seems like they
should,
(2) if it’s a ‘save for half’ it becomes a ‘save for whole’, and
(3) if it was ‘save for half’ it becomes ‘fail for half.’

Obviously, a jump story isn’t as mechanical as a game session, but that’s generally speaking
the spirit of the perk.

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A Game of Divine Heroes

Man’s Dominion
+1 dominion per month, +1 shard per year, per purchase. Like, I’m not sure if in-story there’s
such a thing as ‘1 dominion’, or if all shards are interchangeable. Maybe you get one big shard
instead of two normal sized ones… but generally speaking with two purchases you would get
roughly 1 dominion every 15 ½ days and a shard roughly every 182 ½ days. With five you would
get a dominion a little over every 6 days and a shard every 73 days.

Blade of Unmaking
In a non-mechanical sense, the perks description is explanation enough, but for people familiar
with godbound, this is the Straight Damage. For people unfamiliar with the system... In
Godbound, when you do damage, you normally use this table -

Damage Roll Damage Taken

1 or less None

2–5 1 point

6–9 2 points

10 or more 4 points

When dealing with damage.

This might not sound like a lot, doubly so since Godbound is built to sit on top of old 2nd DnD…
But the Godbound do damage by the Hit Dice. Some beings, for example Angels through their
Unmade trait, do ‘straight damage.’ They roll, and then they do the full damage of their roll.
Again, in hit dice. There are obviously other sources of ‘straight damage’ that you can access.
But it’s still normally a big deal.

Yes, this is a thoroughly mechanical explanation, for the purposes of jumpchain the perks
description should be enough.

Trouble and Strife


Outside of what was specifically laid out, this is basically the trait Skilled in Strife, which reduces
some of the costs of learning strifes.

For the 600WoP Enemy perks, while you can use Effort in place of Dominion in the listed ways,
a Dominion action isn’t any faster. You’ll steadily invest Effort during that time period of the
dominion action, and it will only return to you a week after the action is completed.

Unthought Bargains

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A Game of Divine Heroes

You can develop a Gift that’s basically The Cold Breath. It would be something like a Universal
Greater Gift that could be bought multiple times, acting as a opposing force to any extraordinary
powers others want to bring to bear, so that they had to tie up some of their power simply to
operate in the presence of yours.
You can find out about the Uncreated Lords and their courts in ​Ancalia: The Broken Towers​.

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