General Lore

This section is used to describe the general history, belief, and inner workings of this world. Assume any lore here is generelized for the main country this game takes place in which is yet to be named, any other culture that is different or located elsewhere is best put into the Factions/Cultures section.

### The world of Grim Dark Depreesion

Most days are cloudy, rarely ever would the sun pierce the clouds to allow sunshine through the country. Many buildings have an architectural Gothic design. Long points reaching the sky as if trying to rays to reach the sun that rarely reaches the country. There are 4 seasons - Spring which brings many rainy days. Summer has the most amount of sunny days and is where the hottest days occur. Fall is harvest season and winter is where the days are shorter and the nights colder.

There are festivals for each season that are dedicated in some form to God. Summer of sacrifice is when knights, soldiers, aristocrats, etc. take part in battles with tribes and neighboring countries for prisoners to be taken in and sacrificed to God. Winter festivals has people shouting, yelling, making as much noise as possible because they believe if God slumbers too long, the winters will be longer and hope that waking God up will give them shorter winters.

### Belief

God created the world with his blood which seared with fire and brought about summer. As the blood of God soothed and cooled, fall began to manifest. Winter is when the blood has dried and the heat of the world disappears as God slumbers, exhausted from his work. Spring brings about his awakening as God continues to toil in his work. We give our blood to God for it is what he needs to continue making the world turn.

The number 4 is considered a holy number since it is in everything they believe in. They have households from one of the 4 directions take part in the holy hunt in summer every four years. For example, the houses that are South would participate in the holy hunt, moving clockwise it would be West next year, then North then East then South again in a 4 year rotation. 4 points on their religious symbol (That’s totally not a cross).

The high chancellor would be the only one to oversee the sacrificial rituals of the prisoners. No one has ever seen the high chancellor’s face as it is hidden behind a mask. They believe that the mask represents being God’s messenger. They believe that the prisoners taken during the holy hunt provides blood to God. The blood of humans is what needed to make the world keep going for they believe God drains it’s own blood to keep the world in existence.

### Eldritch beings and how the world functions

-There are 8 dimensions of existence. Eldritch belong at the top at 8th and humans belong in the 4th

-Each tier of dimension feeds the one above it like a food chain (e.g 1st dimension gets fed to the 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, etc)

-A being from one tier of dimension cannot comprehend one above it (e.g 4th dimension beings cannot comprehend beings from the 5th dimension or higher)

-If a being from a lower dimension tries to go to a higher one, it will have it’s physical properties affected, whereas a being from a higher dimension going to a lower one will not be affected whatsoever

-If a being from a lower dimension tries to comprehend the dimension above, it may lose it’s sanity as well just from the influence of the higher dimension

-Eldritch beings can alter all other dimensions from their presence alone due to being at the top of the food chain and if they want to enter a lower dimension

-Eldritch beings sent out millions, even trillions of staves which are beacons to many worlds in the universe in the 4th dimension -Intelligent beings with a “soul” or essence come into contact with staves

-These beings who come into contact with a staff receive a sort of message on instructions from eldritch beings to sacrifice and are subtly mind controlled to do so

-The beings that are sacrificed have their essence sucked into a wormhole from the staff to the 5th dimension -A filtration device in the 5th dimension converts the essence into 6th, then beings from the 6th convert it to the 7th, etc. Until it reaches the 8th and the eldritch beings feast on this to live

-The wormhole opens a small portal to the 5th dimension, this small wormhole affects the 4th dimension due to the 5th dimension presence but the effects are miniscule because of the wormhole being small

-Influences can be seen from the 5th dimension which are small (E.g runes game mechanics system)

-If mankind goes extinct, there are trillions of other worlds with “souls” or essence for the eldritch to take from

-The staves also influences the wielder by having a longer than normal lifespan due to the eldritch beings manipulating the staves to do so

-The limitation of a 4th dimension’s body cannot keep this longevity forever so each intelligent creature in this universe will turn into dust after a set amount of time

-For our world, this lifespan is only 144 years for humans before they are turned into dust

### History of the world so far

-There were plenty of staves that had landed on Earth, each civilization on Earth have their own sacrifice rituals, history and what not with “God” and their staff. We will be focusing on one particular culture and their history with their staff

-The first beings of this civilization we are focusing on came into contact with a staff while fighting a nearby tribe

-An elder chief that first held the staff went into battle with the nearby tribe

-The staff sent out its tentacles, piercing the enemy’s hearts and sucking them into a larger tentacle which was a wormhole into the 5th dimension

-This action made the people of this particular group believe this to be the action of God and believed God wanted the blood of warriors to be sacrificed to it

-The elder chief began designing a mask to represent being a speaker for God, believing the visions and messages from the staff to be God talking to him

-The elder chief also had an extended life due to the influence of the staff, being able to live to 144 years of age

-Each succeeding elder was able to live to the age of 144 before turning into dust

-Runes began appearing on Earth which can alter an individual’s physical abilities (E.g jump higher, hit harder, run faster, etc)

-These runes are actually the 5th dimension’s influences because of the wormholes but the people believed it to be gifts from God -A thousand or so years later, the elder chief position is renamed high chancellor

-This group became a country that also has a yearly sacrifice ritual because it is the will of God

-The neighboring countries or tribes do not have a staff of their own, but may have runes instead (Can visit them in a future episode)

-There are 4 seasons:

* Spring is considered the new year, for it is when God awakes. Like how the Chinese new year day changes with the lunar year, the new year day changes dependant on when the first sprouts of flowers of spring blossom

* The summer of sacrifice is when the knights go into battle to take warrior prisoners to be sacrificed. If they cannot find warriors they may take women, children or elderly. Since this is not considered noble, the knight will have to cleanse himself after capturing and sacrificing them and atone to God for giving less than adequate sacrifices

* Fall is where the weather gets cooler and they believe God prepares for his slumber, after toiling away making the world during the spring and summer months

* Winter is the coldest with more days of night than sunlight. The people believe making a lot of noise during the winter months will wake up God quicker. If the winter is long then the new year will come later and vice versa

-The sacrifice ritual is seen in a public place in front of the massive Holy Church to display God’s miracles

-The prisoners who are sacrificed are treated well, with provisions and what not given to them along with any other desires they wish for before being sacrificed

-A scholarly priest has a vision and believes God asked him to go on a voyage across the ocean

-The Holy Church grants him access to a ship and a crew to go across the ocean

-A few years later, this scholarly priest comes back with news of another civilization with their own staff and sacrifice rituals and beliefs

-This scholarly priest believes that the holy script and the way the Holy Church sacrifices people is wrong and that this other civilization is doing what he believed God wanted

-Internal strife begins as this scholarly priest has more people recruited to his side and his beliefs

-A civil war breaks out between the old sect and rebel scum

-The old sect begins sacrificing more people than usual, believing that the rebel scum needed to be cleansed

-This keeps the wormhole open longer and causes the plague as the 5th dimension influence begins affecting people