💮 THE LORE
💮 THOSE AMONGST US / revamping...THE LORE BOOK
In this universe, deities and magical entities rooting from mythology and folk religion exist and have the ability to take human form (and co-exist). They aren’t exactly inept at ‘being human’ unless they’ve only recently descended upon Earth (for some deities, they have been doing this for centuries, going back and forth between the world of living and their own places, as there seems to be a lack of restriction with doing so). However, their true identity MUST be kept a secret, as revealing their true self has extreme consequences (death, end of the world as we know it, etc.)
This story will be set in Seoul, South Korea. More specifically, Hongik University campus. This does not mean that your character has to be college students, but they’d have to be somehow affiliated with the school/campus. According to sayings, deities and gods are often attracted to each other and Fate will always bring them together. Because of this, roughly a bunch of random deities find themselves somehow living together (whether it be in the same apartment or on the same floor of an apartment complex, we’re not sure yet). They quickly come to find out each other’s identities and weird things start occurring (unknown forces, both good and evil; shenanigans and etc.).
This fic is going to be very centered around dialogue, meaning this is the chat!au fic no one asked for, but we're here to deliver.
AGE LIMITS & OCCUPATIONS
Minimum age we are allowing is 19 (for the sake of Korean age rather than international). Oldest is 25, as we don’t want too big of a gap between the characters. As stated, despite the majority of the story being centered around Hongik University, they do not have to be an undergraduate student, or even a student at all. They could be someone working in one of the many stores or places around campus. They could be a graduate student; instructor; research assistant; or even a resident of the area (as the university is located in Mapo-gu).
FACE CLAIMS & ETHNICITIES
Because it is set in Korea, we are automatically assuming we’d get a lot more Asian characters. However, it is a fantasy!au and we are including deities from all different regions, thus why we decided to have it centered around at least a university with a higher international student population (or we are assuming so just by accessibility and website).
And after talking about it, Mia and I have decided that if you are applying as a deity from Japanese mythology, your character must be Japanese. If from Chinese mythology, they must be Chinese, and so forth. For the exception of Than Nong, they could either be Chinese or Vietnamese due to them being apart of both Chinese and Vietnamese mythology. Also, because of the weird westernization of Nordic/Greek myths due to western media (i.e. Hollywood), there will not be the same restrictions. However, if your deity is not rooted in Korean mythology, please remember to talk about their reason for descending upon Earth and living in Korea and in relation, why they have come to ‘study’ in Korea (if they are a student) (but this should be answered in designated sections of the app).
PERSONALITY
We’re dealing with immortals here; gods, my dude. We know that for some deities, their personality seems to write themselves (Apollo, a cassanova and zealot; Seokga, mischievous and probably a grade-A ) but we're not going to restrict you to given traits. Yeah, your character can embody exactly the deity they supposedly are. But they could also be completely the opposite of what people expect them to be!
A wide variety and flexibility in terms of personalities is preferred. If it tends to come off as tropey, it’s fine because once again, they are gods. And with that said, their portrayal can vary or not depending on the myth. In this fic, you can be as outlandish as you want to be but please understand that these characters are in the human world and are required to understand their limits. Because they’re on earth, caution must be exercised anyways when using powers as there's always a chance of messing with the balance of life due to there being so many deities in one place. Basically: no walking on water, performing miracles, raising the dead, causing natural disasters, etc. (they have done that while in deity form, but exercise powers with caution as a human).
INFORMATION ABOUT DEITIES
We realize that the ‘plotline’ chapter doesn’t give you much to go on in terms of what to do. Aside from Mia’s and I’s characters (Meng Po and Enma-Daio), the other seven are up for grabs. Here are just some more information on each deity, but we’re pretty much giving you free-reign with how you might interpret the deity and their lore.
Jowangsin, Korean Goddess of Fire and Hearth
- A Gashin, a branch of deities believed to protect the objects & rooms of the house.
- She is no longer a subject of worship, but still remains one of the most famous Korean deities.
Apollo, Greek God of Archery, Music, and a ton of stuff.
- Rumors say he had many lovers (a cassanova, if you will) and held immense pride.
- He has many roles, including protector of the young and was an important pastoral deity.
Feilian, Chinese God of the Wind
- Took the form of a winged dragon, with the head of a deer and the tail of a snake.
- Also known as Xie Lang, it is noted that he was somewhat of a troublemaker.
Than Nong, Agriculture God or Divine Farmer
- Also known as Shennong in Chinese Myth, he was apart of the Three Sovereigns and has been thought to have taught the ancient Chinese not only their practices of agriculture, but also the use of herbal drugs.
Takemikazuchi, Japanese God of Thunder and Sword god.
- Also known as Kashima-no-kami, he apparently competed in what is considered the first sumo wrestling match recorded in history.
- Originally a local god, and of maritime travel but after the Nakatomi clan took over priestly duties, they instituted him as their clan deity.
Skaði, Nordic Goddess of Bowhunting, Winter, etc.
- A jötunn and in the poem Lokasenna, referred to as the wife of Njörðr (an ill-fated marriage, as they had described it).
- In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Skaði is responsible for placing the serpent that drips venom onto the bound Loki.
Seokga, Korean Rebellious Trickster God.
- He and Mireuk are said to have created the world.
- According to the Changsega, the deity Seokga attempted to usurp Mireuk, the initial creator of the world, in three contests.
