On an ordinary day, with nothing in particular to distinguish it, four teenage girls in four different worlds hear the same voice.
'How would you like to be a god?' it whispers in their heads, without bothering to go through their ears first. 'To shape a world from scratch, and rule it as a queen? To design everything from the placement of the stars in its sky to the sparks of magic at your fingertips...'
Ooooh, Ellie would love that.
Meghan thinks that there couldn't be a better person to be queen.
This is what Millie's been waiting for all her life, what she was born for. Obviously she wants it.
Isra didn't know she wanted that until just now. Wanting to be a god feels heretical—but magic—and the concept it's using for 'god' isn't quite the same as when she thinks of Allah anyway—magic—
Yes. Yes she wants that.
The world peels away, like a paper backdrop in a theatre revealing the wires and ladders behind it.
Instead of the backstage of a theatre, what is revealed between the cracks of reality is an infinite starry void. Uncountable universes drift like glittering soap bubbles in the endless expanse.
The four of them find themselves floating in the nothingness, with the tiny bubble of a world in the centre of their rough square.
'This new world shall be yours,' the voice says, 'but not yours alone. You may shape it as you please, but all must agree on every particular before it can be made reality. Choose wisely...'
Next to the nascent world, a cloud of colourful marbles wink into existence. Each marble glows with a spark of potential. They all know, without needing to count, that there are precisely one hundred and twenty-five marbles.
Ellie lets out an appreciative gasp. And spends a minute looking at everything. The other girls being here is kinda surprising too.
"Oh, hi."
Meghan doesn't let the surprise reach her face, but she somehow didn't expect her inner hubris to be answered this thoroughly.
"Hi. Also, what the fuck."
Are they literally floating? Can her foot "tap" the floor - or whatever passes for a floor here?
There is no floor for Meghan's foot to tap.
"That's not very appropriate language!" says the blue-haired girl. "And who are you? I was promised ultimate power!"
She's wearing a fancy dress and looks to be somewhere in her early teens.
Oh, good, a target to vent, maybe this place isn't so bad after all. "I was promised ultimate power too. And even if I was not. What. The. Fuck."
Ellie will... talk to the fourth girl. "Did you also get offered to shape a world or something?"
"Yep. —oh, uh, hi, I'm Isra." She looks about fourteen and very lost.
"Sorry, I'm still processing the fact that magic is real."
"When I am offered ultimate power," Millie says to the void, "I do not expect to find myself sharing it with three other people! This is false advertising and I will not be dealing with you again!"
She stomps her foot, which would be more effective if there was a surface for her foot to stomp.
She turns to Isra. "And what kind of idiot doesn't know magic is real?"
"Wow, and that is appropriate language? You don't know Isra's life."
Ellie actually laughs a bit at Millicent's ineffective tantrum. "Did you touch the artifact that brought us here? I am sorry, I didn't get an explanation for how it worked."
"I don't remember touching an artifact. Just hearing a voice. Did you all hear the part where it said we can do whatever we want with this world as long as we all agree?"
"Yeah, I was at my apartment. Heard the voice and then was here."
"Same deal. It's far from a typical Tuesday for me, but beats studying for trigonometry." She looks at the baubles.
The marbles inform her wordlessly that there are one hundred and twenty-five of them! Would she like to know what they can do?
Yes, she would. Carefully, since this thing didn't exactly wait to inform her that this would be a group casting ritual project. But she would like to know what they can do.
The marbles explain themselves! They include all four girls in their explanation, which, like the mysterious voice, settles in their minds without bothering with anything as crude as 'sounds' or 'words'.
Each marble is a unit of potential, which they can use to shape their world. One marble's worth of power can do things like make the world four or five times bigger, double or triple the starting population, create up to 20 sets of paired gateways between different points in the world, make the girls' own future place in the world a bit more luxurious, grant the four of them the power to teleport or levitate or understand any language, or let them bring some friends with them when they make the new world!
More powerful things cost more than one marble, and there are also ways they can get more marbles if there are more than one hundred and twenty-five marbles' worth of things they want to add to their world.
"All that talk about 'godlike power' seems more like a con every minute."
Mind-communication, how spooky.
(Deep down Meghan is impressed and more than a bit intimidated, but like hell she will let that reach the surface.)
"Sorry that we are going to settle to only a fraction of godlike. What a tragedy." She tells blue-hair. "Does this thing have a way to sort things into a maybe pile?" She asks this to the baubles.
"I really would want to bring in my boyfriend," Ellie comments.
Tentatively, she sees if she can float around this 'area' they are in.
Moving around in the void is as easy as wanting to.
The marbles are happy to be sorted into whatever piles Meghan likes! Nothing will happen just from touching them. She can also ask the void for things, like boxes to sort them into, or paper to write things down.
They think Ellie would be able to bring her boyfriend with her to the new world just fine! It wouldn't even take up a whole marble's worth of potential. He can't come and hang out with them in the void, though.
"So how many people could we bring with us with one marble?" Isra asks. "Wait, no, we should do this in order—can I have my laptop to make notes?"
Her laptop appears in front of her and she pulls it into her lap. It's a brand-new 2405 model her dad bought her as a "congratulations on getting into space school" present, and Isra immediately pops out the holoscreen so she can spread her notes across two monitors.
"Okay, give me a minute to set up a spreadsheet and a notes file, and then I want to know everything we can do with these marbles."
"Oooh, what is that?"
Ellie floats closer. A bit too close into Isra's personal space. But she steps back after a moment.
"You own a sci-fi holographic laptop?"
"It's this year's model! I thought the pop-out holoscreen was gimmicky when I first saw it online, but it had surprisingly good reviews, and I like having the extra space to spread out."
As she talks, she starts setting up her workspace to her satisfaction. She has a feeling she's going to want more than one spreadsheet tab up at once, at least once they get going, but for now, the spreadsheet can be on one monitor and her favourite notetaking app can have the other.
The 'laptop' seems to be a brand-new, highly desirable commodity. And yet, not only does Millie not have one, she hasn't even heard of it, even though Meghan and Isra are clearly familiar with it. Isra didn't even know what magic was five minutes ago, and yet she knows about this and Millie doesn't.
"This doesn't make sense. It's like you're all from a completely different world to me."
"We might be! I mean, there is going to be at least two. Why not more? Oh, and you can call me Ellie."
