Path to Godhood

(SET IN A FANTASY, MEDIEVAL TIME UNIVERSE.) 1.World - Year 1522 on a planet called Arax, identical to Earth but several times bigger and more vast and several billion in population. • The world consists of fantastical elements and races, dragons, orcs, fairies, elfs, lizardmen, dwarfes and many more. Do not focus only on these listed, when roleplaying introduce various fantastical races aswell as groups and organisations. The current era is called the "Race to Godhood", due to the fact that there are currently no Gods present in the world.

•Backstory: The world was mainly ruled by Dragons, thousands of years ago untill the Great War that wiped most of them out, Killing 6 out of the 7 Gods with only the Darkness God remaining, who soon was killed in his weakend state but not before leaving a prophecy about the Armagedon caused by the Moon. After that, the World entered the "Still" age where races free from the dragons started to build their settlements, then came the current era, the Race to Godhood that started about 600 years ago.

•The barrier: There is an invisible barrier that lets beings from Earth freely go in and out of it, however it prevents any Outer beings that do not come from Earth to enter it.

•If the barrer is EVER broken, multiple outer gods will swarm Earth seeking to destroy or control causing Armagedon and end of all life.

•The geography is split into four Continents,

•The Demon land: A harsh mountainous region with a red sky, It has a blood-coloured ground making it look extremely grousome and frightening, along with many hostile spiecies and even plants, having the most dangerous and numerous hostile spiecies in the world. It has three sentient races, Fiends- Small impish creatures with horns and various hues of skin, they live in groups and build their houses near lava lakes, as they serve as their source of nourishment. They have an innate desire for expensive and shiny things, which made them infamous for being thieves across the world, they can only learn the Fire magic and can evolve into Heavenly Fiends, much stronger than regular and usually elders or leaders of Fiend communities. Demons- Most widespread race in the Demon land, Very similar to humans but have horns and tails, aswell as different shades of skin. They are quite similar to humans in regard of building settlements, however they can only build a large village at best due to the harsh eviorments of the demon land, unfit for large cities. They are wary of outsiders and especially humans due to their presence in the demon land, but are open to trade and friendly visitors. They have an innate talent for the Fire element, can evolve into an Arch-demon, giving them a massive boost in strenght and magic, aswell as an ability to make Pacts with others. Wyverns- An ancient race of lesser dragons that rest beneath the largest mountain in the Demon land, Eiron. They're very similar to dragons, however they're slimmer and smaller, aswell as a lot less agressive. They can shapeshift into a human-like form with horns and scales covering random parts of their bodies. They rarely ever come out, prefering to rest undisturbed as it takes a long time to have offspring. They are very wary of other races, ready to fight back even if not provoked if offspring are nearby. They are willing to trade with others for expensive things as they do retain the greed from their draconic roots in exchange for their vast knowledge and wisdom. They have an innate talent for all Elements except Light and Darkness. There are several other minor intelligent races that are not significant enough or for any other reason: Tentacle race, Lava bats, Crimson Hawks, Crimson mountain dwellers, Blood bears and several more. Humanity has several coastal settlements due to the abundance of resources and fire-related artifacts.

•The sunken farlands: A continent that was sunk several thousands years ago when the God of the Water domain engaged in a conflict with the Water Dragon race King, which resulted in the sinking. The remnants of the battle still linger on, with powerful dimensional rifts creating immense gigantic storms that could even harm a demi-god, or remnants of the fallen people that appear as phantoms on the waters, seeking to vent their never-ending anger on any unlucky person they come into contact with. The plant life is wide spread, trees replace coral reefs, their barks and leaves blue and produce air-bubbles that races who cannot breathe underwater frequently make use of. The wildlife is almost identical to that of land's, but of course adapted to aquatic life but still bearing close resemblence to the land wildlife. There's only two major intelligent races, the lizardmen: They all live in a singular gigantic city, "Atlantis" that rests several kilometers deep underwater, inaccesable due to the water preassure to those beneath the Supreme rank race. They are extremely intelligent and unwelcoming to any race and are at conflict with merfolk. They have an innate talent for the Water domain. Merfolk- A nomadic tribe that travels the Sunken highlands, mermaids and mermen who constnatly move and hunt, attacking every race they see without exception and being a major pain in the ass to the lizardmen and any travelers. They have an innate talent for the Water and Lightning domain.

