The Children of Chaos and Cosmos: A Sci-Fi Mythology RPG

Throughout history and across cultures, in the heights of academia and in stories told around campfires, the rules and workings of the world and reality have been discussed, debated, and fought over. One's view of reality affects what he or she can and cannot do. This chaos is the natural way of things, as is the rule that there is at least one question or situation that any given school of thought cannot answer, and is thwarted by. Before the Creation, all reality was governed by four paradigms in a cycle: The Dark (Will, Mind, and Belief shape the world, making both Dreams and Nightmares come true), the Fallen (Spirits and immaterial essences exist in all objects, people, places and animals, allowing those who know their names and abilities to control the them and through them, the world around them in a sort of witchcraft), the Lost (Nothing exists but that which can be explained scientifically and quantified, measured, and influenced by one who understands and generates the different properties of matter and energy), and the Unknown (All places, times, energies, matter, and people are one, linked through ties of spirit, quantum strings, and sympathy). Different entities of Chaos possess powers based on their paradigms, and each of them is capable of negating and controlling the powers of the paradigm that precedes them.
(to be continued)

The most powerful members of these Chaotic factions are the Titans, primordial gods who embody their paradigm in a variety of ways. Each paradigm has a number of lesser races of creatures who have similar powers, though occasionally these creatures might exist as a border between two paradigms.
Back in the days before the Creation, there was a Titan who is now known as Saturn, or Cronus. Each Paradigm claims that he was one of them, but it hardly matters now. Saturn spun through the eternal dazzling space, shaping a miniature reality for himself, a common practice among titans of the time. Unfortunately, he was something of a daredevil, and went further and deeper than any Titan ever had, so that his reality stretched and engulfed countless other realities, trapping himself and all of the other creatures within in a World of his own creation. Together, he and his wife, Rhea, created two new paradigms, those of the Olympians (all reality is controlled by Fate, and the gods determine the destinies of all things within their respective purviews) and the Phaeacians (other paradigms are equally valid at different times, places, and situations, and one can choose between them, deciding which paradigm works in any given area). Cronus and his brothers ruled the world, until Cronus' children, the first Olympian Gods, took over and defeated their father, ruling the world with an iron grip. Zeus' power, especially his ability to wield the deadly lightning bolts of heaven, kept all of the Titans at bay... until all of the 12 Olympian Gods mysteriously vanished in a flash of light that was visible from their otherworldly mountaintop city, so that only Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth, who was away tending the sacred fires at the time, remained. Their children, the remaining gods are in disarray, squabbling amongst themselves over who gets the thrones of Olympus, with Eros, Psyche, Pan, Triton, Persephone, Ganymede, Heracles, Asclepius, the Muses, Aeolus, and several others forming a temporary alliance with a few others. Meanwhile, the titans are moving to retake the Cosmos, and none of the current gods is allowed (by mutual agreement) to use the lightning bolts for fear of a new tyrant taking over. Given that this is all going on undercover in the modern world, secrecy is another concern for the gods, for human beliefs have changed, and if enough humans were aware of the presence of supernatural beings, their combined belief and willpower and the fires of free will that Prometheus gave them would be enough to overthrow any other supernatural paradigm.

To play, you will need to post your character's Name, Paradigm (Dark, Fallen, Lost, Unknown, Olympian, or Phaeacian), Appearance (including example alternate forms, as almost all Chaotics and most Gods and Phaeacians are shapeshifters in some way or another), Race (Titan, God, Phaeacian, Siren, Atlantean, Vampire, Werewolf, Cyclops, Hekatonchire, Giant, Harpy, Gorgon, Shade, Centaur, Dryad, Satyr, Nereid, Oread, Oceanid, Hyade, Minotaur, Sphinx, Telchine, Wind, Witch, Demon, Dream spirit, Angel, or any other supernatural creatures... you are not just limited to Greek mythology, either), Powers (these are special abilities that are specialties of whomever or whatever your character is, like harpy flight, or gorgon petrification or atlantean water breathing), and History. You are encouraged to use characters from actual mythology if you want.

"The Dark rule the dreams and Nightmares of Old Night; Cimmeria is their land, Morpheus their king;
The Fallen rage in darkest Dis, weeping for lost Elysium, and the lost virtue, which, forsaken, lost them all and everything.
The Lost fall through the Abyss, silent and serene as rain, Typhon is their eldest, but the Lost will suffer no one's reign; the Telchine are their serfs on Earth, Ialysus their golden isle, rich with treasure wonderful and fine.
The Unknown live beyond all things in a Fortress Incomprehensible of uncountable sides and unimaginable design, and prelapsarian, still laws recall that Uranus knew before his fall.