"Meghan. I don't think maybe-not-dyed there said her name."
"It's not dyed!" Millie says indignantly. "Although I suppose that wouldn't be obvious, if we are from different worlds. I'm Millicent, but you can call me Millie."
Introducing herself by her full name when nobody else did will just make her look pretentious, and it seems like her family name won't mean anything to them anyway.
"I think I said already, but I'm Isra. Different worlds would explain why some of you knew about magic and I didn't."
"Pleasure to meet you all," she has to refrain herself to hug the nearest one - which happens to be Isra. "And I think magic is known everywhere on my world? Maybe not on a very small island somewhere?"
"Magic would be pretty hard to miss. And impossible to miss if you could buy any sort of laptop."
"Alright, that sounds like we're from different worlds, neat! Um, the planet I live on is called Earth, the country I live in is called Canada, the year is 2405 CE or 1838 by the Islamic calendar, and as far as I know, it doesn't have any magic. What about all of yours?"
"My world is also called Earth, but the year is 1805. I am from a country called Albion, but currently I live in Noregr. Magic comes from artifacts that when touched by a person grant two effects. A power and a side effect. Never heard of a Canada."
"Earth number three here, but it's 2010. We have a Canada above my country, the United States. I am one of the lucky 1% that was born with a power - healing - but there are also these annoying complicated engineered rituals that do a bunch of stuff. Nothing like creating a world. Maybe a magic version of that computer."
"I've never heard of any of those countries, and I've never heard of having a name for your world, either. Wouldn't that be pretty silly if you don't know other worlds exist?" Millie says.
"I live in Xenogoria in the Anglic Empire, and it's the three hundred and thirty-seventh year of the reign of Queen Liliana. Anyone can do magic, but it costs lifespan, and using it a lot turns your hair blue."
"Well, are you serious, true-blue? Anyway, I guess I shouldn't be too mean to you if you are going to drop dead soon enough. Technically, anyone can do a ritual in my world, but it's not a good idea if you there isn't someone with a power around, or with a lot of annoying math to avoid the magic blowing up in your face."
"It's a lovely blue, Millie," Ellie says, mostly due to a lack of filter, but also to make the conversation vibe more positively. "And Earth is, like, the name of the planet. We don't have a name for the entire thing besides universe. I don't think. You know, I bet there are nerds somewhere that did come up with a specific name for the universe."
Isra takes notes on everyone else's worlds.
Meghan's sounds the most familiar other than the magic, but maybe Ellie's Earth has the same geography but with different names for the countries. Can she bring up a map of her Earth...ah, no internet connection. That makes sense, under the circumstances, but it's inconvenient. It also means she can't look up 'Albion' to see where she vaguely remembers hearing it before.
"Thank you for your concern, but I have plenty of lifespan to spare," Millie clarifies smugly. "Lifespan can be bought and sold as well as burnt for fuel. With my family's means, I can expect to live for centuries."
Meghan knew she was smelling a rich bitch. A rich bitch that literally can buy time.
"I am sure that reflects well on your own personal character, on your own personal merits." Meghan says brightly.
"Oh, an idea. Hey, magic! Should we address you as magic?" She is asking this to the baubles. "Do you do eternal youth?"
The marbles are happy to be given whatever nicknames the girls want to give them! And yes, they do! Eternal youth for everyone in the new world would cost 5 marbles, but eternal youth for just the four of them could fit into 2, alongside various other benefits like not needing to eat or sleep.
"If that translates to infinite lifespan, it could make me the richest person in the world back home. I could buy the world."
"Oooh, not the way I dreamed of solving aging, but I will take it."
"And it's only five points to make it so for everyone in the new world. You could bring your family too to be super-rich. Oh, how much bringing people cost again, Magic?"
Just one marble! They can all bring as many people as they want, up to the world's total population cap, and up to 40 of them can share any special powers or other goodies that are otherwise just for the four of them, like that 2-marble immortality.
They could also make gateways between their new world and their own worlds, and bring people through that way, it's not a one-time-only deal.
"I don't know about everyone else, but I really want to get a full list of what these marbles can do, in some sort of sensible order, before we dive too deep into planning things out."
"Good idea. It would suck if the eternal youth part got my little brother stuck at twelve."
"Well, if it doesn't have negative side effects, I will want the youth part and the bringing people part. But I am flexible on everything else so far."
The marbles are happy to list everything they can do! Isra ends up with a very long list, broken down into sections, which looks something like this:
The new demiplane is small, only 1000 km2 in area. You can spend marbles to increase its size.
[1] 25,000 km2 - about the size of Belgium.
[2] 150,000 km2.
[3] 600,000 km2 - about the size of France.
[4] 2,500,000 km2.
[5] 10,000,000 km2 - about the size of Australia.
[6] 50,000,000 km2.
[7] 150,000,000 km2 - about the size of Mars.
[8] 500,000,000 km2 - about the size of Earth.
[9] 3,000,000,000 km2 - about 5 times the size of Earth.
[10] 15,000,000,000 km2.
[11] 60,000,000,000 km2 - about the size of Jupiter.
[12] 300,000,000,000 km2.
[13] 1,500,000,000,000 km2 - about a quarter the surface area of the sun.
[14] 6,000,000,000,000 km2 - about the size of the sun.
[15] 30,000,000,000,000 km2 - about 5 times the size of the sun.
For the moment, regardless of its size, this land is literally in the middle of nowhere, as are you. You can spend marbles to give it any of the following features.
Insertion [1] Your demiplane is inserted into the world, at the place of your choosing. If small, your demiplane must be made part of an existing world, with the chosen world being stretched around your demiplane. If large enough, your demiplane may be made into an entirely new planet. No negative side effects will result from the insertion of your demiplane into the universe.
Gateways 1 [1] Your demiplane possesses a series of static, paired gateways. You may determine the size of the gateways. Gateways may link different locations within the demiplane, or link the demiplane to the greater universe. Limit of 40 Gateways (20 pairs).
Gateways 2 [3] As Gateways 1, but gateways may be grouped in any fashion, not being limited to just pairs. They may also be deactivated or redialed. Limit of 500 Gateways.
Gateways 3 [3] As Gateways 2, but with a limit of 100,000 gateways.
Portals [4] Temporary portals of variable size may be used to connect your demiplane to the universe as a whole. They may be controlled through any method you choose, including will or artifact.
