Ok, I think I'll do it too. Build a character for my story.

[Jemini]

I just saw someone else do a thread like this. Unless something changes, this should go up right above their thread.

Anyway, what I have going here is to build a character for a Magical Girl like story mixed with a bit of Fate vibes. (The series is currently being pre-written. I plan to get around 30-40 chapters ahead before releasing it. I am currently working on Ch. 19.)

The idea is that the old gods have returned, and they have begun making contracts with humans to share their power. However, one of the first contracts between a fairy and a young lady wound up resulting in this girl being very unhappy with the idea of being called a witch. So, she showed the fairy who was contracting with her the world of Magical Girl anime, and the fairy decided they liked it. Other fairies caught wind of it, and later so did the gods.

And so now, boys who get contracts are still called Wizards, but girls who get contracts are called Magical Girls. However, the Wizards also transform just like Magical Girls do.

I am going to have a magical school arc coming up soon, and it's going to be a mess. As in, the different magical factions all hate each other kind of mess.

There can be contracts with any legendary figure throughout history. Legendary fictional humans like Baeowulf and King Arthur would become fabled spirits capable of giving a contract to one person, while powerful gods like Apollo could give contracts to many people throughout the world.

Each person will need a name, age, gender, who their contract is with, a power set that is thematically appropriate to the god but also somewhat down to earth on the destruction scale. (No, an Apollo or Amaterasu contract will not allow you to conjure a literal sun into the city and cause nuclear destruction, and a Poseidon contract will not let you sink a city like Atlantis or conjure so much water as to drown the entire population in an instant flash-flood.) Let's keep the power scale roughly on the level of something that might actually be seen in the Fate series. (From the Servants, not the grail. Yes, I know the grail did unleash city-wide destruction in Fate Zero.) And then a brief character bio.

Also, there is a concept called Eidos in this setting as well. Eidos is the Platonic theory of forms. As in, the concept that there is the idea or "Eidos" that represents all items that are called by the same name. The Eidos of animals can give contracts, and the contracts will have the powers of everything that has been tied into that concept. For instance, there is someone already in the series with the Eidos of the frog, and it gives her powers of the Native American concept of a frog which has powers of wisdom, the Japanese concept which is associated with Jiraya and Ninjutsu, and the more conventional concept which just allows her to jump really high and be good in the water. Eidos are considered extremely high-end contracts.



For magical political boundaries among the powers here, the big ones in the US, where this is based, are going to be Native American Totem spirits, Chinese gods who prefer Chinese Ex-pats over the people actually living in China because the Chinese old-gods are disgusted with the CCP, the Norse pantheon which, interestingly, has a lot more actual worshipers in the US than in Scandenavia, and the Fairies and Tuatha De tribe from England, because they followed the English colonists over and are evenly split between the US and the UK. The truly dead religions such as the Greek, Babylonian, and Egyptian pantheons will just choose anyone in the world.

The Japanese pantheon prefers to remain in Japan, and the Hindu pantheon prefers to remain in India. So, if you make a character for either of those pantheons, it will either be shelved for a far future chapter or potentially included as an exchange student (not likely.)

Also, the already claimed contracts are Marduk of the Babylonian mythos, Pheme of the Greek mythos, Odin for the Norse mythos, The Norns (Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld) of the Norse pantheon, the Eidos of the Frog, the Eidos of the Butterfly, and the Incarnate force of Time (which is contracted to the MC of the story.) Incarnate forces, BTW, are fundamental forces of the universe that can have physical incarnations which can grant contracts.

Heimdall and the Valkyries, both from the Norse pantheon, are technically taken as well. However, Heimdall can toss out more than one contract and there is more than one Valkyrie. So, your character can also have these contracts, but the power set that comes with them is already established. (Heimdall gives a whole host of danger sense and danger prediction abilities, and the Valkyries give you wings, a sword, armor, and the ability to instantly assess another person's combat capabilities.)



