Slay The Ascended: Full Premise

This is a rework, rewording and expansion of my Slay The Ascended! post which, hopefully, better outline the ideas and concepts since that original post was an old draft I one day decided to just overhaul a bit and finish just because it was the mood for the day, not knowing it would become one of my most viewed posts. The original ideas, outlined less formally, can be found in that post and its recommended to read it first.

The Time of Ending

On some fundamental level, Mankind always understood there would come a time where our species would end. It could be a species-wide fear of the inevitability of Death as every civilization out there, every culture, speak of the end of time: be it a permanent end or a great cataclysmic era which will usher in a new era. From the Mayan Calendar to the Book of Revelation to the cycles of the Kalpa to Ragnarok. On some level we always knew it was coming. Or maybe its just species-wide neurosis and fear of death and change or, perhaps, we knew that whatever great unknown would follow would cause is great distress and reveal to use new fears beyond our imagination.

Art by Mario Alberti.

The Ages turned. Around 2030, it just seemed humanity was falling apart: pandemics were in increase even after the somewhat hysterical (at times) response to the 2020 pandemic. The first superbugs arose in the following years and made a Chinese flu look like a complete joke. Entire species of animals and plants died in a mere year or two. Those were the easier times. As the world seemed on the verge of collapse, political and social tensions of all stripes just seemed to unravel at an ever escalating pace, with every continent erupting in either war and/or civil disorder and millions died. More died from the superbugs. The rest? It was merely the start of a new nightmare in a depleted world. The voices started. There were spikes in mental cases which many attributed to the decade of chaos but as time progress, it seemed as if some deeper madness was gripping humanity as mental breakdowns escalated and turned people into monsters: cannibalism, cults and the likes arose in this period which only fueled the chaos.

By 2040, the brief Age of Monsters had begun. Unexplained freak mutations had dramatically increased in the past decade but by the 2040 it had reached a boiling point as nature itself seemed to unravel in ways which past science could not explain. Cancerous growths of unexplained fleshy matter, parasitical worms with mind control and farm animals reverting to an almost primal state, such as chicken growing teeth and a taste for flesh. As mad dreams and visions kept increasing, the humans changed as well, only further driving humanity in a frenzy. Entire new religious branches were born then, only to fuel the fires of war, as entire population began accusing each others of devil worship or similar concepts. Others blamed the government mandate vaccines of the 2030 which had prove ineffective at best or dangerous at worst. It seemed humanity would never catch a break. The wheel of the Ages was turning. There was a new reality boiling on the surface of the world which seemed ever stretched. Night kept growing darker. Madness kept running deeper. Stars burnt out in the sky. Freak or still births peaked to three quarter of all births in a single year. It rained blood. Entire populations shuffled into the wilderness, naked and screaming the names of what could be alien gods. The end of days had come.

The Ascended

No one knows for sure when exactly the first of the Ascended arrived. Perhaps they had always been among us, even if this seems unlikely or, more likely, they are the byproduct of those times of ending when the ages of the world turned. When they appeared it didn't take long for people to take notice and, within days of their appearance, small towns and outpost had fully surrendered to their new master without a single weapon being fired. There was something so fundamentally perfect about the Ascended which, combined with their innate gifts, just made them natural leaders. Some were gurus and philosophers while others presented themselves more akin to warrior-gods who would help their faithful reclaim their lands from raving bands of lunatics or particularly dangerous bandits and traffickers. One by one, the various remaining pockets of human civilization bent the knee to their new masters, the new rulers of mankind and our species direct successors: the Ascended. Their reign had come.

Ascended Culture and their Thralls

Art by Anthony Jones

The Ascended are called that way because they are above and beyond the mere humanity they emerged from. They do not hide that they were once human, because much of their perfection is an improvement upon humanity. Ascended have a language of their own and their own word to describe themselves but this language cannot be spoken by human or even understood by our puny, primitive minds. They communicate in a language with concepts utterly beyond our understanding but beyond that little is truly understood of their emergent culture. Ascended see themselves as above and beyond human failings and the natural leaders of our species from here on out. They have emerged across all human cultures and all creeds and claim to be beyond and above petty distinctions of mankind, even if many speculate they must have their own cliques, philosophies and beliefs but we would not be able to understand them.

