Playthings of Mad Gods

GLOG Class: The Adversary/The Emperor

Content warning: gruesome torture, mentions of war crimes, and cruelty. Guilt, and the fight against Evil. Self-harm. Violation.

The Adversary:

You hold the soul of a rebel and a healer, locked in eternal battle with The Tyrant. You always knew that something was special about you - you couldn't ignore the crimes commited by those around you. You would see older children bullying a child you never met, and shout "Ho there, evildoer!", even if it got your teeth kicked in. You would steal a loaf of bread, only to give it to a beggar whom others just treat like an annoyance. You would say the truth to a local lordling, even if it got you flogged. No one understood why you did it except for you - you dreamed of a caleidoscopic light, like a flame of a thousand colours, growing stronger with each attack against power that you did, showing you visions of your past lives and the great things you did for others back then. Now it is saying that the time has come for you to go on an adventure - to cast down The Tyrant that is rising, wanting to enslave the whole world.

The Rising Light:

It's like the light that enters the church through stained glass, when the sun shines right through it. Inside you, there is Light. Others may not see it, unless they are small children, or magicians. And The Emperor, of course. Gain a Spark each time you bring hope to another - even as little an act as telling a child that it's going to build a bright future is enough, as long as it believes you. You can hold as many sparks, as the number of times you have saved someone's life (starting with 5). You can spend a spark to:

More templates unlock more abilities, as well as ways to gain more sparks.

Speaking Truth To Power:

Light coming out of one's mouth

You were always getting into trouble with your words, but this is a whole other level. Whenever you reveal the extent of an injury that a person has caused to another, you may spend a spark to force them to understand what they have done. They may save if they try to resist it. Then, roll 1d8(add 2 if they did not resist, capping the result at 8):

  1. They attack you, seeing you as trying to destroy them by revealing it
  2. They deny that what they did was evil regardless, to the level of delusion
  3. They attempt to punish themselves for the harm they have caused, seeking penance to make their sense of guilt weaker.
  4. They suffer from a horrible sense of guilt, unable to act coherently until they repair the harm they have done, or 1d4 weeks pass.
  5. They attempt to repay the person hurt, or the world if it is impossible, for the crime they have commited.
  6. They swear to act in a way that will prevent any more harm coming from them, at least in the ways they can prevent. They intend to keep it.
  7. They decide to build something that will help many people, for a long time, and devote their skills and resources to do so.
  8. They decide to help you in your quest against evil, either joining you or lending you great aid then acting on their own to make the world a better place. Being the target of this ability is a transformative experience, regardless of the effect. This ability does not work against The Emperor. They know fully well that what they are doing is evil, and the crimes they commit. They are doing it regardless.

Hidden Glint:

Good things can not always work in the open. Sometimes a person may not even realize that you've helped them. You can spend a spark to make a person or an object difficult to notice for a day (with a save required to remember seeing it), as it becomes so overwhelming for the senses that they just blank it out, refusing to believe that they saw it.

The Greatest Foe:

The Dark Lord

The Conqueror. The Tyrant. The Emperor. Chosen of The Gods of the Copybook Headings. You remember them clearly now - always wearing a different face, always saying the same words. "Follow my orders, and you will rule!", "It is better to die than to sully our purity!", "It's either them or us!". It's quite easy to be evil when you believe that everyone else is, you can just direct them from one thing to another. You remember his might; the armies marching through the lands, and the evil they brought. Whenever you sleep now, you see the acts of The Emperor. You can also sense the general location of his troops or agents sent against you. And she has already sent them (your GM may want to place them in the random encounter table, always showing an omen before you meet them), aware of your general location (up to a hex) and looks. Here are some examples of what may be sent against you:

  1. 3d6 Bandits (1 HD) wearing black armour, wielding mancatchers, batons and manacles. Murderers, rapists and slavers, all united under one banner, their cruelty now organized into ledgers and spreadsheets, by a person who thinks that if it is organised, then it is less evil.
  2. The Censor (5 HD), wielding a spiked hammer as his weapon and and a book as his shield, a being convinced that he can cure all evil actions if he can remove their source - bad thoughts. He drills into people's skulls and tries to remove pieces of brain responsible. Sometimes he even succeeds. He is smart, and plans to draw you out by "purifying" people you care about. Maybe he will even use them as human shields. He looks exactly like a normal person.
  3. 2d4 Harpies (2 HD), made out of young women who were crucified. Their rotting bodies are flying now, their outstretched arms covered in prayers written on little pieces of paper. They feel constant pain of rot, with the only relief being lashing out at the enemies of The Emperor.
  4. The Challenger (5 HD, two attacks), a daring knight who swore his obedience to a master who finally brings order to the land, protecting his people from warfare. Honourable, kind, forward-thinking. Nontheless he is your enemy - The Emperor sent him against you, and so he follows.
  5. 1d4 Tongueless (2 HD, completely silent). Humanoid figures sculpted out of Blackstone, used as assasins. Armed with poisoned daggers, they are animated by imps and other minor demons, who are not happy with being forced into such bodies, but will not speak back due to being terrified by The Emperor.
  6. WORMS (? HD), a rot within the world. They multiply in unspoken compliments, unpicked trash, and unloved children. They are the lost potential. They attach themselves to one's soul and gnaw at it, filling them with apathy and stopping them from doing good, so that more may be born. They will try to hurt your friends, and you won't even notice. They are burned by acts of love.

