[Maxwell]

"When the lords of tyranny rise and the land is wrought in fire and death, a great hero shall emerge from the people, with the old gods behind him, to deliver the innocent unto safety and goodness.

Such was the important part of a dreadfully long and boring prophecy, made by the oracle Shas'rianna of Eventhorp. This premonition filled the hearts of the people with hope, but the great wizards of the Valley of Ivory went pale with fear, and it is said that the priests of the temple at Achtalamun wept and prayed for a full week as word of the prophecy reached their ears. As all men of any meaningful education are aware, less than one in a thousand prophecies come true, as the knowledge of what may come to pass makes it very easy to avoid a possible future. Of course, the evils of the world smirked smugly in their dark (say the bards, though most of them actually had pleasant and well-lit) lairs, and began making preparations so that they, by the time they rose up, would be able to find and kill this great hero. They were in no hurry, after all.

However, the evils screwed up bad in letting their confidence get the best of them. The old gods, a pantheon of those deities whose powers had lasted the longest, too heard of this prophecy, and a god does not get to become old enough to be known as an old god unless he is a crafty devil (if you'll forgive the term). Without waiting for the evils to rise up, they used their powers preemptively and brought into being the Deliverer, a hero of strength so vast that only a half-god could hope to match his power. Taking his enemies completely by surprise, the Deliverer assaulted the lords of evil long before their preparations were complete, and slaughtered them all in a most brutal and bloodthirsty fashion, cheered on vigorously by the old gods themselves. When at last the heads of all lords of evil were dropped into the sacrificial font in the great temple at Achtalamun, the Deliverer himself was allowed to keep his power, and the gods left him to do whatever he wished for as long as he lived. Those were interesting years, when the champion roamed as he would, performing deeds of greatness. As with all great men, his enemies called him a tyrant and so forth, and I too am certain that he used his power and freedom in many deeds of questionable morality (you ladies know what I'm talking about), but we have to agree that someone who killed all those big honking bad guys deserves us cutting him some slack.

So, as our hero finally died, after keeping the element of evil down for a lifetime, his power was passed on to another heroic individual, chosen by the gods once again. This one followed the tradition of the Deliverer, as did the one after him, and the one after him. Two-hundred and seventy-eight Deliverers later, rose the last of the line, the one you know as Amphoron, who died over three hundred years ago at the cave of Engrazhizzimalion, and whose bones are strung up outside the royal palace. He was a great man too, says the legends, and he died atop a mound of bodies of king Eldevan's assassins. It is he, ladies and gentlemen, the most glorious Deliverer Amphoron Gryphonheart of the Great Blade, that tonight's show is about..."

-Duergaquin the Dimwit, bard, jester and whatever else you ask of him

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The world of Jorhal is a beautiful place - all green dales and forests, with cute little hamlets dotting the countryside and great glistening mountains line the horizon. The underworld's gentle embrace holds an untold wealth of gems and hidden treasures, and monstrous undead stalk forgotten graveyards in long-lost towns swallowed by the woodlands. Despite all her beauty, however, Jorhal is not a good place. Legend speaks of a great hero called the Deliverer, whose life's work it was to annihilate all evil. The Deliverer was judge, jury and executioner all in one, and all evil was annihilated, to the point where men with evil in their hearts dared not so much as wiggle a finger the wrong way. But, during this age of absolute good - a resistance grew. During the age of Deliverer Amphoron, the elf High King Eldevan won a great victory for goodness when he reconciled the High Elves of Achtalamun and the savages of Withlamor with the evil Drow of the Underdark. Of course, his victory was not anything good at all, and it brought about the end of the legend of the Deliverer.

It has been three hundred years since the death of the last Deliverer and the complete victory of king Eldevan. Cruelty, sadism, sacrifices and evil worship have filled this world to the brim with negative energy. Those in charge drink deep from this wellspring of power, and everyone else suffers to maintain it. Those who resist are viciously martyred, because the people's hatred only makes their oppressors stronger.

Boy, they sure could use another Deliverer right now.

-- -- --- -- --

This is a solo game. Yes. Solo.

Before we begin, I really want to recommend reading the stuff at the bottom - you know, the game description, because I'm pretty sure you'll need to have read it to make any sense of what's actually going on.

In Short:
You will be the next Deliverer. Well, you could also die, but that's just how it is. You will be the lonely rebel, standing up against the man in a vain attempt at fighting his evil influence. You will start out weak, though the whole 'there's a pantheon of gods sponsoring you' thing should hopefully help even things out.

Character Creation Rules:
You start out as a level one-to-five (yes, you can chose a level from one to five) Expert or Aristocrat, or possibly a Commoner... Actually, a Warrior might be justifiable as well, if you try really hard (yes, I can hear the sound of everyone weeping, but what you start out as and what you play as will be different things, I assure you. Having a sheet is still important, however, for reasons you will become aware of later). No, you cannot start as a [whatever class you were planning on asking for].

A level one character is considered a novice, an apprentice, or similar. Level two is equal to a fully trained but inexperienced professional. Level three is random dude on street, level four is veteran, and level five is a true pro. Level six is world-class, and everything above that is varying degrees of superhuman.

You may choose your own skills and feats. There will be no flaws or traits.

Stats are 6m3d6 (more sounds of weeping, more assurances)

Alignment: Lawful, Chaotic and Neutral are the only relevant alignments. Good and Evil, while important and in existence, don't define people's base personalities in this game. As such, evil and good cannot be detected.

Race: Anything with an LA of +0 - I'm even open to homebrew, so long as it is part of an interesting story.

Sources: ToB, ToM, Psionics and Incarnum will not be part of this game. Otherwise, the field is pretty open. Ask, and ye shall most likely receive.

Profiles:
I want to see length and quality in these. You have all the creative freedom you want in creating your character's town, village, city, country or whatever you like, and place it as close to or as far from the dragon's cave as you want. Old friends and foes, places visited and things learned, it will all be canonized if you're chosen. The one requirement you have to fulfill is that your character has to be young, or at least have a lot of time left to live. Of course, your character also has to be opposed to and/or oppressed by king Eldevan, or there would be little point to the game itself.

A lot of focus has to lie on your character's personality and experiences, though they will most likely be low on "adventures". You don't really have a lot of stats to work with when constructing your little hero dude (or dudette), so the emphasis is on what you can make out of what you have. Don't worry about being overly lengthy, or about any piece of information being excessive. I'll happily read pages' worth of a good application. Also, don't worry about what I'll like and not - if you don't model for advantage (by, say, giving your character knowledge of the location of mounds of hidden treasure, or make it super grimdark emo-emo angst, you'll be fine.

The Game:
This is not an optimization game in the least. Trust me when I say that the benefits of being higher level and those of being lower are very, very even - of course, I'll not tell you what those are.

Your ability to customize your character will be rather limited, and this world is mostly quite low-powered, so if you like telling reality to sit down and shut up, I'm afraid this isn't the game for you.

Your character's power will mean relatively little in the grand scheme of things, since you will never survive on your own. Likewise, your character's charisma will not be critical to her success either, and you should feel very much free to create whatever kind of character you can make the best story out of.

Last but not least, there's a possible semi-slot available in this game. Naturally, I won't reveal its exact nature here, but I'll need every application to include whether you're interested in playing a supporting role in the game, and whether you would like someone to play a supportive roll if you get picked.

Right. That is all. Bring in the questions!