Inventing Geos

[skeloric]

Geos, the Gaunt Man's original home Cosm -- at least according to a book that most prefer NOT to acknowledge but yet I find strangely entertaining.
But mostly, its for the images of Geos.

Tech 16 to 17, I figure.
(Just to nail down the pseudo-Puritan look of the Gaunt Man)
Social 17 to 18
(Same reason)

But now I probably will get into trouble.
Magic... 13? (With a specific location and night pushing it much higher -- at least to 17)
Spirit 2 (Barely even a factor. Quite possibly doomed never to rise -- or fall.)

World Laws
Law of Misplaced Faith
The beings worshiped on Geos are not miraculous beings.
Instead, they are dark "Occult" beings just beyond their plane of existence.
Faith exists, but it can only be used to empower magic and in fact Magic cannot function without it.
Magic is ritual based as well, forcing it to conform to an early version of the Occult skill that the Gaunt Man made part of Orrorsh.

The Law of Thin Reality
Also, the dark beings can break through into their world and likely have done so often enough that it is somewhat ridiculously easy to reach out and contact Pocket Dimensions-- all of which are particularly inimical to humanity in general but can be propitiated on a case by case basis.
Summoning Rituals are easier, occurring at 13 rather 15 and the summoner gets a +3 Charisma bonus to persuasion against the summoned.
Because of this Law, summoned beings feel a natural pull of their home dimension pulling them back.
In Spirit-2 Days, summoned beings are always forced back to their home dimension.



++++++++++
Granted, this is just spur of the moment.
We are still missing a very "Earth-like" history -- likely similar to Gaea or Magna Verita in that certain things sound familiar but which occurred independently from our own reality.

One thing that the book mentioned that I will not attempt to employ is Geos becoming more technological.
There's not much reason for every reality to have some sort of technological imperative.
Core Earth has one but that is merely one Cosm.
Terra might never reach Tech 22 because Weird Science is so much more enticing (though the books do mention inventors making a "weird science" version first and then going through the effort to make a more logical and repeatable version), and Aysle already has a "magical imperative" potentially driving up their Magic Axiom...

So this is Geos after the departure of the Gaunt Man, where 50% of the population of the world (everyone in the southern hemisphere) have died by the removal of Heketon (Geos' dark heart).
Recovery and recriminations.
Ritualistic protections weaved around everything and everyone.
All in fear that the Gaunt Man will return to finish destroying all life upon the world.

[Stormchild]

It took me some time to think it over. This is a hard nut because I am one of those persons who have hard times accepting interview with evil as canon. I prefer to see it as a scheme of the Gaunt Man. For me it is just a story that shows how the twisted mind of the Gaunt Man works. In this interpretation the book is canon, but it is deliberate misinformation. The Gaunt Man places transcripts of this interview so they can be found (with pains) by Storm Knights who think they now know about him. Maybe he even leaked a copy out to the Guildmaster. A lot of the information given there is true, but the GM has placed a lot of false and misleading information in it too. The GM is best played I think by leaving his past to obscurity.

What can be safely assumed to be canon are:
the GM found Heketon
he destroyed Kurst's cosm and allowed Kurst's wife to escape with some followers to a pocket dimension
he made Uthorion his lieutenant and Kurst his hunter
Gaea was the first cosm where the GM tried his ecology of fear (so it can be assumed he destroyed all cosms he conquered before)

This said, I don't see any reason to give geos much thought. Instead it would be interesting to have rules for a destroyed cosm. Are destroyed cosms absolutely inhospitable or are they in the process of coming back?

[skeloric]

This said, I don't see any reason to give geos much thought.

While I do see exactly where you are going on it, the Gaunt Man applying a little disinformation to suit his needs.
However, I think the story of how the Gaunt Man laid waste to Geos is quite frightening in its way and think it essentially true on those grounds.



Instead it would be interesting to have rules for a destroyed cosm. Are destroyed cosms absolutely inhospitable or are they in the process of coming back?
They would be like Tz'Ravok actually.
Maybe a bit worse.
Tz'Ravok and the Ravagons are our window into extreme Possibility deprivation.
This imagery can be extrapolated and utilized elsewhere.
All that I get from the book is that characters have less Possibilities (starting with half)
This is not supported by World Law it seems but is rather a feature of all Cosms with weak levels of Possibility Energy.