Paradigms:
* Chaos *
The Dark - In the dark, wild, untamed, unexplored realm of Cimmeria, creatures of will and desire and danger dwell. Ruled by Morpheus and Nepenthe, the dream god and his family are able to assume the shape of anything ever dreamt of, though many specialize (places, people, animals, monsters, etc). Emotions, inspiration, and will are incredibly important here, and sorrow (where one's energy is drained) is fatal, so those whose loved ones are trapped in the Cosmos are kept sleeping until the day when they can be rescued. The impressions of one of the Dark paradigm are enough to transform a person into that thing, and as such, they are able to completely undo those of the Unknown paradigm, limiting them to dimensions only the Dark one can see or desire, forcing them to obey and drawing them helplessly into their traps. However, they can also empower the Unknown. Their power works best when they use and control the energies of others, allowing them to fly in the presence of others, take on others' strength, move as quickly as thought, heal wounds by imagining blood to be nothing but red paint, or make the minds of their foes work against each other. Psychadelic effects are also common, along with illusions that seem particularly real and devastating physical strength backed by their own emotions. They can also communicate and travel through dreams, and many of them are empowered by music, which both provides harmony to all of their energies and draws the attention (and therefore energy) of everyone around them. Examples of people of the Dark Paradigm include Morpheus, Nepenthe, Phobetor, Echidna, the Minotaur, Eris, Phantasmos, Oneiros, Hypnos, Nyx, Grendel, Trolls, Dream spirits, Nightmares, Mermen (but not mermaids), Pooka, Werewolves, Berserkers, Shades, Ghosts, Cerberus.

The Fallen - A shadowy realm, deep in the earth, is Dis, where those who sinned are punished and those who fell from High Heaven before the world was created dwell. Their hierarchy is ever-shifting and changing, with new leaders at all times, but many of them respect Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea, and one of the greatest of all sorcerers and shapeshifters.They control the spirits that exist in all things, through spells, incantations, ingredients, and charms that are based on and strengthened by their own morality. For instance, if you lie to one of the Fallen, and they know it, they can compel you to tell them truthfully and in detail the answers to any questions they ask, and you won't even be able to move away. If you hurt one of their friends, or family members, or someone who is in some (slight) way innocent, then they can bind you and force you to do their bidding, literally controlling your body. The spirits are at their command, and they have a great deal of knowledge, brought to them on the winds by their ghostly and demonic servants. They can summon any of the demons mentioned in the stories of King Solomon and demand that they use any of their powers for their benefit, and the majority of them are genderless spirits themselves, able to create new living flesh and bone bodies out of sculptures of clay and possess them, allowing them to shapeshift. Their ability to control and enforce moral and material and spiritual laws makes the Dark helplessly caught in the nets of their spells, but the two paradigms can help one another as well, as the Fallen are able to provide the Dark with the inspiration and energies they need to use other abilities. They float and fly when carried by spirits, and can summon elementals, nature spirits, and other things to do their bidding. Their numbers include Proteus, the three Graeae, the Gorgons, the Sphinx, Witches, Thessallian Sorceresses, Lamia, Vampires, Fallen Angels, Demons, Oreads, Nymphs, Hecate, Devils, Satyrs, Dryads, Erichtho, Lilith, the Lilim, the Furies, the Harpies, Eidotheia.

The Lost - Many of the lost travel through the void of space, in vast city-space ships, were they work their artistry to create things from their high-tech nanite-like bodies. They have no real ruler, but they respect the wisdom and accumulated knowledge of their elders, especially Typhon, whom they see as a wise sage, but who has fought long and hard against the Olympian gods and fathered many children who are the monsters of Mythology. They can work all sort of telekinetic effects by manipulating matter and energy, especially electromagnetism, and they can restructure the matter of their bodies, growing futuristic armor, weapons, means of transportation and energy generation, regenerating damage, reshaping their appearance, and even creating life at a molecular level. They levitate on electromagnetic waves with devices built into their bodies to adjust temperature, control speed and direction, and protect from pressure changes, among other things. Many of them, however, tend to be extremely rational and practical, and have trouble accepting the presence of things beyond their abilities (and their innate computer hard drives' abilities) to sense, and so come across as rather cold and emotionless and direct. They are able to defeat the Fallen by manipulating and disrupting the matter and energies that witchcraft relies on, negating them and breaking spells with cold hard science and their synthetic forms. Examples of the Lost include Damnameneus, the Cyclopes, the Telchines, Typhon, Dwarves, Giants, Wyverns, Dragons, Wyrms, Amazons, Atlanteans.

