A brief summary of the campaign/setting I'm going to run. I could use some help rationalizing/piecing together some plot points to make sense:
Heavy inspirations here are two video games, Dark Souls and Arcanum.
A land of living gods ruling over humans- this land is full of monstrous beasts of all kinds, dragons, chimeras, etc. humanity needs these gods, worships them, and they in turn keep people safe. Each has his own domain, his own people, less one- the lone god.
Something throws the balance off- one of the gods, the god of artifice/technology, whether through corruption (of a darker source) or ambition, wishes more power- more followers- he takes the majority of his people and leaves this land with a combination of magic and technology- traveling to another realm/plane free of humans- a fantasy world, sans humans, populated by other demihuman races (elves, dwarves, gnomes, orcs, goblins etc.) and begins conquesting.
He takes a huge swathe of territory thanks to his power and steampunk technology (including commonplace early firearms). He gains a huge number of followers through this conquest and 'civilizes' the non-human races- the gods of the old land grow weak, their power wanes as his waxes. He founds a nation dedicated to the 'worship' of technology and fades from public view, leaving only the idea of the 'Founder' to history. He has created a vast capital city, and to a lesser extent nation, that worships technology. His 'Republic' is a farce, he rules it but gives the people the illusion of choice.
Magic in this new world is taboo, as it is a source of power separate from the Technology God's; he gets no power from people practicing magic. It is still practiced in secret, so it wizards/sorcerers etc. exist but are just a rarer thing. Memories of the other gods were kept alive by some of the humans that came over, passed on to other races and following generations- it has been so long that some of their names have been forgotten, some forgotten altogether, but some decaying temples still exist, tended by aged priests that find what successors they can and pass on what little knowledge they have.
Priestly magic still works for those few who truly believe, there is a connection between this new world and the old and the gods of old have not died, they merely slumber.
The old gods now sleep, the population size of the old world pales in comparison to the new; with the gods asleep, their agents/angels/sentries/familiars/other beasts that were beholden to them and protected the people have gone unchecked and wild- humanity in the old world now dwindles as the beasts and monsters take their toll.
The old gods that had the fewest followers still retain some power/wakefulness- the god of travelers, the Wanderer, walks the land but does not recall who he is- only some vague sense of purpose and advice that he imparts to those he meets (like the PCs).
The god who retains consciousness, who does not sleep, is the weakest of gods. In a land of living deities, he was the forgotten one, with little to no physical or magical might. His power he had already used; he created humans long ago, but did not wish worship- he only wanted to see his creations grow.
So here's where I hit some roadblocks in my head that I could use some help with:
One of the things that really makes this a Dark Souls-inspired game is that the PCs can't die permanently. Using the taint system in Heroes of Horror from 3.5, every time they're killed they accrue some taint, getting all the fun stuff that comes with that taint system, eventually going Hollow (insane) if they get enough.
I also want the old land to have a good amount of hollows sprinkled about the world, people that came before the PCs, who were killed so many times they went insane.
To achieve this, I figured that:
The lone conscious god lacks the power to right the imbalance that was caused by the technology god, he can only affect his creations, humans, and those that carry some trace of human blood. I allowed my players to choose any of the standard races, so in this setting interbreeding's quite possible. Even if they're an elf, they have at least one human ancestor, allowing the god to place his Mark upon the PC or NPC.
Now tell me if this makes sense, if it doesn't suggestions would be appreciated:
The (birth)Mark is what keeps them from dying. Not everyone has it, it's a rare thing, but generations upon generations of Marked people, who can't die, and go insane, I imagine, would destabilize any civilization. The Technology God, upon the founding of his nation, created an organization that would root out all those marked. What does he do with this growing population of Marked individuals? As they're found, this organization sends them back to the old world, effectively dumping his 'problem' into a world he no longer has any concern for.
This populates the old world slowly with Marked (and eventually hollows). i'd imagine the remaining human population in the old world also gets the mark, so that's another problem that's screwing them, but smaller population means smaller number of Marked.
Now, another point would be why did the lone god do this? Did he expect the Tech God would dump his Marked into the old world, or is that of no consideration?
Perhaps he conditioned it so that the only way that the Mark will stop appearing, that the Hollowed can be released, is for the balance of power to be restored- the need to find out why this Mark exists or cure it would lead to the discovery of the imbalance. Not exactly a perfect solution, but this is the only thing he could do.
The premise for the campaign is that the PCs are all marked individuals, captured and sent to the old world. A pilgrimage must be made to each of the gods' temples to retrieve an item holy to them and bring them to a location united, to reawaken them. The world is dangerous and doesn't really scale well- they'll encounter things that can outright murder them if they decide to fight- but death isn't permanent, they'll eventually awaken- but enough deaths will result in enough taint accrued that the PC will go Hollow (plus getting taint has some nasty effects before that).
After that, I'm unsure.
Any other thoughts or concerns on points that I might have missed?