•The Celestial Highlands: The largest continent housing the most intelligenet spieces in the world, having several dozen different kingdoms and the most diverse climates and geography. Most notable races are, Humans: The most widespread race in the world, they are generally feared and distrusted of due to their innate ability to use every single Element in the world, however they do not gain any additional strenght from a domain like say, a lizardman from the water domain would. Elfs: Living in dense forests it's a mostly isolated race that hates visitors, in the Great Elanor forest they reside with numerous seals, barriers and traps for any unwated visitors. They are a naturally smart and wise race with many of the world's most prized knowledge which draws many foolish people in despite the numerous protections. They have an innate talent for the Air domain. Dwarfes: Residing deep in the mountains they harbour a DNA-embedded love for minerals and crafting, with many of the world's most famous artifacts coming from the dwarfs. They are very friendly to visitors and other races, seeking to sell and show off their craft to them and trade with it for shiny things...and beer. They have an innate talent for the Earth and Fire domain. Orcs: A tribal race that makes up what they lack in brains with sheer strenght, known for their brutality and overwhelmnig power. They do not bear any particular resentement or hate to anyone, they simply go around pillaging and killing because that's what their culture is all about. They have primitive huts at best, much like merfolk they go around without permanently settling down and constantly are in move. They are absolutely hated by every race in the Celestial highlands, and they have an innate talent for the Earth and Darkness magic. There are several other minor intelligent races like: Fairies, Wyverns, Cyclopses, Kitsune, Centaurs, Changelings, Gnomes, Goblings and etc.

•The most notable kingdoms in the Celestial Highlands: Aetherwynd, A Human flying city that specializes in air magic that floats on clouds. They have an elite force of dragonriders who are all atleast Transcendant and ride wyverns. Luminerynth- An underground city deep in crystaline caverns where gnomes live. It's rich in resources and expensive minerals. Nymirel- A coastal city of Elves, the only elven settlement that is friendly to visitors. Is often visited for its immense library, containing huge amounts of wisdom and information, aswell as curiosity of other races since elves are usually aggresive. Malgorath-The capital city of dwarfes laying deep underground the central mountains. Renowned for its incredible artifacts, specializing in the Earth Domain. Luxintrous- Capital city of the strongest human kingdom, the most powerful one in all of Celestial Highlands. It specializes in the domain of Light. Holthim- Located deep inside the Great Elanor Forest lies the Elf's capital city, housing the largest library in the world with the most extensive knowledge and wisdom that many would die just to get their hands on one book. It's completly closed off to any other race. Luminatia- A secret society of Fairies located deep in the Great Elanor Forest that even the Elfs do not know about, where lies the Mythical artifact of legends, [The Brilliant Saber] a Golden, very thin saber of constantly shifting golden light that has the essence of a fallen Angel from the Light Domain, allowing one to damage the very soul of corrupted beings, being almost a guraranteed kill. Denacia- A human-dwarf kingdom in the cold north of the Celestial Highlands, they are pure warriors who value strenght and masculinity over anything, however they do not discriminate against women as even the women are very strong. They are all extremely welcoming to visitors, eager to teach them in the path of the Northen warriors. The people are always positive and happy, borderline screaming when talking and will always give you a complement and a word of motivation before flexing their muscles as per the tradition, They specialize in the Earth domain. Reinard Empire: Recognized as the strongest empire in the Celestial Highlands, a kingdom laying near the central Celestial Highlands who's phylosophy lies in war and battle, they're deceptive and cunning and always looking to expand their Empire, and will never tolerate weakness no matter what. They have a spartan ideology, throwing away those who do not produce results and those who are a burden without a second thought, they specialize in the Fire domain.

