I'm playing around with some concepts and I'd like to hear some options on them

[nii07]

Spoiler: Concept 1

Class: Contractor​

Description:
Over time, magic has been divided into different schools, each focusing on specific aspects or elements of the arcane arts. These specializations have grown so distinct that many practitioners today have forgotten that all magic once stemmed from a single, unified source. The Contractor class, though not capable of wielding all forms of magic, is closer to this primordial source than any other. By forging contracts with spirits, ghosts, and souls, Contractors tap into the raw, ancient energies that underpin all magic. Through possession and manifestation, they channel these energies in ways that defy the boundaries set by modern magical schools, allowing them to blend summoning, necromancy, alchemy, and spiritualism into a unique and powerful discipline.

While other mages may focus on specific elements or practices, Contractors embody a more holistic approach to magic, bridging the gap between the physical, magical, and spiritual realms. They draw power from the forgotten roots of magic, shaping it through their contracts to create formidable constructs, possess powerful skills, and alter the very essence of their abilities. This deep connection to the source of magic grants them unparalleled versatility and the potential to transcend the limitations of traditional magical schools.

Character Name: [Insert Name]

Class: Contractor

Level: 1

Affiliation: [Insert Affiliation or Faction]

---

​

Attributes:

• Health (HP): 100
• Mana (MP): 150
• Stamina: 80
• Strength: 8
• Dexterity: 10
• Constitution: 10
• Intelligence: 15
• Wisdom: 12
• Charisma: 14

---

​

Primary Skills and Abilities:

1. Possess Spirit (Basic):
   • Description: Allow a contracted spirit to temporarily possess your body, gaining a small boost to one of your physical attributes (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution) based on the spirit’s nature.
   • Duration: 1 minute
   • Cooldown: 5 minutes
2. Manifest Spirit (Basic):
   • Description: Manifest a contracted spirit into a simple vessel (e.g., a skeleton or small animal body). The manifested entity fights independently alongside the Contractor.
   • Duration: 3 minutes
   • Cooldown: 10 minutes
3. Alchemy: Basic Vessel Creation:
   • Description: Use basic materials (bones, wood, clay) to create a simple body for a spirit or ghost to possess. The body has minimal enhancements.
   • Crafting Time: 10 minutes (outside of combat)
   • Cooldown: None (dependent on available materials)
4. Contract Spirit (Basic):
   • Description: Form a contract with a weak or common spirit, ghost, or soul. You can bind up to 1 spirit at Level 1.
   • Cooldown: N/A (Requires ritual or negotiation with the spirit)

Before anybody says it. Yes, I know it basically sounds like the shaman from Shaman King. I saw that after I finished it.

Spoiler: Concept 2

I'm working on a game concept for a story involving gods. Basically, the gods of a certain universe were killed off and other gods wanting to be entertained start a competition with humans to crown the next king of the gods for that universe.

Objective:​

Players start as low-level gods, demons, devils, or evil gods with no followers. Their primary goal is to explore the arena, gain followers by turning any creature into their first devotee, and spread their influence across solar systems. The player who amasses the most influence or eliminates all rivals will claim victory.

Core Gameplay Mechanics:​

1. Starting Position:
   • No Followers: Players begin with no followers and limited divine power. They must explore the arena to find and convert their first follower, which could be any creature, from a small rabbit to a human or imp.
   • First Follower: The first follower is crucial as they become the foundation for spreading the player's influence. The choice of creature can influence early-game strategies, with different creatures offering unique benefits or challenges.
2. Duties and Challenges:
   • Finding Followers: Players must carefully search the arena's planets for potential followers. Once a creature is converted, it starts spreading the player's influence, attracting more followers.
   • Inspiring Faith: With limited power, players must strategically perform small miracles or manifestations to inspire faith and grow their following. Early decisions are critical as they set the pace for influence growth.
   • Balancing Resources: Points are generated through influence and faith and must be used wisely. Overextending too early can leave a player vulnerable to opponents.
3. Influence and Followers:
   • Expanding Influence: As players gain followers, their influence grows, allowing them to perform more powerful actions and secure larger territories within the arena.
   • Faith Levels: Followers will have varying levels of faith, from weak believers to devout worshippers. Managing and nurturing these followers is key to maintaining and expanding influence.
   • Sacrifices: Players can still choose to accept sacrifices for immediate boosts, but at the risk of losing long-term influence if followers grow disillusioned.
4. Miracles, Curses, and Blessings:
   • Miracles and Curses: Players use points to perform miracles that enhance their followers or curse opponents. The nature of the first follower might influence what types of miracles or curses are initially available.
   • Blessings: Players can bestow blessings on their followers, making them more effective in spreading influence or resisting enemy conversion attempts.
5. Conflict and Competition:
   • PvP Dynamics: Players can engage in direct or indirect conflict, targeting each other’s followers or sabotaging their efforts. Early skirmishes are often over neutral creatures that could be converted into followers.
   • Solar System Domination: Once a player gains control over a planet, they begin working towards dominating the entire solar system. Controlling a solar system grants significant strategic advantages and influence boosts.
6. Artifacts and Relics:
   • Divine Artifacts: Scattered across planets, these artifacts provide unique powers that can turn the tide of battle or offer strategic advantages.
   • Cursed Relics: Risky yet powerful items that can be used to sabotage enemies or grant temporary boosts at the cost of long-term stability.