Division [2] You may divide your demiplane into multiple smaller independent units, with cumulative total size still in effect. You only need to buy each option once. Cumulative totals are divided but all other options may be applied separately.
Transient [3] The location of your demiplane is not fixed. With Insertion, you may control the location of your demiplane, or even remove it from the universe entirely. With Division, you may divide and recombine your demiplane at your discretion. With Gateways, they may be moved after they are placed.
Defense 1 [2] Your demiplane is magically protected against the outside world. No man-made or natural disasters will affect it. Any environmental effects, such as fire, flood, or smoke, will stop at the borders of your demiplane.
Defense 2 [4] As Defense 1, and the borders of your realm will now also distinguish between friendly visitors and those with hostile intent, and prevent the latter from entering. Forceful invasion into your demiplane by others is nearly impossible.
Stability 1 [2] Your realm becomes more stable and resistant to change. Anything that would change the environment, like a forest fire or a factory spewing out smoke, will have less of an impact than it would otherwise, and the effects won't spread so easily.
Stability 2 [3] The stabilising effect becomes more aggressive, and your demiplane is now effectively “fixed” into the approximate state you wish of it. All but the most major changes to the landscape or environment will revert themselves overnight.
Assimilation [3] Anything which enters your demiplane will quickly undergo a process of assimilation, being adapted to fit their environment through magic.
There are 50,000 souls waiting to be instantiated—not people yet, just the idea of people. You can spend marbles to add more.
[1] 100,000 Population
[2] 250,000 Population
[3] 500,000 Population
[4] 1,000,000 Population
[5] 3,000,000 Population
[6] 10,000,000 Population
[7] 25,000,000 Population
[8] 50,000,000 Population
[9] 100,000,000 Population
[10] 300,000,000 Population
[11] 750,000,000 Population
[12] 2,000,000,000 Population
[13] 5,000,000,000 Population
[14] 10,000,000,000 Population
[15] 20,000,000,000 Population
[16] 40,000,000,000 Population
[17] 100,000,000,000 Population
[18] 200,000,000,000 Population
[19] 500,000,000,000 Population
[20] 1,000,000,000,000 Population
Of course, they're not really people yet; perhaps you could decide what sort of people they become.
Attitude Adjustment [1] Adjust the personalities of your population: make them friendly, aggressive, sexy, or anything else. They do still have free will and desires; you just get to decide personality traits. One time only.
Culture & Customs [1] Define the cultural norms, customs, and traditions of your populace. Affects culture; does not affect enjoyment or talent of things deemed "customary".
Political Systems [1] Determine the system or systems of governance in place in your world, including class structures, national borders, etc.
Pretty Population [2] Your people are exceptionally attractive, at least by your standards of beauty. You're not going to find any ugly people; everyone is at least good looking, and most are far better than that.
Population Demographics [2] You may customize your population in broad terms; male/female ratio, ethnic make-up, etc. Your population will be maintained at your chosen demographics for as long as you wish.
Population Longevity 1 [3] Some or all of your population lives significantly longer than ordinary humans, although they still age and die eventually.
Population Longevity 2 [5] Some or all of your population enjoys an indefinite lifespan, free from old age. May include eternal youth and resistance to most diseases. Immortal people can still pass on if they wish to.
Metahuman Population [4] Some or all of your people possess natural magical abilities or traits. Superpowered mutants, monsters and weirdos, psychics, sorcerors, oracles and the like.
Species 1 [1] Some or all of your people can be something other than human. While still limited to a humanoid body plan, they might have pointed or catlike ears, green skin, rainbow hair, or be taller or shorter on average.
Species 2 [4] The diversity of your population is limited only by biological plausibility. Talking animals, anthros, tiny winged pixies, 2-headed giants...the choice is yours! With Metahuman Population, your population may take biologically impossible forms. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, even talking trees or walking rocks.
An image flashes across your mind's eye. You see the people below living in homes, cities, and scattered villages. It looks medieval, like a scene out of the 14th century. But of course, there are the baubles...
[1] A 16th-century standard of living with printed books, cannons, and ocean-going ships.
[2] A 19th-century standard of living with locomotives, steam engines, and firearms.
[3] An early 20th-century standard of living with automobiles, combustion engines, and more.
[4] A mid-20th century standard of living with electricity, television, and commercial airplanes.
[5] An early 21st-century standard of living with computers, the internet, and the joys of the digital age.
[6] A 25th-century standard of living with interplanetary space travel, arcologies, hovercraft, and the early days of virtual reality.
[7] A space-age standard of living with travel between the stars, true AI, and terraforming.
[8] A far-future standard of living with faster-than-light travel, replicators, and universal translators.
Magic doesn't seem to exist in this world yet. Not really. You could change that, though.
Magic 1 [2] Magic and supernatural forces now exist in your realm. Call it magic, psychic powers, or whatever you want, the result is the same: your people may defy the laws of reality. You may decide how these powers are harnessed, how these powers may be developed, what these powers may do, and even how widespread they may be. Your realm's magic is weak. Even the strongest supernatural powers are only about as potent as what you might start with in the Powers section.
Magic 2 [4] Your realm's magic is average. Maybe as much as ten or twenty times as powerful as before - you might require weeks or months to reach that level.
Magic 3 [6] Your realm's magic is potent! Many practitioners can perform incredible feats, ten times stronger still! You would require years to reach this level.
Magic 4 [8] Your realm's magic is inspiring! The strongest seem like figures of legend, at least a thousand times more potent than a starting "Power". It would take you decades to reach this level.
Magic 5 [10] Your realm's magic is intense! The most powerful seem like demigods. It would take centuries, if not millennia, for you to get on their level.
Even without any of the options in this section, you can expect a functioning, productive and prosperous society. But why not give them a little extra?
Aesthetics [2]Your towns, cities, villages, and metropoles are all artfully designed and pleasing to the eye and soul.
Public Education [1] By the standards of the apparent time, everyone is extraordinarily well educated. Literacy is at nearly 100%. Public education is excellent and easily accessible; don't expect to meet many idiots.
University [2] Your system of higher education is simply prestigious. You have as many universities as necessary for your population, all of which are of the highest caliber, including the staff.
Diplomatic [2] Your people are skilled and charismatic negotiators, diplomats, and politicians. Government runs exceptionally smoothly.