The Unknown - Myriagon is a realm beyond and yet part of all realms, times, and places. It is a city of endless sides, in a shape that our mortal minds can't even imagine. It is ruled by Helios, a Titan of Light and the Sun, and Neaera, a sea nymph. People who are made of the parts of different creatures, or light, or music, or mathematic equations, spin and dance and swirl and fly and swim from time/place to time/place with a thought. Any one entity may have countless other forms, and when they use different aspects of those forms, they appear as hybrid creatures, or things that couldn't possibly live and move because of their unusual construction. They tend to shapeshift by adjusting their form to some other part of themselves, rotating in wings or extra limbs and extending them to increase reach, accessing organs that allow them to survive without breathing or needing warmth, or in the depths of space, or deep underwater. They can see three-dimensional objects as two-dimensional ones (relative to their actual dimensional placement), which lets them move through solid walls and barriers as if they were flat, or lift immense boulders as if they were made of paper, or dodge arrows and bullets by suddenly being "off to the side" in a "side" that is somewhere no one else can reach. They can move at incredible, unbelievable speeds while the world seems to slow down around them. They can also rotate energies and molecules to give them life and free will, which (if they are polite and reasonable) usually results in having those things help them. This makes them devastating to the Lost, along with the fact that the Unknown possess and recognize more than four dimensions. They can command the inner workings of the Lost, re-programming them or exposing them to computer viruses and flaws, shutting them down. They can also, of course, repair the Lost easily, and help them move beyond their limitations. Examples include Helios, Hyperion, Neaera, Circe, Comus, Phaethusa, Centaurs, Ixion, Sirens, Medea, Nereids, Oceanids, the Hyades, Uranus, Hecatonchires, Gigantes, Phoenixes, Krackens, Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Ofanim, Powers, Dominions, Archangels, Djinn, Afrit, Behemoths, Leviathans, Rocs, Hydra, Ladon, Pegasus, Unicorns, Argus, etc.

* Cosmos *
The Olympians - The Gods and Goddesses who dwell on Mount Olympus are the descendants of Saturn, and heirs to his paradigm, where all things (including the other five paradigms) bow to their commands, at least within each god's sphere of influence. At the moment, the Dodekatheon, the 12 greatest gods of Olympus (Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Dionysus, and Hermes) have vanished without a trace, and so their children and seconds-in-command have ascended to the positions, at least temporarily. They include Eros (Love and Lust and Affection and Hatred), Psyche (Mind and Soul and Will and Beauty), Pan (Fear and Panic and Nature and Mountains and Forests), Triton (Sea and Storms and Fish and Waves and Sounds), Persephone (the earth, the seasons, the dead, and the underworld), Ganymede (Drinking, hospitality, festivals, and nobility), Heracles (Strength and Heroes), Asclepius (Life and Healing and Medicine), the Muses (Urania- Astronomy and Natural sciences and astrology, Calliope - Epic or heroic poetry, Clio - history, Erato - love or erotic poetry, lyrics, and marriage songs, Euterpe - music and lyric poetry, Melpomene - tragedy, Polyhymnia - sacred song, oratory, lyric, singing and rhetoric, Terpsichore - choral song and dance, Thalia - comedy and bucolic poetry), Aeolus (Winds and Sky), Iris (Rainbow and Messenger and Light), Nike (Victory, War, Achievement), Tyche (Luck and Chance), and the Fates. Gods can determine that they will rise into the air and fly, instantly appear elsewhere, change into something else, not be noticed, win at any game of chance, control the emotions of others, transform others, curse or bless people or things, and do anything whatsoever to their personal spheres of influence. Hestia remains on the scene as well, and there are many other gods and goddesses, though none of them have yet built up as much backing as the ones mentioned above. It should be noted that only one muse and one fate ever sit at the thrones of Olympus at any given time, and that they then express the will of each group as a whole.

