Gods, Men, and Monsters

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Shadow of Legend
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Gods, Men, and Monsters

Post by Shadow of Legend »

This is my setting. It's a parallel universe to KC's MGE, and as such is heavily based on it, with many, many references to other settings, worlds, and series such as the Cthulhu Mythos, Demonbane, and The Witcher. The monster girls look pretty much the same as those of the MGE, though there are slight differences such as Lizardmen, Salamanders, and Dragons having hands and feet like those of humans (four fingers and a thumb on each hand, hands and feet smaller, to the point that they're basically in the same ratio/proportion as humans).


Backstory
Spoiler: show
In the beginning, nothing existed, or at least, not for very long. Within an unfathomably massive maelstrom of chaos called The Void, things were created and destroyed constantly and instantly. Most things' existence was so brief that had anyone been capable of observing, they probably wouldn't even notice the constant, repeated creation and destruction.

As is the nature of all things, however, "accidents" happen. Normally nothing ever made it to the edge of The Void, but at one point, the exact moment of which is still unclear, several timeless beings of indescribably horrific appearance and unimaginable power were created and flung out of it. It took these beings eons to realize and understand what had happened, but once they did, they quickly became bored, for aside from each other, they had nothing. Except for them and The Void, existence itself was empty.

Wanting something to do, something to entertain themselves with, they began thoroughly testing their powers, which led to the creation of the various universes, galaxies, solar systems, and planets we know of. Creating things alleviated the boredom for a while, but what they had created so far failed to keep them interested for long. Lifeless chunks of rock floating in space didn't provide much entertainment, after all. These beings, who had taken to calling themselves the Outer Gods, decided to create living beings, starting off with things similar to themselves, which brought about the Great Old Ones, and Lesser Deities that greatly, and sometimes identically, resembled the humans of today, though they were infinitely more powerful.

Eventually the Outer Gods grew less and less interested in the affairs of their creations, and left them to their own designs, choosing to go into suspended animation until things were interesting again. This left the Great Old Ones with total authority to do whatever they wanted, which mostly involved oppressing the Lesser Deities for fun. The Lesser Deities quickly grew tired of being playthings for the Great Old Ones, and so they rebelled. They discovered that having others pray to them boosted their powers, so they formed a pantheon, chose one as their Chief God, and created humans. The humans were to worship them in exchange for prosperity in life and protection from the Great Old Ones. This system worked until, due to giving humans free will, they either chose to stop worshipping the gods, or they sided with the Great Old Ones out of greed or lust for power. Because so many of their followers had left them, their power declined and they had more and more trouble just keeping the Great Old Ones in check.

They desperately schemed, hoping to find a solution. Eventually, "someone" suggested that they erase the memories of humans about the war between them and the Great Old Ones, the memories of the Great Old Ones themselves, and all knowledge pertaining to how everything came to be, substituting it for a story in which they claim to have created all. When asked with how they'd keep the humans faithful to them, the "someone" suggested that they create a species, or number of species, superior to humans physically, yet inferior mentally. Their wills would be weaker, allowing them to be more easily controlled, and a "control device" would be put in place to keep them in line. If humans started abandoning the gods, said species would sweep through them and kill them until humans returned to worshipping the gods, after which the gods would bless one or more "champions" and send them after the "control device" to kill it, which would trigger infighting amongst the species to determine the next "control device", during which time the humans would pray to the gods, thanking them for saving them from certain extinction and pleading for the gods to continue protecting them to keep it from happening again, which it would after the period of fervent worship and praise ended.

Unbeknownst to the gods, this "someone" was actually Nyarlathotep, the one Outer God that didn't enter suspended animation, preferring instead to entertain itself by egging things on in various ways, and it was masquerading as a goddess. The gods found this to be an excellent idea, at one point discovering that it would eliminate any overpopulation problems, too, because due to how humans were designed, despite their incredibly short lives, pitiful weakness, and excessive flaws, all exactly as the gods intended, they bred very quickly.

During lulls in the war with the Great Old Ones, the gods, all of them Lesser Deities, would get together to plan and scheme. Designing hundreds of different creatures, some of them ordinary animals, others "monsters", they began putting in place their plans to subtly and indirectly oppress humans for the sake of coercing them into praying to the gods. Their excuse for the existence of the "monsters" was that the "Demon Lord" created the "abominations" to slaughter humans for fun. The existence of the "Demon Lord" would be excused or explained as "someone who came about as the physical embodiment of evil because humans didn't pray to the gods enough, thus allowing him to come into existence." Their plan set, they put it in place, erasing and modifying the memories of enough humans to trick them into believing their story, creating monsters and the Demon Lord to oppress humans for them in order to ensure that they continue praying to them, and redoubling their efforts against the Great Old Ones.