World and Setting:​

1. The Arena:
   • Solar Systems: The arena is divided into multiple solar systems, each with several planets that players can explore and conquer. Players can influence and reshape these planets once they gain control.
   • Planetary Stages: Each planet offers unique challenges, environments, and creatures that players can convert into followers. Some planets may have hidden dangers or rare resources.
2. Realms:
   • Celestial and Netherrealm Lobbies: These realms serve as lobbies where all players can go to trade, purchase items, or interact. Influence is the currency used here. Despite their nature, all players, whether gods or demons, can enter and participate in these realms.
   • Customization: Players can customize their lobbies and avatars using influence, reflecting their divine or demonic nature.

Moderator and Endgame:​

1. Moderator Role:
   • A game moderator oversees each match, ensuring fair play and determining the winner based on influence, territory control, and other factors. The moderator can also introduce random events or challenges to keep the game dynamic.
2. Endgame Scenarios:
   • Ascendancy: Players aim to ascend by reaching a critical mass of influence, at which point they can reshape entire solar systems or impose their will on other players.
   • Solar System Ownership: Controlling a solar system grants immense power and allows players to customize and edit it according to their divine vision.
   • Last Deity Standing: Alternatively, the game can end with the last surviving player, who has eliminated all rivals through strategy, conflict, and divine power.

Game Modes:​

• Multiplayer Arena: Players compete across solar systems, converting creatures into followers, and fighting for dominance. Each match is unique, with different strategies emerging based on starting conditions and opponent actions.
• Ranked Play: A more competitive mode with stricter rules and higher stakes, where players are ranked based on their performance across matches.
• Custom Matches: Players can set up custom matches with specific rules, allowing for unique scenarios or themed battles.

 

[ChronicSleeper]

IM SO DEEPWOKEN ROTTED THAT I READ CONTRACTOR AND IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT OF THE ETREAN FEMBOY HELPP ?

 

[Dieter]

IM SO DEEPWOKEN ROTTED THAT I READ CONTRACTOR AND IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT OF THE ETREAN FEMBOY HELPP ?

 

[Vnator]

IM SO DEEPWOKEN ROTTED THAT I READ CONTRACTOR AND IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT OF THE ETREAN FEMBOY HELPP ?

What's this about femboys?

 

[Arch9CivilReactor]

Concept 1 seems like a Power Fantasy but the inconsistency comes with how powerful Contractors sound despite being ‘unpopular’. It is just strange that even though there are many IRL who would do the most tedious things to enter the best of the best (even if not universally acclaimed). It makes no sense for them to be unknown to the point of there being few of them.

Maybe you can add limitations to talent in this area, but that also would’ve garnered more attention rather than obscurity. People are just more invested in niche but powerful stuff. They would feel disappointed for not having met the talent requirement, but wouldn’t hate the class.

The only way I see this working is that people have forgotten what contractors are entirely and do not believe the MC that spirits can be contracted. His goal would then be to show off how great this profession can be in modern magic society. Despite it once being ancient.

Concept 2 I see working out so long as you are clear about the ‘unspoken rules’ and what cannot be done rather than what CLOULD be done. Focus on followers and their lives being affected by the MC. A lot of works have actually used this trope. Especially that one about raising NPCs in a game as their ‘god’ via faith system.