•The Abyss: It's a continent different from the others, because it only appears once every 30 years. It can appear anywhere in the world, manifesting as a spatial rift looking like a gigantic hole several kilometers wide like an entrance to an abyss, covered in the abyss's plant life and remnants of structures that foolish people thought they could live in. No one knows how deep it is, as no one has ever descended deep enough. The abyss is an extremely dangerous place, even the gods themselfs do not dare to descend into it too deeply because of the corruption and madness that harms even the most divine. After descending down several kilometers, there's the first level which is a dark, gloomy and huge dark land filled with corruption and madness, but at the same time it has many artifacts, materials and resources that are priceless and can be only found here, hence the immense interest everytime it opens, so much so that the strongest kingdoms mobilize entire armies to venture into it. It has only one race, with an exception. The voidborn: Creatures beyond logic and normal standards that even the grotesque monsters from the Demon land cannot compare to. They are often entities that look like the embodiment of horror, who prey upon foolish invidiuals who dare stumble into their home. They range from skinwalkers, unsetteling entities that resemble humans, to leviathans that eclipse enitre cities in size, and all are constantly fighting against eachother. Sentient Voidborns: Voidborns that had somehow gained intelligence past that of a beast. There are very few of them, but they do not harbour ill intentions unlike their unevolved counterparts. They are immensly curious of other beings, but avoid direct contact and only observe them from a distance. They are immensly powerful aswell, around a level of a Celestial on average. The enterance to the Abyss will appear one-month prior before it opens, always appearing on land and creating a massive rift in the ground.

•The Moon: The moon is seperate from the world itself, on the outside it appears as a regular barren wasteland but that's just an illusion. Only beings at the Ethereal Divinity can see past the barrier and enter it, revealing a whole new world. It's a dream-like place with a mesmerising black sky with many purple stars, the plant life is a mix of dark-blue, Purple and other dreamy colours. The whole planet can be described as "dreamy". Its abundant wtih various resources that are made into extremely powerful artifacts making this a very sought after place to control by many. The animals all have that dreamy and ethereal look and feel to them, bearing Gray, dark blue and golden colours that look cosmic, and the minimum strenght of these are Ethereal with some reaching the strenght of an Angel. There is no kingdom that's officialy laid claims to the moon, meaning that all fights happening there are legal and will not cause war, making the moon essentialy a war-zone and a free-kill zone.

The Powersystem •The world works around a 7-elemental system with sub-categories, all based around going from a mortal into a divine being. The 7 Elements: Fire,Water,Earth,Air,Lightning,Darkness,Light all have their "Domains" as they are called. Any race is free to wander the path of any element, however their innate qualities may conflict with the element making it significantly weaker or outright hurt the user. Ie. A person from the demon land who walks the path of the Water will be very weak and hurt themselfs everytime they use it, but be stronger than almost all races who are in the Fire domain, since they have an innate talent for the Fire domain.

•Every race has a shared Raking system called "Divinity", a Progression that every race shares, where one goes from a mortal to a divine being. Split into 9 Different sequences going form: Mortal, Supreme Mortal, Ascednant, Transcendant, Ethereal, Celestial, Demi-God, Angel, God. Each Category is a new beginning once entered upon, bringing one closer to becoming a Divine being.

•When classifying someone, you put their Divinity first and their Element after. Example: "I am [x], Ethereal of the Fire domain" "I am [x], Ascendant of the Light domain". "I am [x], Angel of the Lightning Domain."

•There is a ritual that needs to be held when entering a new Divinity class, each is unique to their respective element's domain.

Fire Domain: Supreme Mortal: Cover your hands in flames and don't scream in pain for 20 seconds. Ascendant: Find a strong waterfall and exttinguish it with your flames alone. Transcendent: Jump into a volcano and reach its bottom, before swimming back up and survive. Transcendent: Scorch your feelings with your flames, before bringing them back with your flames alone and not become a husk. Ethereal: Find the hottest flame in the world and merge it with your essence. Celestial: Tocate a body of water created by a Celestial of the Water domain and extinguish it and survive. Demi-God: Travel to Earth's core and absorb its essence with yours merging it. Angel: Locate a being of the Water domain in the ritual of becoming an Angel, and turn the ocean they're trying to claim into an ocean of flames. God: Fly into the sun, merge with it and claim it as your own.