An Ascended is the master of any settlement, with the largest settlements on Earth hosting a population of Ascended in a certain hierarchy which vary depending on the local culture. Different Ascended groups, called either pantheons or cabals have different societal organization depending on the ruling Ascended's specific plans for humanity, as they organize mankind and tend to them much like in a way we would tend a garden. Some Ascended have created military-like places, ruled with an iron (but just?) fist, with a meritocratic system rewarding skill and loyalty for the human soldiers as to encourage them to see themselves as mankind's defenders. In other places, they create almost anarchist commune of pot-smoking pseudo hippies which encourage free love while in others they could create religious cults or even hyper traditionalist places with the goal of ensuring a steady breeding of new humans for generations to come. War between different pantheons and their thralls should be seen as non-existent, even if in reality it is more complex.

Those who serve the Ascended are wholly devoted to their new masters. After all, are they not perfect? All Ascended have an innate charisma and magnetism which borders on mind control and they are able to draw strong emotions from entire human populations. This is not pure mind domination, however: very few Ascended (if any) can truly order a human like a full puppet. Rather, they built their devotion through the years by engineering a culture where the Ascended are not only seen as infallible gods but also by ensuring people have a reason to believe it. Ascended-ran settlement are the most prosperous, stable and safe of all the world's remaining human cities. Any mutated monster in the area is slain in glorious combat by the local Ascended, their heads display on pike or their skins turned into coats and capes. The Ascended cultivate an image of heroism and godhood which help reinforce the belief system they have created. Slowly but surely, humanity has slowly changed and simply accepted that they must defer to the superior Ascended, much like how a child defer to their parent because their parent knows more. To be a second class citizen and chattel to the Ascended is a gift and a privilege, for who would not want to be loved by living Gods? Some are driven by love, by faith or even by lust as many Ascended have such a perfected physique and raw animal magnetism that entire crop of humans willingly surrender to become their sexual slaves and perhaps one day hope to help them birth Ascended children.

Ascended Biology

Art by Nyctoinc Illustrations

Each Ascended began its life as a mortal human and was transformed into another Ascended through infusion of genetic material. The process is dangerous and unstable as well as excruciatingly painful as well as utterly destructive to a human sense of self and identity. After days of agonizing with a body riddled with ever creeping cancerous, alien growth the flesh will slowly dissolve and the body will seemingly melt and then harden into a crystalline cocoon, at which point transformation into an Ascended can begin. Nothing of the original body remain unchanged and the individual is changed at a cellular or even molecular level. The trauma and confusion of Ascension leaves the individual original humanity behind no matter what. There are no 'friendly neighborhood Ascended' who secretly retain their old personalities. While they can retain their memory of past lives, most willingly discard them as their newly born body continues to mature.

Ascended appear, at least initially, as physically perfected humans even if this can somewhat vary. They are tall (most start at six feet and a half and can grow to eight feet tall), clean limbed and perfectly symmetrical. Some appear eternally youthful while others have a completely cosmetic age, appearing as well formed and well preserved older individuals: these tend to radiate more a sense of wisdom, kindness, paternal love or intellect. Yet even the 'old' looking Ascended have a supernatural, nay, unnatural beauty and perfect to them. Their skin tone and hair color can vary and can include all human permutations and even colors or traits which do not exist in humans, such as green hair, pure white skin or even blue skin. Their eyes tend to almost shine in the darkness, with some even having flat out glowing eyes. Some are elfin, with a thin and tall wispy beauties while others are brawny, with a perfectly sculpted physique no human could ever hope to match. Different strains of Ascended have different styles or even fashion to their biology, such as those who prefer a more divine or even almost 'demonic' appearance, with horns and fangs or even growing an extra pair of arms. One must keep in mind that the subtle mind warping of Ascended ensure that human thralls are not bothered: indeed, should a particularly popular Ascended decide to reorganize their biology on a whim, expect sycophants to self mutilate to emulate their master or mistress. To some extent, Ascended biology is just as much sculpted and engineered as it is part of their biology, as each represent an idealized form of perfection to their old human selves. Several Ascended are also hermaphrodites or, in some odd cases, utterly lacking in sexual organs if such was the perfect the individual desired.

This, however, is a lie.

Art by Marcus Siergiejew

The idealized human form of an Ascended is not their true form. Their 'godly' form is a coping mechanism of the newly reborn Ascended, as their real form is utterly alien and disgusting. While there is an eldritch, unnatural and alien mindset inside every Ascended they retain enough of their humanity for vanity. Indeed, such vanity is generally enhanced to an absurd degree. The true form of an Ascended is always unique and always alien and disgusting to look upon, with some even lacking a human form at all are nothing but a head and snapping, razor-tipped tentacles or stretched multi limbed bug-forms with ephemeral wings or floating piles of organs held aloft by gaseous excretion. The Ascended never show these forms to their followers and most, if not all, are unaware of them.