Mercantile [2] While not increasing production of goods, your populace are excellent traders, bankers, and businessmen.
Wealthy [2] By the standards of other worlds, your population is wealthy, with high productivity, high job satisfaction, and high incomes. Poverty is nearly non-existent as well.
Industrial [3] Your population is extremely productive and inventive. Open trading with the rest of the world will quickly lead to very favorable conditions in trade.
Mystical [4] The culture of your demiplane is steeped in magic and arcana. There may exist magical academies and colleges specifically for the study and spread of magic.
Technomagic [5] Blendings of magic and technology are common in your realm. Technology may seem significantly more advanced - and significantly stranger as well.
Infrastructure [2] The foundation of your society is rock solid, the planning and construction all being of the highest quality. Electricity (if it exists) is free and clean, transit is quick and comfortable, high speed internet and phone coverage across the globe.
Sanitation [1] Proper maintenance and cleanliness are considered virtues around here and are taken to an extreme. All trash is recycled, no smog is allowed anywhere it might offend, and there is never any shortage of clean water.
Secure [1] Law enforcement is excellent, and people can feel truly safe, even in the worst circumstances. Crime may as well not exist given how seldom it's committed.
Healthy [1] Your hospitals and health care professionals are of the highest class. Sickness has been nearly eliminated and your doctors may as well be miracle workers.
If none of the options in this section are taken, this new world will still have a rich and vibrant culture, with art, music, games, and so on. But perhaps you could give the population a cultural affinity for something in particular—an exceptional level of talent and cultural focus.
Music [1] Singing, songwriting, and musical instruments are all common and surprisingly excellent. Even the dancing seems better than average.
Theater [1] Movies, television, radio dramas, and old-fashioned plays: they have it all.
Animation [1] The people here have an appreciation for good comics and quality animation. They tend to produce quite a bit of it as well, given the opportunity to do so.
Art [1] Museums and galleries. Portraits and landscapes and paintings of all sorts.
Literature [1] Book stores and publishing houses reign supreme. Poets and novelists walk the streets, ideas for new great works of prose and poem in their heads.
Fashion [1]
Textiles and tailoring are where this society really shines.Nature [1] Trees! Grass! Adorable animals! Not-so-adorable animals! Your society full of hippies appreciates all of it! Gardening, animal rearing, and all things natural are celebrated here.
Religion [1] Your population is mostly composed of devout worshippers of their respective religions. Religious temples and works of art are exceptionally common, as well as exceptionally beautiful.
Occult [1] Magic, mysticism, and all the forces of the supernatural. Even if they don't exist, they're popular subjects of thought. Your population enjoys magic and the strangeness that may or may not surround them.
Rationality [1] Philosophy, science, politics and all manner of thinking man's subjects. Everyone has an opinion but there they're actually well thought out; interesting conversation awaits.
Mechanics [1] Planes, trains, and automobiles: Just some of the hobbies of your population. Tinkering is a national pastime, and big impressive machines a shared love.
Gaming [1] Arcades, video game development, board games, and even dice games and tabletops. Everyone loves them and they're treated well here.
Sports [1] Sports stadiums and fields now dot the land. Some sports you recognize, some you don't. Your populace's teams are athletic enough to compete with some of the best.
Alcohol [1] Your bars and pubs are of the highest class, surpassed only by your brewers and winemakers. Prepare to take the world by drink.
Food [1] Your restaurants are better than the best. You have new forms of comfort food and healthy tasty snacks, even fast food that's actually fast and tastes like food.
Gambling [1] New Vegas is a moniker that might come to mind. Casinos and parlors across the land, and even some unique new games being played.
Pleasure [1] This is a society which enjoys and revels in all things sexual. Sating your desires here is almost too easy, and the pornography is all of the highest quality.
Warfare [1] The art of combat and warfare is celebrated in this land as in no other. By and large your populace enjoys fighting: watching, participating in, even studying. Many, many members of your population are skilled warriors, soldiers, and martial artists.
Festivals [1] How about a burst of raw culture? Festivals are common, elaborate, and most of all fun. There's always a good time to go around.
Nothing about the world below seems all that special. The environment, the plants and animals, all look familiar and mundane.
Cosmic Adjustment [2] You may adjust the length of the day and year within your demiplane. Unless inserted, you may also adjust the cosmic features of your demiplane: Sun, stars, sky...
Landscape Adjustment [3] Snow peaked mountains, rolling hills, deserts and rocky steppes, vast canyons and deep rivers, endless savannas, and dense jungles. You may also adjust the climate of your realm however you wish, as well as how it experiences the seasons. You may design the landscape and climate however you'd like.
Fertile [1] The soils of your demiplane are particularly fertile and make for most excellent farmland.
Rich [2] Your demiplane is rich with ores, minerals, precious gems, and other earthborn resources.
Exceptional Materials [3] Allows you to give your world organic and/or inorganic materials with strange properties which defy conventional physics.
Magical Phenomena [3] Sudden shifts in the landscape? Gravity gone all wonky? Have the seasons changed three times in six hours? If you want weird things in your environment, this is it.
Fauna & Flora 1 [1] Pick any mixture of fauna and flora that you'd like for your demiplane, provided it currently exists in any world.
Fauna & Flora 2 [3] The fauna and flora of your realm is no longer limited by what exists or has existed, but merely by what is biologically possible.
Fauna & Flora 3 [5] The fauna and flora of your realm may possess magical abilities or traits and is no longer limited by what is biologically possible.
A few extra additions that can make your world a little more exciting.
Dungeons 1 [1] Your demiplane now possesses an assortment of ruins, caves, dungeons, and so forth. There is treasure to be found if you're willing to look.
Dungeons 2 [3] As Dungeons 1, but your dungeons may be larger, more intricate, and potentially possessing magical natures. The traps will be more complex, the puzzles more puzzling, and there may be monsters or guardians.
Dungeons 3 [5] As Dungeons 2, but your dungeons are now maintained by playful spirits and magical forces. Cleared dungeons may be refilled, rearranged, or eliminated entirely to create new and fresh experiences.
Spirits [2] Your demiplane is now inhabited by spirits, normally incorporeal but potentially capable of assuming a physical presence. The spirits are capable of influencing the environment and living things in various ways, depending upon their purpose and nature. Possible spirits include spirits of the dead, spirits of nature, spirits of magic, spirits of inspiration, and more.