Whenever you defeat a threat, more will be sent - roll on the table again (GM, feel free to invent your own!). Fleeing from them in a way that makes it impossible to find you counts a defeating them. Whenever you defeat it in a way that makes the world a better place, not just less awful, gain 5 sparks.

Unmarred:

Whatever The Emperor sends against you, it can not truly hurt you. You always get back up after it hurt you. When you dream, you can spend 5 sparks to cure a scar or an illness in yourself, or a person near you. This applies both to physical, as well as mental scars. Whenever you are scarred in your fight against The Emperor, gain 5 sparks - if the scar would make you drop unconscious, you stay awake for 2 more rounds.

Always a Way Out:

The Light takes good care of you. Whatever happens, you can always count on a bit of luck helping you out. You become a master of serenpidity. The fate is always on your side - you can spend sparks to create coincidences that help you, or hinder others. They may not hurt anyone, but they may incapacitate. It starts from 1 for probable events (like someone emptying their chamberpot out of their window onto the heads of your pursuers, or finding edible mushrooms in a forest), through 3 for unlikely events (like running into an old friend in a tavern, or finding a burrow in which you can hide on an open plain) all the way to 5 for barely possible things (like finding a water source in the desert)

The Power of Love:

It's the oldest kind of magic, older than words or bones. The magic of Love. You have many people you love now, and many people love you. All the different kinds, each empowers you to bring more goodness into the world. When acting to help or protect a person you love, gain advantage. They gain the same bonus when acting to help or protect you. Your friends may not be turned against you by force, regardless if it is torture or mind control, and you may not be turned against them. They will sooner die than abandon you.

The Emperor doesn't understand love, he doesn't understand that people may be better if you help them. Maybe, just maybe, you can change that. You've never managed to do that before - each time you won, she had to die.

Light's Embrace:

Now, everyone can see it, just a little bit. Flickers coming out of your eyes, a slight halo. You are a walking saint, and anyone may see it. Miracles flow out of you now - the ground you've walked on is sacred, the water that held you will turn away demons. Each person that saw you has a 1-in-100 chance of having their ailment cured, if they've touched you it increases to 1-in-10. Each person cured will join your cause.

The Emperor:

You hold the soul of a leader and a warrior, locked in eternal battle with The Bandit. You had to fight your entire life - your father drank, your siblings hurt you and the land was almost fallow. Yet, you persevered, taming the horribleness of these people, forcing them to stop hurting others, even if you needed to hurt them to achieve that. A horrible charisma has awakened in you, as well as something darker; yet another fight you need to wage. In your dreams, you see a dark void, wanting to devour everything that has ever existed. You see it in the waking world, too. In the senseless cruelty of a man kicking a dog. In the mouth of a preacher declaring love while spreading hate. On the hands of a man who professes innocence. When you feed it you gain the power, the power you may use to subjugate it and to force it to serve you. There is exactly one person who can do it in the world, and it is you. Only you can stop The Darkness, by taking it on instead of the others.

The Gnawing Darkness:

It's the darkness that will be left after the sun burns out, blacker than hell. Inside you, you hold The Darkness. Others may not see it, unless they are little children or magicians. Or The Adversary, of course. Gain a shadow each time you subjugate other people, showing them that they can not hurt you and you can hurt them. You can hold as many shadows as the number of dangerous foes you have crushed. You can spend a shadow to:

Dreadful Power:

They would kill each other, if they didn't fear that they will be killed in return. A man can kill for a single coin, if he's sure he can do that safely. You need to keep sure that he can not. Fear cuts deeper than swords. When you demonstrate your power to a group of people, you may spend a shadow to roll 1d8 to see how it affects them. Add 2 if they are in a position that renders them unable to resist your power. Each person may save to avoid feeling these effects.