Ascended are eldritch monstrosities, with an unnatural physiology. They are by default stronger, faster and smarter than the average human and able to heal extremely quickly without any lasting consequences, even if healing larger wounds require consumption of human biomass. As one would expect given the thematic, the Ascended are vampiric creatures and they sustain themselves off of humans. Actual consumption of flesh and blood is rare, usually every few months and rather they live off the mental energies and devotion of their human thralls. Through a mixture of pheromones and psychic abilities, the Ascended inspire the blind devotion in humans they crave so much and in turn slowly feed the mental energy this generate as human minds are slowly warped and sucked of their sanity. The full abilities of the Ascended are unclear and it is likely even they are not aware of their full potential and limitations.

Despite their clear advantages, however, Ascended are not immortal (even if its likely they do not age). They are still flesh and blood, even if said flesh and blood can sometimes appear to bend the rules of reality a bit. When not surrounded by their entourage of thralls and servants, an Ascended can be cornered and killed with human weapons. Blowing their brains out and then setting the twitching remains on fire usually works, as does hacking or blowing them apart. According to their own propaganda they are true immortals but this is false: around the world, some have already been killed in gruesome manners. They are not Gods. They are creatures of flesh. They can be killed.

The 'Slay the Ascended!' Sandbox

Art by Lina Porras

A 'Slay the Ascended!' campaign is very well suited to a sandbox and a lot of it can overlap with typical fantasy setting sandbox, even if it is set in the near, post apocalyptic future. There are ruins to explore (the lost cities, full of mutations, madness or cults) and there are monsters roaming around, namely the remaining mutations from the Age of Monsters. The key difference, however, is that player characters plays the part of the 'Rogue Humans', which are these human populations which have either not submitted to the Ascended or composed of people who have slowly broken away from the brainwashing and fled their fellow thralls. The key locations in a Slay the Ascended campaign are the various settlements under Ascended control, which own the most resources be it food, water and/or guns. Functionally, this mean players are either going to be functionally bandits and raiders or they will be saboteur, spies and 'fifth columnist' inside the Ascended-ruled settlements.  The more characters attack Ascended stronghold the more they will be hunted. This can be a good chance to take down an Ascended for good, should they be goaded to attack themselves.

One issue they will need to deal with is that most of their enemies are humans too. A life freed from the Ascended is not an easy life nor is it a good life. It requires, more often than not, to kill and steal from fellow humans and to uproot their way of life and ruin their day. The world of 'Slay the Ascended' is a bleak place and doesn't shy away from the realities that a resistance group can be a particularly violent and dangerous group that often cause more harm than good. To oppose the Ascended may be morally right in terms of human freedom but it requires one to actively harm other humans which is a difficult moral choice to make. Rogue humans are seen, by the thralls, much in the same way we see dangerous fringe groups and/or insane preppers who amass guns in their bunkers for the 'coming race war' or similar concept. From the POV of a Thrall civilian, a 'Rogue Human' is a dangerous, narrow minded, bigoted and irrational unbeliever at the best of times and an absolute monster at worst. Even those few in the Thralls who know the Ascended brainwash (and sometimes eat them), the life of a Rogue Human seems dangerous or even destructive: after all, modern society of the 21st century generally required us to accept that sometimes, things are rather imperfect and that we sometimes work for bad people doing morally dubious things. To those folks, serving a flesh-eating alien man-god isn't really much different from their parents who worked for a soulless global mega corporation which exploited uncertain child labor laws in foreign countries while pretending to be virtuous. At the end of the day, its meet the new boss same as the old boss, right?

Who is really in the right here, anyway?

One difference, of course, is that the Ascended are not human. Not anymore. They are creatures of an alien origin, even if they were derived from human stock initially. Many 'Rogue Humans' are individuals afflicted by some odd form of 'madness' which fills them with a revulsion for the Ascended. Perhaps this is akin to a species-wide immune response to a parasite having entered the body of collective humanity. The same alien dreams which drove people mad in 2030 and onward are still there. There is an unspoken fear that the Ascended are but the first step toward...something? Slowly the Ascended are changing humanity society, creating these assemblages of human civilization toward a certain goal they themselves perhaps don't understand. They have only ruled for a few decades, after all. Whose to say their existence is not the mere first step toward a horrific transformation for humanity, as we are turned into food, cattle or who knows what else for alien powers. After all, where did the First Ascended come from? Who created them? And why?

You can feel it gnawing at your brain. The wheel of the ages hasn't finished turning. You know it in your gut: this is just the start. The parasites must be removed from humanity before its too late, before they consume us and make us into something else.