This post has the following content warnings:
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
Golarion (or Pharasma's Creation, as Chandler corrects him, but fuck corrections).
An unusual multiverse of a common pattern.
Still has a lot of subvariations, of course.
Buss only recently became aware that it exists. Though some variations of this multiverse already have a couple of his Emblems. Well, great, "they do them".
A very close variation has not-exactly-Emblem of Buss manifesting in two mortal bodies at once, one of which is farther from the template than the other. Well, have fun too, doesn't concern him either, especially as that Golarion-variation has a very low level of Metaphysical Significance (what adjacent orthies call "realityfluid").
Anyway, nothing of that matters. Only that in this one variation of Golarion, they accept divine Immigration.
And that's amazing! For the dual reason of "more cooperation with more worlds and their systems means more opportunities and economic growth" and "more people get to hear about how cool Buss is, and worship him, because he deserves it, being that cool and that's clearly a very altruistic goal".
So.
Hello. I wish to join your pantheon, and...do all the stuff that you do.
What a...curious behavior algorithm. But within the accepted parameters.
Do you agree to those [] rules?
Uggh.
Buss is freedom (among other things). He hates being constrained, by anything. Especially by rules like those.
Everything being HD-based is bullshit, favored classes are a mess, monk weapons are a trashfire, you can't get one 1st circle cleric spell of your choice per day without wasting class levels on it, even at level 19...
But you can't play without rules (some idiots he contempts notwithstanding). And you can't blame one set of rules for not being another. He chose to act on Golarion; if he tires of it he wouldn't break the rules, he would just go somewhere else, and rotate birds, or something.
He would obey the laws as much as anyone else. But he wouldn't be quiet about disliking it.
This is acceptable.
Pharasma's judgment revealed your alignment to be Chaotic Neutral.
You are not Good.
You act altruistically only in the rare cases where you find it self-gratifying and it doesn't cost you any significant resources.
You find Evil unaesthetic. But preferring not to cause suffering to people when not required is not enough to count as Good. It is not always enough even to count as Neutral.
According to a system based on intentions and emotions, maybe. It's true that I don't have much empathy or intrinsic care about people.
But Golarion!Alignment is based on what you actually do, right? The Grey Cats under my command did a lot to improve life for everyone they interact with!
Not everyone, just the ones who they didn't kill (though fighting Evil is often Good).
But you are not Good under an action-based framework either.
Abadar and Nethys both improve the world through trade and invention, and are both still Neutral, because Good requires intentional effort spent on helping others, not just mutually beneficial cooperation, and not incidental benefit to people you do not know and never consider (except cases where you want to prove to yourself and others how Good you are).
And your actions improve the world much less than Abadar does (hard to calculate exactly with Nethys). You are, to quote recent discussions from the Boneyard's trials, "Neutral because you mostly stab Evil people, not for any better reason".
Fine. But if it was AD&D 2, I would totally be "Chaotic Neutral (Good-leaning)".
Please define your areas of concern (Portfolio), preferably in 4 points or less.
4? Are you kidding me?!
I am a god of...a lot of stuff.
[Many gods, in Pharasma's Creation and outside it, represent some core concept. The closest thing Buss has to such a concept is "cool stuff". Not that in that he is god of stuff being cool, just the god of the specific things he finds cool.
Note the specific description of domains/estates in the link might not be perfectly accurate for describing this version of Buss.]
I’m a god of cats, and fire and sun, and weapons and fighting. And magic and imagination, which in that specific context are the same thing. And imagination is interpreted broadly enough to also refer to the basic force or process, the metaphysical substrate that sustains existence itself (I did not myself create existence, but I am the god *of* that creation).
And also I am the patron of…cool stuff? Like, powerful things that have high numbers. But even if the number is low it’s still good, if the effect is very cool, or if it’s a satisfying exploration of the equilibrium.
Do I make sense?
Home of the Grey Cats! It's a...building...portal...dimension...thing. Has outsiders created by me. And in some sense it's already an afterlife.
Maelstrom as my location, the path of least resistance. Would be good for people. We are weird and confusing, but less so than the rest of it. it’s sort of…"Axis, except Chaotic". What’s not to like?
No. Why would I? It will stay in the unplace it is in, we will just make a connection to it from my new zone of jurisdiction in the Maelstrom.
The Grey Cats are already everywhere and nowhere. Like Maelstrom^2. So it's easy to connect to other places that are everywhere and nowhere and also lead everywhere. The Outside, The Furthest Ring, Between-Worldness, Time-River Velira, Sigil, and such. It's not the first time.
Talk to my specialists from the Paradox Department! They have formulas and diagrams and all the terms. They understand it as no one else does, don't worry!
(Reality being complete bullshit that makes no sense doesn't mean there are no people trying to make sense of it. Or that they did not manage to develop a lot of somewhat true/useful models of how some stuff works, and made up a lot of specific words to describe the things they don't understand, and the ways in which those things make no sense.
Buss is incredibly glad about establishing the Paradox Department, and equally glad that he has never directly interacted with them since.)
...and of course I would also like to connect my other Realm/the other half of my Realm to Elysium, it would fit with all wilderness but also drive to adventure. But that doesn't seem actively needed, I could just ask some of the local gods to give me a place to do stuff, it doesn't need to be officially enforced–
Oh, Symbol? Easy! My symbol is, and was for long time, a claw mark on an orange, or maybe burning background. Sometimes a stylized claw mark, but simpler forms to draw, including actual claw marks, must work for the purpose too.