God Wars V Setting

You thought of this already, too? I'm impressed. Anyway, The backstory I had planned went something like this:

The victor of God Wars IV has gathered all the pieces of the Siphon Core, and prepares to combine them to summon back their god. However, William Cathal intrudes upon the event, equipped with powerful artifacts he discovered on his adventures I have yet to write. He slays the people in the room conducting the ritual, and uses one of his artifacts (undoubtedly the most important one), called the keystone to corrupt the Siphon Core. Instead of bringing back [insert god here], it summons forth a previously unknown deity, a powerful twisted being whose power is incomprehensible. The deity quite literally sets the world on fire, and over the period of a thousand years, he slowly tears it to pieces.

Once he is done, however, he is still not satisfied. He uses his massive powers to manipulate time, returning to the past to wage war with man- and godkind once more, and alternates the course of history. Before he achieves much, however, he decides to actually sit back and watch from the sidelines as the gods will eventually wage war with each other. He purges Gielinor from most of the knowledge about him, and waits for his twisted amusement to begin...

That's pretty cool, William. Ideally, I'd want a backstory that encompasses why some of the formerly powerful NPC factions have been reduced to (relative) obscurity. See the NPC Factions thread for more info.

Well, Sliske went around and assassinated all of the Main Rulers of the year 169, in order to increase his Master's Chances to take over the world. However, Azzanadra and the other Major Zarosians were too slow with their plans, and it took decades to find a suitable host that wouldn't instantly be overloaded by the power of Zaros flowing into him, and be incinerated. This gave the rest of the world's governments to crumble, and many, MANY bloody revolutions later, the countries have fragmented.

That's sort of plausible, since Sliske is plain OP in the Shadow Realm. But I'd prefer a setting that gets away from some of the OP things in-game atm, because if they exist in GW5, people will want to manipulate them.

At the end of the Core Wars, Tiberius Magnus emerged victorious. Through great cunning, skill, and patience, he had outplayed and outmaneuvered his competition to obtain all of the Shards and reassemble the immensely powerful Siphon Core itself. Standing atop White Wolf Mountain, with the vastness of Gielinor spread before him, he attempted to harness the Core's power to free his Lord, Zaros, from the dimension he had been trapped in centuries ago. However, being ancient Guthixian technology, the Core did not react as Tiberius had anticipated, even with his elite priests and incantors doing their best to control its swirling energies.

Defying the will of the mortals, the Siphon Core instead obeyed its programming; it spewed its power in all directions, a multitude of green tendrils streaking through the clouds. The energy descended upon millions of people, ripping the life from their chests and causing great terror and panic. Most of Gielinor's leaders, including Tiberius and the self-proclaimed Warlords of the other gods, were slain. Coupled with the direct devastation that the Core Wars had wrought, the world was left on the brink of extinction.

Not all was lost, however. The flora and fauna of the planet were unharmed, as if Guthix knew their purity could never be lost. Small groups of humans across Gielinor were also ignored by the Core, though the reason why they were spared is still unknown. Theories abound that the Core had only targeted the staunchest believers in the "young gods" who, as ever, had brought war and suffering to a beautiful work of creation. Guthix, in anticipation of the slight chance that the Core could be remade, had designed it to wipe the world clean.

The immediate effect was as the God of Balance had intended - Gielinor was free of the gods - but as the decades passed and the sentient races of the world began to repopulate, there was a void left in their hearts that only comforting words and promises could fill. They did not know Guthix's higher purpose; even if they did, they wouldn't care. All they knew is that something terrible and inexplicable had happened, and, now that they had a chance to rebuild, they had to do it the right way. The whispering words of all the gods began to convert people once more.

Saradomin, as ever, spoke of Order and the Light of his governance. Zamorak insisted that only Chaos was the great equalizer. Some races, such as the goblins, had lost too much of their intelligence to stop believing in their Big High War God. Even lesser gods, like the Desert Pantheon, regained some followers. In time, the gods reestablished their influence.