Better to expand what the MC can do with limited faith resources as time goes on, and how his decisions alter historical moments. Each step his believers take being monumental for him as a God. How he cherishes their presence.

This can go two ways.

If you make the God never present in ‘reality’ and only able to watch them through a screen of sorts, it will be like making them the narrator that is always watching characters. They will form a bond more with the society than the believers.

If you make the God present, you will have to go with the implications that these believers will each have their own thoughts to help or harm the MC. The most obvious being that they’d try to manipulate him and his teachings despite hearing him say it clearly with his own mouth. It isn’t easy to ‘rule’ intelligent species peacefully.

Internal strife will be rampant if the God is physically present and fallible. Hard to justify the big image in their head if the real guy is scrawny, dumb, or is in any way inferior to the believers.

 

[Nolff]

Spoiler: Concept 1

Class: Contractor​

Description:
Over time, magic has been divided into different schools, each focusing on specific aspects or elements of the arcane arts. These specializations have grown so distinct that many practitioners today have forgotten that all magic once stemmed from a single, unified source. The Contractor class, though not capable of wielding all forms of magic, is closer to this primordial source than any other. By forging contracts with spirits, ghosts, and souls, Contractors tap into the raw, ancient energies that underpin all magic. Through possession and manifestation, they channel these energies in ways that defy the boundaries set by modern magical schools, allowing them to blend summoning, necromancy, alchemy, and spiritualism into a unique and powerful discipline.

While other mages may focus on specific elements or practices, Contractors embody a more holistic approach to magic, bridging the gap between the physical, magical, and spiritual realms. They draw power from the forgotten roots of magic, shaping it through their contracts to create formidable constructs, possess powerful skills, and alter the very essence of their abilities. This deep connection to the source of magic grants them unparalleled versatility and the potential to transcend the limitations of traditional magical schools.

Character Name: [Insert Name]

Class: Contractor

Level: 1

Affiliation: [Insert Affiliation or Faction]

​

---

Attributes:

• Health (HP): 100
• Mana (MP): 150
• Stamina: 80
• Strength: 8
• Dexterity: 10
• Constitution: 10
• Intelligence: 15
• Wisdom: 12
• Charisma: 14

​

---

Primary Skills and Abilities:

1. Possess Spirit (Basic):
   • Description: Allow a contracted spirit to temporarily possess your body, gaining a small boost to one of your physical attributes (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution) based on the spirit’s nature.
   • Duration: 1 minute
   • Cooldown: 5 minutes
2. Manifest Spirit (Basic):
   • Description: Manifest a contracted spirit into a simple vessel (e.g., a skeleton or small animal body). The manifested entity fights independently alongside the Contractor.
   • Duration: 3 minutes
   • Cooldown: 10 minutes
3. Alchemy: Basic Vessel Creation:
   • Description: Use basic materials (bones, wood, clay) to create a simple body for a spirit or ghost to possess. The body has minimal enhancements.
   • Crafting Time: 10 minutes (outside of combat)
   • Cooldown: None (dependent on available materials)
4. Contract Spirit (Basic):
   • Description: Form a contract with a weak or common spirit, ghost, or soul. You can bind up to 1 spirit at Level 1.
   • Cooldown: N/A (Requires ritual or negotiation with the spirit)

Before anybody says it. Yes, I know it basically sounds like the shaman from Shaman King. I saw that after I finished it.

Spoiler: Concept 2

I'm working on a game concept for a story involving gods. Basically, the gods of a certain universe were killed off and other gods wanting to be entertained start a competition with humans to crown the next king of the gods for that universe.

Objective:​

Players start as low-level gods, demons, devils, or evil gods with no followers. Their primary goal is to explore the arena, gain followers by turning any creature into their first devotee, and spread their influence across solar systems. The player who amasses the most influence or eliminates all rivals will claim victory.