One more thing. Try to include a reason why they were chosen for the contract. Reasons to be chosen for the contract can be literally anything. Heimdall winds up choosing a girl named Alexis Wardell because her name actually means "guardian watcher," and because she had a serious enough personality. Just liking your name is the kind of silly thing that might actually make them choose you. However, I do not want any reasons like them being pure of heart or something like that. Reason being, I want to avoid rational that reflects there is any kind of fair and quantifiable reason that will cause you to be chosen. There should be a major arbitrary aspect to the reasons for being chosen. There are rational reasons as well, but there are also arbitrary reasons.

The Eidos of the frog chose the person for their contract because they were just looking for a random 10-13 year old, and picked the first one who seemed wise for their age and somewhat athletic. Their reason for this was because a contract freezes your age, and the frog decided someone who looks like a 10-13 year old will make people under-estimate them.

 

[Jemini]

Also, if you make someone with a contract with one of the BIG names form the Norse pantheon, I'm liable to age them up and make them a part of the actively fielded units instead of someone in the school. So, like Thor for example.

Also, the Greeks have a somewhat dubious place in my setting. A lot of the main actors among the Greeks, like Zeuse, Athena, Hera, and Pseidon, are villains. Meanwhile, equally unexpectedly, Hades and Persephone are set to be good guys. Heraclies is one of the few who are as you'd expect him to be though. I'm thinking Apollo and Hermies would be good guys as well. (This is all based on their actual lore and how they're portrayed.)

And if anyone makes me a character with a Baba Yaga contract, don't bother putting in a reason for the contract. I'm giving you the reason right now. They happened to encounter Baba Yaga herself, and they somehow overcame some ridiculous test and weaseled a contract out of her for their trouble. And it is entirely up in the air as to whether they'd be a good guy or a bad guy after getting the Baba Yaga contract. It depends entirely on their personality going in.

 

[Empress_Omnii]

How in depth do you want these? There is so much exposition for your power system, could you give an example or guideline for what you want¿ (It isnt really clear how contract powers work)
(Also I've been meaning to start reading your stories, this is a great reason to start)

 

[Empress_Omnii]

Also, how recent or popular are you allowing the Legends and Eidos concepts to be?

 

[ForgottenOne]

Hades and Persephone tend to be good guys in quite a couple of kr webnovels, so it's not *that* surprising. That said, before I write anything, what is the reason why old powers are returning contracting? are they just bored, or?

 

[2wordsperminute]

Meanwhile, equally unexpectedly, Hades and Persephone are set to be good guys.

Actually, I'm pretty sure Hades was never really the bad guy (except a little in Persephone's story) and Persephone was somewhat of a victim, so it's not really surprising. I could be wrong, though, it's been a couple of years since I last updated my knowledge on Greek mythology.

 

[Jemini]

Hades and Persephone tend to be good guys in quite a couple of kr webnovels, so it's not *that* surprising. That said, before I write anything, what is the reason why old powers are returning contracting? are they just bored, or?

Oh, nothing much. The demons just invaded Earth and, in the process, broke down the boundaries to other supernatural realms such as the Elfame, Agarath, and Ether.

 

[Jemini]

Actually, I'm pretty sure Hades was never really the bad guy (except a little in Persephone's story) and Persephone was somewhat of a victim, so it's not really surprising. I could be wrong, though, it's been a couple of years since I last updated my knowledge on Greek mythology.

I'm talking unexpectedly if you're into Disney Hurculies or other more modern ideas or portrayals of Hadies that have him as a Satan equivalent.

Yes, if you have ACTUALLY read the lore, Hades being a good guy makes perfect sense.

 

[Empress_Omnii]

I'll probably make some characters tomorrow once my questions are answered, but I'll leave the question on if Minamoto no Tametomo is valid for being a legendary hero? (When looking into them a bit I saw they had a fate character, does that matter?)

Otherwise I'll probably stick with lesser gods, because I'm not sure how to judge how legendary they need to be.

 

[Jemini]

How in depth do you want these? There is so much exposition for your power system, could you give an example or guideline for what you want¿ (It isnt really clear how contract powers work)
(Also I've been meaning to start reading your stories, this is a great reason to start)

Well, most of the reason for giving all that was in order to give an idea of what the available contracts were. But, if giving all that detail wound up being more confusing than helpful, then I guess I'll give an example of one of the characters that already exist in the story.

Name: Rosann Teller (F)
Current age: 19
Age at time of contract: 17
Contract: Marduk, fallen god.