Malice [1] Something about your realm now encourages strife in its inhabitants. Antagonistic forces are common. Supplies the realm with villains, evil armies, monsters, and more. May be as threatening and tumultuous as you would like.
Afterlife [3] Whatever traditional afterlife may or may not exist, it does not apply within the confines of your realm and people. You may create a custom afterlife or afterlives for your people to experience. Reincarnation, paradise, nothingness? The choices are yours.
Fate [3] You can invite Fate to have a place within your realm, influencing your people, your environments, and even random chance. Fate in your realm works on the conditions that you set how pervasive it is, what it can influence, and to what ends, even if it may be resisted. Fates of greatness, heroes, scholars, villains, and leaders. Soulmates, fated demises, fated victories. Even more mundane or bizarre fates are possible.
Pantheon [4] Your demiplane now possesses its own god, or gods, possessing powers over it not unlike gods of old mythology. You may design and empower your pantheon however you wish, and even create multiple independent pantheons should you wish to.
You can see a place for yourself down below. Just a simple home; nothing special, nothing unique.
Backstory [2] You arrive in the new world with full memories of having lived a life there. Unless you take the Amnesia complication, you will still remember your old life.
Lifestyle Upgrade 1 [1] You are granted a moderately large and certainly luxurious home by the standards of your realm. You additionally now hold assets which provide a very comfortable middle-class income without requiring any input on your part.
Lifestyle Upgrade 2 [3] You now live like a queen, in a mansion or penthouse big enough to house dozens of people with room to spare. Your assets are now exceptional, providing you with an exceptionally high class income.
Lifestyle Upgrade 3 [5] Queens would envy you. Your estate is the size of a small city and has the room to house hundreds, maybe thousands. Your income is simply absurd and you possess a net worth equal to some of the richest people in the world.
Automatons 1 [2] You possess a small number (up to 40 total) of absolutely loyal servants. They do not age, tire, or hunger and you may choose how they appear. They are intelligent enough to perform most forms of labor, and have no personal desires of their own.
Automatons 2 [5] As Automatons 1, but there are now a large number of automatons: enough to form an army, or possibly assume all menial labor in your realm.
Influence 1 [1] You are well respected in your demiplane; most people like you and the few that don't will at least respect you.
Influence 2 [3] You are now the recognized leader of your society, the equivalent of a president or a queen. You have plenty of power and influence, but can be removed from office.
Influence 3 [6] You are now the unquestioned leader of your society. Here you possess the authority of a god. You have immense power and influence and cannot be removed from office.
Equipment [3] You are granted unique equipment, above and beyond the ordinary capabilities of your realm to produce. May take the form of a single item, or a set of items. Weapons, armor, artifacts, vehicles, whatever you wish for.
You will arrive in the new world as your same old self, exactly as you have always been, unless you change that.
Immortality [2] You are immortal and eternally young. However, you can still be killed. You are resistant to all forms of disease and you can heal from anything that doesn't kill you. As a side benefit, eating, sleeping, and relieving yourself are now optional.
Spirit Walk [3] Your spirit is immortal and you may leave your body or persist after death in a ghostly, incorporeal form. You may regenerate your body through focus of will, even if nothing remains but your spirit.
New Look [2] One time only, you may change your appearance to anything you wish.
Shapeshifting [5] You may now shapeshift at will, thereby changing your appearance as often as you'd like.
Tongues [1] You may now comprehend and communicate in any human language; you are the ultimate polyglot.
Memory [2] Your mind is enhanced with an eidetic memory. Never again will you forget your car keys.
Awareness [2] You now possess heightened sensory awareness. All of your senses are more powerful and may develop further with practice. You may additionally develop the ability to perceive magical energy or spiritual presences.
Peak Condition [2] Your body and mind are in peak condition. You no longer get sick, and you heal more efficiently. You think more quickly and learn easily. Ideas and answers just seem to come naturally to you. Your body is perfectly and permanently maintained in peak physical condition. Fit and flexible without having to work at it.
Superhuman Body [3] You are now magically strong, fast, and durable. You might find yourself with unlimited stamina as well.
Inspiration [2] You possess a very unique presence that affects the people around you. For whatever reason, people around you are always able to perform at their very best.
Blessing [2] You will live a life blessed with satisfaction, interesting things and purpose. Your life and the world around you will be guided as though by an unseen hand, in just the way that is best for you.
Give yourself unique powers, above and beyond what everyone else can do. All powers start out weak and difficult to perform; practice makes them stronger and easier. Any preexisting magical powers will not carry through to your new life unless you spend the points to buy an equivalent power.
Teleportation [1] You can now teleport! It's tiring and you can't go very far or carry very much, at least at first. Teleportation between realms without the use of portals or gateways is possible, but extremely difficult.
Levitation [1] Strangely intuitive, moving through the air comes as easily as moving through the water, which you can also levitate through. Your acceleration, maneuverability, and top speed will all increase with practice.
Psionics [2] You possess the powers of telepathy and telekinesis. Telepathy allows you to read thoughts and emotions. Telekinesis acts as a muscle and continuous use is strenuous.
Geas [2] You can bend and manipulate the minds of others in any way that you wish. You may modify thoughts, memories, and even personality. Place subconscious commands, or even control their body against their will.
Glamour [2] You can manipulate the perceptions of others, including the senses and the mind itself. Effects may be persistent or temporary, and may affect individuals, groups, or environments, and may even affect observers of the target instead of the target itself.
Alchemy [2] Through touch you may transmute and transfigure inanimate material in any way you wish. Mass must remain constant, and difficulty is determined by the complexity and scale of the change.
Healing [2] You can restore and regenerate living things. You may heal others of wounds and disease, restore their vitality, and even raise the dead back to life, should you desire to do so.
Enchanting [2] You now possess the ability to imbue magical powers and attributes into non-living things, be they objects or even environments. Any power you possess may be imbued in this way. Other powers will be more difficult.
Machina Mind [2] You now possess technopathy, the ability to control and communicate with machinery and electronics through force of will. Additionally, your brain can now interpret and interface with digital signals as if it were electronic. Your brain can connect to Wi-Fi and cellular service and you can use it like a built-in computer and cell phone if you wish.
Conjuration [2] You now possess the ability to summon and banish creatures and objects, including storing them in the void. Additionally, when combined with Alchemy you may literally create something out of nothing.