Within a few centuries, the terrified, oppressed humans from the first few "cycles" had prayed to the gods enough to grant them the power to seal the Great Old Ones away deep under the ocean, far beyond what anyone, human, monster, or Deity, could reach. After the war ended, humans and Deities both enjoyed a period of peace, humans until the next "culling phase" and Deities until they suffered "power corrupts".

The Deities would occasionally notice an individual human or particularly strong-willed monster that, through hard work, much practice, and great determination, built themselves up to godlike levels of power and capability. Fearing that their own creations would turn against them if allowed to advance enough, the gods began subtly regulating how advanced humans and monsters could become before being "cut down to size" by a particularly long-lasting or brutal cycle, keeping their advancement in check and preventing them from ever proceeding beyond whatever point or level the gods deemed suitable.

At first the gods were incredibly "strict", barely allowing humans and monsters to have their own spoken and written languages. Gradually they eased up, allowing various things such as construction techniques, metalworking, farming, magic, and combat techniques. Any time a follower would question the gods as to why civilization had not advanced farther by that time, the gods would use their scapegoat, the Demon Lord, as well as the monster attacks, to divert the blame. Though nobody paid enough attention to realize it, if the follower was persistent in learning more about it, possibly due to being suspicious of the answer, the person would meet an unfortunate and grisly end at the fangs and claws of wild animals or monsters.

From time to time, the different gods would get tired of their roles and "retire", no longer involving themselves in the world or in mortal affairs, passing down their roles and titles to their successors. Due to how the "system" was set up, however, only the first Chief God really had the ability and "authorization" to add, remove, or change anything, and all proposed edits from other gods had to be approved by him, so he kept in touch with the other gods, acting as a sort of "administrator".

Because they weren't omniscient, though, sometimes humans and monsters would come very close to "cheating" the system, be it a human or group of humans that compiled a great deal of knowledge and records of the past that the gods would prefer to be forgotten, or a monster strengthening its will enough that it would "disobey" and not kill humans on-sight. This eventually led to humans secretly forming groups dedicated to finding out the so-called "real truth", with the aforementioned "disobedient" monsters often joining them, all of the members working together to create powerful items that could eventually enable particularly powerful and skilled humans or monsters to challenge the gods for the answers they sought. They created such artifacts as the grimoires "Necronomicon" and "Pnakotic Manuscripts", as well as "man-made gods" called "Deus Machinae" (singular: Deus Machina) to use to battle them if need be.

The gods eventually found out somehow and another battle was started, the truth-seeking humans waging war on the gods for the sake of answers, using their artifacts to battle the gods on equal ground. Unfortunately for them, they were only a match for the gods when the battles were one-on-one. The gods ganged up on them and struck them down, but the clever humans and monsters of the group had prepared for such a defeat. The artifacts couldn't be permanently destroyed, and the machines, bound to them, could only be banished. Unfortunately, the grimoires by themselves, though sapient and fully independent as far as living a normal life goes, weren't powerful enough to fight the gods by themselves and needed mages as masters to achieve their full potential, so when their masters, the pilots of the machines, were killed, it was over. The machines themselves, though as powerful as any individual god, were only semi-sentient, thus incapable of acting on their own unless ordered by their pilot or grimoire. In other words, to function, there needed to be a "trinity" consisting of the mage who was master of the grimoire, the grimoire that powered the machine, and the machine that was piloted by the mage. Because of the pilot's key role, if he or she were killed, the battle was lost.

Very angry over this development, the gods sealed away the grimoires, thus sealing away the Deus Machinae in the process, and set the Demon Lord and its monsters to slaughter humans in a particularly thorough culling phase of the cycle. Unbeknownst to them, it was thanks to Nyarlathotep that humans developed the grimoires and Deus Machinae. After the intense, brutal culling of both humans and monsters during the next cycle, no knowledge of these events or items was left. Eventually humans and monsters managed to rebuild after the gods' rage subsided, and things went back to "normal", monsters fighting amongst themselves to determine the next Demon Lord, and slaughtering humans once that was achieved, with humans fighting the losing battle against them until the gods, usually just the Chief God, blessed a "hero" with enough power to slay the Demon Lord and allow the cycle to continue unhindered.