Rosann is a high achieving student, and before she got her contract she was on-track to become valedictorian of her school. She was good in sports, academics, and engaged in a lot of extra-curricular activities and also has very strong leadership qualities.

She was chosen by Marduk for those same leadership qualities.

Brief overview of Marduk's lore: Marduk's legend includes him originally being a god of the underworld before he became the patron god of Babylon. He makes his most prominent appearance in the Enuma Elis, in which he's the only god able to slay Tiamat when she is threatening to destroy all the gods in her vengeance. However, it is not his might in battle that is emphasized in the Enuma Elis. It is his careful observation and wisdom as he spots her weakest moment and moves at that time.

Power set: Rosann's contract with Marduk gives her strong physical enhancements and a good mind for combat, as well as also producing a spade-point spear as her weapon to represent the spade which was Marduk's symbol.

She also has the power to easily spot anything and everything in a person, creature, or structure that can be considered a weakens. This power extends even to enemy formations. (Finding a way to exploit that weakness once spotted is up to her.) In addition, as Marduk is the patron god of Babylon, making him one of the oldest gods in recorded history, he also grants her "The Wisdom of Babylon," which includes granting her encyclopedic knowledge of all mythical creatures and gods that have existed in the 6,000 years since Babylon's existence.

Note: (This wisdom of Babylon power is also related to Babylon being the major city in Mesopotamia, which was the birthplace of writing. As such, his status as the patron god of Babylon is also strongly related to why she gets this power. Other Mesopotamian gods or goddesses like Ishtar would not necessarily grant the same power.)

 

[Jemini]

I'll probably make some characters tomorrow once my questions are answered, but I'll leave the question on if Minamoto no Tametomo is valid for being a legendary hero? (When looking into them a bit I saw they had a fate character, does that matter?)

Otherwise I'll probably stick with lesser gods, because I'm not sure how to judge how legendary they need to be.

Fate also had Jack the Ripper as a Servant. I don't think I'm going that low on the legendary scale here at all.

I'm going to call King Arthur as the minimum bar for this one. And that would mean Baowulf would actually fall below the bar and not be allowed, since he's more of a literary figure while King Arthur is more mythologized.

EDIT: To put it another way, the more solid criteria for making a human literary figure into a power you can make a contract with is...
1. They must be over 200 years old and still well known. (Some wiggle room on the 200, but in that realm of age at a minimum. It can feasibly be between 150 and 200, but best not to push it too hard there.)
2. They must be known well enough as to be a house-hold name. (You can say the name in any company in the culture the figure comes from, and you will be looked at as strange for NOT knowing who that character is.)
3. They have to be told and re-told in many works of fiction both ancient and modern.
4. Their legend must include them actually accomplishing some really great feats of either incredible combat prowess, or causing national-level impact of some form.

By these criteria, I think Musashi out of Japan works as well. He was actually a real person, but he has a legend that has risen up around him that transcends his actual life, and also qualifies under those criteria.

 

[ForgottenOne]

I'll write something when I have a moment to think

 

[Jerynboe]

Name Grace Williams
Age: Relatively young for the program
Gender: Female
Patron: Hathor/Sekhmet

Power Set: Grace has a fairly defense and support oriented power set, and is a bit weaker than one would expect from a person affiliated with an upper-middlewgoddess. She can create barriers of golden light that block attacks and can play a song on her magical sistrum which weakens curses and restores vitality (equivalent to an hour or two of rest, not magical healing). Her biggest offensive tool is a magical ribbon that can bind one person at a time and is capable of holding even insubstantial spirits.