Core Gameplay Mechanics:​

1. Starting Position:
   • No Followers: Players begin with no followers and limited divine power. They must explore the arena to find and convert their first follower, which could be any creature, from a small rabbit to a human or imp.
   • First Follower: The first follower is crucial as they become the foundation for spreading the player's influence. The choice of creature can influence early-game strategies, with different creatures offering unique benefits or challenges.
2. Duties and Challenges:
   • Finding Followers: Players must carefully search the arena's planets for potential followers. Once a creature is converted, it starts spreading the player's influence, attracting more followers.
   • Inspiring Faith: With limited power, players must strategically perform small miracles or manifestations to inspire faith and grow their following. Early decisions are critical as they set the pace for influence growth.
   • Balancing Resources: Points are generated through influence and faith and must be used wisely. Overextending too early can leave a player vulnerable to opponents.
3. Influence and Followers:
   • Expanding Influence: As players gain followers, their influence grows, allowing them to perform more powerful actions and secure larger territories within the arena.
   • Faith Levels: Followers will have varying levels of faith, from weak believers to devout worshippers. Managing and nurturing these followers is key to maintaining and expanding influence.
   • Sacrifices: Players can still choose to accept sacrifices for immediate boosts, but at the risk of losing long-term influence if followers grow disillusioned.
4. Miracles, Curses, and Blessings:
   • Miracles and Curses: Players use points to perform miracles that enhance their followers or curse opponents. The nature of the first follower might influence what types of miracles or curses are initially available.
   • Blessings: Players can bestow blessings on their followers, making them more effective in spreading influence or resisting enemy conversion attempts.
5. Conflict and Competition:
   • PvP Dynamics: Players can engage in direct or indirect conflict, targeting each other’s followers or sabotaging their efforts. Early skirmishes are often over neutral creatures that could be converted into followers.
   • Solar System Domination: Once a player gains control over a planet, they begin working towards dominating the entire solar system. Controlling a solar system grants significant strategic advantages and influence boosts.
6. Artifacts and Relics:
   • Divine Artifacts: Scattered across planets, these artifacts provide unique powers that can turn the tide of battle or offer strategic advantages.
   • Cursed Relics: Risky yet powerful items that can be used to sabotage enemies or grant temporary boosts at the cost of long-term stability.

World and Setting:​

1. The Arena:
   • Solar Systems: The arena is divided into multiple solar systems, each with several planets that players can explore and conquer. Players can influence and reshape these planets once they gain control.
   • Planetary Stages: Each planet offers unique challenges, environments, and creatures that players can convert into followers. Some planets may have hidden dangers or rare resources.
2. Realms:
   • Celestial and Netherrealm Lobbies: These realms serve as lobbies where all players can go to trade, purchase items, or interact. Influence is the currency used here. Despite their nature, all players, whether gods or demons, can enter and participate in these realms.
   • Customization: Players can customize their lobbies and avatars using influence, reflecting their divine or demonic nature.

Moderator and Endgame:​

1. Moderator Role:
   • A game moderator oversees each match, ensuring fair play and determining the winner based on influence, territory control, and other factors. The moderator can also introduce random events or challenges to keep the game dynamic.
2. Endgame Scenarios:
   • Ascendancy: Players aim to ascend by reaching a critical mass of influence, at which point they can reshape entire solar systems or impose their will on other players.
   • Solar System Ownership: Controlling a solar system grants immense power and allows players to customize and edit it according to their divine vision.
   • Last Deity Standing: Alternatively, the game can end with the last surviving player, who has eliminated all rivals through strategy, conflict, and divine power.

Game Modes:​

• Multiplayer Arena: Players compete across solar systems, converting creatures into followers, and fighting for dominance. Each match is unique, with different strategies emerging based on starting conditions and opponent actions.
• Ranked Play: A more competitive mode with stricter rules and higher stakes, where players are ranked based on their performance across matches.
• Custom Matches: Players can set up custom matches with specific rules, allowing for unique scenarios or themed battles.

Those are nice concepts, ngl. I'll describe why soon, I have something to do.

 

[nii07]

Concept 1 seems like a Power Fantasy but the inconsistency comes with how powerful Contractors sound despite being ‘unpopular’. It is just strange that even though there are many IRL who would do the most tedious things to enter the best of the best (even if not universally acclaimed). It makes no sense for them to be unknown to the point of there being few of them.

Maybe you can add limitations to talent in this area, but that also would’ve garnered more attention rather than obscurity. People are just more invested in niche but powerful stuff. They would feel disappointed for not having met the talent requirement, but wouldn’t hate the class.

The only way I see this working is that people have forgotten what contractors are entirely and do not believe the MC that spirits can be contracted. His goal would then be to show off how great this profession can be in modern magic society. Despite it once being ancient.