Those who believed that the Great Extermination, as the Core's actions came to be known, was directly caused by faith in the gods staunchly opposed the reestablishment of churches and temples. Though this group was small, it gathered sufficient numbers to elect a leader, who named the movement the "Order of Apostasy."

Despite the Order's efforts, leaders arose in the factions of each of the gods, though none of them branded themselves as Warlords as they had done in the Core Wars. With the old kingdoms of world largely diminished and the chance for Gielinor to be shaped into what each leader thought to be a perfect image of his god's ideals, a new war was inevitable. This time, the gods did not fight for the power of a misunderstood Guthixian artifact. This time, they fought for the chance to make the world in their own image. Abiding by the cycle of death and rebirth, Gielinor would once again experience devastation.

Of course, we can tweak it a bit, but that's the best I'll probably come up with. Possible problems:

1) Why did Guthix create something that would kill many of the races he brought to Gielinor (particularly humans)?

A) Guthix's primary reaction to the Core's attempted activation would have been to wake up, but, well, he ded. Thus, the Core fell back to its secondary, last-resort function.

2) Are we going to incorporate Sixth Age lore into the backstory? That is, if the gods are returning, why not have them fight?

A) Because having gods on the battlefield is overpowered, as we learned the hard way. If necessary, we can attempt to create another reason why the gods are not directly in the world even after the Edicts have been broken. Perhaps the Core is keeping them out once more.

3) Why aren't the leaders of the newly reestablish god-factions calling themselves Warlords?

A) The lore-reason is the world is still very much adverse to war. At this point in time, populations have recovered enough to be stable, but no one's killing each other en masse yet. Almost everyone still remembers the Great Extinction, either because they were alive or because they can read. Though the leaders of these god-factions know that war is inevitable, they don't want their followers to believe that fighting will be necessary (I'm talking about mainly humans here, not goblins and the like). Calling themselves "WARLORDS" pretty much indicates their intentions.

The non-lore reason is that, while this game will certainly be focused on military, I want to get across the idea that there will be other ways to do things, and that diplomacy and conversion will be just as important in some situations. Thus, having the leaders be just, well, leaders shows that they are more well-rounded.

I'm just going to throw this out here, but I want get rid of the entire "lore"-buildup the players have amassed throughout the 4 games. (Although only the last two have really seen players creating lore). I want to start from a clean sheet with a small amount of explanation as to why some things are different to the current game, and that explanation would be a sadistic bondage-god who can manipulate time. It also pretty much gives me a fall-back to wipe out a stalemate-situation in the lategame when two allies who have been butt-buddies over the entire game refuse to attack each other.

That just sounds so... boring. But, whatever accomplishes our objectives, which are:

1. Justifying why some things are different from the game (and, please, a better explanation than "Because I said so! XOXO, Bondage God").

2. Explaining how NPC factions are much weaker than in-game.

3. Giving some context to the Wars.

... Or, you know, we could just try and roleplay the Third Age, except the gods were running around then and we didn't know much about what kingdoms existed outside of Forinthry.

That's my weakness, actually. I can create entire worlds, universes, multiverses of rich stories and lore, but when I want to write it down, they all elude me and are reduced to scraps. I currently have in my head the entire history of Gielinor since the timewarp used by our mysterious sadist deity (who happens to be the very first younger god, created directly by the Elder Gods and corrupted into insanity), but I just know it'll become incredibly boring to read if I write it down.

Oh, right... an alternative history route could be interesting, yeah. Or perhaps just an alternate reality. Doesn't matter how boring to read you might think it is, we need ideas at this point .

The other point is, my setting allows for an eighth faction that will more than likely be necessary, judging by the interest Brony and Siroki have shown in GW4. No offense to stanton, but I'm hoping he doesn't want to play this time around; if we do need a 9th faction, we can create one later. If we want to incorporate the Eastern Lands, I was thinking the Apostates could start there.

