All is Lies [Dark Era- the First Temple hub thread]

[LostLight]

So, some time ago I have started to work on a very ambitious project in the form of a full crossover Dark Era made in the time of the First Temple. While I have neglected it for some time (I am yet top finish both the Demon, Beast and Inferno's pitch posts), I've thought it may be nice to present everything I have in one, ordered place, to allow others to review it more easily without them having to go pages back in my blog in search for whatever post they find as interesting. Feel free to comment, criticize and suggest new ideas for this Era, and I hope you'll enjoy! (and I promise that once I'll find some time, I 'll finish the last two posts).

Anyway, here is what I have so far-

No Person of You Shall Eat the Blood- Land of the Blood Gods [V:tR, featuring Lost Clans, Broken Covenants, Bloodlines, strix and more]

You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me- Hegemony of the Bull [W:tF, featuring the Baal Haddad, the Lodge of Foul Dogs, Kotharat Cults, shapeshifters, Hosts and more]

Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live- Sorcerer Kings and Warlock Queens [M:tAw, featuring prominent NPCs, Legacies, Proximi Dynasties, Great Cults, Mysteries and more]

It is Not Good for the Man to be Alone- Legacy of Adam [P:tC, featuring Lineages, the Commandments, Alchemists and more]

You Shall Not Take the Name of the Lord your God in Vain- Tales of Angels and Gods [C:tL, featuring God's Will, the United Freehold, the Gentry, Huntsmen, Fetches and more]

Thou Shalt Not Kill- Soldiers of God [H:tV, featuring Compacts and Conspiracies, Cabals and Cults, Slashers and more]

You Shalt Not Leave His Body All Night on the Tree- Feast of Death [G:tSE, featuring the Cult of Mot, Hmiry, local Krewes, Reapers and more]

Thou Shalt Not Unto Thee Any Graven Image- He Who Judge the Judges [M:tC, featuring Neithian Architecture, Relics, Sorcerers, the Deceived, Shuankhsen and more]

My Spirit Shall Not Strive Forever in Man- Watchers in the North [D:tD, TBA]

Thou Shalt Not Covet- Children of the Sea [B:tP, TBA]

No One Among You is to Sacrifice his Son or Daughter in Fire- Valley of Hell [Inferno, TBA]

[wyrdhamster]

By First Tample you meanthis structure - Göbekli Tepe - from 10 000 BCE, still in times of Pangea?

[LostLight]

By First Tample you meanthis structure - Göbekli Tepe - from 10 000 BCE, still in times of Pangea?

No- that's Solomon's Temple, which is commonly nicknamed as the "First Temple"

[wyrdhamster]

Could you point on Wikipedia article what you have in mind? I would like to understand the about what TIME this Era would be. Dates would be best.

[Boneguard]

Well the First Temple was built in Ancient Jerusalem circa 800BC. But constraint make it harder to perform proper research.

[Iceblade44]

Could you point on Wikipedia article what you have in mind? I would like to understand the about what TIME this Era would be. Dates would be best.

I mean looking up Solomon's temple should do good enough. By Era the timeline would be between King Solomon's reign which was somewhere between 1000 bc and 900 bc to the destruction of the First Temple and the collapse of the Kingdoms of Isreal and Judah somewhere before and around 500 bc. If you want inspiration I would recommend the Old Testament as that literally tells you about those years in biblical perspective because you know that is the Bible, tho I'm not to familar with any sources for a more historical view. If you want to use Wikipedia go ahead tho I'd recommend finding some other good sources.

[Iceblade44]

Oh yeah lostlight, a suggestion. There are tales coming from the Testement of Solomon, a 1st century apocryphal source that Solomon constructed his Temple through the use of demons which he controlled. Maybe you can take that and spin it to be that the Temple itself is a giant piece of Infrastructure. Or not if you want there to be a distinction between the literal God and the God-Machine. Just an idea

[21C Hermit]

Oh yeah lostlight, a suggestion. There are tales coming from the Testement of Solomon, a 1st century apocryphal source that Solomon constructed his Temple through the use of demons which he controlled. Maybe you can take that and spin it to be that the Temple itself is a giant piece of Infrastructure. Or not if you want there to be a distinction between the literal God and the God-Machine. Just an idea

I think LostLight already had angels and demons building the Temple... angels and demons of the Supernal, not the Machine. I recall Solomon being written up as a very successful mage in one of LostLight’s homebrews.