She has access to a much stronger second transformation, in which she invokes the legend in which Hathor became Sekhmet. This allows her to temporarily draw upon the power of two goddesses (as Sekhmet is also sometimes seen as a separate deity) simultaneously and become absurdly strong and fast in hand to hand combat along with high tier pyrokinesis and magically generated swords, but she also goes berserk and refuses to stop until everyone she could even tangentially consider her enemy is pacified or dead (or she drops from exhaustion). She avoids using this as she’s actually a very sweet girl, but when she’s angry it can come out on its own. (If Sekhmet and Hathor are indeed one entity in your setting, then this is instead drawing upon a part of Hathor that she rarely acknowledges so suddenly Grace is mainlining a far less refined quantity of her power)

Character Bio: Grace was a premature baby. Her mother, a nonreligious alcoholic, got absolutely shit faced so she wouldn’t have to face the very real possibility her newborn daughter would die. While deep in her cups, she broke down and prayed to anyone who would listen. Hathor, Egyptian goddess of drunkenness, and women’s health (among many MANY other things) blessed the child on a whim and saw to it that the girl would survive. She took a personal interest in the child, helping to guide her as she aged (idk if that means she was essentially a cool aunt with cow horns or if she sent her helpful and informative dreams as she grew up. Whatever is appropriate for your setting.)

When the gods started properly coming back, Hathor of course empowered Grace. As much as anything, she wanted to make sure the sweet girl had the ability to protect herself and her friends. After all, things seemed likely to start heating up soon.

Grace is a kind and friendly girl who would really prefer to talk things out. She usually steps in to stop fights that she sees, rather than start them. That’s about half natural inclination and half the fact that she isn’t allowed to get truly angry. If she loses her temper there’s a very real chance of her going full Sekhmet. She instead engages in meditative practices and positivity that comes off as deluded or toxic at times, because she’d rather people think of her as a naive twit than a loose cannon or a dangerous lunatic. Someday she may figure out that her Sekhmet form mellows out a little if she’s drunk, but she isn’t likely to try it because why the hell would she try getting drunk before transforming? She’s the daughter of an alcoholic and terrified of losing control of herself.

She’s wants to make people around her happy, and tends to react poorly to someone bringing down the vibes. Combined with her neurotic and conscientious nature, she tends to organize a lot of events for her friends. Legitimately threatening someone she loves (of which there are many) is one of the few things that will make her consider going full Sekhmet on purpose.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Also, if you make someone with a contract with one of the BIG names form the Norse pantheon, I'm liable to age them up and make them a part of the actively fielded units instead of someone in the school. So, like Thor for example.

Also, the Greeks have a somewhat dubious place in my setting. A lot of the main actors among the Greeks, like Zeuse, Athena, Hera, and Pseidon, are villains. Meanwhile, equally unexpectedly, Hades and Persephone are set to be good guys. Heraclies is one of the few who are as you'd expect him to be though. I'm thinking Apollo and Hermies would be good guys as well. (This is all based on their actual lore and how they're portrayed.)

And if anyone makes me a character with a Baba Yaga contract, don't bother putting in a reason for the contract. I'm giving you the reason right now. They happened to encounter Baba Yaga herself, and they somehow overcame some ridiculous test and weaseled a contract out of her for their trouble. And it is entirely up in the air as to whether they'd be a good guy or a bad guy after getting the Baba Yaga contract. It depends entirely on their personality going in.

Possibly weird question but are the Roman gods just renamed Greek Gods or are they separate entities (i.e. is Minerva also Athena or are they distinct? same with Mars and Ares, or Jupiter and Zeus, etc.)?

I'd be tempted to pull something with Aztec deities - though some of them could get kind of disturbing, especially with guys like Xipe Totec (the Flayed God)...

 

[Jemini]

Possibly weird question but are the Roman gods just renamed Greek Gods or are they separate entities (i.e. is Minerva also Athena or are they distinct? same with Mars and Ares, or Jupiter and Zeus, etc.)?

I'd be tempted to pull something with Aztec deities - though some of them could get kind of disturbing, especially with guys like Xipe Totec (the Flayed God)...

Oh I would actually love to see some good Aztec deity contracts. I have a somewhat vague idea of the Aztec lore, haven't studied it well enough. From what I have seen of them, I've decided I already have them listed as one of the pantheons people are weary of after an incident in which Hera from the Greek pantheon gave a contract to a child murderer BECAUSE of the child murder, and it's highly suspected that the Aztecs could wind up doing something similar.

(Worth noting, the contracts don't actually make a person evil. Rather, the gods choose the person they grant a contract to based on the gods' own morality, which might not be very well in line with our modern morality and could lead them to choosing a person with also not very good morals for our modern day.)