This continued for thousands of years with little changing during that time. Some species of monster were allowed to become fully sapient, equal or superior to humans in intelligence and willpower, though they were still susceptible to the Demon Lord's influence to some degree, with his or her influence affecting them more strongly the closer they were to him or her, proximity-wise. This allowed the various kinds of dragons to live their own lives, doing whatever they wanted, lizardmen and salamanders to become races of warriors, seeking to better themselves by honing their fighting skills, though some of them occasionally became mages or devoted themselves to things unrelated to combat, mermaids could date and romance men rather than be overwhelmed with an urge they couldn't resist however hard they tried to drag them under the waves and drown them, and succubi to enjoy having sex with males of various "desirable" species without being forced to kill them with it.

Some got used to things, others didn't. For some, the world was just fine the way it was, though it was hard for most to believe that anyone could think that way about a world in which the greatest majority of living things would try to kill you as soon as they saw you. For others, it could definitely be improved. Some were more vocal about their desired improvements, others attempted to bring said improvements about, though the gods, with their subtle manipulations of things, always ensured that such efforts ended in failure.

Eventually, during one particular cycle, things got a bit out of hand. The Demon Lord for that cycle was exceptionally mean, sadistic, brutal, and oppressive. Any and all who didn't swear total loyalty and obedience to him, be they human or monster, were beaten, tortured, brainwashed, or mind-controlled into serving him. Those that held out and resisted or tried to escape were put to incredibly painful deaths via public execution. Thanks to the gods adding a "spreading corruption" effect to demonic energy, the Demon Lord's power grew at an alarming rate until he was out of the gods' control. At first they were worried about how to handle things, but then they took notice of a certain ambitious succubus from the demon realm and a certain man who was the best knight The Order had to offer...

Official Canon Stories

1. One Take on the New Demon Lord's Rise to Power (WIP)

This story chronicles the very end of the "pre-history" phase, showing how Lilith, the current Demon Lord, met her husband Lucas, and how they journeyed around, gathering allies and uniting humans and monsters alike for the sake of ousting the Demon Lord of the time, a being of unknown origin who was exceptionally cruel to anyone and everyone who didn't sincerely swear eternal loyalty to him. It also shows a little of what happened after her taking of the throne.


2. Character Origin Story: Sol (working title, no official title yet; not started yet)

This story details the life of my internet persona and the events that shaped him into who he is today.


3. Continuing Problems (working title; not started yet)

This one details persisting problems and the combined efforts of the gods and all godlike beings to solve them.



Periods of Significance

SPOILERS FOR MY FICS
Spoiler: show
Prehistory: War of the Gods

As described in the Backstory section, the Outer Gods create the Great Old Ones and the Lesser Deities, get bored, and go into suspended animation, except for Nyarlathotep, who decides to stir things up. The Great Old Ones, free to do whatever they want, harass and tyrannically oppress the Lesser Deities. The Lesser Deities create humans for the sake of getting power through prayer and faith so as to defeat the Great Old Ones. They create monsters and install the "system" to ensure that humans continue to pray to them and thus give them power. They eventually succeed in sealing away the Great Old Ones, but after tasting the power offered by sufficient prayer and faith, the Lesser Deities don't want to give it up.


Prehistory: Humanity's Rebellion

As described in the Backstory section, humans sneakily gather and hide knowledge, unwittingly assisted by Nyarlathotep. After realizing the truth, they devise a plan to rebel and oust the tyrant gods. Nyarlathotep helps them to create "artifacts" of incredible power such as the Necronomicon and the Pnakotic Manuscripts, as well as the various Deus Machinae. The humans rebel, waging war on the Lesser Deities, and after much fighting, lose. The gods seal away the artifacts as best they can and slaughter the rebellious humans, then manipulate things so as to have humanity forget about what had happened.


The Endless Cycle and its Breaking

After millennia of the "system" running as intended, one particular Demon Lord took the throne and began an iron-fisted rule that was so terrible it made all others seem like a paradise in comparison. Humans and monsters both suffered under his reign, but he was far too powerful for any of them to do anything to stop him. Seeing that he was a little too efficient at doing his job, and that he was out of their control, the gods tried to think of ways to stop him. They dared not face him directly, lest his godlike power overwhelm them and allow him to kill them. They also feared him revealing the truth to humans in retaliation for any kind of direct assault. They then turned their attention to one particular succubus named Lilith and The Order's greatest knight; a man named Lucas.