That is a valid point, but we can just allow Marimbo to continue as a faction. The we have enough factions for each player. And I also share your hope that Stanton doesn't want to continue in God Wars V. No offence meant to him, but he has shown that he isn't TOO interested in the game, so he probably won't continue.

Marimbo is a joke gooooooooood ;_;. He's sitting right next to Brassica Prime...

Then again, we can still have an Order of Apostasy in an alternate reality/history setting.

Or we could start up a Guthix faction. I'm killing all the gods anyway, so no reason not to include Guthix in there.

Lord William wrote:

Or we could start up a Guthix faction. I'm killing all the gods anyway, so no reason not to include Guthix in there.

That's kind of what the Order is supposed to be. If we have a Guthix faction, some people might think it is comprised of people who still consider him a god and worship his memory as such. Those of us (Adventurers, or in the case of my setting, most of the people who survived the Great Extermination) who know his true purpose would become Apostates.

I'll take the worshipping Guthix faction here. In our little game, a faction that opposes gods would be out-of-place. Besides, after I'm done with the gods, there's not much opposing of them anyway, just their philosophies. If you wonder why I'm off to slay the gods, it's because there's no reason why they wouldn't help the leaders of their factions. Solves the problem just fine.

Okie dokie. Write it up formally >:]

Where would Guthix even START?

Taverley?

Perhaps we could have a timeline with a bunch of Quin worshippers and have *them* start in the eastern lands. Or Sliskites or whatever.

Or these can all be... NPCs!

Possible Faction List:
1. Saradomin (inb4Lumbridge)
2. Desert Pantheon (Nardaaaaaaaaaah)
3. Zamorak (Canifis)
4. Armadyl (Hemenster)
5. Bandos (Goblin Village/Somewhere near Oo'glog)
6. Zaros (Edgeville/SomewhereintheWilderness)
7. Guthix (Taverley?)
8. Quin (Wushanko Isles)
9. Sliske (The North)
10. Cult of Apostasy (THEY'RE EVERYWHERE/Mid-Kandarin?)
11. Marimboooooo (Karamja)
12. Seren (Somewhere in Prifdinnas)

Additionally, I propose having the Eastern lands Island Chains all as seperate regions, for example, the Pincers region, the Bowl Region, the Arc, etc. So that the Quin faction has more room.

Again, I suggest that any of these gods that do not have their roles filled simply act as an NPC nation.

Saradomin: Lumbridge
Guthix: Taverley
Zamorak: Canifis
Menaphite Pantheon: Nardah seems just fine.
Zaros: Wilderness, probably the Bandit Camp.
Armadyl: Hemenster/Seer's village
Bandos: A village/settlement only existing in this alternate timeline, location in the Feldip Hills.
Seren: Tirannwn.
Marimbo: Karamja.

Don't think Quin, Sliske or Cult of Apotheosis or w/e are necessary. In this timeline, Sliske couldn't have even gotten the chance to ascend, since Guthix got killed by our gamemaster. I'm still trying to figure out how to make Zamorak possible.

Of course, leniency about starting locations is possible.

I don't necessarily believe that this God Wars should take place after GWIV. We could just have it reset and take place directly after the events of the game.

That did occur to me, but then we'd have "gods" running around, and that's a nono.

Well, there's no reason for them to get murdered off by some odd circumstance aswell.

I'm pretty much in favour of a whole timeline-reset.

The funny thing is, next to research, this is the hardest thing we have to think about! Let's make a choice first: Do we want to incorporate the winner/events of GW4? If so, I vote for my idea or William's. If not, we'll have to go with some kind of alternate reality/history. The other problem is that we don't want the gods running around in the world, but we also can't kill them because then, it wouldn't be God Wars!

I can't kill the "gods"? Of course I can kill the "gods". Nobody had to know they're dead, though... <.<

I'm fine with a truly clean slate, if Lime can come up with a reasonable explanation as to why the "gods" aren't running around, and no damn Sliske faction. I'm a traditionalist and don't accept him as a "god".