EDIT: Hell, if Solomon was really Awakened, it explains why there’s a lot of historical records suspiciously missing at the time of his supposed reign. Shadow Names and Quiescence work wonders in obscuring historical figures.

[Iceblade44]

I think LostLight already had angels and demons building the Temple... angels and demons of the Supernal, not the Machine. I recall Solomon being written up as a very successful mage in one of LostLight’s homebrews.

EDIT: Hell, if Solomon was really Awakened, it explains why there’s a lot of historical records suspiciously missing at the time of his supposed reign. Shadow Names and Quiescence work wonders in obscuring historical figures.

True, very true. I would think Solomon Awakening would be when God asked him for anything he could have desired and he just answered. Wisdom. In terms of modern perception Solomon would certainly be a mage, especially from the inspiration one could get from the Lesser Key of Solomon and the Ars Goetia

[21C Hermit]

True, very true. I would think Solomon Awakening would be when God asked him for anything he could have desired and he just answered. Wisdom. In terms of modern perception Solomon would certainly be a mage, especially from the inspiration one could get from the Lesser Key of Solomon and the Ars Goetia

Yup. There's at least two Legacies (well, one that diverged into two) that claim descent from Solomon.

[LostLight]

Could you point on Wikipedia article what you have in mind? I would like to understand the about what TIME this Era would be. Dates would be best.

the exact time period is the time of the United Monarchy, under Solomon's reign, around 970-931 BCE (as much as dates matter to such a mythical time period)

[LostLight]

Oh yeah lostlight, a suggestion. There are tales coming from the Testement of Solomon, a 1st century apocryphal source that Solomon constructed his Temple through the use of demons which he controlled. Maybe you can take that and spin it to be that the Temple itself is a giant piece of Infrastructure. Or not if you want there to be a distinction between the literal God and the God-Machine. Just an idea

As 21C Hermit has mentioned, the Temple contains a Supernal Verges (or something similar enough) which includes a connection to both Aether and Pandemonium, allowing such angels and demons to manifest. However, it is also a product of Neithian Architecture, which drains Sekhem from the world to some unknown place, and I plan in the future Demon post to also add an Infrastructure which covers the Temple, even though whether it was built with a support of the God Machine, an attempt of it to overtake the Temple and turn it to its own purposes or even that it was created independently using knowledge that Solomon stole from the Machine is something that the demons don't know. The Temple is a mystery, a one of a kind creation which seems to combine all kinds of different aspect of the occult world together, leaving the identity of God a matter of debate among the many monsters of the Era.

[LostLight]

double post is double post

[Looker]

I have a question. If sin eaters are treated as outcasts because of the whole death stuff would Moros mages and mummies be treated the same.

[LostLight]

I have a question. If sin eaters are treated as outcasts because of the whole death stuff would Moros mages and mummies be treated the same.

Before Saul's Purge, Moros would have been feared by the rest of the magical community- but accepted as being necessary to speak with the dead and deal with taint. They would be in alliance with the Cult of Mot, and would work with the Dovrim (even though the Dovrim would be "more tainted" than the Moros, considering that sin eaters are actually dead, while the Necromancers are still alive). After the Purge, however, their power structure is mostly fractured, and with the Witch of Endor being seen as the hero which defeated the Purger, they move away from their "outcast" state to a somewhat rebellious/heroic place in the local mage society. Their numbers are still low, of course, and they are mostly on the side which openly object Solomon's rule, but in a way, they are in a better status among the Awakened than ever.

Mummies, however, are seen as foreign gods, disliked by both the local Canaanite and Israelite priesthoods. They are not dead, as they are beyond life and death- they are Deathless. Still, they carry a stigma of their own, and while they are allowed into the Blessed Land once more, both the Maagal and the Yad work to undermine their presence- even though the Deceived seem to much more "welcomed" by the later than the former.