Apotheosis
Chessmen
The Symphony is playing a game against itself.
That's more or less the theory, at least. Well, one version: there's some dispute about
whether Apotheosis Chess is an actual process or just an exceptionally concrete
metaphor for the War. For that matter,
determining whether 'Symphony' should be replaced with 'God' - or, for the
rather avant-garde, 'Yves and Kronos' - is good for quite a bit of
discussion. It is fairly clear that
there is quite a lot of raw power behind Apotheosis Chess, though. The existence of Paragons alone would alarm
both the Inquisition and the Game; one can imagine how they feel about an
entire struggle that neither Heaven
nor Hell controls.
Holders of the Chessman are a varied lot: pretty
much anything sentient qualifies. Those
willing to talk about the experience report that the experience brings with it
a dim awareness that there is a contest going on, connected to the War in some
ways but fundamentally independent of it in others. There are definitely only two sides, and
there is a 'good' one and a 'bad' one (the actual determination of who's Good and who's Bad is up to the individual GM,
obviously). Holders also report
impressions that this contest has been going on for far longer than the War
itself, in places that don't exist and histories that never were.
And no Chessman-holder will discuss who's winning.
Powers
Apotheosis Chessmen look like standard chess
pieces. They can be distinguished from
regular chess pieces in two ways: first, Chessmen are indestructible except in
Apotheosis Combat (see below); then again, the aura that radiates from even a
Pawn will be obvious. Observers might
not know what they're seeing, but they'll understand that they're seeing something.
All Apotheosis Chessmen grant the current holder an
extra (non check digit) die for all rolls.
When rolling, the holder may pick the best two dice for achieving target
numbers and favorable Interventions (or avoiding unfavorable ones). Natural quadruple 1s or 6s are the stuff of legends. Holders of Chessmen also automatically
recognize others of their kind on sight.
This includes faction, but not the type of Chessman.
These are the most 'common', in relative terms -
which means that they are merely very, very, very, very rare. Their holders can be anybody or anything,
really - certain historical and/or mystic places have had a Chessman associated
with them at one point in their existence.
Unlike other Chessmen, Pawns tend to change hands with some frequency,
either voluntarily or involuntarily.
Pawns are the only Chessmen that may be Promoted at
some point (very few of them are) to higher Pieces (except for Kings). This is invariably after a significant event
or quest, and is accompanied by a similar promotion of the holder into a
greater role in the universe: the new Chessman swiftly finds its way to a new
holder after this event. It is rumored
that Haagenti wore a Pawn around his neck when he consumed Sloth, and that the
Chessman was Promoted to Paragon at the same time that
he became a Demon Prince. Much more
furtive rumor suggests that the actual color of the Pawn and Paragon was and is
unknown.
Most of the activities associated with the Contest
are performed by Pawn-holders.
Towers
The Towers are the keystones of the Contest; their
fellow Chessmen naturally coalesce around them.
Any holder of a Tower has the ability to communicate with any same-color
Chessman that he or she has met personally.
Also, any Chessman in visual range of an aligned Tower (including the
Tower-holder) doubles the appropriate Characteristic when making Dodge
Rolls. Finally, those not involved in
the Contest must make a successful Perception roll at -10 to even notice a
Tower-holder that does not wish to be seen.
Tower-pieces tend to gravitate towards strongholds -
or places easily adapted to strongholds - and stay there.
Paladins
The Paladins seem to be most analogous to Word-Bound
(although most celestial Paladins were already
Word-Bound, which complicates the issue): holders of Paladin are invariably
entities who have an exceptionally strong faith in a particular belief system,
ranging from one side in the War to Santa Claus. Paladin-pieces give the holder the ability to
recognize all threats to what
they've put their faith in, a +4 to all
rolls to defend it - or to attack that what threatens it - and a +4 to reaction
rolls from anyone who shares that particular faith. Unfortunately, those who oppose the belief
system will automatically recognize the holder as a potent enemy...
Travelers
The Travelers are known mostly by what they leave in
their wake. Holders of this piece have
no restrictions upon their movements; they simply ignore all inanimate
impediments between them and their objective, and are at +8 to all rolls to avoid (not attack) an
animate one.
There are possibly three-dozen Paragons existing at
the present time. In terms of raw power they
are paramount; possessors have been rumored to survive direct attacks from
Superiors (although never without great personal cost). Any lesser entity that faces the holder of a
Paragon is simply doomed; their holders can only be harmed by other Chessmen-holders,
and their attacks against individual targets do whatever amount of damage the
holder feels like inflicting.
Paragon-holders also possess all of the special abilities of Towers and
Travelers.
Unlike other Chessmen, Paragons defeated in Apotheosis
combat are always destroyed; also, the only known cases of mutual destruction
of Chessmen have occurred during a Paragon/Paragon Apotheosis Combat. The ritualized nature of Raphael and Legion's
final battle is of interest, seen in that light...
There are only two of these Chessmen in play at any
given time. The holder is invariably a
'mundane' human - that is, 5 Forces or lower.
Humans holding Kings matter to the universe in profound but
obscure ways; many celestials aware of the Apotheosis Chessmen simply assume
that the current holders of Kings are always, bluntly, the two most important
human beings on Earth. Some holders of
Kings do so for decades; not a few have held them for a single hour, or even minute.
King-holders are never - never - engaged by other
Chessmen-holders in conflict; it is impossible for anyone holding a lesser
Chessman to dominate, attack or imperil the current
holder of one of the two Kings. Indeed,
possessors of Chessmen on the same 'side' as a given King must obey any and all
orders, explicit and implicit, of its holder.
This includes being summoned to the King's side in times of trouble, by
any means available or necessary.
As far as is known, there never has been an
Apotheosis Combat between rival Kings.
The consequences of such a conflict are literally unimaginable. Or possibly literally
apocalyptic.
Apotheosis
Combat
Every so often, two holders of Chessmen will
apparently be swept into conflict with each other. In some cases the conflict was welcome, in
others it was not, some conflicts were metaphysical, some symbolic, at least
one was purely physical, some violent, some not... there is no real rule of
thumb, except that the conflict will come.
Past that, the conclusion is apparently up to the discretion of the
competitors.
The results are similarly mixed. The general
result seems to be that the winner of any particular contest is able to
'encourage' the universe to operate more to his, her or its liking, for at
least a brief time. The amount of
influence seems to be in inverse ratio to how hard the winner consciously tries
to manipulate things: the best results come when the winner just lets things
flow along. As to the defeated opponent:
assuming survival, generally he, she
or it is stripped of his Chessman.
Except when he, she or it is not, or when the piece is destroyed
instead, or changes colors, or a higher piece is demoted to Pawn, or (in one
notorious case) a defeated Pawn was
instead promoted... the point is that while there is always the sense that a
particular result has a reason behind it, it's rarely one that's obvious to
onlookers.
It is uncertain whether holders of Chessmen of the
same color have ever been forced into conflict with each other; the few times
that such a thing has happened have always turned out to be a case where the
two (or more) individuals in question already had bad blood between them, and
besides, same-color contests doesn't seem to fit the overall metaphor. Still, it's just an assumption.