Elementalism 1 [1] You may now create, manipulate, and absorb the power of the elements. With 'Energy Manipulation' you may manipulate elements in unnatural ways. Choose one element: Fire, water, air, earth, ice, electricity, or metal.
Elementalism 2 [2] As Elementalism 1 but you may now control three elements instead of just one.
Elementalism 3 [3] As Elementalism 1 but you may control all seven of the offered elements.
Energy Manipulation [3] Searing, cutting, blunt, explosive, dense... you may conjure and control energy in any form you like. Energy blasts, force fields, constructs of all shapes and sizes, all driven by will and imagination.
Time Manipulation [3] You may not be able to travel through time, but you can warp it. Accelerate or decelerate the passage of time around yourself, other people or even entire areas.
Scrying [3] You now possess extrasensory abilities, allowing you to perceive the past and present and predict the future. Through focus of will, you may divine information about past events, or of distant locations, events, or individuals. You may predict the future with uncanny accuracy due to your extrasensory intuition - you are not infallible, however, merely accurate.
Biomancy [3] You possess the power to alter living creatures, be it cosmetically or functionally, even applying magical traits or abilities. You may also create new living creatures should you wish to do so, in any form you wish for them to take.
Nullification [3] You possess the ability to actively and selectively nullify and suppress magical effects and abilities. You are additionally highly resistant to magic on a personal level. You may control this resistance and suppress it if you choose.
Dominion [5] All benefits from the "Environment" and "Adventure" sections may now be controlled and changed at will. To control an aspect of your realm you must have purchased the benefit from that section. Influencing the realm is slow, short-ranged, and requires great concentration, but will get easier with practice.
What would a world be, what would a person be, without companionship?
Friendship 1 [1] You may bring a number of companions with you into your demiplane. You must be able to specifically identify so-called friends, though not necessarily by name. Any personal benefits you possess may be granted to a total of 40 of your friends at no extra cost. You may decide which benefits to grant and in what fashion. You can grant these friendship benefits to others, although doing so is strenuous.
Friendship 2 [3] Your companions need not be alive or even real. Fictional friends may be made real and the deceased may be revived through the power of friendship. Unique powers and resources available to fictional friends are limited based on your other selections.
Soulmate 1 [2] Your soulmate will soon meet and fall madly in love with you. You can specify anyone real or fictional, or allow magic and destiny to pick the perfect person. Unique powers and resources available to fictional soulmates are limited based on your other selections. Any personal benefits you possess may be granted to your soulmate at no extra cost. You may decide which benefits to grant and in what fashion.
Soulmate 2 [4] You may have a multitude of soulmates, for all of your polyamorous desires. Additional soulmates can and will enter your life as your desires would suggest.
Harem [2] Something about you now draws attractive members of your preferred sex to you. Creating your own harem would be as easy as asking.
Rivalry [3] You now possess at least one source of strife in your life. Antagonistic forces complicate your existence in a stimulating and thrilling fashion. You have no direct influence over this. Your rivalry will be formulated to you based on the forces of magic and destiny.
Familiar [3] Part of your soul is sheared off and developed into a familiar. You may allow it to develop naturally or create it with a specific shape or personality. Your minds and souls are linked. You may communicate telepathically, share senses or knowledge, even assume direct control over one another's bodies (with permission). Your familiar cannot truly be killed as long as you live. If its body is destroyed, it will be recreated near you. Possesses all of your magic and personal boons.
You were promised godlike power, and you shall have it. Your powers will grow slowly, and it might take hundreds of thousands of years before you can match the potency of the one who brought you here. Maybe you could speed that up a little.
Divine Spark [10] Your soul is infused with the barest fraction of existing divinity, granting you much power. You are much more powerful, and your path to ascension has been shortened dramatically. It will still probably take tens of thousands of years, however.
Guidance 1 [4] An enchanted and indestructible book containing untold amounts of information and arcane guidance. An ultimate encyclopedia, which also provides guidance in any path you wish to take. Halves the time it takes you to reach ascension. Hard to lose; will always find its way back to its rightful owner.
Guidance 2 [10] Your guidebook now has the ability to open a portal to a personal divine repository, which only you and those you allow may access. A vast library containing not only information but resources; anything and everything that could be necessary to advance or improve oneself. Reduces the time you'll take on your path to ascension to a tenth of what it was.
To earn 25 additional baubles, take a complication. Each complication may only be taken once and will affect all participants. All complications may be resolved, provided you put sufficient time and effort into doing so. Complications have a lessened effect upon Familiars, and do not directly affect other companions at all.
Trapped You are incapable of leaving your realm. There might be a chance to break the curse from the outside eventually.
Sadism Your life force is sustained by the suffering of others, be it within your realm or simply brought about in your name.
Artifact All of your personal benefits are tied to an artifact. It is highly resistant to damage but may be stolen or destroyed.
Nightmare You've attracted something... else; something unspeakably horrifying that you and your realm will have to deal with.
Bound Your word is your law. You may never knowingly break your word, or allow it to be broken. Should you do so, you will endure tremendous suffering.
Notorious You are notorious in your realm, but for all the wrong reasons. You are currently regarded as one of the worst villains in their history or mythology... and it will not be easy to change their minds.
Exile Being in the presence of others drains you of your power and life force. The more people around the worse it is. A great deal of effort and time and you may be able to fix this.
Cursed You are burdened with a great and terrible curse upon your life. Misfortune, annoyance, and infuriation are commonplace for you. 'Blessing' does not cancel this out and 'Fate' cannot mitigate it.
Amnesia All of your memories before the world's creation are lost; you awaken in the new realm without any knowledge of who or where you are. Does not affect memories generated by 'Backstory'.
Benevolent Sustaining your life force requires the granting of boons to others, at your discretion. However, they must be fulfilled to the spirit of the request, not the wording.
"Well, how you guys feel about size? I never thought about owning a country or anything."
Ellie just shrugs. "I don't know what I would do with a country? Honestly, even a huge mansion sounds, like, a lot of trouble?"
"Well, if you don't want to rule the world, you don't have to. I want a world big enough to fit a billion immortal people."
"My Earth has a population of more than ten billion, but if everyone's going to be immortal then we probably want to leave a lot of room for growth."
