Summary
Destiny is set in a world with three planes of existence. The upper plane is known as ‘Order’ and is the domain of angels. The lower plane is ‘Chaos’ and is inhabited by demons. The central plane is just known as ‘The Plain’ and is inhabited by humans, plants, animals etc and their technology is no more advanced than crossbows. The Plain is the main battleground for the ongoing war between Order and Chaos with both sides controlling areas of land and fighting over territory. As such angels and demons fighting each other is a fairly common sight for humans and they’ve mainly learnt to ignore it. Ghosts are known to exist, and are the spirits of humans who died traumatically and were not sufficiently ordered or chaotic that their spirits were drawn to the lower or upper planes.
The humans themselves are powerless to fight or defend themselves as they are Bound by ‘The Balance’ and have been blocked off from the spirit magic of the world. These Bound humans have little free will, and cannot harm Angels or Demons in any way. The Balance is represented visibly to the world in the centre of the Plain as a giant set of scales that tips to one side or the other depending on who is winning the war. When Order is winning, the Plain and Bound humans become more ordered, and likewise Chaos. Order brings peace, but also stagnation and oppression. Chaos brings creativity and freedom, but also danger and upheaval.
The world is fairly hazardous due to wild animals, frequent earthquakes, and malevolent ghosts (not to mention massive collateral damage due to the ongoing war between Order and Chaos). The humans are organised into a large number of (frequently short-lived) petty kingdoms with diverse cultures, the largest and most powerful of which is Centre, which is built around the scales at the centre of the Plain, and is culturally similar to medieval Europe. It is known that the Plain is finite, and is bordered by impossibly high cliff walls.
Your characters are humans that are have recently found themselves Unbound, granting you total free will and access to your potential power. You can channel your spirit magic into weapons and objects or manifest it in numerous ways (for example, orbs of energy) but Unbound are typically drawn to a specific way of using spirit magic and learn to develop that. In addition to magical abilities or weapons, you find yourselves unable to be harmed by mundane threats, and your touch horribly burns the Bound. No one is sure exactly when people started becoming Unbound or what causes it, but very few Unbound have been so for more than a few months. As yet the phenomenon is little known, but those few Bound who have encountered an Unbound have likely reacted with either admiration, or fear and suspicion.
Recently, you found yourselves inexplicably drawn to the city of Centre, and to the great golden scales at the centre of the Plain…
Centre
Centre is the largest and busiest city you have ever seen and is quite remarkable. It seems to have rings of extremely plain but sturdy buildings followed by what would more accurately be described as art projects rather than stable structures. The buildings closer to the Scales generally seem to be older than buildings towards the edge and are some of the oldest looking buildings you have ever seen (their actual age would be a matter of some debate if any of the Bound cared enough to question them, but they seem to be a few hundred years old). There are now quite a few large piles of rubble where there were once “art projects”, due to the recent series of earthquakes.
You will also have noticed that there seem to be distinctly fewer angels and demons around here. There are normally some in sight in the skies overhead but here the skies seem clear of celestial beings and there are more birds around. This possibly explains the survival of the older buildings.
You have found that unlike some of the other cities and regions on the Plain, Centre does not have any form of ruler or governing body, people just seem to get on with life here reasonably amicably. The guards are the closest thing to any sort of structure but they don’t seem to follow any particular written law and generally work on the principle of trying to keep things ticking over smoothly.
There is no particularly prevalent religion on the Plain, people from different places will believe lots of different things. There will be some that follow Order or Chaos and worship angels or demons respectively, there will be some that worship ancestors and honour ghosts and there will be many that have never given it much thought at all.
The Bound humans seldom pass near the area of the Scales, and questions related to the Scales generally result in a glassy-eyed stare and the person in question claiming that they’re just a big gold thing that they’ve never given much thought to. Unbound, conversely, frequently find themselves unconsciously wandering to the Scales when they have nothing better to do.
Outside of Centre, settlements seldom last long under consistent rulership, to the point that it is difficult to answer questions like what the second largest city is, as the answer is likely different to what it was a month or so ago, record keeping is spotty to nonexistent, and news travels slowly.
Angels are all fairly similar looking, like they could all be from the same family of extremely beautiful humans. They have silvery white blonde hair that is never out of place. They all have completely flawless skin and no visible scars or imperfections. They are always wearing white, some might wear what appears to be plated armour, others a variety of robes or tougher garments. They all have large white feathered wings that they seem to be able to make appear or disappear at will.
Demons come in all shapes, sizes and forms and the same one might look completely different the next day. Many of them have extra or strangely formed limbs, favouring claws, spikes or teeth as weapons rather than carrying any. Some do take a more humanoid form, but there are usually some notable differences to normal humans. They seem to favour red and black colour schemes.