The Phaeacians - The island of Phaeacia once existed in the world, until Poseidon got angry with them for helping Odysseus, and rose a mountain in the middle of their harbor. However, the Phaeacians were clever. Ruled by King Alcinuous, with Queen Arete the true power in the land, they are beautiful, magical people who communicate with and sense impressions from inanimate objects. This gives them a sense for knowing when a place is being watched by any natural, electronic, or supernatural means, and allows them to get past spies and escape from any place. They can also find things through their supernatural senses. Many of them possess silvery ships which can sail to any place on earth (accessible by water, unless the ship is modified to fly or travel through space or time) in no more than a single day of sailing, with no need to man the ship. They can also find secret passages, which somehow never existed before and don't exist once they've passed through them, and these passages have a bizarre range of styles and architecture, and even windows that look out into faraway places. Finally, with the help of certain spirits and a magical green gemstone native to their country, they are able to control different areas and boundaries, allowing certain Paradigms to function there or not work, depending on their desires. They are also able to create dazzling glamours and illusions which allow them to change their appearances and the appearances of the places in which they dwell, and they have alliances with both the Chaotics and Olympians. Members include Alcinuous, Arete, Nausicaa, and many others.

OOC - For those who were wondering, Chimera and Python were of the Unknown, the Teumassian Fox and the Nemean Lion and the Maenads were of the Dark, and the Phaeacians, who avoided being seen by humans and could disappear or create illusions and lived in a fantastic island kingdom, were the basis for myths of Elves, fairies, and the Fair Folk.

Name Allycs (Pronounced "Alex") Heliados
Paradigm Unknown
Appearance Allycs appears on Earth as a model-like young Mediterranean man. He favors European-style clothing, either formal suits or colorful punk-style outfits designed to shock and impress. His hair (including his eyelashes, eyebrows, and soul patch) is currently bright blue, and many assume that he had them dyed. His eyes, like those of all descendants of Helios, are a dazzling shade of gold. His skin is nicely tanned, and his body is muscular and but model-slim. His ears have a number of piercings in them, and he likes wearing a number of rubber band bracelets and using gold nail polish on his fingernails to make them match his eyes. He has a wide, devil-may-care grin and his hair is frequently mussed, but not stiff and gelled... he likes to play with it when he's nervous and you can't do that with gelled spikes. He is six foot four inches tall, and he has very long legs and fingers. He has a black tribal tattoo of concentric spirals over his upper arms and shoulders, and likes showing them off with sleeveless shirts. Included in his existence are a variety of other aspects which he can rotate into visibility at will (in areas where the Unknown paradigm is available, at least). His alternate forms include a variety of things that resemble a squid, a albatross, a stag, a lion, a peacock, a seahorse, a dolphin, a star, a lady, a sword, a spoked wheel, a willow tree, shades of indigo light, the sound of thunder and bells, and a whirling cloud of shining ribbons, and he can combine any (or perhaps all) of them at any time, each offering different capabilities.
Race Ophanim
Powers Can turn his body into a portal to and from Myriagon, and transform people into animals if they are not protected by the herb called Moly.
History Allycs is the son of Circe, a powerful sorceress herself the daughter of Helios and a sea nymph, and of Glaucus, a fisherman turned merman-like sea god. Circe spent her time on the island of Aeaea, surrounded by the men whom she had transformed into tame animals... most famously pigs, but also lions, wolves, birds, and every other beast under the sun. She also possessed some ability to see the future and control the elements, and her power was almost limitless on her island. Glaucus was a fisherman who found that a particular herb could bring his fish back to life, and decided to eat it himself, only to find his legs transformed into a fishtail, fins grow from his arms, and gills open in his neck. He had become immortal, a minor sea god, but could no longer live on land. Instead, he traveled across the sea, and came across a beautiful nymph princess named Scylla living alone on a barren rock island. He fell in love with her and rose on the waves to meet her, but she ran away in fear and disgust, despite the fact that his human face and arms and body were remarkably handsome. In desperation, he swam to Aeaea to petition Circe for a way to magically win Scylla's heart, but the Enchantress fell in love with him herself and seduced him. When he turned down her offer to say on Aeaea, she only smiled thinly, and gave him a potion that she claimed would make Scylla fall in love with him if she bathed in waters mixed with the potion. Glaucus stole away and mixed the potion in the waters around the rocky island, but when Scylla bathed, her legs divided, turning into six serpentine stalks with the heads and claws of fierce dogs at the ends. Scylla had become even more monstrous than the man whom she had spurned, and thereafter began attacking ships, unable to swim away because Circe had sent a water elemental named Charybdis to make a deadly whirlpool that bent the tides to trap Scylla on the island. Glaucus continued to pine after Scylla from a distance, despite the fact that she had become bloodthirsty and wretched, and wasn't even aware that Circe had since given birth to his son, whom Circe cruelly named after Scylla, by reversing her name.
Allycs grew up in Aeaea, but he was never content with the placid, tropical island, served by animals who had once been men, and avoiding the attention of his bullying half-brother, Comus, whose idea of fun was to transform people into werebeasts with animal heads and human bodies. He learned magic, and showed limited divine talents, but yearned for more... adventure and travel and exploration. It was then that he discovered his power to warp to Myriagon. There, among his glorious relatives, he redefined himself, coming into his own nature as an Ophanim, an angelic creature also called a "Wheel" or "Throne" and said to be the essence of motion itself. He eventually returned to Earth and avoided both of his parents, drastically changed his human appearance as an act of rebellion and a nod to his chimerical appearance in Myriagon, and relocated to SoCal, where he rapidly picked up the skills to become a top-notch DJ, getting a job spinning at a beachfront nightclub, where he would surreptitiously use his free-will bestowing and dimension-altering powers through the music and the dances of the crowd, to cause them to dance harder and have more fun (and to limit the effects of alcohol, calm fighting tempers, and generally help people have a good time). He is wary of the Dark and the Olympians, because they both can shut down his powers almost immediately, and he hates to feel trapped. He is also furious with his parents, sexually ambiguous, fully allied with the Titans of Myriagon, and at least vocally more interested in music, dancing, and possibly forming a musical band (he is also a good drummer) than in figuring out who is going to get control of Creation. What he really feels about the situation, only Allycs knows.