However, there a 'free plotline' exists, meaning you do not have to apply as one of the deities we have provided, although it is preferred, as there is a reason why we have them. If you choose to apply as an deity that isn't one of the plotlines, know that we'll only be choosing one! Also, try not to use extremely popular deities as it could unintentionally alter the story.
- Jacheongbi, Korean Earth goddess and goddess of love
- Mitra, Vedic god of Oaths, Friendship, and The morning sun
- Shahmaran, Khurdish Queen of the serpents
- Gyalpo spirits, one of the eight classes of haughty Gods and Spirits in Tibetan mythology
- Ifrit, an Islamic class of powerful, malevolent supernatural beings.
- Poludnitsa, noon demon in Slavic mythology, also known as lady midday
- Baí Zé (or Hakutaku in Japanese), fantastic beast, meaning “white marsh”.
THINGS TAKEN
Toshiki Seto and Jessica Zhu (fangyi_jessica) are taken as face-claims, alongside with Nishida (@nishidaaaaaa) and Pan Jiahao (panjiahao1). Enma-daio and Meng Po are taken as deities.
BROWNIE POINTS
yakults - UHHH FACE CLAIMS! There are so many!!! As much as I love k-pop idols, it would be nice to have some models and actors up in this .
Yamada Ryosuke, Lee Yoko (@__aoyang), Savina Hafiza (@savina_hafizah), Keisuke Asano (@keisukeasano_), Havana Rose Liu (@babywhiterice), Sahari (@aidanasahari), Bomi Youn (@bbbomiii_), Hojun (@jejucarrot), Lee Jaeseok (@2jaeseok), Nana Ouyang (@nanaouyang), Estelle Chen (@chen_estelle), Fukushi Sota, Yamazaki Kento, Suda Masaki, Wang Yibo, Choi Seungyoun (of UNIQ), Astrid Chu (@astrid.chu), Salem Mitchell (@salemmitchell), Sara Esparza (@saraesparz).
Ideas:
1. Applying as a very minor, low-key deity barely anyone has ever heard of ("oh who were you again" "oh for s sake")
2. Character realizing they are actually absolute at being human
3. A deity that randomly decided to mingle w/ humans one day and before they know it they're attending graduate school trying to get a ph.D in marine biology (doesn't have to be marine biology exactly, but you know what I mean).
yeanoh - FC’S I’D LOVE TO SEE:
Jung Hoyeon (pls use her), Dagsen Love, David Yang (d.avidyang/ also pls use him), Việt Dũng (dzzzung), Khánh Ngô (crkhanh), Naleye Dolmans, Lee Hyunsuk (collieman_), Yuan Bo (_yuan_bo), Wang Hao (wanghaowanghao), Ni Haoran (ni_haoran), Huang Siyuan (huangsssyyy), Kiri Takeuchi (kiritakeuchi) Choi Yeonkyu (imcyk), Primmy Patnasiri, Duan Meiyue (dmeiyue), Dominik Sadoch, Alexa Mareka, Kamilla Kucenko, Laras Sekar, Tom Ali (tomaliuk), Rubina Dyan (rubinadyan), Sasha Belyaeva, Kosei Kudo (kosei_kudo), Daichi Yamada (_yamadadaichi), Choi Sulli, Oh Heejun, Akeem Osborne.
Ideas:
1. A god who’s so bad at being human that they legit can’t hold down a job for more than a week. You could even have someone who doesn't understand normal social cues or modern trends and who does nothing but complain about it
"you know back in my day" / "people were depressed and no one cares"
2. Runaway god who's honestly just here to get away from their chaotic home life
3. Someone who's in it to just around with humans in various methods (think crowley from good omens). Like they don't outright kill people but they're bored with their day job and just wanna up
F.A.Q!
Q: CAN WE APPLY AS (INSERT DEITY)?
A: There are 7 plotlines available to apply as in total (as seen in chapter 1). There is also a 'free' plotline, in which you have free reign to apply as a deity outside of those given. While we aren't restricting you to just those 7 plotlines, we much prefer if you apply as one of them! As for the free plotline, it is only one spot, so there is that.
Q: HOW MANY TIMES CAN WE APPLY?
A: Two max. Since we are (really really hoping) to get quite a few apps, we don't mind you applying more than once, but the max is two!
Q: CAN A FEMALE-PRESENTING DEITY TAKE ON MALE HUMAN FORM AND VICE VERSA?
A: As much as we want to say yes, we envision it might be a little complicated, so we'd have to say no. We apologize for this!
Q: IS EVERYONE BORN OR START AS A BABY/CHILD WHEN THEY DECIDE TO BE HUMAN? OR DO THEY MANIFEST?
A: We realize we should've made this a little more clear, aha. To answer y'alls question though, we're basically dealing with gods/immortals who manage to exist on earth by taking the form of a human, they are by no means born since it's a matter of choice if they want to flit around between worlds. and really being gods here just means constrictions/boundaries don't apply to you seeing as how you aren't really apart of common nature.
q: in terms of each deity's story, are we gonna assume that what happened in their specific myth like...*actually* happened or do we ignore it? or somewhere in the middle?
A: Yes. there is a general assumption that their specific myth did actually happen, but don’t worry about getting too into detail about it.
q: i know you said they don't really have "powers" like creating miracles, so what can they do?
A: I think there is some confusion about that. we’re not saying that they don’t have powers, but that they aren’t allowed to show it to humans, as it could have drastic consequences. and in general, because they’re on earth, caution must be exercised anyways when using powers as there's always a chance of messing with the balance of life with the number of deities located in the vicinity.
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