Concept 2 I see working out so long as you are clear about the ‘unspoken rules’ and what cannot be done rather than what CLOULD be done. Focus on followers and their lives being affected by the MC. A lot of works have actually used this trope. Especially that one about raising NPCs in a game as their ‘god’ via faith system.

Better to expand what the MC can do with limited faith resources as time goes on, and how his decisions alter historical moments. Each step his believers take being monumental for him as a God. How he cherishes their presence.

This can go two ways.

If you make the God never present in ‘reality’ and only able to watch them through a screen of sorts, it will be like making them the narrator that is always watching characters. They will form a bond more with the society than the believers.

If you make the God present, you will have to go with the implications that these believers will each have their own thoughts to help or harm the MC. The most obvious being that they’d try to manipulate him and his teachings despite hearing him say it clearly with his own mouth. It isn’t easy to ‘rule’ intelligent species peacefully.

Internal strife will be rampant if the God is physically present and fallible. Hard to justify the big image in their head if the real guy is scrawny, dumb, or is in any way inferior to the believers.

For concept 1
I was planning on making it some hidden class. Also since it's a combination of alchemy, summoning, spirit mage, necromancy I was planning to make it so that the only way to level up skills was to gain proficiency in those areas. Because the class is an ancient class and back then those thing were taught all together but in the modern times the MC needs to learn them separately and combine the knowledge themselves.

For concept 2
I will make God spiritual and unable to go to the physical world unless they manifest a part of their divine realm which can only be done once per match and drains an insane amount of faith. So rather than that low level gods can choose a creature to act as their proxy like a God of death choosing a raven giving it some power and the end of the match the raven enters this divine realm who they can send to the physical realm whenever. As for what they can't do I would make a rule that for the first hundred years they would be restricted from attacking another God to allow them to grow so the race of your first follower determines what advantage you have.

 

[BearlyAlive]

For concept 1
I was planning on making it some hidden class. Also since it's a combination of alchemy, summoning, spirit mage, necromancy I was planning to make it so that the only way to level up skills was to gain proficiency in those areas. Because the class is an ancient class and back then those thing were taught all together but in the modern times the MC needs to learn them separately and combine the knowledge themselves.

Even if it is a "hidden" class, you'd need to explain how the overspecialization happened, why combo-classes died out (especially if they're more powerful), and why or how nobody insane or studious took one of those just because. Nobody sane would hire a person for phone calls, another for HR stuff, and then a personal assistant when they could just hire a secretary for all three. So unless you explain why the versatile alternatives died out instead of the overspecialized ones, it's just one of those "EVERYBODY thought X was useless, but it's actually (and totally obviously, unless you're totally braindead) OP!!!" low-budget isekai tropes...

 

[Jemini]

Right. I think I'm just going to say the truism. Any concept is good if it's well implemented. When Mushoku Tensei was written, literally every single thing in it's base setting from the power system to the adventurer guilds to the world setting to the magic to the world political structure had been done hundreds of times before it. It DID popularize the reincarnation isekai concept, but that particular reincarnation method also had pre-dated it.

And yet, it was all just implemented so phenomenally well that it was called the grandfather of the isekai genre despite the isekai genre having pre-dated it by 5, 10, 30, 60, or 120 years, depending on your definition of Isekai. (And yes, I actually did roughly pick each of those dates in accordance with a different definition of Isekai. You can also argue 2000 or 6000 years depending on your view of certain religious texts.)

These systems you're proposing here sound to me like they are exactly in that sweet spot where they have potential, but it is heavily dependent on implementation. I can also see them going disastrously if implemented poorly.

The one thing that concerns me somewhat is that I do not see anything in this that places a demand on the author to be good. That is one thing I have found. There are certain concepts that absolutely cannot work unless the author puts a crazy amount of effort into it. Things like creating your own language, or power systems based on the real world historical lore of a number of different mythologies. Those are just impossible to do if the author doesn't put a lot of work into it. Those things in the story do not actually improve the quality of the story on it's own, but if the author made them work then it means they put in the work that's required to do it. And, if they put in that much work for such a high-effort system, it is often associated with them putting a lot of work into the rest of the story as well, and that work tends to make it really good.

I do not see anything like that in these concepts here, which means that there are no guard rails against it turning into your typical lame power fantasy. But, they are also good enough that if you do put in real effort then you can also make them really good. So, it really does depend on you.