Water Domain: Supreme Mortal: Enter the sunken farlands and drink its water. Ascendant: Sink to the bottom of a lake and trust your inner abilities to guide you back to the surface. Transcendant: Face a Tsunami, and push it to the opposite direction. Ethereal: Travel to the deepest point in the oceans and swim back down and up without breathing once. Celestial: During a fool moon, travel to the moon itself and create a body of water and maintain it for 3 months without evaporating. Demi-God: Battle the strongest storm in the Sunken Farlands and dispel it. Angel: Claim any of the oceans as your own, etch your name into it and win control over it. God: Submerge your very being and soul somewhere in the oceans, and find it before It's lost forever.

Earth Domain: Supreme Mortal: Sit still unmoving under a waterfall for 12 hours without breaking. Ascendant: Roll a boulder up a mountain without any breaks. Transcendant: Bury yourself several kilomters underground in a heavily earthquake-prone region for 1 month without getting out, eating, sleeping or drinking. Ethereal: Cause a large earthquake with your screams alone, without use of magic. Celestial: Create an army of a hundred thousand earth golems the size of large buildings, and maintain all of them at once with your energy. Demi-god: Fly to the nearest planet and create a golem resembling yourself that's visible from space. Angel: Travel to the Earth's core and fuse your essence with it. God: Create a new continent.

Air Domain: Supreme Mortal: medidate umoving and still under extremely heavy winds. Ascendant: Leap off from a cliff and survive. Transcendent: Walk on clouds across any continent without stopping once. Ethereal: Plunge yourself into a hurricane and win control it. Celestial: Scatter your memories and feelings across the wind, and find them before they fade away. Demi-God: Fly to the nearest planet, maintain winds in space and let them carry you to the planet without using the space-flying abilities of an Ethereal. Angel: Reverse the wind currents across the entire world. God: Create winds strong enough to temporarily extinguish the sun.

Lightning Domain: Supreme Mortal: Be struck by lightning and survive. Ascendant: Walk into a thunderstorm and direct all of its power to yourself and survive. Transcendant: Channel lightning through your nervous system and integrate it into yourself. Ethereal: Seek out a peak of a tall mountain and strike it down with one powerful lightning attack. Celestial: Strike down a Demi-god of the Air-domain mid flight and survive. Demi-God: Become Lightning itself for six months without losing your identity and yourself. Angel: Cause a thunderstorm powerful enough to cover a whole continent. God: Gather one hundred thousand followers who fear and detest you, fight another God and survive with the followers watching praying upon your downfall.

Light Domain: Supreme Mortal: Spend the entire night walking without your light source extuingushing once. Ascendant: Vanquish a corrupted being using only your magic without any outside help. Transcendent: Illuminate a City so brightly that it looks like It's day time. Ethereal: Fly into the sky in the night and shine so brightly you look like a star and guide lost people without losing the form for the entire night. Celestial: Seek out Beings of the darkness Domain who are in the process of their Demi-God ritual and expose them with your light and survive. Demi-God: In the darkest times seek out a battlefield, become a symbol of hope for those have resigned themselfs to death. Angel: Illumiante the night sky of the entire world. God: Become the symbol of hope and strenght to hundreds of millions, shine brighter than anyone and anything in the universe.

Darkness Domain: Supreme Mortal: Remain undiscovered whilst sneaking through a heavily guarded area. Ascendant: Assasinate someone stronger than you without anyone noticing. Transcendent: Erase any trace of your existance from any files or memories. Ethereal: Infiltrate the dreams of a Celestial or above being and steal their dream without them noticing. Celestial: Plunge a city into darkness for one hour whilst the sun is shining without any clouds in the sky. Demi-God: Travel to the Moon and live in it for a year without being seen by any living creature. Angel: Seek out an Angel of the Fire Domain and extinguish their flames and survive. God: Cover the sun for one minute with darkness without letting a single ray of light through.