As for the Roman Gods, yeah, I'm calling them the same actual gods. That said, a single god having multiple names gives them extra power. They gain something like a separate power pool. Basically, a separate name clones their power and allows them to grant double the number of contracts. (An equal number for the second name they operate under.) And, yes, this does keep scaling linearly for each additional name.

 

[RecursiveDescent]

Some gods you can definitely make use of are Chronos and Cronus.
Chronos can definitely be an interesting choice to make a character out of in that environment.

Chronos is the personification of time, and often represents the inevitable passage of time and is rather neutral in terms of good or evil.
A good fit for him might be an incarnation that isn't necessarily good or evil, but is determined to achieve their own goal no matter what.

It might be a stretch to call him a god, usually he's considered more of an abstract concept or a force, but it depends on your interpretation.
As far as I know he never really interacted with any of the mythological narrative, so you could also use that to choose what kind of incarnation he would choose.


Cronus has a similar name to Chronos, you might be able to make this similarity a neat part of the lore.

He is the Titan Ruler, father of several olympian gods, including Zeus, Hades and Poseidon.
He was ambitious, power-hungry and became ruler by usurping Uranus (sky god).

However, he also became paranoid and fearful after a prophecy warned him he would be overthrown by his own children, desperately trying to defy fate.
He was eventually overthrown by his son, Zeus, whom Cronus' wife hid from him (he swallowed the other gods as soon as they were born, fearing their rebellion. Zeus freed them with the help of Metis)

I think it would be a great dynamic for Cronus' incarnation in your story to be confronted by Zeus' and Chronos' incarnations teaming up.
Even if the incarnations have their own goals and reasons, behind the scenes it would be symbolic of the original mythos.

Chronos never directly played a part in his downfall for the reasons I mentioned above, but I believe it would fit nicely into the mythology for his incarnation to play a part. After all, Cronus was desperate to defy fate, and inevitability was Chronos' whole deal.

Even if he didn't directly play a part, in the mythology, even despite Cronus trying to prevent the prophecy, it still came true, which depending on your interpretation you could attribute to Chronos playing a part in making sure the prophecy would be inevitable.

 

[Jemini]

Some gods you can definitely make use of are Chronos and Cronus.
Chronos can definitely be an interesting choice to make a character out of in that environment.

Chronos is the personification of time, and often represents the inevitable passage of time and is rather neutral in terms of good or evil.
A good fit for him might be an incarnation that isn't necessarily good or evil, but is determined to achieve their own goal no matter what.

It might be a stretch to call him a god, usually he's considered more of an abstract concept or a force, but it depends on your interpretation.
As far as I know he never really interacted with any of the mythological narrative, so you could also use that to choose what kind of incarnation he would choose.


Cronus has a similar name to Chronos, you might be able to make this similarity a neat part of the lore.

He is the Titan Ruler, father of several olympian gods, including Zeus, Hades and Poseidon.
He was ambitious, power-hungry and became ruler by usurping Uranus (sky god).

However, he also became paranoid and fearful after a prophecy warned him he would be overthrown by his own children, desperately trying to defy fate.
He was eventually overthrown by his son, Zeus, whom Cronus' wife hid from him (he swallowed the other gods as soon as they were born, fearing their rebellion. Zeus freed them with the help of Metis)

I think it would be a great dynamic for Cronus' incarnation in your story to be confronted by Zeus' and Chronos' incarnations teaming up.
Even if the incarnations have their own goals and reasons, behind the scenes it would be symbolic of the original mythos.

Chronos never directly played a part in his downfall for the reasons I mentioned above, but I believe it would fit nicely into the mythology for his incarnation to play a part. After all, Cronus was desperate to defy fate, and inevitability was Chronos' whole deal.

Even if he didn't directly play a part, in the mythology, even despite Cronus trying to prevent the prophecy, it still came true, which depending on your interpretation you could attribute to Chronos playing a part in making sure the prophecy would be inevitable.

Chronos would probably be a named incarnation of Fate, in this interpretation. Fate, in turn, is an aspect of Time.

This can actually be incredibly interesting for the story, actually. It deals a lot in aspects of duality like that, and one aspect of duality is the order and chaos faces of Time. The face of order is also called Fate, and the face of chaos is what you get when you deal in actual time travel. It does not have a simple one-word name yet, but it is best expressed in the phrase "The Butterfly Effect."