 

[ChronicSleeper]

What's this about femboys?

Search up Lord Regent Deepwoken

View attachment 31016

Unfortunately, I'm stuck as the wallower of the present.

 

[WinterTimeCrime]

IM SO DEEPWOKEN ROTTED THAT I READ CONTRACTOR AND IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT OF THE ETREAN FEMBOY HELPP ?

The deep is calling...

And I quit that game once they banned SynapseX. It's way too much of a grind that my schedule can't bear to handle.
My lightning build was sick nasty though...

Edit: Correction, I was banned.

Though I could've appealed it, as the person had no evidence of me hacking (even the moderator said it was a dubious case at best), I just started college, so I probably didn't care.

 

[Vnator]

Search up Lord Regent Deepwoken

Unfortunately, I'm stuck as the wallower of the present.

Bruh this is some roblox shit
How can you look at a wannabe LEGO Megablox figurine and call it a femboy?

 

[ChronicSleeper]

LOL (yea ?)

The deep is calling...

And I quit that game once they banned SynapseX. It's way too much of a grind that my schedule can't bear to handle.
My lightning build was sick nasty though...

Edit: Correction, I was banned.
View attachment 31027

Though I could've appealed it, as the person had no evidence of me hacking (even the moderator said it was a dubious case at best), I just started college, so I probably didn't care.

I loved that game's lore, even though the gameplay is just a parryfest in PVP and a 10-hour min-max for the only viable PVE builds for the endgame. And yeah, Deepwoken does NOT compute with a college schedule ?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Gut feeling: The class sounds a lot like the D&D class called a "Warlock" and the setting a lot like the background material for the old AD&D Birthright setting (there was a war between the gods, the world was thrown into upheaval - some mortals wound up replacing gods, others wound up tied to their lands to become "Blooded" and they and their family have special abilities within the lands they control)

 

[nii07]

Even if it is a "hidden" class, you'd need to explain how the overspecialization happened, why combo-classes died out (especially if they're more powerful), and why or how nobody insane or studious took one of those just because. Nobody sane would hire a person for phone calls, another for HR stuff, and then a personal assistant when they could just hire a secretary for all three. So unless you explain why the versatile alternatives died out instead of the overspecialized ones, it's just one of those "EVERYBODY thought X was useless, but it's actually (and totally obviously, unless you're totally braindead) OP!!!" low-budget isekai tropes...

My initial plan for the world was a world with classes by rather than killing monsters to get experience the more you use the class's ability you get class xp. So there will be hybrid classes like magic swordsman or magic Archer. However, to be able to level up those classes, you have to proficient in both fields and gain XP for both classes to level up your class. The reason that these hidden classes were lost to time was while they were powerful and required much more time to be able to gain the same level of power as a single class or hybrid. So it's more of a it gets more powerful and the later stages, but in the earlier stages it's quite weak.

Right. I think I'm just going to say the truism. Any concept is good if it's well implemented. When Mushoku Tensei was written, literally every single thing in it's base setting from the power system to the adventurer guilds to the world setting to the magic to the world political structure had been done hundreds of times before it. It DID popularize the reincarnation isekai concept, but that particular reincarnation method also had pre-dated it.

And yet, it was all just implemented so phenomenally well that it was called the grandfather of the isekai genre despite the isekai genre having pre-dated it by 5, 10, 30, 60, or 120 years, depending on your definition of Isekai. (And yes, I actually did roughly pick each of those dates in accordance with a different definition of Isekai. You can also argue 2000 or 6000 years depending on your view of certain religious texts.)

These systems you're proposing here sound to me like they are exactly in that sweet spot where they have potential, but it is heavily dependent on implementation. I can also see them going disastrously if implemented poorly.

The one thing that concerns me somewhat is that I do not see anything in this that places a demand on the author to be good. That is one thing I have found. There are certain concepts that absolutely cannot work unless the author puts a crazy amount of effort into it. Things like creating your own language, or power systems based on the real world historical lore of a number of different mythologies. Those are just impossible to do if the author doesn't put a lot of work into it. Those things in the story do not actually improve the quality of the story on it's own, but if the author made them work then it means they put in the work that's required to do it. And, if they put in that much work for such a high-effort system, it is often associated with them putting a lot of work into the rest of the story as well, and that work tends to make it really good.

