LORE DUMP: On the Origin of Gods, Monsters, Magic, and More

The following post is about lore I'm thinking of using for my next campaign world. If you think you'd like to play in a game of mine some day, perhaps you'd rather discover it in-game alongside your character, if it even comes up at all. (Personally, I don't think it's much of a spoiler, and a little out-of-character knowledge might give you context for how your character would understand the world.)

I.

Sapient species produce souls. This phenomenon is poorly understood, but what is known is that, unless the soul's host experienced some serious trauma, the soul sinks to the center of the planet and joins a mass of soul-stuff called the World Will.

A select few, called "prophets," are born with the ability to encounter aspects of the World Will through their dreams. Through such encounters, the prophets come to categorize, personify, and interact with such aspects, which they conceive of as "gods" or "spirits." (In truth, the manifold aspects of the World Will are overlapping and ever-changing, such that any attempt to categorize them is folly.)

The World Will and its aspects have a power called numen, which means they can alter the material world through their dream-like thoughts alone. Underground, where the mass of the World Will is closer, this power is quite potent. (This accounts for the creation of deep caverns that are so strange, they might as well be other planes of existence, as well as all manner of monsters that have since found their way to the surface.)

However, despite the tenets of the world's religions, the World Will has very little power on the surface. The human species is still young, in the grand scheme of civilization, and its World Will has yet to achieve a certain critical mass required to really alter events above ground.

Anyone who tells you a god is going to smite you off the face of the earth, because you have committed some terrible offense, is wrong. No god has such a power. Your character is likely to believe it, though, because the game takes place before the development of anything resembling scientific thought. To you and everyone else, "a god willed it" seems a likely explanation for all manner of things.

Priests and folk magicians can achieve small "miracles" or magical effects, because they've mastered the rituals discovered and handed down by the prophets. But the effects are extremely limited: priests can purify water, folk magicians can hasten natural healing, etc.

If you want to perform serious magic, you're going to have to bring a piece of the World Will above ground.

II.

Think back to the last time you woke up cranky. Someone was trying to get you out of bed, and your first response, before you were even fully conscious of yourself, was to snap at them.

Imagine if that flash of anger and confusion weren't just a flash, but a blazing fire, and it would last until you were somehow pacified or allowed to go back to sleep.

That's how a demon feels, when a summoner separates it from the World Will and forced to either possess a corpse or manifest as some bloody horror of guts and animal parts. That's why undead attack everything on sight and have no qualms about getting themselves killed again.

That's why becoming a wizard, which involves (a) getting possessed by a demon and (b) binding the demon to your soul, is extremely dangerous and painful.

The ritual requires a summoner, some holy water, and a number of men to stand guard. The Church officially disapproves of the practice, but privately acknowledges the immense benefits of having wizards on hand.

The initiate is unlikely to survive the process with their memories and personality entirely intact. If they're lucky, however, the demon will be pacified and entirely subordinated to their will, allowing them to cast spells in the demon's range of influence--spells that are far more powerful than any prayer or ritual mere mortals can perform.

If the initiate is unlucky, the demon may take control, and the ritual will have unleashed a mad sorcerer.

I have used the words "demon" and "wizard" thusfar, but the separated aspect may have a different sphere of influence; the ritual may make use of different components; the "demon" maybe conceived as a "nature spirit," "angel," or "elemental"; and the "wizard" may be conceived of as a "paladin" or "druid." The process is dangerous all the same, because the aspect always inspires anger and madness in the initiate until it is pacified and subordinated.

So, why doesn't everyone worship wizards then, if their power is so demonstrably effective? Well, some cultures probably have worshipped wizards, but generally their powers have too narrow a focus to garner a real following. It takes a lot more willpower to bind a demon with influence over both snake-related spells and lightning-related spells than just one or the other.

III.

There's one last thing to know about the World Will.

As a sapient species grows in number, and its total number of dead through all its history begins to increase at an exponential rate, the World Will begins to grow at an exponential rate.

Material reality is increasingly susceptible to change by the slightest thought. Individuals of the species gain the ability to communicate through the World Will telepathically. If the species can manage to survive to this critical point, life on the planet inevitably becomes a paradise for all involved.

And then, the planet explodes, and a true god bursts from the crust like a chick from an eggshell.

This is the origin of the Great Old Ones, who were once World Wills in the period of their long gestation. A great mass of the dreams and memories of alien minds, transformed into the ultimate, inscrutable lifeforms.

This is the ultimate fate of the planet upon which our adventure takes place.