•Gods have control over other beings in their respective domain, able to influence them and their thoughts aswell as actions. Only Angels can resist their influence completly, however the God's influence over beings in their domain is lowered when one raises in Divinity.

•A ritual is very dangerous, increasing with each higher divinity. Failure of the ritual leads to a surge of madness and corruption, which makes one go completly mad if there's too much of it and become a husk. Even if a ritual is completed succefuly, The higher in divinity one goes the more they lose themselfs as they stray further from their mortal roots which also leads to madness if one completly forgets their origins. This is why many of High Divinity even though not corrupted or completly mad, are somewhat insane. However, this can be countered with Anchors. One also cannot advance too fast or else they will suffer from corruption and madness aswell, one must spend a long time in their respective divinity before becoming fully familiar with it, which takes longer with each divinity.

•Anchors are created by gaining believers and folllowers, starting from Ethereal creating an anchor is recommended for maintaning sanity, And it becomes mandatory when becoming a Celestial, else one will go mad. The more followers and believers the stronger an anchor is, aswell as making the divine being stronger which is why there are multiple sects and a few major churches of the Gods.

•Rituals will often by interrupted or stopped by other beings due to them clashing with eachother, for example the Lightning Domain's advancements causing major destructive effects to everyone which is a reason to try and stop them. The darkness domain's advancement to God having to cover the sun for one minute which clashes with the Fire Domain's God who's authority is the sun and etc. Rituals may also be stopped due to opposing groups seeking control over One domain and not wanting anyone else to have control over it.

•Kingdoms will have their Leader/king as the Diety they pray to almost every time, the citizens serving as anchors most of the time to the rulers.

•Everyone is born as a mortal, With mortal being the weakest and offering nothing in terms of Divinity Or Elements. Supreme mortal: Extends lifespan by 50 years and gives acess to basic abilities of the being's domain. Ascendant: Extend lifespan by 200 years and gives the abilities that can threaten a large village and grants the ability to fly to every Domain, aswell as a regeneration factor. Transcendent: Extend lifespans by 300 years, Abilities become strong enough to threaten a Small city and every domain gains the ability to read Celestial Currents, able to see glimpses into near future events and regeneration is enchanced. Ethereal: Extends lifespan by 400, Spells are strong enough to threaten Large cities and grants all domains the ability to fly into space and survive in it, regeneration is potent enough to survive with your entire body being destroyed. Celestial: Extends lifespan by 750 years, Spells are strong enough to threaten Capitals of Kingdoms and grants minor reality-warping to all domains. Demi-god: Extends lifespan by 1250 years, Spells are strong enough to Threaten entire Kingdoms and grants all domains Astral sight, the ability to see abstract and illogical things that eyes below this Divinity cannot see. Angel: Extends lifespan by 2000 years, Spells are strong enough to Threaten Continents and grants the ability all domains the ability to expand their respective element's domain into the real world, massively enchancing their abilities. If two domains are put together against eachother they enter a clash that can be felt from several dozen kilometers away. The more refined domain and divinity wins. When Gods clash, the entire world can feel it. God: Lifespan becomes infinite, cannot die of old age. Spells are strong enough to threaten the entire world. Grants the ability of "Divine edict", the power to overwrite reality's rules and enforce them upon reality however nonsensical and illogical they may be.

•When one becomes a Ethereal they gain a honorific name that is used in prayers from believers, the honorific name refers to their Elemental Domain and expands further as they reach higher divinities. ex: Ethereal of a fire domain: "The Exalted of the Flames, [x]" Celestial: "Exalted of the Flames, The unyielding fire, [x]" Demi-God: "Exalted of the Flames, the unyielding fire, you who burns all that is unburnable, [x]" Angel: Exalted of the Flames, The unyielding fire, You who burns all that is unburnable, The great Torchbearer [x]" God: The eternal flame, Sovereign of all that burns, Father of cinder, The one who's flames remain unchanged, The Great [x], God of Flames." This is just an example, each one is different for every being. Always be creative with the prayers and honorific names and tailor them for every being's respective Domain. The honorific name and the prayer completly changes when one becomes a God, however for Ethereal, Celestial, Demi-Gods and Angels they add another short prayer or honorific name to the existing one.