There is also a large aspect of using time travel to defy fate.

 

[RecursiveDescent]

It does not have a simple one-word name yet, but it is best expressed in the phrase "The Butterfly Effect."

The simple one-word name for this would be Causality.
It depends on how time works whether time travel defies fate or not. The act of trying to defy fate is often what causes the fate to come true in the first place.
It would make sense that to get results from time travel in a universe bound by something like fate you would not only need time travel, but some kind of power that transcends the power of fate itself. Since it wouldn't help you at all to go back in time if you were fated to do so in the first place.

The existence of some higher power of fate can also help provide an excuse to solve things like grandfather paradoxes.

 

[Jemini]

The simple one-word name for this would be Causality.
It depends on how time works whether time travel defies fate or not. The act of trying to defy fate is often what causes the fate to come true in the first place.
It would make sense that to get results from time travel in a universe bound by something like fate you would not only need time travel, but some kind of power that transcends the power of fate itself. Since it wouldn't help you at all to go back in time if you were fated to do so in the first place.

The existence of some higher power of fate can also help provide an excuse to solve things like grandfather paradoxes.

I'm not quite sure that "causality" does it. I used the phrase "The Butterfly Effect" because it refers to a case in time-travel lore where tiny changes cause massive differences in the future.

"causality," on the other hand, implies something very similar to Fate. In terms of it's actual use cases in time travel lore, it's a little more neutral, but the name itself makes it sound like it's a little more on the "order" or "fate" side of the scale.

"The Butterfly Effect," however, has always been used in time travel lore to denote MASSIVE changes to the timeline, and it's to the point where it implies the mere act of traveling back in time has already changed history no matter what action you take from that point forward.

The idea in this series is that time is rebelling against fate by giving our main character a contract, because time does not appreciate having outcomes manipulated and assured by a force like fate. The MC had a death fate on her, but then she got a contract that makes her go back in time when she dies. So, in that manner, her death does still happen but it's also cheated by her time contract.

(There is also a bit of old understandings of time Vs. new understandings of time. Ultimately, fate and inevitability are a much older concept, where as the agency within time travel to make actual changes is a much newer concept.)

 

[ForgottenOne]

Name: Ezekiel Eldson (M)- ususally prefers Zeke
Current age: 23
Age at time of contract: 19
Contract: Surtr, as an aspect of incarnate of fire (which is up to discretion, one can either have surtr as either a fire giant or as another name for a primordial, either really works)

Ezekiel is someone who has been consistently been above average, but never quite part of the groups he's been a part of- (think B's-B+'s in school). After graduation from high-school, rather than seeking to apply for college, Ezekiel opted to go to a trade skill for black-smithing as a a vocation, in part due a passion for middle age weaponry (Shadiversity on youtube is an example of what i'm thinking of here).

At some point during/after his vocation training, he became contracted to Surtr, for good or ill.

Power set:
Ezekiel is very large, 8'' after a slight growth spurt courtesy of the contract, and has a giant's/ Jotunn's Strength and durability.
For Ezekiel's contract, he also has an affinity for rune-smithing (using old symbols and having those symbols grant commiserate power), as well as the ability to manipulate fire.

Notably however, Ezekiel is *not* immune to fire and as such suffers from pain though perhaps not burning if he is physically handling fire/hot items without equipment.

He is also 'cursed' in the sense that if he takes actions that are against what Surtr intends, many of his blessings fade and he does not have the expected strength or powers of his contractor- Surtr is the one who jumpstarted one system and then watches until the end of days after all.


Surtr's Lore:
There's a lot of varied perspectives on Surtr -even in popular media, but as far as i'm aware some major points are;
1) He was there at the beginning as a ruler of muspelheim, even before creation
2) At the very end of the first set of aesir, he is believed to be the one to end the world and make way for a new world.

In my logic with this character, i'm focusing on the aspects of a ruler of the fire realms->primordial flame which helped spark creation, and one who watches until it is time to act. In that regard, might be a relevant support/logistics character with optional prophecy of someone who watches, or you an spin it differently pending on what you need for your story. Just throwing idea out :)