The Change

Lilith, having taken the throne with the help of her husband Lucas and their friends, used her power as the new Demon Lord to change monsters into "monster girls". The males all stayed male and were turned into "monster boys", but monsters could no longer breed males. This was due to Lilith's plan to unite humans and monsters via mutual dependency into one race, with humans being the males and monsters being the females, said plan involving bringing human females and male monsters back later on once the races were sufficiently peaceful with, and accepting of, one another.

Unfortunately, the original Chief God didn't like this plan, refused to allow it, and did what he could to stand in her way. As the number of monsters slowly increased, all of them female as intended, and as more and more humans began accepting the "new" monsters, the human women willingly being "monsterized" and the human men marrying monsters, the suggestion that both species might die off was put forth. Lilith knew that it would inevitably happen if the original Chief God kept interfering, for as long as people continued praying to the gods, he received more power with which to oppose her, but the gods were still needed by all, humans and monsters alike.

As she tried to think of how to solve the problem, she ended up gaining allies from unexpected places, who suggested disposing of the original Chief God. When she asked how, they suggested enlisting the help of several different people, including a man who had become an incubus, whose blind, misaimed hatred of the gods had led him to acquire the Necronomicon and start trying to become one himself.


Crisis Averted

His wife, a succubus, murdered by those of The Order, Sol's thirst for revenge was seemingly unquenchable. His rage was unfathomable. He sought only to become the absolute most powerful being in existence, and use that power to annihilate the gods and The Order. As he traveled around, seeking ways to become more powerful that didn't involve sex, for he was still too hurt by the loss of his beloved wife to take advantage of his incubus nature and the "easy road" it offered, he eventually found the Necronomicon. As it would turn out, the Necronomicon was a sentient artifact, capable of taking the form of a young girl named Al Azif. Seeing the walking wreck that he was, she decided to try and set him straight. It was she who managed to pull him out of his uncontrollable murderous rage and set him back on the right path, and keep him there through incredible effort.

His goal changed from "kill everyone associated with The Order" to "recover Al Azif's lost pages" and together they began searching. The new goal still brought him into conflict with The Order, for they had somehow managed to acquire many of Al Azif's pages, and taking them back involved confronting The Order. One raid on an Order fortress went awry and they were separated, but they eventually met again in a certain kingdom. In said kingdom, he met with great fortune, for he learned that his only two friends were still alive and well. One of them had fallen in love with the younger of two lizardman sisters, and the couple had decided to secretly play matchmaker, their intention being to get Sol together with the elder sister, with the help of a unicorn and the still-sentient, disembodied soul of a vampire.

The plan worked, and after a martial arts tournament in which the winner would become a dragon, the elder sister, Alexandra, won. After she had become a dragon, she and Sol got married.

Having seen all of this, the current Chief God, who was actually a goddess and was thus the Chief Goddess, decided that it was a perfect time to tell Sol the truth and offer him a chance at redemption and atonement. He accepted, becoming another of her champions, though he was too proud to accept her Blessing. He then proceeded to train together with Alexandra and Al Azif, all three of them eventually growing in power until they were strong enough to handle the task the Chief Goddess gave to Sol, the task being to kill the original Chief God and all who support him.


A New Adversary

Having completed his task and officially become a god, Sol desired only to return home, settle down with Alexandra, and start a family. Lilith, Lucas, and the Chief Goddess were working well together, changing the very foundations of various things to make life better for all. Humans and monsters were almost fully integrated, the birthing of males having been made possible by everyone's combined efforts and the slaying of the original Chief God and his followers. Sol spent a few centuries of bliss with Alexandra, the two of them continuing to grow in power through sex and training, playfully trying to outdo each other in their acquisition of power. Eventually, Sol got her pregnant, and some time later, the two of them became the proud parents of a baby female dragon.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end sooner or later. Nyarlathotep, having gotten bored with watching the aftermath of everyone's triumph, decided to stir up trouble again, and soon Sol, Alexandra, and Al Azif were called back into action to help defend the world from these new threats.
Last edited by Shadow of Legend on Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.
From the hate-scorched sky!
With righteous anger in our hearts!
We draw forth the sword that smites evil!
Thou art the innocent blade----Demonbane!

Lemuria Impact:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtkCGQ9aTIc

Lemuria Impact translation:
"In this World of Light, there is no place for you of the Darkness!
Thirst not! Hunger not! Return to the Void!
Lemuria Impact!"