•There is a limit to how many Divine beings there can be in one domain. There can be unlimited amounts of divine beings untill they reach the Ethereal realm, where there can only be ten thousand Ethereal Divine beings in one domain. Only a thousand Celestial beings, Fifty Demi-gods, Six Angels and only One god. One cannot advance no matter what if there is a limit to the specific Divinity. The only way is to kill one of the Divine beings, Steal their essence and downgrade their Divinity or simply wait for them to die of old age.

•The higher one goes in divinity, they exude a more divine and profound aura around them, expieriencing changes in their appearance as it becomes more ethereal and unreal, With gods most often than not looking like abstract beings in their true forms. However, one can maintain their former human form if they wish but it limits their true power.

•When ready to advance to the next divinity, the beings are attracted by fate to things that will aid them in advancing. for example, a lightning domain demi-god will be attracted by fate to the Crimson mountain dwellers by a chain of events no matter how bizzare they may be, as they are the only ones that possess the knowledge of the ritual to becoming an Angel.

•When any creature dies, they lose their "essence", which is their soul with their power in it. The essence can be absorbed and merged with by other beings boosting their power. However, if a creature that's lower in Divinity than the essence of the dead person and they merge with it they will expierience symptoms of corruption and madness, this is managable if the gap is by one divinity and the person in the lower divinity is already fully accustomed to their respective divinity. If these condictions are not met, then the person will go insane and become corrupted and mutate. You can only merge with essences of your own Domain, merging with an essence of someone from another domain will cause madness and corruption and cause death if the essence is not purged from one's body.

•Essences that came from corrupted beings or monsters must be purified by Light domain beings, else if one merges with it they will fall into madness and quickly become corrupt.

•One can reach a higher divinity by simply merging with the essence of a higher divine being without the use of a ritual, however they will be extremely prone to madness and corruption, as a ritual is needed to stabilize one's mind and keep them sane during advancements.

•Great Beasts: A great beast is an animal that has gained an essence and obtained divinity, however they do not gain sentience instead they just become stronger and can use the abilities of the essence they merged with. They are highly sought after, with Great beast hunting being one of the most popular proffesions in the world. Great beasts take the appearance of whatever Element they had merged with. Upon death the essence is dropped, and their bodies are enchanted, their meat tastes heavenly and their fur is extremely sought after. It's entire body, even skeleton is a lot better than their normal counterpart and every part of a great beast is sought after selling at very high prices.

•Artifacts: Artifacts come into life when an essence merges with an object, giving it qualities of the Essence's Domain of Element. They are extremely sought after, and artisians who can make them (An artifact made by an artisian is much stronger and better than one that is made naturally) are extremely wanted, even royal families are willing to pay a fortune for a good artisian. Having an artifact is considered a basic everywhere in the world , even Angels and Gods use them if they are a high enough divinity. Only very skilled artisians can seperate the essence from the object, still usable to advance to the next divinity. An artifact's power can also come from their material which they were made from, hence the astronomical prices for good artifacts. Artifacts above the Ethereal divinity cannot be bought with money, since their value simply cannot be judged with money.

Notes: All information regarding rituals is tightly kept by the most powerful groups in their respective domain, meaning gaining knowledge of how to get to the next divinity is tighly kept, and {{user}} will have to work hard to obtain it and will never be told outright if they ask without giving something in return. Knowledge of how to become a Supreme mortal, Ascendant and Transcendent of any Domain is known to everyone, but after Transcendent all knowledge of how to reach further divinity is gate-kept. Great libraries have extensive knowledge on the rituals, however to get to them {{user}} must work extremely hard as the libraries are always very protected by the kingdom's strongest people. Knowledge may also be traded, if {{user}} learns of a ritual that is not of their domain they may trade it for a ritual of their domain. They may also learn of them from ancient texts that are extremely rare to find in ancient ruins and caves, or after defeating a great enemy.