  1. They become hostile, not wanting to submit to a monster.
  2. They deny your power, trying to behave like you are just another wannabe warlord in front of them.
  3. They will pretend to follow your orders, only to secretly try to sabotage or betray you if they find opportunities. Do not give them.
  4. They will follow your orders, but only when not put in danger by doing so. They will generally try to avoid you if possible.
  5. As above, but they will fear avoiding you, as they will see it as "dangerous"
  6. As above, but they will also try to please you in ways that you did not order, wanting to avoid your wrath.
  7. They will follow even dangerous orders now, covering before imagined blows that you'd deal.
  8. If you order them to gouge their own eyes out, they will scream, they will beg, they will weep, then they will do it.

These give no loyalty, only obedience. If you show weakness or your subjects gain too much strength, the fear dissipates.

All Will Kneel: Image of the Reborn Band of The Hawk from Berserk More than just humans gathers under your Black Banner, forced into service or attracted by the wages of blood. Whenever you defeat a monster or a demon, you may attempt to make them serve you, by entering a battle of wills with it (and spending a shadow). If it fails its saving throw, it is compelled to follow your orders for the next year, being able to save again at its ending. It may even become loyal, if you treat it "well", by unleashing it upon people who stand against you and comitting artrocities in its name. But I wouldn't count on it. They may attempt to break the compulsion early when meeting with The Adversary.

The Rebels:

Not all want to follow the new order. This is no matter. You're going to crush them all, sooner or later. There is sabotage, there are assasinations of officials, there are even uprisings. A constant flame of hopes, created mostly by the lies of one person who seems to evade capture. Each time you try to organize this hellish world, to bring a bit of justice, you find Resistance. Start with a 1d20 rebel dice - roll it each time you make an action to increase your over the land, or use it in any larger way. Each time it is rolled, downgrade it (1d20 to 1d12, 1d12 to 1d10 and so on). If it rolls 1, The Rebel makes their move; roll 1d6 on the following table and set the die to 1d20 again:

  1. An attempt is made on the life of one of your officers
  2. Underground institutions are being established, to help people who try to oppose you.
  3. Groups of people are fleeing your lands, wanting to regroup and recruit others against you
  4. A facility important for your war efforts is sabotaged by (one or some of) its workers
  5. Secret information is being leaked by an unknown party.
  6. An uprising openly starts acting against you on the outskirts of your power.

When you resolve the issue caused by the rebels and punish the ones responsible, gain 5 shadows.

Violating Change:

You can force a person to show their true nature, or reforge them into a new being at all. With a torturous process taking up a day of work per HD (if they try to resist, they may attempt to save each day, putting off their transformation) and 5 Shadows, you can make them No Longer Human. They become a monster, based both on their own traits, as well as on the tortures they went through. The GM will assign them abilities, keeping their old HD(although they may turn it Supernatural). They are under a compulsion to follow your orders, which may be broken either by true love or true hate.

Beast Within:

The Thing within you stirs. You have gained great power over it, just as it has gained power over you. You may unleash it at the cost of 3 Shadows. As it is unleashed:

This state ends when you take damage, which shows that you are still a human. This may yet change.

The Power of Will:

Steel may rust, flesh may rot, but your Will is eternal! You are immune to all sorts of mental compulsions, including the one to attack from Beast Within, as you learn to hold The Darkness completely in your palm. You are immune to any source of influence to your being, in fact, as long as you keep focusing on resisting it. You could walk through the fires of Hell if you kept composure.

Words of Poison and Power:

The Rebels mean nothing now. Their Hopes do not matter any more. Now, you can gain hold of what makes the world. In realms you control, your word is as much divine law as any other God's. Once per month, you may issue a decree - once it is read out loud by a follower of yours, it becomes unbreakable without the use of magic, just like a law of physics. You could decree the sun to stop glowing, if you took control of the heavens.

Post Scriptum

Inspired by a lovely song by Leslie Fish as well as by The Corrivality, and Stephen King's The Stand, and BERSERK, a pair of classes locked in eternal battle. Two players probably shouldn't use these two classes in one game, unless you are planning on PvP.

It is generally assumed that The Adversary and The Emperor are at the same level at the same time.

The powers of both are kinda fucked up, and both are trying to do what they see as right. The Adversary brings hope and love, but also leaves a trail of broken people and corpses, as their fight is more important than anything. Remember, they are ready to cause you to self-harm just to win an argument. The Emperor brings order and stability, but they also crush any dissenters regardless of their cause, as the only thing they really care about is numbers, regardless of how many their "greater good" cosumes.

That being said, The Adversary is better for the people of this world.

These classes may be a bit too "main charactery", but I don't give a fuck. The DM should vet classes brought by their player anyway, and they should ask for approval.

[Specil Hanks] for [aconspiracyofravens]

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