"Sublimate!"
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revanwolff
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Re: Gods, Men, and Monsters

Post by revanwolff »

Is this the settings to yous story that would make a great erotic novel called One's take on the new Demon Lord's rise to power?
May The Force Be With You.

The Force is my ally and what a powerful ally it is.

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Shadow of Legend
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Posts: 653
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:31 pm
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Favorite Monster Type: The lizard-types
Location: Beyond the stars, lost as hell (need a map)

Re: Gods, Men, and Monsters

Post by Shadow of Legend »

Yes, it is. One Take on the New Demon Lord's Rise to Power is the first "official story" in my setting, detailing how Lilith met Lucas, how they beat the previous Demon Lord, how she took the throne, and what happened shortly after. There will be another two or three "official stories", but I'm not going to spoil them.
From the hate-scorched sky!
With righteous anger in our hearts!
We draw forth the sword that smites evil!
Thou art the innocent blade----Demonbane!

Lemuria Impact:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtkCGQ9aTIc

Lemuria Impact translation:
"In this World of Light, there is no place for you of the Darkness!
Thirst not! Hunger not! Return to the Void!
Lemuria Impact!"

"Sublimate!"
User avatar
Shadow of Legend
Emperess
Emperess
Posts: 653
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:31 pm
Gender: Male
Personal Title: God of Insanity
Favorite Monster Type: The lizard-types
Location: Beyond the stars, lost as hell (need a map)

Re: Gods, Men, and Monsters

Post by Shadow of Legend »

I added a list of official stories for the canon of my setting.


I'm not sure what section to write next. Any suggestions?
From the hate-scorched sky!
With righteous anger in our hearts!
We draw forth the sword that smites evil!
Thou art the innocent blade----Demonbane!

Lemuria Impact:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtkCGQ9aTIc

Lemuria Impact translation:
"In this World of Light, there is no place for you of the Darkness!
Thirst not! Hunger not! Return to the Void!
Lemuria Impact!"

"Sublimate!"
Drazzimyr
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Re: Gods, Men, and Monsters

Post by Drazzimyr »

This... is one of the most awesome concepts I've ever seen.
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revanwolff
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Location: Exploring the Galaxy Righting wrongs and bringing peace

Re: Gods, Men, and Monsters

Post by revanwolff »

How bout Sol? I would love how he got so perverted.
May The Force Be With You.

The Force is my ally and what a powerful ally it is.

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User avatar
Shadow of Legend
Emperess
Emperess
Posts: 653
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:31 pm
Gender: Male
Personal Title: God of Insanity
Favorite Monster Type: The lizard-types
Location: Beyond the stars, lost as hell (need a map)

Re: Gods, Men, and Monsters

Post by Shadow of Legend »

revanwolff wrote:How bout Sol? I would love how he got so perverted.

I'm going to finish my current fic before I start on the next one, so seeing Sol's backstory will have to wait. I think I'll do an "era summary" section next, since it'd probably make sense to tell a short version of what happened in each "period of significance" before listing factions and important people, but that'll come after the next chapter, which will be written as soon as I am rested (hopefully sometime tomorrow).
From the hate-scorched sky!
With righteous anger in our hearts!
We draw forth the sword that smites evil!
Thou art the innocent blade----Demonbane!

Lemuria Impact:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtkCGQ9aTIc

Lemuria Impact translation:
"In this World of Light, there is no place for you of the Darkness!
Thirst not! Hunger not! Return to the Void!
Lemuria Impact!"

"Sublimate!"
User avatar
Shadow of Legend
Emperess
Emperess
Posts: 653
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:31 pm
Gender: Male
Personal Title: God of Insanity
Favorite Monster Type: The lizard-types
Location: Beyond the stars, lost as hell (need a map)

Re: Gods, Men, and Monsters

Post by Shadow of Legend »

"Periods of Significance" section added. It details and partially spoils some of the things in my fics, which is why it's in a spoiler. Next will be "Important People".
From the hate-scorched sky!
With righteous anger in our hearts!
We draw forth the sword that smites evil!
Thou art the innocent blade----Demonbane!

Lemuria Impact:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtkCGQ9aTIc

Lemuria Impact translation:
"In this World of Light, there is no place for you of the Darkness!
Thirst not! Hunger not! Return to the Void!
Lemuria Impact!"

"Sublimate!"
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