I do not see anything like that in these concepts here, which means that there are no guard rails against it turning into your typical lame power fantasy. But, they are also good enough that if you do put in real effort then you can also make them really good. So, it really does depend on you.

These are the first draft so I'm still playing around them. Like in the second concept I don't think I added the alliance feature or Pantheon feature which would basically be like a guild.

Gut feeling: The class sounds a lot like the D&D class called a "Warlock" and the setting a lot like the background material for the old AD&D Birthright setting (there was a war between the gods, the world was thrown into upheaval - some mortals wound up replacing gods, others wound up tied to their lands to become "Blooded" and they and their family have special abilities within the lands they control)

Spoiler: The Lore

Divine Resurgence: Epic Lore​

Prologue: The Fall of the Pantheon​

In the beginning, the cosmos was a harmonious symphony of divine energies, ruled by an ancient pantheon of gods, demons, devils, and other celestial beings. These entities, once limitless in power, shaped the universe with their will, creating worlds, forging stars, and guiding the fate of all living things. For eons, they were revered by mortals, their names chanted in temples and their influence felt in every corner of existence.

But as time marched on, a great cataclysm tore through the fabric of reality. The Sundering, as it came to be known, was a cosmic upheaval that shattered the pantheon’s power, scattering their divine essence across the universe. The once-mighty gods found themselves diminished, their realms in ruins, their followers lost to the ravages of time. The balance of power shifted, and the pantheon fell into obscurity, forgotten by the very mortals they had created.

Without worshippers to sustain them, these divine beings began to fade. The cosmos grew cold, and the stars dimmed as the influence of the pantheon waned. The Celestial Realm, once a beacon of light and order, became a desolate void, while the Netherrealm, a place of dark and chaotic energy, grew unstable. Both realms teetered on the brink of collapse, their former glory reduced to mere shadows of their past.

Yet, in the darkest hour, a prophecy emerged—a whisper carried on the cosmic winds, foretelling a time of resurgence. The prophecy spoke of a Divine Resurgence, a period when a new pantheon would rise once more to reclaim the lost power and reshape the universe according to their will. But this resurgence would not come without struggle; it would be a battle for survival, with only the strongest and most cunning deities able to restore their influence and ascend to their former glory.

The overall story for concept 2 will follow a goddess born in a universe where all the gods died. They died in a cataclysm called The Sundering which killed most turning them into energy while those that survived were forgotten and faded. The gods of other universes waited for new gods to be born from the divine energy still present in the universe but no such thing happened for tens of thousands of years. Finally tired they chose mortal creatures to elevate them to gods but to make it more fun for themselves they would fight and only one would be crowned king. The MC will be born after the decision is made and although this universe is her birthright she's forced to participate in this game because the game was created with a God's promise something that cannot be broken. So she thrust into this game as the outer gods watch.

 

[BearlyAlive]

My initial plan for the world was a world with classes by rather than killing monsters to get experience the more you use the class's ability you get class xp. So there will be hybrid classes like magic swordsman or magic Archer. However, to be able to level up those classes, you have to proficient in both fields and gain XP for both classes to level up your class. The reason that these hidden classes were lost to time was while they were powerful and required much more time to be able to gain the same level of power as a single class or hybrid. So it's more of a it gets more powerful and the later stages, but in the earlier stages it's quite weak.

Still doesn't explain why "endgame" classes came out of fashion, especially if there's no need for immediate power. So unless your classes literally dictate what the people can or can't do, the people are forced to fight in some weird gamified Hunger Games, your world is a total meritocracy, or there is some constant threat to humanity looming in the background there will always be some people taking the scenic route, hell, I would take one of those slow-leveling classes, just to unspeed my own life

 

[nii07]

Still doesn't explain why "endgame" classes came out of fashion, especially if there's no need for immediate power. So unless your classes literally dictate what the people can or can't do, the people are forced to fight in some weird gamified Hunger Games, your world is a total meritocracy, or there is some constant threat to humanity looming in the background there will always be some people taking the scenic route, hell, I would take one of those slow-leveling classes, just to unspeed my own life

Then the only way I could think of would be that the classes like this were passed on from master to the top student while the others were taught only one path. Over time kingdoms desired those classes and waged wars to obtain the current successors killing a few and causing some to go into hiding. So the different kingdoms will each have a hidden class. That could maybe work.