Name Margarites "Megaen" Syrin
Paradigm Unknown, but has been known to dabble in the Dark paradigm due to it's musical empowerment
Appearance Margarites' earthly appearance is that of a slim, athletic young woman with long, golden blonde hair and sea-green eyes. Her hair is long and silky, straight enough to manage but just wavy enough to make it irresistably alluring, and her eyes are as chaotic as the sea itself -- soft and inviting in one moment, and barely confining a raging tempest in the next. She is not tall, but not short, either, and her 5'6" frame is lithe and graceful. Her true skin tone is somewhat of a mystery -- though she is too dark to be white, she is also too pale to obtian a 'truly' Mediterranian tan. Her clothing style is fashonable, but very practical, favoring loose jeans and pants that allow freedom of movement. Her shirts are usually sporting some logo or other, but she is in actuality the furthest thing from a slave to certain brand names. If it's comfortable and allows complete freedom of movement, she'll wear it. Her ears are pierced, but most of the time she forgets to put something in them. When she does eventually remember, or when the occasion requires it, often she'll only wear studs. She sports a variety of alternate forms, including a woman with bird wings growing from her back, an owl, a whispering melody, a jackal, a hawk, a mermaid, a blinding light, and a seal.
Race Siren/Wind
Powers She can manipulate her voice to make any who hear her do as she wants, and as long as she keeps talking or singing, she can make them forget about everything but her (this is particularly easy when she is in the form of a melody on the wind). Depending on which form she takes, she can either fly or swim at extremely high speeds as well.
History Daughter of the siren Thelxiepeia and the god of the East wind, Eurus, Margarites is the embodiment of the wind and the sea. She spent much of her childhood traveling around with her father, as she could not stand being restricted to the island where Thelxiepeia resided. She did, however, spend at least three months out of every year on the island with the sirens. Through this, she was taught the infamous 'siren song', the legendary melody that lured sailors to their deaths. During these times, she also learned great control over her other forms, especially her water-based ones. Through her travels with her father, she became familiar with Myriagon and the goings-on of the Titans (whom her father opposes and, paradoxically, Margarites staunchly supports) and the gods. When she matured, she started venturing further and further out on her own, eventually leaving the island of the sirens for good and taking the name 'Megaen' in order to better blend in. She became somewhat of a globe-trotting drifter, never in one place for long. It was during these travels that she learned of the power her voice held over others, and also of her innate grasp of all things musical. She became attracted to Southern California due to the life and energy surrounding it, and has made a name for herself around the city of San Diego as an unmatched singer and dancer. She can be flighty at times, but generally her convictions are very stong, and her loyalty is as unmatched as her singing skills.