The Old Powers

You overthrew the unjust gods, but the regalia that gave them both power and madness must now be claimed. Will you take them up? Will you go mad as they did?

Long Description

Once, the cosmos belonged to the Old Powers, or so it is said. But that was so very long ago. Those were the days of fairy tales and forgotten myths. No one even remembers who, or what, the Old Powers truly were.

History began with the rise of the Tetratheon. The gods conquered, and bound, the Old Powers. They claimed the strength and the magic of their predecessors. Then they divided the realms of man into four pieces, one for each of them, and began to rule.

The gods were holy. The gods were sublime. Perhaps there was a time when the gods were good.

But for ages upon ages of humanity - it was not so. The Tetratheon was a gang of mad, cruel tyrants. All their glory only made them madder and crueler. They twisted and broke the mortals who served them. The worlds trembled at their touch.

So you killed them. You and your co-conspirators.

In secret, you planned and schemed. You rallied the faith of humanity, and turned it against the divine. You bent your arcane wisdom to the making of god-slaying curses. And after years of hidden labor, you went with your fellows to the Ecumenical Temple between the worlds, where the Tetratheon held its rare meetings - and you pitted your secret weapon against the gods - and you triumphed. They lie dead. You, and some of your fellows, still stand.

Now the gods’ sacred regalia lies before you. The wellsprings of the Tetratheon’s might, and the sources of its sacred mandate to rule. The Old Powers themselves, imprisoned forever within tools and trinkets.

Will you take up the artifacts of divinity? Will you be as gods yourselves? Will you build better worlds than the ones you know?

Will you avoid becoming what the Tetratheon became?

Will you turn aside from the Old Powers, and leave them to be claimed by unknown people in the unknown future?

Do you have a plan for what comes next?

The Old Powers is a two-hour LARP for 6-to-12 players. It is about the unfathomable responsibility of killing the gods and taking their place; about coming to terms with the alien mindset of the cosmically mighty; about making important decisions without nearly enough information; and about deciding how much you are willing to let your values change.

Inspired by a variety of LARPs in the “godlike entities make a world” genre, as well as certain aspects of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere books.