ABOUT

"Jaded" is a world exploring how gods living on Earth are faring in modern times. Inspiration comes from Defiance looking to create a world that embraces the childhood stories she grew up with.

DEITYHOOD

There are many tales of blessings and curses caused by greater beings that walk among mortals. These greater beings are called by many names, but for simplicity in this telling we will call them gods: Technically, demi-gods, as they still live on Earth. Most aspire to do enough good deeds such that when their time is up, the afterlife judges will deem them worthy to ascend to heaven as full-fledged gods.

Long-lived animals, exceptional humans, and even objects that have been deeply loved or stood the test of time can become gods. An act of grandeur is not always necessary to attain deityhood: Madame White Snake accidentally ate immortality pills and became a god. However, generally animals must carry out an act of sacrifice (usually against animal nature) or spend a long time of personal training in a religion or spirituality (as well as an animal could grasp the concept) to attain deityhood. Foxes must live 50-100 years before becoming gods, thus the meditation is necessary to extend their lifespan first.

Gods' motives on Earth are just as varied as mortals'.  Jing is under a contract to spend 1,000 years on Earth before moving on, so they are biding time. Yu Jiang thinks mortal worship is great and Heaven would be full of stuffy sticks in the mud, so they figured out legal loopholes to indefinitely stay on Earth.

A god may feel a tie to a certain gender if they were human in the past life or deem themself guardian of a gender-based domain such as fertility or parenthood, but many don't concern themselves with gender. Upon entering deity-hood, they can change forms as they wish, and eventually lean toward a preference if they like, but often they choose forms beneficial for situations, such as appearing as a human to speak to humans without spooking them.

POWER ATTAINMENT

Gods don't need to eat or sleep as they're on a plane where they should be training higher principles. However, they do gain power through tribute or offerings. A god without tributes is a god who can't convert those tributes into power to do good deeds for their people, and that won't look good for the god when they depart earth. Even a selfish god would want to have a good presentation. If a god does so-so, they might be reincarnated as a human, the first plane where there is comfort because they are given free will. If a god does poorly or causes suffering, they could be reincarnated as an animal or sent to one of the layers of hell. They attain this insight of responsibility and consequences upon becoming gods.

Several gods have adapted unconventional tribute to keep up with modern times and technology. As anger is a form of energy, Nai accepts dishonorable gamers getting mad as a form of tribute.

Another way for gods to gain power is directly through stealing chi: life force, which is why humans generally avoid supernatural entities. This parasitic relationship can occur through a trusted bond but is most commonly portrayed in stories during copulation, where the deity can easily steal the mortal's warmth or chi through orfices. A deity that cares about the mortal will take care not to do damage, but the power is very tempting so there's the fear that the deity might accidentally take too much which would of course kill the person. One killing might be given pity on manslaughter, but a string of murders would mean there is a case for a criminal god: a demon.

POWERS

Gods generally claim a domain to rule over, which defines their attributes and further powers. Most gods also immediately gain the following powers upon entering deityhood:

• Empathetic: Gods understand thoughts and thus can read mortal's feelings. They can tell if someone is generally good or bad by looking at their aura. They can "hear" a liar's thinking out loud before the adjusted message comes out the liehole. Gods are generally protected by their own aura so they cannot read each other's minds unless one is significantly more powerful than the other. Gods can look at someone and tell if they are a god by their aura, as long as the perceived god is not weak or hiding their power.
• Blessing: With power from tribute, Gods can bless items. Gods can directly bless devout worshipers or events like weddings, but these cases are rarer: blessing individuals takes a large amount of power from the God, so great care is taken to perceive the receivers as worthy first. Blessed objects can be thought of as having the god's signature as an aura on the item: malevolent beings sensing it will be highly dissuaded from approaching or doing harm, as to not incur the god's wrath. Blessed individuals can bless objects or others as well, although the secondhand aura may not be strong or even useful if improperly imbued.
• Omnilingual: Gods understand thoughts and thus can communicate with all mortals as well as objects and locations that have gained enough chi to be sentient. Gods can speak back in any language, although they keep the accent of their homeland unless further practiced.
• Previous Life: Powers or useful skills from the god's previous life are kept and enhanced. Yu Jiang as a snake can sense temperature changes and thus is quickly alert to if someone's getting angry.
• Shapeshifting: Gods can transform into any object, animal, or human of any age. However, whatever form they take will look like how they perceive themselves (generally reminiscent of their life before deityhood). They can shapeshift into others they know, but since it is upon memory usually some features will be off. Shapeshifting also takes some control, so if a god (especially inexperienced) gets excited or panicked, parts of their true forms might show. Jing might have to deal with a tail in a pant leg, Yu Jiang doesn't care and flaunts their scales/snake tongue because people just believe it's cosmetics.
• Tribute: With little tribute, gods can bring small luck like finding money on the ground or enhancing a worshiper's appearance for an interview. When paid a lot of tribute, gods can perform miracles. Jing used to ward off tsunamis and earthquakes from their village. If Nai is given generous tribute, say from a sudden surge in watches because they're in a video game tournament, with prayer from a teammate (or implied prayer like "God, I hope I do well this round") Nai can possess that person and steer their gaming. The teammate will be conscious the whole time but think, "It's like something came over me and suddenly I know how to win this thing."

LIFE AMONG MORTALS

Relations: It's easy for gods to fall into not caring for people. There are so many humans, and maybe they were not kind to the god in the god's previous life. Though killing a mortal would be frowned upon as killing a sentient/equal and weigh heavily on judgement day, some gods can still perceive humans as below them/playthings/food (similar to how some humans perceive animals is the best metaphor I can think of for describing this.) Yu Jiang could care less if they accidentally kill a human or two because they aren't planning to leave Earth.

Reproduction: A god's compatible form with a mortal can produce offspring if they aren't careful. This is the focus of many folk tale tragedies, as the god is generally not interested in staying to raise the child. A godxmortal hybrid is usually mortal and inherits a portion of the god's aura, power, insight beyond the mortal plane, or superhuman strength. Many of them grow up to become heroes or otherwise have great potential destinies as their blood bridges the gap between two worlds.

THEMES

• How would gods feel about their worshipers?
• The (demi-)gods used to be human or on a plane underneath humans, and have been elevated to a plane above humans. In both contexts they try to understand, what does it mean to be human?
• If individuals know how their current actions influence the afterlife, will they act any differently?