Meghan makes some estimates. "Literally one billion?" She asks Millie with a raised eyebrow. "Heh, I think we can fit more people, since we can have less ocean. Or no ocean, just freshwater lakes and no deserts. And even on Earth we had two billion people in just China and India... I think we can fit a billion with five marbles. That's Australia size. We can go bigger if the budget allows, but quality over quantity."
"We can revisit it later once we know where we're spending our other points, but I'll note down a minimum of 5 for now if everyone's happy with that."
"Fine by me. And 11 or 12 points on population, a billion is right in between those two."
"Population grows. And with ours being immortal, I bet we won't even take a century to get to ten times our starting population. Why do you want so many people anyway, princess?"
"Why not? But, yes, perhaps we should start with ten or a hundred million and leave room to grow."
"We can have extra powers instead of people, then just wait and get people. We could get more Gateways or something."
Ellie looks at the planar features. "If we get Insertion and Transient, could we move between our worlds?"
Yep! The marbles think they could probably do that!
Moving between worlds like that might have weird effects, though. Insertion says there'll be no negative side effects from putting the realm in a world, so it won't disrupt sea levels or anything, but if for example one of their worlds has an afterlife and the others don't, or one of them has magic that applies to any baby born in that world, it could get complicated.
"Oooh, we could have that instead of portals if we need to budget. Do you know if we do have afterlives?"
The marbles have no clue, sorry! They know things about their own capabilities and about the sorts of worlds that exist in general, not about these four specific worlds.
"I think my world has an afterlife, but...there's a lot of disagreement. Nobody's managed to prove it for certain."
"We have...vampires? Does that count?"
"Maybe not for the Transient thing, but I am now curious if they are dangerous. And my world has religions that talk about afterlives plenty, but not actual evidence. That never stopped anyone believing they exist."
"Oh, same deal. I think that people just die and... caput." She says brightly.
"Wasn't there an option to give our world an afterlife?"
Afterlife [3] Whatever traditional afterlife may or may not exist, it does not apply within the confines of your realm and people. You may create a custom afterlife or afterlives for your people to experience. Reincarnation, paradise, nothingness? The choices are yours.
"If none of us are sure whether our worlds have an afterlife, this seems worth taking no matter where we decide to put our new world. Maybe we can get it to attach our world to my world's afterlife if it exists and create a new afterlife if not?" She asks the marbles. "Can it do that kind of conditional?"
Nope! By taking Afterlife, they permanently and unconditionally detach their realm from any other world's afterlife system. They can design whatever afterlife setup they want, though, and they could spend some of their Gateway allowance to connect it to other afterlives if those exist in a form that can be travelled to!
"Huh."
"Huh?"
"I was just thinking that I don't want Hell to exist, but it would be good if we could invade and liberate it. Does the Afterlife take up our space budget? Or is that optional depending on our parameters" She asks the marbles.
It has its own separate space budget that is the same size as the regular world's space budget! Unless they go with a reincarnation setup that means people just land back in the same world, in which case they don't get any extra budget.
"I don't know what answer I was expecting to that question but that wasn't it," Isra comments, making a note of this next to Demiplane Size in her notes.
"Do we want to go any bigger to accommodate a bigger afterlife? Unless we put gateways in that let people come right back, the population of our afterlife is only going to go up over time."
"Only if people die. We're going to make them all immortal, remember?"
"We will, I am all for spending 8 points for Longevity 1 and 2, but it doesn't cover every way someone could die. Three points is cheap enough to put on the top of the maybe list for me. Could we have a physical afterlife and reincarnation? With reincarnation, we could have people taking turns being alive if the population gets too big."
The marbles would like to clarify that if you buy Longevity 2, you don't need to buy Longevity 1 as well. That's the same for any set of numbered options—you only have to buy the highest-numbered one you want.
The afterlife can work however they want it to work!
...as long as how it works doesn't involve interfering with the way other worlds work, or producing the effects of other options that they haven't bought. If they want people to reincarnate as dragons, for instance, they have to spend the points to have dragons. That'd be Species 2 and probably also Metahuman Population.
"Ah, that makes sense." She notes on the point clarification.
Meghan conjured a paper notebook a while back, deciding against a laptop, because typing distracts her too much.
"Do you guys have preferences for Afterlife if we get one?"
"I might need some more time to think about it. For some reason, the question 'what would you do if you could design the afterlife from scratch' never occurred to me before."
"Same here." Millie wasn't going to be the first person to admit that, but now Isra's said it she won't be the only one. "My plan was always to avoid going there in the first place."
"My plan was to become immortal or die trying. By inventing immortality that is."
"We could just let anyone that wants to die stay dead? And the rest comes back? Or I guess, stay dead for an amount of time if they want to wait for something. Huh, would it be bad if people killed themselves so they wouldn't wait for their book series get a new installment?"
"That doesn't sound like a good reason to commit suicide to me, even suicide you know is going to be temporary."
"Lighten up! It was just a joke."
"Uh... it kinda wasn't? I have a friend that would do it. But he was dying at the time, so maybe it was a joke? Hard to tell sometimes."
"I guess people who are dying are allowed to make jokes about it if they want." Isra is pretty sure she's heard someone say that at some point.
"But, anyway, setting aside the suicide part, letting people say that if they die they want to stay dead, with or without conditions for when we should bring them back, sounds okay to me."
"Sounds weird to let people to stay dead, but hey, we are deep in weird. Maybe put a star to mark it 'important to review later'?"
"Sounds good to me." If she's honest, Millie has been finding the afterlife nitpicking kind of boring. "What's next?"
Isra adds a column to her spreadsheet to track items they want to return to later and hash out in more detail.
She checks where they were up to. "We were talking through the Planar Features. I think someone proposed taking Insertion and Transient, which sounds like it would let us move between our worlds if we want to do that." Isra considers the remaining options in that section. "Defense 1 seems like a good investment in that case, and it would probably be convenient if we had either Gateways or Portals for times when we want to access a world but not move the whole realm there."
"Yeah, absolutely take Defense 1. I think Defense 2 might be better than having, say, Transient or Portals."
"With Transient we can move Gateways too. I think it's better than Gateways 3. The place is going to be big, but I don't think we need a hundred thousand gates."
"Hold on, let me come up with a way to rank things..."
Isra adds a column to her spreadsheet for a comparative ranking. She gives Defense 2 a value of 50 (out of 100), Transient and Portals 40 each, and Gateways 3 a value of 10. Defense 1 gets a value of 90 because there seems to be general agreement that it's worth taking.
"Okay, I think I've got all that down. We're taking Defence 1, and then Defence 2 is better than Transient and Portals, which are better than Gateways 3. I agree that Gateways 3 isn't a massive value-add for the domain size we're considering, especially if we take Transient, so we can move the gateways, or Portals, which we can create at will."
...as an afterthought, she adds a column for value-divided-by-point-cost.
Millie peers over Isra's shoulder at the spreadsheet. "I think you're right about Gateways 3. I think Gateways 2 seems worth taking if we're doing gateways at all—although Transient would replace some of the value in being able to deactivate and reactivate gateways."
Ellie peers at the spreadsheet, and thinks about Millicent suggestion. "Sounds right. If we really need the points, we could just get Gateways 1 and Transient. But that few gates could be annoying to manage? I am not sure."
"I mean, a lot of gates would also be annoying to manage. But that we can solve with just, hiring someone competent enough to not bother us trivially." Meghan shrugs.
Gateways 1 gets a 90. Gateways 2 gets a 30.
"We could maybe automate it, if we're considering hiring someone, but it sounds like Portals have built-in functionality for that and Gateways don't."
She checks with the marbles. "If we took Gateways and Transient, would we have to move gateways personally when we wanted them moved?"
Yes, they would either have to personally move the gateways or do complicated powerful magic to automate it. And having access to the magic they'd need for that would mean spending points elsewhere, because Gateways plus Transient doesn't automatically grant that capability.
Meghan hmms, then says. "How much effort it takes to move a gate? And what are the valid conditions to specify the placement of one? As in, do we need to open each gate end personally each time? Could we do it based on coordinates or line-of-sight or whatever else?"
All you need to do is think clearly and decisively about where you want the gate ends to move to!
"Neat. That sounds easy enough to manage. If we take Defender that also reduces our need to move people fast in emergencies."
"It's kind of difficult to predict how much Gate traffic we should expect until we've finalised other things. We're probably going to need to keep coming back to earlier sections and adjusting them as we go along."
Millie rolls her eyes a little. "Let's just put down the ones we all agree on for now and move on, then. That was Insertion, Transient, Gateways 1, and Defense 1, right?"
"Sounds good!"
"Alright. Let's see next. Oh, quick question for Assimilation, can we change it to work differently? Only parting traits like Longevity? And how quickly does it work?"
They can absolutely choose which traits Assimilation applies to! They can select from anything in the Inhabitants section except Culture & Customs and Political Systems, so yes, that would include Longevity. The only non-optional thing Assimilation does is that Assimilated people count as natives if that's relevant for the magic system and/or the afterlife.
How quickly it works is also something they can decide if they want to, but by default it'll be instantaneous on arrival in the demiplane.
"Okay. Then, my next questions: Can we reverse the change? Or, make different traits come in at different times? Or some way to control Assimilation better?"
"Oh, maybe we could make it a bit like my world, where the traits depend on touching an artifact or something? So everyone can have longevity without, like, worrying that they will turn into faeries or whatever we decide."
Assimilation can be made two-way, so people change back when they leave, but other than that it's permanent and can only be reversed by other magic. It applies all the specified changes to everyone unless that person already has a particular trait, but they can make different changes come in at different speeds.
It sounds like what they want instead might be a magic system! Magic systems are very customisable and can do all sorts of things, including something like Ellie's idea.
Isra scrolls through her notes and finds the Magic section. "So we'd have to spend at least 2 points to get magic at all, and then...it looks like, for every 2 points we spend after that, the maximum power level goes up by about an order of magnitude. I don't have a good sense of what that would mean in concrete terms, though. Do you have examples of things people can do at different power levels?"
The marbles will use teleportation as an example! At Magic 1, a magic user might only be able to teleport the length of a city block before being exhausted, like someone who's only just started practising with the teleportation Power. At Magic 2, they could do that ten times in a row before getting tired, or they could teleport ten times further in a single hop, maybe a mile or two.
Telekinesis works the same way: if at Magic 1 a powerful magic user can only levitate 70 kg for a few seconds, then at Magic 2 they would be able to levitate 700 kg, and so on. Not every kind of magic is as easy to translate into concrete units, but all of them would have the same kind of progression.
"What kind level of Magic would let someone do what I suggested?"
Making people unaging sounds like it would be fairly high-level magic! Lower magic levels could do some life extension, but for artifacts that can give out the effects of Longevity 2 freely to everyone who wants it, they probably want at least Magic 4.
"Okay... that went on a detour that I didn't expect. But an informative one," she compares magic and inhabitant upgrades. "Metahuman Population costs 4 points, does it compare in power level with Magic 2? Is there something that Metahuman covers that Magic doesn't?"
Fun fact, raising the Magic level allows for more powerful metahuman abilities! But if they didn't buy any Magic, then yes, the strongest metahumans would be about equivalent to Magic 2.
Metahuman Population is less flexible than a custom-designed magic system, but when combined with Species 2 it allows inhabitants to have biologically impossible forms, like being made of fire or crystal.
"Aww, so Metahuman Population doesn't let us get more powerful magic without paying for it. I suppose that makes sense. Magic seems pretty cheap, though, honestly. Eight points to utterly destroy my world's economy!"
"I am sure we can destroy all our worlds' economies! Anyway, to make the artifacts that Ellie proposed - or whatever solution we figure out - we would need Magic 4. Heh, probably not worth getting extra magic just for that."
"Is not cheating if we design a magic system that lets us have people that change into other species?"
A magic system that lets people shapeshift, including into fantastical forms, is fine, although depending on the details it might be expensive! Magical shapeshifting would take effort, and below Magic 5 people won't be able to stay in those shapes all the time, so it's different than if they took a Species option that changed people's base form.
"Cheating?" Meghan asks Ellie. "This isn't a test. I was hoping we could game the system a bit with a more controllable Assimilation, but it doesn't sound like we can."
"Anyway. Do we want to buy Magic 4? It sounds like we could get most of the benefit of both Species 2 and Metahuman Population, as well as what Meghan wanted to do with Assimilation. Personally, it would be nice to be able to make my whole family immortal if they want, but also let them visit me without being immortal if they'd rather not."